DSC01512.JPGMuch to report on today. You might need to get a cup of coffee. Do you know about Cow Tipping? It’s an urban myth and it’s actually not possible, it turns out. Then there’s Tractor Tipping, as practiced by the funny folks vehicles in the Cars movie. Also, not possible. And lastly, there is Loopy Tipping. It has only happened a handful of times. You could count them on one hand and still have fingers leftover. So if you have experienced it, you’re lucky fortunate unique. It happened again on Monday night during the Wollmeise-fest. Web Guy and I sat at our computers, watching in disbelief. Website usage was 200% over our average and ….. Loopy tipped completely over with his toes tickling the air. (Do sheep have toes? No. I guess not. Hooves, right? Ok, his hooves were tickling the air.) So, apologies to any of you who were online when it happened, to any of you who have been “waiting for months to get a skein of Wollmeise” and didn’t get one, and to any of you for the slowness you experienced. We are researching another move to a bigger server once again, and I will also put future Wollmeise yarns up on their own, outside of an official Sneak Up. (The next order is due in about 6 weeks.) And a big thank you to all of you who were so wonderful and understanding about it all. We think you’re the best! (The nice thing about Loopy Tipping? He always lands in a nice big bed of Loopy kisses. There’s a lot to be said for that.)

DSC01503.JPGOn to my TNNA report! The weather was wonderful. This is a view out my hotel window on Saturday morning. The convention center was just a few blocks away. I had a great time connecting with all of our vendors and finding new things. I also had fun dining with the Dream in Color Wonder Girls (Veronica and Nancy) one night, and having lunch with Cookie A on another day. They all have exciting things planned and we had a great time talking. But you want to know what new things I found for all of us, don’t you? These orders will begin arriving soon, and will continue to trickle in through March, but I thought I’d let you know about all of them so that you can plan for it.

DSC01508.JPGI was happy to get an order in with Karida at Neighborhood Fiber Co. We’ve been emailing since last fall, but she couldn’t take on any new accounts until this month. (And she hit her max again at TNNA. Everyone loves her yarn!) Her colors are deep and intense and wonderful. We have her Fingering weight, 2 different blends of lace weight, 2 different types of roving, and her Watershed Seacell Sock coming to us. We ordered a lot, so it will come in batches over the next several weeks. I’ll be working on knitting up a sock (ok, ok – maybe I’ll do a pair) from this skein of her fingering weight, so that you can see how it works up.

Next is Paca Peds, coming from The Alpaca Yarn Co. I got a skein of their yarn last summer at TNNA and starting testing it out a month ago. I love how it is knitting up. It’s going to be warm (that wonderful alpaca) but not fuzzy, so the stitch definition is easy to see. I’ll photo the sock (ok, ok – maybe I’ll do a pair) when I’m done and will share it on the blog. They have 10 colorways (more coming this summer) in regular, and then the same 10 colorways in their “Heels and Toes” line, where you get a coordinating mini skein of a solid color. We’ll have both lines for you.

DSC01507.JPGAnother great new company that we will have here soon is Farmhouse Yarns. This is a family owned business and I really enjoyed talking with them. They have a brand new sock yarn (not even up on their website yet) and I fell in love with it. It’s squishy and soft and beautifully dyed and I am anxious to get our order in. Here is the skein of it that I now have in my own stash, and again, I will knit up a sock (ok, ok – maybe I’ll do a pair) so that you can see how these colors blend together.

Due to popular demand and pleading, we have also added Great Adirondack Silky Sock. Patti’s colors are gorgeous. I had a hard time deciding which ones to get for us, because there are so many. (I think they told me over 100 colorways. They were all lined up on hanging dowels.) I picked a bunch, and we’ll add more over time. I have had this yarn in my stash for almost a year, and thought it was great when so many of you started asking for it on the Loopy Groupie board on Ravelry. We definitely needed it and I know you will like it, too.

DSC01509.JPGWe already have Lorna’s Laces (in fact we’ve had that line since we opened), but we have now decided to carry their roving, too. They have two different types – one is their Superwash Merino (great size for spinning yarn for socks) and the other is their 100% wool in a big 10 oz. package, wonderful for spinning yarn for other things. I already know how much you like their colorways, so it will be nice to have their roving here as well. DSC01510.JPGThey also have a few new colorways just out, which we are expecting to arrive any day. One of them is this blue/green combination in the roving photo above. I’m looking forward to spinning that. (It has been hard to have all of the beautiful roving arriving at Loopy Central every week. Each one is prettier than the next. I don’t know how I managed to avoid the allure of spinning for so long. All of you non-spinners, watch out. It will catch you when you least expect it. And you really ought to just go with it.)

Chameleon Colorworks is another new line for us (and another person that I first started talking to last fall. I like to think things through, don’t I?) Nancy has a great array of colors and fibers and we are glad to be adding two of their lines to The Loopy Ewe (and possibly more in the future.)

I have also added some patterns (Chrissy Gardiner - she does great sock and lace patterns), more Offhand Designs totes (the new fabrics are so fun – including a red bulls eye, which of course I had to order for myself. It’s red.), the new Malibu and Laguna Cali bags from Namaste, and more accessories which will be arriving soon. Here’s how I picked which style and colors of the new Cali bags to order. I met Jess and Casey (from Ravelry) in the Namaste booth. Jess was trying to pick out one of the new bags for herself. I said, “I can’t decide. Which style do you like best?” (there were 2). Jess said, “I don’t know! It’s too hard to decide.” (My problem exactly.) So I said, “Ok, then which colors do you think are just so-so and I can do without?” (there were 6). She said, “I don’t know. They’re all great!” (My problem exactly.) So I bought both styles in all the colors. I am definitely nabbing one of those bags, too. Although I have no idea which style, and no idea which color because I still like them all. I have a bag problem. Does anyone else suffer from that? (Well, you can’t really call it “suffering” now, can you?)

DSC01505.JPGAnd because you can “shop for your shop” at TNNA but you can’t really buy things to take home for yourself (and you really want to after seeing all of that yarny wonder), I had to go to a local yarn shop to get my yarn fix. Loopy friend Sharon picked me up for lunch and yarning on Sunday and we went to this very nice shop. I bought some Prism yarn and a pattern to make a purse. (A purse. Who would’ve predicted that I’d buy that? You see? It’s not all about socks, all the time. Just most of the time.) By the time we were done there, it was time to race to the airport to catch my plane home. (Actually, it was past time. But you know how it goes when you’re shopping for yarn.) I’m glad to be back – even with the Loopy Tipping.

We’ll send out the Sock Club Spot emails to those who are in, later today or tomorrow. There were several hundred emails to go through and it took us a bit longer than expected. Frankly, we’d just as soon have every one of you join us. But we’re a bit limited in what we can ask our dyers to do. We have room for 225 total and had more than double that wanting spots. If you don’t hear from us by tomorrow night, we’d love to have you come back next year. :-)

Sheri nowneedingtoknitupaLOTofnewsocks.Ibettergetworking.