Today we wanted to introduce you to Allen, the creative force behind Numma Numma! (Psst – we have more of her beautiful yarn going up sometime this week, along with more of Adam’s yarn from last week’s Limelight – yay!) I hope you enjoy reading more about Allen and her business.

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Loopy: Hi Allen! It’s nice to have you with us today. We’ll start with the basics – How long have you been a knitter and who taught you?
Allen: Hi Loopy! I’ve been a knitter for almost 30 years now. My great-grandmother taught me when I was nine. I was totally bored one summer, and she was making this giant afghan on a circular needle. (In my child mind it was giant, anyway – probably, in reality it was just a throw.) She told me something about idle hands (in German – don’t remember what it was) and taught me how to cast on. I knit a belt out of this awful rust-colored acrylic (it was the 70s, so it was fashionable) and wore it all the time.

Loopy: It’s nice that you were able to make something that you actually wanted to wear when you were done. Do you have a favorite thing that you like to knit?
Allen: Probably socks and kid’s stuff for my girls. I love larger projects too, but I suffer from project start-itis and need to finish things in a reasonable amount of time or they are toast – into the UFO pile for who knows how long. In fact for the DC KAL, I chose a vest – because I know me and, well, I want to finish…

Loopy: We know nothing about Start-itis around here. (Umm – have you seen the display of single socks that the Loopy Lady has here? Jeesh.) What’s the most difficult project that you have attempted so far?
Allen: Knitting-wise probably lace in general. Only because it takes so much concentration and focused attention – which I never have with 3 girls who are 7 and under. In fact, right now the 2-year-old, Ruby, is hanging on my leg saying “Hi, Mommy” while she unpacks my desk – so I hope my answers are actually coherent.

Loopy: Well so far I understand everything you’re saying, so you must be good at multi-tasking! What made you look into dyeing your own yarn, and how did you learn how to do that?
Allen: I started dyeing my own yarn to develop colorways that would be favorites for me and my girls. The first colorways that became toasty flavors were fig preserves (my favorite), georgia peach (my Claudia’s favorite – the 7 year old), grape jam (for my Stella, who’s 4), and strawberry jam (for my Ruby who’s 2). All of those colors still have sentimental significance for me. I learned by trial and error and from friends. There are actually several excellent local dyers in the area who are generous enough to share their knowledge, and there are great opportunities for dye classes – here in Atlanta we have the only LYS with a dye studio. Makes for some fun learning times. I am pretty analytical – so the science of it is interesting to me – it really took practice and patience and lots of notes. I have notebooks full of dye samples, and I am constantly trying to improve my work.

Loopy: Can you tell us what else you do, in addition to your yarn dyeing business? Do you have another job as well?
Allen: I am a mom. And wow is that a second job! Who knew that vocation was so demanding and rewarding all at once… When I became pregnant with my first Claudia, I was actually in New York City working on my PhD in management at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Studying organizational behavior. Considering the strategy of games in decision making. Analyzing entrepreneurship and trying to figure out what sparks it. Recently I caught up with my major professor from Stern. We laughed about the fact that I could be the subject of entrepreneurial study now, and I told him that motherhood required more strategic thinking than anything I was required to do at Stern. All that said, I am totally happy with my choices. I am here for my girls as they grow, and they will have a childhood filled with memories of handcrafts and fiber art – what could be better. My studio (which has just undergone renovation and is finally complete – yay!) is in my basement, and my girls have their own play area. It just works, and I am so thankful for this life.

Loopy: The new studio looks fun! How do you come up with your colorways? Do you have a personal favorite?
Allen: Well, I steal the colors. Really, I do. Right out of nature. All of the toasty flavors are toasty toppings – so I think about the colors of the finished product as well as the fruits and vegetables, etc that go into those products. Then I pull out my “color books” – books full of small, dyed samples and go to work. All of the babyBOO colors are baby food flavors, and I follow the same creative process. Saucy is sauces and saucy things. Spicy (my laceweight which is currently in development) is all spicy foods and spicy things. Texas toasty (my dk merino – currently in development) is all tex-mex flavors. This is the most fun part of my job, and the creative process always makes me so grateful to live in a world created in these brilliant colors. Personal favorite, this is tough because I really like them all for different reasons – but if forced to choose, I would probably say that my personal favorite is Elvis. Just because it is so puzzling to people. Elvis is named for Elvis’ favorite sandwich – peanut butter and banana on white bread with a bit of honey, fried or grilled. So the flavor is manifest in brown, black, soft yellow, white, gold and deep ochre.

