Some of you may remember Wonder Husband’s Freezer Intervention awhile ago. It wasn’t pretty, but it was necessary. (Funny thing is, another one is needed for the freezer already. I must have a real thing about full freezers or something.) Last night, I was told that I need another intervention. This one: coffee cups. It appears that I have “too many”. (Define “too many”!) So I spread them all out for you to see and I was amazed because there really aren’t that many. I mean, all things considered. I think there were 25. But I figured that you ought to know the whole picture. So here is a picture of the small cupboard in my kitchen which housees ALL of the drinking glasses and ALL of the coffee mugs. Given that small cupboard, maybe I can almost understand the need to pare down the coffee mugs. Maybe. (Although aren’t you impressed with how much I can fit in there?) I already have a few on permanent display over the sink. I also have my china coffee cups in a different cupboard. And there might’ve been a few in the dishwasher. Just sayin. So I took a hard stand, sorted through all of the coffee mugs, and got rid of any that weren’t absolutely necessary. They fit much better now. At least until I buy more that I can’t live without. (How many did I get rid of? One. Because it was mauve. I don’t like mauve coffee mugs. But don’t tell WH. We’ll let him think that I took care of the little coffee mug problem in a much more dramatic fashion.)

I’m happy to report several items:

1. Loopy is staying a he. I’m sorry for those of you who voted “she”, but the “he’s” have it. I have become convinced, however, that Loopy does need a she and I like the name that was suggested - “Ewe-niss” -hee! So I will be on the lookout for a nice stuffed Ewe-niss for my Loopy guy. Ewe-niss will have a bow on one ear. Or something girly, at least.

2. I did get my Sockapalooza Pal’s socks done over the weekend! Since they need to be in the mail on August 2nd, this is a good thing. I will show you a picture next week. My pal picked a rather specific color range and I’m just sure she’ll know it’s hers if I show it. (Yes, it’s one of my blog readers.) So, photo next week.

3. WH’s sister is visiting from Alaska and she is packing up Fall Sock Club boxes as I type. Woohoo! (Conveniently, my folks scheduled their vacation in Colorado for Sock Club week. I can’t understand why.) We will begin shipping these any day, so be sure that you have paid your bill if you’re in the Club. Go to your Loopy account and you’ll find it waiting for you. Many thanks to all of you who have already paid - you’re so on top of things! (And because I get emails every time I talk about our Loopy Ewe Seasonal Sock Club, I’ll just answer this here. Unfortunately, our 150 spots sold out overnight - literally - and there are no more spots left for this year. We are looking at ways to take more for next year and will let you know via the blog and Loopy newsletter when signups will go up again. We’d love to have you be a part of it the next time!)

4. Due to no Sneak Up last week, we have a massive one this week. (And some of you wondered why we do them every week? Because SO much yarn comes in week to week, that it’s a bit overwhelming to go without one for a week. But we will do that whenever possible because we like the every other week schedule, too.)

This week’s new stuff: Yarntini, Nature’s Palette, Interlacements Tiny Toes, sKNITches Self-Striping, The Knittery Merino, The Knittery Cashmere, Yarn Love, Urban GypZ Twisted, Gypsy Knits, Schaefer Anne, Schaefer Lola, Schaefer Andrea, J.Knits, The Plucky Knitter, Perchance to Knit lace, Hand Maiden Sea Silk, Hand Maiden Mini Maiden, Hand Maiden Cashmere, Mrs. Kwitty’s project bags and project pals, and more StitchKeepers. And you know that this is more than will show up on the “What’s New” pages when it goes up, so now you know which companies will have new things to look at.

Coming in the next Sneak Up or two: Woolly Boully Softie, Skinny Duets, Fleece Artist Somoko, Apple Laine, Zen String, Yarn Pirate, Fiesta Boomerang, and Perchance to Knit.

Arriving in August: Wollmeise, Cider Moon Glacier, more Dream in Color, Fiesta Baby Boomerang, Lane Borgosesia Cashwool, Seacoast Panda, Spritely Goods, Lorna’s Laces, All Things Heather, and some surprises. Because surprises are always fun.

