Ok – THAT was a fun Sneak Up! (Seriously – y’all broke all previous records!) In addition to the regular Loopy Elves (Susan, Vicki and Anna), we had to call in both of my folks, WH and KD for order packing on this one. (College Guy lent his support by calling last night to tell us he was glad to be in Indiana, watching from afar. Nice guy.) We’re still working on orders – we’ll try to get them all out by tomorrow, but some may spill over into Tuesday. We really ARE working ’round the clock to get everything out to you. Monday is a holiday here in the U.S., so no mail on Monday. When this week’s orders are done, I’m taking a couple of days off to knit. It’s so nice to have a holiday in there to justify that.

Just to keep you updated - Wendy’s patterns have come and gone, but more will arrive by mid-week next week. We did sell out of most of the Dream in Color shades, but I called Veronica and she’s sending us all that she had to spare on her shelves, today. So we’ll have a bit more to hold us over until the next big regularly-scheduled order arrives the third week in September. Someone asked about the size of our orders. We always order very very big huge orders. Huge pretty much describes it. :-) But you all also have very very big huge appetites for DC. Huge pretty much describes that, too! We aim to keep you filled up as often as Dream in Color can send us yarn. Fortunately, they’re very good to us and delightful to work with. They’ll keep it coming to us, and we’ll keep it coming to you. Apparently you have huge appetites for ShibuiKnits, too. Either that, or you were just having too much fun adding things to your cart. Or maybe both.  They sent another order to us yesterday already. So by mid-week next week, we’ll have all of this back in stock for you again, and of course we plan to keep up with it as fast as these companies can keep us stocked after that. Thank you so much for making this Sneak Up so much fun, and for all your business. We so appreciate you!

The next Sneak Up will be fun, too. We have Fiesta Baby Boomerang, Zen String Bambewe, Chewy Spaghetti and Cider Moon Glacier all ready to pop up for you. In addition, I know that Yarn Pirate, Perchance to Knit, Yarn Love, Wollmeise, Misty Mountain Farms, and Nature’s Palette have either shipped or will ship within the next few days. And of course we have other fun new stuff coming any day, too – so it looks like September is shaping up to be a yarn-filled month for all of us. Yay! (When is the next Sneak Up? Um – as soon as the post office delivers more boxes to us. I think they really wonder about us….. I’ll keep you posted on the next one, of course.)

school-lily8-08011Look at this cute kitten. This is “Loopy Elf Junior” with her new kitten, Lily. LEJ is Susan-the-awesome-assistant’s daughter, and she was the Loopy Elf Junior this summer. She was a great order picker and we loved it when she came in to work with Susan. She got to know our Zoe and decided she really wanted a cat. Susan talked her hubby into allowing a cat into the family. (It was no easy task, believe me.) So Knitting Daughter and I met Susan and LEJ at the humane society a couple of Saturdays ago, and she picked out Lily for them to take home and love. They are having a wonderful time with her and Lily is a lucky little kitten to have found a home with them. Isn’t she a cutie? (Do you know how hard it is to be at the Humane Society and not bring another cat or dog home?)

I know I need to share more HEALTHY recipes with you, but here’s another delicious non-healthy one for today. Once you’ve tried these, you will be hooked.

DSC01035.JPGAunt Ardith’s Special K Bars (I have no idea who Aunt Ardith is, but she came up with some great bars.)

6 cups Special K cereal
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

Cook sugar and syrup to boil. Take off heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Mix well. Pour over cereal and stir to coat. Pour into buttered 9 x 13 pan. Melt chips and spread over the top.

And in case you’re needing more knitting time in your life this holiday weekend, here is the blog post I wrote last year to help you find time over Labor Day Weekend for knitting. I think the ideas will still work for you. I’m planning on adding a few into my weekend as well.

Sheri readyforcoolweather,changingleaves,andwearinghandknitsocksagain