Loopy: Mmm – now I might need an Elvis Sandwich for my dinner. There are a lot of dyers out there these days – how do you stay fresh and unique in what you do?
Allen: Wow, good question, Loopy. I am particular about my base yarns, and I am always asking my mills to spin new stuff. I am always auditioning new yarns. Always experimenting with technique and color. Always listening to opinions from test knitters as well as the knitting community and constantly tweaking and improving my craft.

Loopy: Ok, besides knitting and dyeing, do you have other hobbies or interests?
Allen: I love to spin – that’s a new love. My dear husband got me a wheel from Christmas this year. I love to read. I love paper crafts. I love to play with my kids. I love to talk and eat – are those hobbies? Maybe just interests.

Loopy: And do you have a favorite book/movie recommendation?
Allen: I am such a goober when it comes to movies. I watch tons of documentaries – the latest one that I really liked is Protagonist. As far as movies I can watch over and over – Gone With the Wind, My Fair Lady, Baby Boom (because my Ruby looks just like the baby in the movie), and (my husband would say) anything with Matthew McConaughey – but that’s not really true most of his movies are, well, silly. I am a MUCH bigger fan of Alan Rickman. I am a total book worm and will read anything you put in my hands. I really enjoyed reading the entire Harry Potter series (twice – I warned you I was a goober). I also love Waiting by Ha Jin (a writer who lives here in Atlanta and is an Emory professor) – actually I have loved all of his novels and stories, but this one was my favorite. It makes you think about wishing and waiting and time and what you really want in life. And I am a southern girl, through and through, so I have to give a shout out to my favorite southern trio – the late great Ms. Eudora Welty (I have my own Stella-Rondo – named for my grandmother and nick-named thanks to “Why I Live at the P.O.”), Clyde Egerton, and Michael Malone. In the reading cue right now are Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortenson) and The Ten-Year Nap (Meg Wolitzer). At least one of those will probably come to the fling with me.

Loopy: Lots of good recommendations! Anything else you’d like to add?
Allen: Maybe you shouldn’t ask me that, Loopy. As you can see, I am a bit of a talker. Perhaps I should just close by saying that I have really enjoyed our chat, Loopy. I am honored to be in the Limelight, and I can’t wait to meet you and that fantastic Loopy Lady in person in just a little over a week at the Spring Fling.

Loopy: We can’t wait to have you here!
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Sheri thepostmanjustrolledhiseyeswhenhewalkedintodayandsawalloftheboxesgoingout.
Ithinkwe’restretchinghim.It’sallgood.

Good News: Spring has been springing up all week long. The trees are blooming, the daffodils are up, and the weather has been warm.

Bad News: My summertime body has not arrived yet. I keep waiting for it to show up. What is the holdup? It’s a good thing that it is supposed to snow flurry tomorrow. I have the winter body down pat. (I think I’ll eat a cookie.)

Good News: The Spring Fling is only two weeks away – can you believe it? We’re slowly but surely getting ready for all of you.

Bad News: Well, it’s not ALL of you, by any means. But we wish you could all come!

Good News: Took both cats to the vet yesterday and both are healthy. I was sure they’d tell me that Gracie was too fat had her winter body on and needed to exercise more. She’s a mere 10 lbs and in perfect health. (Zoe is a petite 6 lbs, 4 oz – no wonder Gracie seems so big to me.)

Bad News: The vet bill. sigh. (Also bad news: two cat photos in two posts in a row. But she’s awfully darned cute.)