5. Another gift for you - check out the new Southwestern Socks pattern that Wendy has given to us to put here as a free download - just because she’s so wonderful!

6. Wednesday is the official first anniversary of The Loopy Ewe! We’ll have a contest with a really cool prize, and we’ll give you a sneak peak at our “Happy Anniversary to Ewe” limited edition colorway from J.Knits, along with the specially designed pattern “Celebratory Chevrons”. Both will be available for purchase starting next week. (A whole year. Unbelievable.)

Sheri doanyofyouhaveany”overdone”areasinyourlifethatneedanintervention?
Sockyarndoesn’tcount.

I am having a dilemma. I have always called Loopy “he”. Not sure why. It just always seemed to fit when I was talking about our little mascot guy. And then a couple of weeks ago, someone very kindly pointed out that if it’s “The Loopy Ewe”, wouldn’t it be a “she”? Ewe = she. Umm - good point. I tried in one of my recent posts and called Loopy “she” and then had several emails: “What do you mean SHE? I thought Loopy was a HE?” So - what do you think? I need to make a decision on that. Will Loopy suffer from emotional trauma if I call him a he? Or she a she? Or she a he? Or he a she? What should we call him/her? It seems like this should be settled.

Don’t you just want to head right over to the bookstore and buy a bunch of the books from the comments on Wednesday? I love to read, and my reading time has been almost nil since knitting and The Loopy Ewe. I miss it. And now I have a whole list of great books that I think I need. I will confess to having zipped over to Amazon to put in an order or two already. It was so fun reading all of your great suggestions. I came across so many books that I thought, “Ohhh - that was one of my favorites, too!” I knew I liked all of you a lot. You have great taste in books. And yarn.

It’s time to welcome new Loopy Groupies again! Remember, you reach Loopy Groupie status after your 6th order with us, and of course there are perks. We love our Loopies! A big warm welcome to these wonderful people joining the group this past month: Valerie (Ontario), Donna (SC), Cassandra (AK), Julie (MD), Debi (NY), Jana (WA), Sharon (NJ), Johanna (WI), Kelly (FL), Amy (MO), Jennifer (MD), Donna (CA), Patty (IL), Joan (MO), Michelle (NJ), Kathryn (TX), Alex (MO), Beverly (CA), Doris (MD), Sarah (OH), Jeannie (WV), Debbie (HI), Amy (WI), Dawn (CT), Denise (CA), Rebecca (GA), Meghan (MI), Amanda (MN), Elizabeth (VA), Julie (MO), Elizabeth (WA), Kari (OH), Aimee (WI), Jennie (TX), Laura (OH), Venka (CA), Linda (FL), Sarah (OH), Janet (TX), Amy (AL), Mara (KS), Vera (SC), Helen (MD), Annie (WI), Catherine (NH), Kim (MD), Barbara (AZ), Sally (IN), Christina (CA), Kyoko (Japan), Rebecca (OK), Pamela (TX), Julie-Ann (Jamaica), Jane (WI), Kathi (MO), Edith (NJ), Laurie (TX), Margene (UT), Desiree (NV), Patty (MN), Lou (VA), Deborah (SC), Barbara (IL), Mandy (TX), Kelly (MI), Martha (WA), Tracey (MI), Jennifer (MD), Denise (CT), Lani (MA), Alison (MO), Jennifer (CA), Emily (MO), Christine (MA), Mary (IL), Melissa (OH), Beth (NH), Meghann (MA), Rene (WA), Kristin (NH), Daniella (CA), Kerry (NY), Wendy (TN), Karen (TX), Susan (TN), Lisa (MI), Toshimi (Japan), Beth (AZ), Deborah (OH), Rochelle (CO), Teresa (NC), Susan (NJ), Carolyn (TX), Laura (KS), Gretchen (NY), Elisa (CA), Donia (WA), Jane (NC), Mo (NY), Janelle (PA), Angela (FL), Miriam (UT), Doris (NY), Dorothy (KY), Leah (MO), Vanessa (CA), Kathy (CA), Barbara (MD), Merry Gay (MO), Sydney (NJ), Fawn (CA), Cecily (MO), Jessica (NV), and Diane (Australia).

