I got contacts today. First time ever. But they’re weird ones. I have “perfect, 20/20 long distance vision”, according to the eye doctor, but I have found that more and more I am reaching for reading glasses when doing things close up. (Like knitting, sometimes. And reading.) I used to think it was hilarious when “older” people had to hold things at arms length to read them (because that SO does not make sense) and now I’m one of them. So these contacts have reading magnification in the bottom of the contact and are clear on the top. I suppose I’ll get used to them, but right now you all seem a bit blurry to me. I’m anxious to try knitting with them – maybe tonight. (I know – midweek knitting! WOOT! I told you it was one of my summer goals.)

Speaking of summer goals, I saw a list on someone’s blog about the things they wanted to get knitted up this summer and it got me to thinking about what I wanted to knit up over the next few months. So here is my list of wishes:

- pairs to all of my twinless socks (and I believe there might be 15 or so. sigh.)

- finish my Sea Silk shawl in the Nova Scotia colorway (because I’d also like to do something in the Aegean Sea Silk and the Melon Sea Silk. And I love Schaefer Andrea, so I set aside a skein of Empress Wu Zhao, and I also like Helen’s Laces a lot, and so have a skein of Vera set aside in that. Then of course there’s an amazing skein that Susie at Perchance to Knit sent me, but I can’t show that to you or you’ll want it. I’ll wait until we have it in stock to tease you like that. I really really like knitting lace. Almost as much as socks.) Lastly, I’d like a cashmere scarf out of this Jester colorway.

- work on a short-sleeved sweater that I started last year. (last year. brother.) It would be nice for fall, I think.

- and knit up new socks. Here are the yarns that are calling to me most loudly from my own stash. (There’s more in the stash, but these are the first ones I’d knit up this summer if I had unlimited knitting time.)

	Perchance to Knit (special colorway called “Sheri Baby” from Susie) J-Knits New Mexico Woolly Boully Brooklyn Candy The Knittery Earth sKNITches Syncopation Collegiate Zen String Bart & Louise (this just arrived today and I have been waiting for my own skein of Bart & Louise! It will be up in the next Sneak Up.)
	Fleece Artist Sea Wool Pinata sKNITches Kettle Drum Thunderclap Gypsy Knits BFL Merry Go Round Yarntini Cherry Cordial Perchance to Knit Primarily
	Urban GypZ Twisted Curry with Raisins (new indie dyer to us, coming soon!) Seacoast Panda Pheasant Cider Moon Casual Friday Opal Rainforest Toucan Regia Stretch Toronto
	Yarn Pirate Loopy BluesSeacoast Bee Balm Opal Neon 1937 Yarn Pirate BFL (special colorway from Georgia called “Zoe”) Posh Tweed Coat Claudia Blue Terra Cotta Claudia Sante Fe The Knittery Moonlight

So how much of my summer knitting list do you think I’ll get done? (Did I mention that I need to find more time in my day/week for knitting?) What’s on your list for the summer?

No blog on Friday – I’ll be winging my way to the TNNA Market in Ohio.  I’ll let you know all about it next week when I’m back!

Sheri andwillIevergetusedtotheseforeignobjectsinmyeyes?

We had a great (long) weekend. I love long weekends. I think my favorite part is Sunday night, when we’re not having to get ready for going back to the working world the next day! (Except for Knitting Daughter, who ended up with a shift at Starbucks today. That was a good excuse to go down there for a Peppermint Mocha for myself.) I knitted and loved it. Do you like this Woolly Boully sock? The pattern is Parting Ways from Heartstrings. The colorway is Autumn Tremblings and it was my favorite until the others arrived in huge boxes from Jenny. Now I have several favorites. I also worked on my Sockapalooza Pal’s socks. We all know that I have a bit of a problem with Twinless Socks (and I did discover why – more on that later.) So for this one, I am knitting both at the same time (a la Dr. Jackie!). I’m making good progress on them and I love how they’re turning out. I’m using Scarlet Fleece and it’s making me want to knit a pair of Scarlet Fleece socks for myself. I love the way it knits up. I can’t decide whether to show a picture of these on the blog, or not. Why? Because it just so happens that one of YOU will be getting these. Yes, my Sockapalooza pal is a blog reader and Loopy friend. However, you don’t know who you are. So what do you think? Show the socks or not? Guess what Zoe and Casey did today? Zoe took an extended nap in one of her favorite napping places – the back porch. (The dark chair pads get a bit warm in the heat, thus the lighter colored towel on the chair. Is she spoiled,

or what?) Casey was left in charge of watching the website today, and promptly fell asleep on the job. sigh.