Good News: We did some major re-stocking today – did you catch it? Travel Mugs are back in stock, along with more Shibui Knits (and some of their new patterns), Araucania, Cherry Tree Hill, The Alpaca Yarn Co. Paca Peds, Bee Bars, knitting accessories, new Offhand Designs bags, Namaste Messenger Bags, Cotton Panda, and more.

Bad News: Still more boxes of yarn and things to go up next week. (Or is that good news?)

Good News: Starbucks still has good coffee.

Bad News: They made their cups brown. I miss the green. (Two new yarn lines in the photo, just to make you wonder…. They’re scheduled to arrive in a few weeks.)

Good News: The “Don’t Be Blue” sock kits are ready to ship! Click here if you’re eligible for one.

Bad News: They’re just available (while supplies last) to those who signed up for the sock club this year and didn’t get in. (What happens if you try to buy one and you weren’t really on the list? A hand comes out from your computer screen and pinches you on the nose.)

Good News: So many of you have emailed to tell us how much you like the special Loopy Groupie Appreciation Gift that we have been sending out this week.

Bad News: “LG Appreciation Time” runs through Tax Day and mostly there’s nothing good about Tax Day.

Good News: I found my perfect pair of shoes – they show off handknit socks and they make my size 11 feet look smaller. (No small feet feat.) It’s a Dansko Merrie. (Socks are Fiesta Boomerang. We do have a large order in with the – they’re just backordered on Boomerang at the moment. We’ll keep you posted.)

Bad News: With Spring here, sock-wearing weather is almost gone in Missouri until the fall.

Good News: My friend Monica gave me the DVD August Rush that I like so much. I think I’ll knit and watch it tonight.

Bad News: I have so much knitting that I want to do, that it’s gonna take more than one movie (or five) to knock it out.

Good News: I had time to knit last night.

Bad News: But I didn’t get one stitch done because Knitting Daughter and WH and I spent so much time laughing and going through the pages of photos on this website.

Good News: Possum Sock Yarn from Cherry Tree Hill. (80% Superwash Merino, 20% New Zealand Possum.) Wow.

Bad News: It won’t be available for awhile, but I have one of the sample skeins from Cheryl at Cherry Tree and it’s really a fun yarn base. Just thought I’d give you a sneak peak at a unique new sock yarn base that they will be offering for a limited time this summer.

Sheri anygoodnews/badnewsyouwanttosharewithus?

That’s what we’ve been busy doing at Loopy Central all week long. The cases of yarn come in and the boxes of yarn go out. Oh, but such fun things keep coming in. Today I unpacked so many big boxes that have come in this week. (It was either that or build a fort, and The Elves were too busy packing orders to stop and play in a fort, so I just unpacked them instead. The boxes. Not The Elves.) What was in there? Yarn Nerd, Lime & Violet, Duets, Loopy Legends, Zen String Lace, Farmhouse, Fleece Artist 2/6, Cherry Tree Hill, Panda Cotton, Numma Numma, Araucania, Schaefer Anne and Heather, and Lawre’s Laine bags and Needlebooks. Now I’d just like to sit down and knit some of this fun new stuff up. (Photo of Zoe and Gracie in the window because they’re disappointed that I’m never home any more – they just watch me come and go. But don’t let them fool you. They each get to visit Loopy Central every week.)

Did you catch the Sneak Up this week? (Silly question. Of course you did, because you’ve kept us busy all week long!) Here’s what’s new – check out the photos. We added in Spindle City Yarns, Creatively Dyed Luxury Yarn, The Sanguine Gryphon, Patterns from Knitspot, Knitting Pure & Simple, Cookie A and Gardiner Yarn Works, Hand Maiden Sea Silk, Fleece Artist Sea Wool, Hand Maiden Casbah (this batch was particularly wonderful this time), Fleece Artist Somoko, Farmhouse, Zen String, bellamoden, Perchance to Knit, Claudia Hand Painted Lace, Schaefer Heather, Anne and Lola (we had them dye up some special semi-solids for us this time), Yarn Love Scarlett O’Hara, Mountain Colors Bearfoot (also some great semi-solids) and some various knitting gadgets. More than 12 pages of “What’s New” this week. That was fun!

