Today it seems appropriate to learn more about Claudia, the master dyer behind the Wollmeise yarn we all love (since we have more Wollmeise going up sometime this week.) Claudia and I became friends through email, and I’m so thrilled that she is coming to The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling so that I can meet her in person. She has such a unique way of making everyone feel like they’ve known her forever, and I know a lot of you have experienced that. She’s also a bit of a practical joker. One time she called and pretended that she wanted to pre-order a bunch of Wollmeise yarn and I was trying to kindly explain that we don’t do pre-orders on that line and she burst out laughing and then told me who it was. (And if we hadn’t had other customers call from Germany before, the accent might’ve given her away – but it didn’t. Now I know to be wary, indeed…..)

Loopy: We’re so honored to have you in The Loopy Limelight this week! Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.
Claudia: Hi Loopy it´s nice to talk with you and soon I’ll see you in person and hope to be allowed to squeeze your belly. Sorry I have no latest pictures of me, only some when I was small. The biggest fear in my life is the dentist and cameras around me and I prefer the dentist. It’s not my look, I’m looking really normal – I swear without crossed fingers – a camera steals my soul. Here is a little impression about me: I’m 45 years old, 168cm t(sm)all, have short black curly hair, looking pale, brown eyes, bad teeths wondering why, normal weight, no second nose and no warts. I have three children, two boys and one girl and they are almost grown. My husband Andreas is “Rohrspatz” and my 85 year old mum lives with us.

Today I found my first schoolday picture – I’m the second from the left.

Loopy: Nice picture! We’re glad to have one of you, even if it’s from awhile ago. That probably means that people shouldn’t follow you around with cameras at the Spring Fling, right? We don’t want you to feel like we’re stealing your soul here. We want you to have a good weekend. We’ll make note of that. So tell us how you started dyeing?
Claudia: The beginning was serendipity or pure obsession. A long time ago I had a special project in my mind but can’t find the right colors to realize it. I started with spinning my favourite yarn to knit this wall carpet/picture and it’s still hanging in our living room (best alarm for the first moth flight).

You know spinning needs a lot of time and I got some Koolaid bags from a friend as a Christmas present (hi Thea – you’re guilty). Decorating the Christmas tree was no longer important. I dyed my first handspun yarn with Koolaid and a fruity-sheep smell went through our house (a Christmas tree smells better). That was the exact date when I started dyeing, Christmas 2002 and I never stopped.

Loopy: That wall hanging is beautiful. What an inspiration of colors! (Of course I personally like the grass-green colors the best. I’m partial to things that look like grass.) You’re known for your wonderfully intense colors. How do you typically come up with your new color combinations?
Claudia: Mostly I have an idea about a new colorway. Some years ago my husband made me a cute Valentine present. It was one single parrot tulip in amazing brownish orange colors standing in a small teal pottery, and that’s “Türkis and Karneol”. Sometimes a colorway just happens, as Rhabarber.

Loopy: What is the best part about your business, and what is the most challenging part?
Claudia: The best part is definitely dyeing. The second part is the possibility to jump into my stash, to keep the yarn if I want and I need no excuses for a big stash. Isn’t that yarnheaven? There are much more other fantastic parts, my own little world became bigger and I know so many lovely people allover the world.
The most challenging part! My first impulsively thought is “every new day is a challenge”. There are so many things I have to learn and honestly it’s the office work. I’m a crafter and not a business woman.

Loopy: You’re very busy dyeing yarn for all of us – do you ever get time to knit anymore? And if so, what is your favorite thing to knit?
Claudia: My daily rows are necessary to calm down after a long day. These months I love to knit fast and extraordinary little projects. I have no patience for a lifework like a complicated shawl or a faire isle sweater. My favourite designs are from Lynne Barr “Knitting New Scarves”. There are so many spectacular funny ideas. This book forced me to read the instructions. I never read instructions – a picture is enough for me (okay, I read a pattern chart too).

Loopy: Do you have any yarn shops close to where you live?
Claudia: One and a half, the half one has very less yarn and more fabrics. The bigger store hasn’t a good choice, mostly stuff for grandmas without internet. Internet spoiled me!

Loopy: We’re glad for the internet here at The Loopy Ewe, too! Who taught you to knit, and how long have you been a knitter?
Claudia: My mother taught me the first steps in knitting, crocheting and sewing when I was four. I knitted little plaids for a dinky plastic dog. My first children’s sewing machine was more dangerous, I ruined all living room curtains (my first stash) on a creative afternoon.