(If you are supposed to be on that list and we screwed up, please email me. We do do that once in awhile. Screw up, I mean. It’s always a bummer and we always want to know so that we can make it right!)

Last but not least, the Blueberry Pie recipe I promised. I like this recipe because you cook some of the berries and put the rest in uncooked. It means less mush in the filling.

Doublegood Blueberry Pie

4 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbl. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup water
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 Tbl. margarine
Baked pie shell

Wash and drain all of the blueberries. In a pan, add 1 cup of the blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, salt, water, cinnamon and lemon juice. Cook over low heat and stir until the sauce is medium thick. Remove from the heat and add in the margarine and the rest of the blueberries. Stir well. Pour into baked pie shell and refrigerate several hours or overnight. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Dr. Jackie sent this link to Crystal Palace’s new free sock patterns - check it out!
http://www.crystalpalaceyarns.com/cpy/patterns2/socks/Sock_Index.html

Sheri sowhatdoyouthink-isLoopyaHEoraSHE?

Ok - I took everyone’s advice and ignored the yarn for this week’s Sneak Up and am reading Harry instead. I’m actually almost done with the book. I will admit that I have stopped to do one thing or another (I’m not ignoring your orders - just the new yarn) but I will finish the book today. It’s good and I’m anxious to see how it all turns out. I have enjoyed the author’s creativity in these HP books. (And there are some inventions in there that I think would be darned handy to have around.)

So, since we still need a contest for July, I thought I’d see what everyone’s favorite book is. I love to read and while I can’t necessarily come up with one favorite book (although I will say I loved all of the Chronicles of Narnia), I thought I’d share my favorite childhood books with you. It’s funny to read them now, because I’m not sure why these became my favorites out of all the ones I had. But they did. The Lonely Doll is not a book I ever owned, but I remember checking it out from the library multiple times because I loved it so much. I majored in Elementary Education in college, with a minor in Reading, and somehow during one of my Children’s Lit courses, I rediscovered this book. (I always remembered it - just couldn’t remember the name or author.) I was so happy to find it available to order and now I have my own copy. It’s about a doll and two teddy bears who live in a house (no adults) and get into all kinds of adventures. I think there might’ve been a sequel or two, but this was the one I liked.

My other two favorites were Bunny Blue and Mr. Snitzel’s Cookies. This is my original copy of Bunny Blue from when I was young, but I found Mr. Snitzel on ebay a few years ago. (Is there anything you CAN’T find on ebay?) Now I have these books displayed in a cupboard and I like having them there. Every so often I have to go back and read them. So what about you? Are there books from your childhood or adulthood that you’d call a favorite? I know that a lot of knitters are also book lovers, so it’ll be fun to get some new suggestions for good books. Leave your favorite book here in the blog comments by next Wednesday, August 1st, and I’ll do a random drawing for our monthly Loopy Gift Certificate! I’m also going to do the August blog contest very soon, in celebration of our one year anniversary - so keep an eye out here for that as well. There is a great grand prize for that contest!

Ok - back to Harry………..

Sheri um,no,mySockapaloozaPal’ssocksaren’tdoneyet.Harryisgettinginthewayofeverything.

Time for another Three Things post. Why?

3 reasons for the Three Things post:

- I’m still packing orders today from the Dream in Color re-stocking session over the weekend.
- Susan-the-Awesome-Assistant is on vacation this week and is of no help whatsoever. (Oh, but she’s happy to have a break.)
- Nothing else on my mind to blog about today.

Three things I did this weekend:

- photo-ed my stash for Ravelry. Well, most of it. There are a few skeins I kept underwraps, because I’m still deciding on whether or not to add them in here. They’re a secret!
- worked on my Sockapalooza Pal’s socks. I have one 95% done and the other 50% done. They must be mailed 8/2. yikes.
- Fought College Guy over the Harry Potter book which arrived in the mail on Saturday. I lost. He read it in one (long) sitting. I still have not read it.

Three reasons why there may not be a Sneak Up this week:

- WH is still working on all of those photos. Lots of new yarn here.
- I’m not sure I’m ready for another Sneak Up yet, after last week.
- I must read Harry Potter. Right?