Here’s my DC KAL sweater-in-progress. It’s out of Cloud Jungle and the photo doesn’t show how pretty that color is – wonderful shades of greens and grays. I’ll get a better photo of it when it’s done. It’s a super easy sweater (no seams – yay!) and if one had more time to knit, one could get it done pretty quickly. Or, you can just do a few rows here and there like I do, and make a bit slower progress. I’m so anxious to be done with it and wearing it. I think it will probably get done just in time for warm weather. FPS. If you haven’t joined us KAL-ing yet, please do! People are knitting many different sweater patterns with their DC Classy and it has been fun to see the different styles and colors knit up. We’ll have more Classy in stock by the end of the month (as well as the rest of our April DC orders in Baby and Smooshy). I have to decide what my next sweater color will be. I have seen several that I put on my “someday” list.

So many of you emailed to say that you had tried (and liked) the Mexican Calzones recipe from last week already. Did you see the comment pointing out that “calzones” is “underwear” in Spanish? I think that I will never be able to call that recipe anything but “Mexican Underwear”, from now on.

Sheri don’tforgettobeworkingonyour3RAKSthismonthforourcontest!

Today we have an interview with Adam, aka The Yarn Nerd. I know he has a lot of Loopy fans, and we thought you might want to know a little more about him. Being a guy in the yarn-dyeing community is a little unique, and we’re sure glad that he picked it up. (And if you’re wondering how to get some of his yarn – he just shipped a new order off to us – as much as he can do at a time – so we’ll have it in stock within the next couple of weeks again!).
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Loopy: Hi Adam! Thanks for being in the Limelight today. First of all, how long have you been a knitter, and who taught you?
Adam: I’ve been knitting for about 2 1/2 years now. My mom had picked up knitting a bit before that, and one day we were in the car waiting together. She was knitting along on a scarf, and I was pretty bored, so I said, “you should teach me that.” So she got out some acrylic yarn (this was before we discovered the yarn store) and some big needles, and showed me how to make a scarf. It took me a month or two to finish that scarf, but once it was done, I was hooked. I haven’t been able to put down the sticks since.

Loopy: I’ll bet she’s really proud of all that you have done in the yarn industry now! Do you have a favorite thing that you like to knit?
Adam: I’ve knit a variety of things, including socks, scarves, mittens, hats, sweaters and even dog blankets, but I would have to say socks are my favorite. For me, the process of making a sock is very intriguing, from the heel turn, to the gusset, to the toe, or even the other way around. The simple construction that allows you to have a fitted sock is very fascinating to me, and I love the math involved, in calculating the gauge and insuring the perfect fit every time. Also, I’m on the go a lot, with work and grad school, so I almost always have a sock with me. It takes me a while to actually finish a pair, but slow and steady wins the race, right Loopy?

Loopy: Definitely right! And we’re partial to socks around here, so I’m glad to hear that it’s one of your favorite things to knit. What’s the most difficult project you’ve attempted?
Adam: So far, my Mount Everest of knitting would have to be the Garden Shawl from Fiddlesticks. About 1 1/2 years ago, I thought I’d make my mom a nice lace shawl for Christmas. Knowing that she’s a big gardener, I thought this shawl would be a very touching gift. Unfortunately, I was a bit optimistic on how quickly I could knit a gargantuan lace shawl, and was only about 1/2 done when Christmas rolled around. So I wrapped it up on the needles and gave it to my mom, promising to finish it as soon as possible. Well, it’s been over a year now, and I’m still going. At this point, it’s actually a running joke on my blog, with my mom often chiming in to chastise me for starting other projects and neglecting her shawl. I’m definitely going to finish it one of these days, but it’s hard to get any progress when I’m at the point where one round takes 45 minutes to complete. So again, I really hope that slow and steady will win the race with this behemoth.