Sunday was a marathon Lost TV day. Knitting Daughter and I were about 7 or 8 episodes behind, so we watched them all, along with WH and College Guy. Wow. The season finale? Wow. I can’t believe that I have to wait until next January to see the continuation of all that. There is much explaining to be done! (And here I thought that maybe Lost was losing a bit of its luster. Not anymore. I think next season is going to be good. Jack seems to have screwed himself up good.)

I have loved reading your “what day would you like to re-live” stories. Susan P. made an interesting comment: “Isn’t it interesting that most of these moments are not about what happened but rather who they happened with: my mom, my dad, my kids, my husband, my best friend. Life is only about relationships.” I had thought the same thing as I read through your wonderful comments and memories. Keep posting them – I won’t be doing the contest drawing until Monday – and plus, I just enjoy reading them.

I promised a yarn update this week, since many of you have been emailing to say, “Are you getting this??” And the answer is frequently “Yes, we are!” But do feel free to keep asking. Once in awhile you tell me about a new yarn that I have not even heard of and off I go to investigate it! So here are the answers to the questions people have been emailing about: yes, we have all of the colors of Dream in Color’s Smooshy Sock Yarn on order and they will be here mid-June, I anticipate. (I’m looking forward to meeting up with Veronica and her husband at TNNA this weekend, at their special reception. It was fun talking with her a couple of weeks ago and hearing their company story, when I ordered all that yarn!) Yes, we have more Hand Maiden Cashmere coming in, and yes, we have more Sea Silk on order. (Plus, I bought up all the rest of their 150g skeins and divided it between 2 colorways – Nova Scotia and Melon.) Yes, we’re also getting Mini Maiden in. Yes, we have Nature’s Palette arriving soon. Yes, we have another new indie dyer to debut soon with a really fun yarn base that you will love, and a couple of new sock lines from well-loved companies – but that’s still a secret. Everything on the “arriving soon at The Loopy Ewe” list on the homepage is anticipated in within the next month or less, and many of the companies that we stock all the time have re-stock orders in the works. Did you notice that I did an update tonight? Woolly Boully, The Knittery, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Schaefer Andrea, Chewy Spaghetti Lace, J Knits Light, Heartstrings Patterns, and under Fun Accessories – Moonlight Knitter and Two Sisters.

I think that about covers it all for now. We do have some fun things coming up this summer that will be discussed soon, as well as new lines that are not yet ready to be publicized. You know us – always something new coming in and always a LOT of stuff in the works. We like it that way.

Sheri sodidyoudoanyknittingoverthelongweekend?Seeanygoodmovies?Makeanygoodrecipes?

I love this picture! It came in an email from Loopy friend Valerie in Canada, with the subject line: “Future Loopy Ewe Customers”. This is her two daughters and a neighbor friend, all knitting on the front porch. Isn’t it a great photo? I hope these three will have fond memories of summers and knitting when they grow up. (And lots of finished projects to show for it.) Special thanks to Valerie for forwarding the photo and giving permission for me to share it with all of you.

It’s time for our May blog contest! Since this is Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S., I’ve been thinking about memories a bit. Memories of people now gone, and memories of times past. If you could re-live one day/moment/event over, what would it be? (Well, it doesn’t have to be your ALL time favorite thing – just one thing you’d like to re-live or re-visit.) I would love to re-visit a day with each of my kids when they were about 3 years old. Knowing who they are at this point in their lives, I think it would be fun to go back and re-visit a typical day in their three year old life. (Three years old – that has to be one of the funnest ages in the world. Talking up a storm, personality in abundance, old enough to carry on discussions but young enough to still be hilarious with what they come up with!) I have totally enjoyed each stage/age as our kids have grown up, but I’d love to re-visit “three” with them. What about you? What event or day would you like to re-visit? Leave a comment and I’ll do the random generator thing next Friday (6/1) to pick a winner for the May Loopy Loot. (Edit: oops – I forgot I’d be out of town on June 1st, finding new fun stuff for all of us at the TNNA Market.  Watch for the Loopy Loot winner on Monday, the 4th!)

Today’s recipe is one of my favorites from my mother-in-law. We have a big rhubarb plant that was transplanted from her house in Iowa to our house here in St. Louis several years ago. I picked the stalks and made this delicious dessert last week. I imagine you could substitute any fruit in place of the rhubarb, but be sure to adjust the sugar amounts along with it. This dessert has …. um …. a bit of sugar in it. To give you an overabundance of energy for a few minutes counteract some of the tartness of the rhubarb.