Loopy: That must’ve been a fun afternoon. Do you have other hobbies besides knitting, dyeing and spinning that you enjoy?
Claudia: The tragedy of my life! I have a lot of hobbies and I started each Hobby very enthusiastic. Gardening was/is a great hobby of mine, now my garden is an untended jungle because I’m obsessed with dyeing.

Loopy: I have to say that we all benefit from your garden being untended. We like that you’re dyeing instead. What is your idea of a “perfect day”?
Claudia: That’s my favourite question, space for dreams how could be a perfect day! I wake up in the morning, please not too early, my bones are smooth and my back doesn’t hurt. After a yummy breakfast I would take my first horse riding lesson and if I survive I would need to take rest with knitting. In my childhood I had bad experiences with horses. My friends and I were Winnetou and we borrowed (NOT allowed) some nervous trotters. Bad story, but now I’m fearless and want to try it again on a legal way!

Loopy: I think the Loopy Lady will have to make sure that you don’t try to sneak me home in your suitcase, won’t she? Because I’m sure you’ll want to borrow me, too. What three words would your best friend use to describe you?
Claudia: Hahaha, my best friend is my husband and it’s not a good idea to ask him, he must live with me.
Three things I appreciate by my friends are loyalty, to be warm at heart and they are pure themselves because that’s the reason I love my friends so much.

Loopy: Do you have any book or movie recommendations for us?
Claudia: Don’t laugh – my favourite book is the atlas! So less time for books, only when I’m ill with a cold. Time to get a cold is autum and winter and that’s Harry Potter time. Not the most intellectual reading but it feels well. Movies are much better, but I don’t know the American titles from my favourites. Mostly I prefer German or British movies they are convinced in dialogues and sometimes in wicked humor.

Now I talked a lot about me and know nothing about Loopy. I hope the next interview is about you and your life with Sheri, we want secrets!

Loopy:
————–

Sheri hopingyouenjoyedlearningmoreaboutClaudia

Well you all made it such a fun birthday for me. I wanted to show you pictures of some of the things that came in the mail over this past week! I showed you some of the mini socks in last week’s post, so now I’ll show you some of the other knitted things which arrived. (And some of you send non-knitted things which were equally fun – woohoo!) I am a lucky lucky gal to have such wonderful Loopy friends.

First the “not socks but still knitted” items. My friend Janice sent me this gorgeous charcoal felted bag (and check out the cute Loopy pin on the front that she had made for me!) I have also included the other wonderful felted bag she made for me last fall, because I don’t think that I ever showed that on the blog. I love them both and she is a very talented knitter/felter, isn’t she?

Next is this fun “Sparkle the Peacock” sporting six mini-socks from Dawn! Sparkle comes from Debbie (who also makes the Sock Blocker Keychains that we sell) and I’ve been talking to Debbie about having Sparkle here for awhile. I think it’s finally going to happen soon, so start making your mini socks! (Same pattern as the keychains.) Dawn did overtime by making up all 6 “feathers” on Sparkle and he looks darned cute sitting on my desk here at Loopy Central.

Look at the pretty roving that Katie from Yarn Love sent to me! This is a new colorway that she made up for my birthday called “Sweet Sheri” and I have left it at work to keep from tempting me to spin it up. I think it might be on my schedule for the weekend because I can’t leave it alone any more.

In addition to the roving, she also dyed up the colorway on sock yarn and knit me up a pair of socks! I know that you will love this colorway, so she is dyeing some up for us to have here at The Loopy Ewe. She read my Ravelry profile and saw that some of my favorite colors are cranberry, chocolate, sage and navy. She’s a good sleuth!

The next pair of socks came from Sabrina and were knit up in the Cherry Tree Hill Cherry Blossom colorway. I told her that this was so perfect because sometimes I wear pink and wish I had socks that had pink in them! (Not that I think your socks have to match your outfit. Because they so don’t.) But still, I was lacking “pink” in my sock wardrobe.

Then there was this collaborative effort from Susan and Katie, which means that I get to “wear” two friends at once – ha! (Do you sometimes feel like you’re taking your friends along with you for the day when you wear socks that someone has made you? You don’t? Oh. Me neither, then…..) This is from Fiesta Baby Boom in the Taos colorway, and honest-to-goodness this is one colorway that has been on my “must knit” list since Fiesta started coming in. I love this combo, and I love the socks even more.

The last pair of socks are my first ever socks knit from handspun. My friend Allen (from Numma Numma) handspun the yarn and then knit these socks out of it. Aren’t they beautiful? And I wish you could feel how soft they are. They may be responsible for making me feel like I need to handspin my sock yarn from now on. (Well, ok. You all know that I am not that caliber of a spinner yet, but I have high hopes. Someday.)