Loopy: I notice that pattern says it’s for “experienced knitters” and you started it after you had been knitting for a year? You must be fearless. I hope your mom gets it soon! What made you look into dyeing your own yarn, and how did you learn how to do that?
Adam: I actually started dyeing yarn for a dyeing swap that the infamous Scout, of Scout’s Swag, arranged 2 years back. I’m lucky enough to live in the same city as Scout, and we’ve become pretty good friends since the first time she accosted me in our local yarn shop. (She’s quite an outgoing person!) So I participated in the swap, and began to dye yarn here and there, and look at me 2 years later! As an engineer with an artistic side, dyeing yarn gives me a real opportunity to unite my love of math and color into one passion. I use my right brain to control the dyeing process, with precise weighings, pH measurements and record keeping. My left brain comes in when I pick the colors to dye. Whether I’m going for a tonal variation in a semi-solid colorway, or a variegated yarn that really pops, the process of color selection and application allows me to let my inner artist out. I love the totality of yarn dyeing, because I can be both precise and artistic.

Loopy: Yay for Scout’s encouragement! (We like Scout.) And it’s good to know that you’re using your whole brain in the process. Some of us are more one-sided than that. Now – on to another concern. There are not enough men-knitters in the world. Have you converted any of your friends into knitters yet?
Adam: Unfortunately, at this point, I haven’t been able to convince any of my friends that knitting is worth trying yet. But I view the fact that my friends are very tolerant and understanding of my knitting as a major victory. As a guy knitter, you experience a number of reactions from people, from very warm to a bit unpleasant. So to me, the fact that I can sit down at a friend’s house and pull out the needles, without my friend thinking I’m crazy is a big step. I’m hoping to further break down some people with repeated handknit gifts, so not all hope is lost yet.

Loopy: Well you’re right – getting them to accept you knitting is the first half of the battle. Keep after them, though. We need more guy knitters. How do you come up with your colorways? And do you have a personal favorite?
Adam: I actually dye all of my colors with mixtures of primary colors, so I have a big book of samples that I’ve accumulated through trial and error. Usually when I want to come up with a new colorway, I lay all my samples out on the floor and arrange them until something strikes me. Some of my favorite colors have come about through putting colors together that I wouldn’t have thought would go. My personal favorite these days is a brand new colorway called String Theory. It has mustard yellow, silver, orange and aqua, and I really love the way the colors play off each other, to create a bright colorway with an unexpected pallete.

Loopy: We’re getting that colorway in our next batch, right? It will be fun to see it. There are a lot of dyers out there these days, how do you stay fresh and unique in what you do?
Adam: One thing I really like to do is work on the basics. I spend a lot of time evaluating new base yarns, by making gauge swatches, and performing different dye tests to see how each fiber behaves. My philosophy is, if I wouldn’t want to knit with it, then I won’t dye it. I also spend a lot of time getting to know my dyeing methods, and what results they’re going to produce. I perform tests to see how much my yarn will bleed when washed, and if I’m producing yarn that seems to bleed a lot, then I’ll tweak my process to make sure that my colors are as wash-fast as possible. Another thing I do that I’m especially proud of is a process called Create Your Skein. I stock undyed yarn on my website, which you can have custom dyed in the colorway of your choosing. You pick up to 4 solid colors, and in a week or two, I dye up your dream skein. You can also order my existing colorways, so if your favorite base isn’t stocked in your favorite color, just order it with Create Your Skein. By putting the whole process on my website, it makes it easier for people to custom order yarn, not to mention less work for me to coordinate multiple e-mails, so it’s win-win for both parties.

Loopy: Ok – enough about the yarn. We know that you don’t dye yarn full-time. Can you tell us about your other job?
Adam: Loopy, if I told you about that job, I’d have to kill you. Ha, just kidding! Actually, I work part time at a National Science Laboratory, as an Electrical Engineer, doing work in the field of Communications. This is actually a bit different than what you might normally think of as Communications, in that I do things like design specialized wireless networking equipment, and figure out bit error rates for spread spectrum systems. Don’t worry if this sounds foreign to you, because half the time it sounds foreign to me too. Just remember to thank a Communications Engineer one day, because the amount of math and theory that makes your cell phone work is quite staggering. In addition to working 30 hours a week, I’m also attending school to get my Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering, which hopefully I should be receiving this Fall. Between work, school, yarn dyeing, knitting, and other hobbies, I’m quite the busy bee.