Rhubarb Dreams

Blend:

1 cup Flour, 5 Tbl. powdered sugar, 1/2 cup margarine

Press in bottom of 9×9 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Beat:

2 eggs, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 cups chopped rhubarb

Spoon over crust and bake another 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

You can also double this recipe and make it in a 9 x 13 pan.

Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

We’re looking forward to a long weekend around here (Monday is a holiday) and you can bet that there will be knitting involved. I need to start my socks for my Sockapalooza Pal and I picked out one of the new colors from Scarlet Fleece for her, as it goes along with her preferred color suggestion. I’m still on a quest to find more knitting time each week. It’s one of my summer goals.

FYI – The vet visit was a regular checkup/yearly shot appointment this week, but Zoe and Casey want to thank all of you who inquired to make sure they were ok.

I’ll fill you in on more yarn news next week. I have two new yarn lines on order that are going to be fun, as well as new patterns and new accessories. And the TNNA – The National NeedleArts Association – Market is next weekend in Ohio, so I’ll be looking for more great lines and ideas that we all “need” need. WH thinks maybe I ought not to go.

Sheri sowhatwouldyouliketore-liveforfun?Leaveacommenttoenterthecontest!

It’s a Wacky Wednesday. Why?

1. You all discovered last night’s Sneak Up. Susan and College Guy and I have been packing up orders all day except for….

2. The trip to the vet with both the dog and the cat. (if you have pets – enough said.) And on the way home, we …..

3. Dropped all of the international orders off at the post office where I learned even more that I didn’t want to know about the new rules and regulations and then we ………

4. Came home to pack more orders!

But today was also Wonderful Wednesday. Why?

1. You all discovered last night’s Sneak Up and we so appreciate all of your orders. Then in the midst of all that …..

2. Two big boxes arrived from Jenny at Woolly Boully and I am totally in love with her yarn, and that means that …..

3. Like all of you, I did a bit of stash-enhancing today (but with some of Jenny’s new yarn) and now …..

4. The rest will be turned over to WH for photography so that we can share them with you in the next Sneak Up.

Tonight and Tomorrow – continued order-packing and we promise to get them to you just as quickly as possible. You definitely need this yarn in your hands soon.

Sheri didyouhaveaWACKYoraWONDERFULWednesday?

Wow – what a whirlwind few days we have had, covering many miles on the road. On Thursday, WH and I left bright and early in the morning to drive up to Upland, Indiana to pick up College Guy. (about 5 1/2 hours from here.) We arrived just after lunch, loaded up the car, and drove back home in time for a late dinner. It always amazes me that the dorm rooms can be returned to an empty state, after seeing how full they are when everyone moves in with lofts, couches, chairs, etc. Here is College Guy with Indiana Guy (one of his room-mates). The other room-mate – Ohio Guy – had left that morning already. They will be back in the same room in the fall, with all new furniture and carpeting. It will be a busy summer at that dorm!

Friday, we headed up to Iowa for Iowa Girl’s graduation. She is the daughter of our dear friends Steve and Janice, and we have known her since she was 2 weeks old. It’s so hard to believe that she will be off to college in the fall. We just love her. Here she is with Knitting Daughter and College Guy. They (and Iowa Girl’s two brothers) have all grown up together and it’s always fun to get together with them and catch up, which we manage to do several times a year. The graduation party was out in their backyard, and the llamas were so curious as to what was going on. They lined up at the fence several times to check it out. Really, they are just too cute and my favorite part is that they hum to each other. (Especially the moms to the babies.) My most unfavorite part is that they spit if you tick them off. So we try not to do that.

There was plenty of knitting time in the car (considering I had about 22 drive hours within 3 days) but I will admit to taking a couple of naps, too. I was happy to finish my Peppermint Mocha sock and I love how it turned out. (The pattern is Wildhorse Farms Checky Waves.) You’ll be happy to know that we have the yarn in stock again – for the third time. I know I said both of the last times that we had plenty of yarn and wouldn’t run out – and both times you proved me wrong. But I really think we have plenty this time. (I notice you already cleaned us out of the Peppermint Mocha Sport Shorts!) I do love this color combination, and when a liquid Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks just isn’t practical, well, at least I can wear the socks! I’m also almost done with my first Woolly Boully sock and will share a photo of that soon, too. Jenny said that our Woolly Boully order is on the way, and includes two brand new colors for us as well as all the other ones I ordered. You are going to love her line.