Three (groups of three) yarns that will be going up when we DO put one up:

- Yarntini, Yarn Love, The Knittery
- Urban GypZ’s Twisted, Gypsy Knits, Perchance to Knit Laceweights
- Hand Maiden Mini Maiden, Hand Maiden Cashmere, Hand Maiden Sea Silk

Three more yarns that will go up right after that:

- Fleece Artist Somoko
- sKNITches Self- Striping (wait til you see “Loopy’s Red Socks” that Sam did for us!)
- Duets Skinny

Three re-stocks that will be going up whenever we get them in (due soon):

- Interlacements
- Lorna’s Laces
- Apple Laine

Three fun things you should know:

- Wendy gave us her new sock pattern to offer as a free download here. (Is she awesome, or what? It’s gorgeous. Print it out! That’s the link, but it’s also here on the blog by going to “Free Patterns”.) We’ll have some more free patterns from other designers for you eventually, too.
- Sock Club invoices will go out this week and the packages will go out the first or second week in August.
- Loopy is having a great summer vacation. Have you seen her photos lately? SHE met Harry Potter. She has probably already read the book, too. Lucky.

Three annoyances right at the moment:

- there is a fly buzzing in the window that Zoe feels she must take care of
- it’s still hot and humid here in St. Louis
- dinner is in the crockpot and the smell is making me hungry

Three things I must now go do:

- take the international packages to the post office
- go to Sams to buy more peppermints (you know, the chocolate will return when the weather gets cooler)
- read Harry Potter I mean, finish the rest of today’s orders.

So, what three things can you tell me about your day?

Sheri Imadeourfavoriteblueberrypierecipeyesterday-I’llsharethatwithyouonFriday.
Therecipe,thatis.Notthepie.Unlessyouwanttocomeandsitonthebackporchandknitwithme.
ThenImightgiveyouapieceofblueberrypie.

Thanks for all of your interesting comments about the Sneak Up this week. (And thank you to soooo many of you who sent me the very sweetest emails. I really appreciate you!) I thought today would be a good day to address some of the thoughts on it all. (And then we have some fun new website features to tell you about!) I didn’t have any photos to put in today, so you get my “flowers in Colorado with Sheri’s head shadow” shot.

- Yes, the Wollmeise went quickly. But remember, we knew that it would. Also, remember that we will have more in a few weeks, and very regularly after that. You will have the opportunity to get it often. (So how many skeins of Wollmeise did I keep for myself? Well, you know that I used one to knit a pair of socks. Then I took one other one. That’s it. But I do plan to take a couple of skeins with each order that comes in, because I like this yarn just that much.)

- I totally understand those of you who would like us to limit purchases in the Sneak Ups. Really, I do. I wouldn’t want to be missing out on anything good, either! (Of course I’m just the kind of person who would also set an alarm to get up and check on whether or not something was happening if I was waiting for a particular yarn, but I probably shouldn’t admit that.) The only thing that we have limited here are the Loopy/Louise/Bart stitchmarkers, simply because they are so few and far between. So we set the limit at 2 sets per person. I want everyone to feel welcome and appreciated here, whether they buy one skein, or 20 skeins. I think that if we put limits on it, the “20 skein” people would not feel so welcome and appreciated. I will say that no one is buying in massive quantities to re-sell to friends, relatives and strangers. You all are just generally buying things to add to your own collection - and that’s great. Some of you collect skeins in every colorway. How fun is that? Others of you buy one or two from each line so that you have a great representation of all the different yarns. Still others pick and choose and appear to be very disciplined, and I’m still trying to figure you out. How DO you do that, when confronted with so much beautiful sock yarn? In order to continue to be welcoming and appreciative to all, we won’t limit your purchases, but we WILL continue to schedule regular and frequent and large orders from all of our yarn companies. If you don’t get something this time, we promise to do everything we can to have it here for you again as soon as possible.