I also received a pair of amazing socks from Claudia in Germany (the Wollmeise herself!). I wish I could show them to you because they took my breath away when I opened them. However, it’s done up in the pattern and yarn that she did for our Sock Club shipment, so it’s all a secret at this point! I’ll show them when that club kit has gone out, later in the year.

So there you have it – the new knitted lovelies that arrived to help me celebrate my birthday. I love them to pieces and I know that I am completely and hopelessly spoiled. I admit it.

What are you knitting this weekend? I’m going to finish up a sock, work on my lace project, and spin. I haven’t started my DC KAL sweater yet, but I have plenty of time to finish before June 1st. I do have the swatch done and the first two skeins wound, so it will get started soon!

Sheri didn’tIJUSTgetmyhaircut?BecauseIneedanotheronealreadyand
I’dreallyratherspendthattimeknitting.Andno,Idon’tknitwhileIgetmyhaircut.
Thatisjustweird.Unlessyoudoit.ThenIwon’tcallitweird.Butitiskinda.

We’re back and the college road trip was a success! Knitting Daughter has settled on a college and feels good about her decision, so that is one load off of her mind. She put in many college visits and lots of prayers before settling on one. I can’t believe she’ll be heading off to college in the fall. (I really can’t think about it.) Anyway, we drove home yesterday and the road was clear and dry until we crossed over into Missouri and there was a WALL of snow! We spent the last 30 miles of our trip going about 20 mph, inching ourselves down the highway. Today is a sunny day and the snow has stopped. (We received about 11 inches of snow yesterday.) Casey-the-dog is happy as can be!

We spent a lot of time on the road over the long weekend. We were on a coffee mission, and one of the highlights was having a latte at Caribou Coffee. I always stop and get a cup when I fly through the Minneapolis airport, but they also have them in Chicago (which was one of our “stops” on the College Road Trip). The even-better coffee place we went to is in Gas City, Indiana and is a little place called Payne’s Frozen Custard. They have the very best coffee drinks and I wish that there was a way to get that more often! It you’re ever driving on 69 North or South, get off at the Gas City exit – it’s just about a block off of the highway. Gas City is next to Upland, and that’s where College Guy goes to school. We had a great visit with him. I was invited to speak to his E-Commerce class about The Loopy Ewe on Monday night, as well as the Taylor student business club (called SIFE and I can’t, for the life or me, remember what that stands for) later that same evening. I made the E-Commerce class pose for a blog photo. (Hi E-Commerce-ers!!) I told them to “wave to the knitters” and they did a great job of playing along. They send their best wishes (and probably wish someone would knit them some socks….. Don’t they look like a great bunch of kids?) I didn’t make the Business Club pose, as I figured I had probably pushed my luck with this first photo.

Sneak Up information: No Sneak Up this week, although we will be doing some good re-stocks (like all of the Smooshy, which we have in-house and will put back in stock, as well as more Namaste Messenger Bags.) Next week we have a bunch of wonderful lines going up. So far, we have: All Things Heather (mostly semi-solids – gorgeous), Lime & Violet Sasquatch Sock, New limited edition colors of the Supersock Thin from Cherry Tree Hill (at those great sale prices!), Gypsy Knits, Scarlet Fleece, Araucania, Sakina Needles Roving, and a wonderful new soap made for knitters. We will also have a second Sneak Up next week for the Wollmeise Sock Yarn that has arrived. I promised you that we’d do the Wollmeise on its own this time. The colors are amazing and again, we have as much as Claudia could do and send to us. (It will still go quickly as it always does, but just remember that we will continue to get it in, and you can also order from Claudia direct on her website.) I always like the time between when we get her yarn in and when it goes up on the website because it looks so beautiful on our shelves in the meantime. But we’ll part with it – just for you.

Sock Club invoices will go out at the end of this week, with the packages going out next week. Spring Flingers – we’re working on signups for classes and those will be ready by the end of this week or early next week. Stay tuned. We’re getting excited about having you here next month!

And finally, a big congratulations to Jessica who won the random drawing for our February Blog Contest. (Thank you to everyone who left their answers and their wonderful birthday wishes!) The prize? A beautiful yarnball charm to add to your favorite necklace, handmade by Romi. (Similar to her yarnball earrings, but the charms are bigger.) And because it looked so beautiful on that skein of Wollmeise that I posed it on, I’m sending Jessica the Wollmeise, too.

Sheri thinkinganE-Commerceclasswould’vebeensohelpfulwhenIwasincollege
nevermindthattherewasnosuchthingasE-CommercebackthenFPS