We have a Mega Sneak Up scheduled for this week. This is what is planned: Celtic Swan Sterling Silver DPN’s, Gypsy Knits BFL (a new indie line for us), All Things Heather, sKNITches, Scarlet Fleece (including new colors), Cider Moon (in the long-awaited Icicle fingering weight), JKnits, Apple Laine, Fleece Artist Sea Wool and Fleece Artist Merino. (Did you see that I already updated the website today to add in the Louet colors that we were out of, as well as more of Perchance to Knit’s Midnight Rainbow lace yarn and a re-stock of Cookie A’s patterns?) Our next Sneak Up (probably the week after next) is slated to add: even more Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Zen String (both fingering and sport weight), Woolly Boully, Chewy Spaghetti Laceweight, All Things Heather Laceweight, Yarn Pirate, Perchance to Knit, and Maruca bags. Also expected in any day and might be in that next Sneak Up or soon thereafter: Posh Yarn, Seacoast, Yarntini, The Knittery, Schaefer Anne and Lola, and a few new lines as well. Check back often, as you know we are always adding new yarns in, just for you!

Sheri nowIwantallamaforthebackyard-thinktheneighborswouldmind?

To my wonderful international Loopy Friends:

Good news: I did so much research (online and at my post office) before all of this postal rate update to figure out the new international postal prices. I just knew that all of you international Loopys would be ordering right away on Monday as usual, and I wanted to have everything in place for you in terms of the new postage.

Bad news: Wrong information from my postal ladies which led to wrong research on the usps.com website. Although I’m not sure the right information would’ve helped much. Have you tried to wade through the mumbo-jumbo on the usps.com website lately?

Good news: It means international rates won’t be QUITE as bad as I had feared.

Bad news: But they still went up.

Good news: I was right – you all ordered on Monday and Tuesday, so Tuesday morning I took several country/size/weight variations into the post office.

Bad news: I packed them in the regular Global Priority boxes. (Last week – The Week of Misinformation – they had assured me that I could still use them.) This week, The Week of Enlightenment, they assured me that I could not.

Good news: I can ship in reinforced envelopes which cuts down on the weight.

Bad news: I had to repackage the boxes right there in the post office with 5 other postal customers impatiently waiting their turn.

Good news: I didn’t mind.

Bad news: They did.

Good news: I had the clerks weigh everything, then gave them different scenarios. “Now if it was going to that country and weighed under a pound, how much? And then over two pounds to that country, how much? And now this country – how about this one? And the next?” etc. So I got a complete picture – the correct one, I believe – of the pricing. I’m just glad to know there are options.

Bad news: This made the five postal customers even more impatient with me. Bad news #2: some of you will be receiving your orders in envelopes that were very hastily written at the post office counter.

Good news: It didn’t cost you as much shipping as you and I thought it would. With the help of the postal ladies (who are now in the Week of Enlightment – aka, The Week of “Now that the updated postal program has been downloaded into our system, we can stop telling you information that we assume is right, and start giving you the cold hard facts directly from our computers”), I have been able to take our average sized international orders, and figure out the postage, and knock that down a bit, to come up with new international postal rates which will not drive either of us too batty. Although you know I would much rather be delivering all of these in person anyway. We have switched the website to the international prices that are the best low-average that we can come up with. When it costs more than that on some of your orders, we will cover it. So glad to have this settled.

To everyone else:

Bad news: I will be away from the computer Thursday through Sunday.

Good news: College Guy comes home on Thursday and we head up to see our friends in Iowa for the weekend on Friday! (They have llamas. I’ll take pictures.)

Bad news: no blog post on Friday, no order shipping on Saturday. (We will, however, be shipping Thursday and Friday. Although not too many on Thursday because the postman has already warned me that he intends to play golf on Thursday afternoon and does not want too many boxes on my porch to have to deal with. Well alrighty then.)

Good news: Susan-the-awesome-assistant and College Guy will both be helping me pack weekend orders for you on Monday so you shouldn’t have to wait any longer than usual.

Bad news: WH tells me I must stop buying yarn, as there are too many yarns waiting to be photographed so that we can put them up on the website for you.

Good news: I’m not listening to him. (but don’t tell him)

Sheri doyouhaveanygoodnews/badnews/badnews/goodnewsitemstoshare?

P.S. You “miter” want to check out Wendy’s gorgeous Miter Sweater made out of sock yarns, that she just posted to our “Sock Yarns but Not Socks” photo gallery. It’s amazing!