- Timing for the Sneak Ups - let’s just say it will be every Wednesday night at 8 pm Central, ok? That would work best for me and then you don’t have to be stressed and wonder when it is. (Oh. Wait. We can’t do that, can we? That’s what made Loopy roll over, and caused the whole Sneak Up thing to start in the first place. Dang.) Ok - we’ll continue to mix up the times and days and will try to make everyone happy, one week or another. I DO think that I’ll have Web Guy build in an automatic “release” for me, so that I can set the time and go to bed and not try to wake up at 3:30 in the morning any more.

- “Losing” things from your cart. Yes, it’s true - it’s not “yours” until you have clicked through with your payment. At that point, it is taken from our online inventory and no one else can have your skein. That’s just the way these things work. But we have a new warning system in place for you, which might help. (See below.)

Now the fun stuff. Web Guy has been working hard this summer, and here are the latest website features to show for it:

1) Colors!! Consider it “beta” at the momen, meaning try it out all you want…but let us know when/if you find a bug or how we can improve it. Paint yourself a skein by adding and subtracting different colors in your combinations to find out how many color combos you like. We’re still experimenting with the system, but we have about 400 of our items on there so far for you to color with. For example, when I click on one of the reds, I get these choices. Then I can click on any of the other dots to see red WITH something else. So if I then click on green, it narrows it down to this. It’s way too fun to play with.

2) “New” product icon. Whenever you encounter a product that’s been added within the last week to our store…we now have a little orange “NEW” icon that shows up after it’s name

3) Easier shopping cart additions. When adding an item while you’re browsing the store…you don’t even have to change pages anymore. When you click the “Add to Cart” a little popup will come up alerting you about the new item in your cart. (Check out the What’s New page. See the “add to cart” on each product box? Now you can shop directly from there on Sneak Up nights if you need to!)

4) Wishlists!! Err…not yet. Still working on it.

5) Popular shopping cart items. In an effort to soothe the frustrated (a.k.a. the “distressed people”), we’ll now highlight when an item that you have in your shopping cart is popular. So, for example…if you have a skein of Yarntini in your cart during the next Sneak Up, it will check to see how many others have the same idea. If more people have it in their carts than we have in stock, we’ll add the little orange message to your item. So if you see a little orange “Popular item right now” line by an item in your cart, you probably want to skedaddle your way through and complete the Checkout process. Yes, skedaddle.

So - what do you think about the new features? Fun, eh?

Sheri hopingtogetsomegoodknittingtimeinthisweekend.ImustfinishmySockapaloozaPal’ssocks!

I’m a big fan of Etsy. I have found many of our wonderful indie dyers over there. And I do love shopping there quite a bit, too. Since I know (I KNOW!) that all of you just spent all of your money over here in the early morning Sneak Up, I thought it’d be safe to post some fun etsy sites without being accused of trying to get you to spend more money. These aren’t yarn sites - but some are related to knitting, and some not. Imagine my surprise when this cute penny rug showed up (who sent this to me? It’s wonderful - thank you so much!)

http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=5717517

Since it was bill-paying day (see Monday’s post) and since I needed some diversions to keep me from bill-paying for awhile, I clicked around on other Etsy sites.

This cracked me up:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6079384

Loved these photos:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6053111
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=304064

So dang cute - I bought the knitter one:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=101018

Love this soap shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5068641

Had to buy this for my Loopy Ewe tag necklace:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6395734

Fun off of Etsy:

http://www.moonrakerbeads.com/index.php

What are some of your favorite Etsy shops - not yarn, but other fun things? I have a whole “favorites” section dedicated to etsy in my bookmarks.

A quick yarn update - I did the Sneak Up at 3:30 am this morning, just so the Wollmeise would still be available mid-morning for everyone. Well. It was STILL gone by just after 8 am. (Claudia - we love love love your yarn!) Remember, we’re getting more in August and as often as we can after that (hopefully monthly). Sooner or later, I’m hoping we’ll actually be able to keep it in stock. Later, I guess.

Many of you have asked about Dream in Color. It turns out they are going to be able to ship our next order to us tomorrow after all! So - watch for more Dream in Color next week. Yay!

Back to packing orders……..

Sheri lovingtheLoopyGroupieforumoveronRavelry-comejoinus!