Loopy: So tell us about some of those other hobbies and interets!
Adam: Loopy, I have so many hobbies, it’s hard for me to keep track of them all! In addition to yarn dyeing and knitting, I love to play the violin, cook, clean (yes, clean!) and ride my bike. I recently began riding my bike to work, and am trying to use my car as little as possible, which is quite the challenge sometimes. My true athletic passion is skiing, although a nasty fall this season has left me with a tender knee, so I’ve had to hobble around a lot lately. I also spend a lot of time playing with my two Schnauzers, Dallas and Emma, who are always there to lick me and get into trouble. They’re also quite good at modeling my knits for the blog. There’s many other things that I’ve dabbled in, including photography, gardening and web design. There’s a reason my friends refer to me as The Renaissance Man.

Loopy: Do your dogs like sheep? Just askin’. They look nice, but you can never quite tell about dogs. Anything else you’d like to add?
Adam: I think that about covered it Loopy! Be sure to tell Sheri thanks for offering Yarn Nerd yarns at The Loopy Ewe, it’s been quite an honor to be featured among so many giants in the yarn dyeing industry! Oh, and don’t forget to mention that I’m single!

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I hope you enjoyed learning more about Adam, The Yarn Nerd! (Single gals – how nice would it be to have a guy in your life who dyes yarn??)

Sheri workedonmyDCsweaterthisweekend-lovehowit’sturningout

Look what happens when we’re all busy packing your Sneak Up orders and turn our backs on the Little Loopys. FPS! They’ve been having a heyday, all over Loopy Central. We’re out of these cute guys at the moment, but more will be here in a couple of weeks. And that’s good, because we’ll once again be doing our annual “Take Loopy on Vacation” contest over the summer! We’ll start sending the Loopy postcards with orders sometime in May, but we thought that some of you (150 of you Little Loopy Owners so far) might rather be taking your stuffed Loopy to pose in interesting places, instead of a postcard. Either one will work for the contest this summer. The postcards are fun, too. We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with for Loopy to experience in the coming months. He LOVES to travel. We’ll keep you posted on that summer contest in the next month or so.

Here’s one of my new recipes from vacation-cooking. I had a couple of you email your sympathies that I had to cook on vacation. Actually, I love cooking when I have time for it. On vacation, when there is nothing sitting there needing to be done, it’s fun to spend some of the afternoon making a nice meal. It’s the day in and day out cooking when you’ve been-busy-all-day-and-there’s-still-so-much-to-get-done-but-your-family-needs-to-eat cooking, that I don’t particularly care for. We did go out for some meals on vacation, and WH is completely up for that, but I do like to cook.

Mexican Calzones

1 (15 oz) pkg. refrigerated pie crust (room temperature)
1 lb. ground beef
1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies
1/4 cup water (note: this is less than the taco mix pkg. calls for)
1 (1.25 oz.) pkg taco seasoning mix
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
Salsa or Taco Sauce
Sour Cream and Guacamole (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown beef in large skillet and drain. Add chilies, water and seasoning mix and stir well. Let cool slightly.

Place pie crusts on cutting board and unfold. Cut each crust in half, making 4 half circles. Divide beef mix and cheese up between the four halves. Dampen the edge of the crust with water and fold the sides over. Crimp the edges with the tines of a fork. Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes.

Garnish with salsa/taco sauce/sour cream/guacamole. YUM!

I also wanted to let you know about our April Blog Contest, which will be a little different. Remember all of our Random Acts of Kindness contests in December? It was so fun to see all of the ways you came up with to help others. At that time, I decided that we had to do a RAK contest a few times a year instead of just in December. (All in the interest of encouraging those types of activities year-round!) So we have dubbed April another RAK month here at Loopy. The contest requires you to do THREE RAKS between now and the end of the month. On Wednesday, April 30th, I’ll do the RAK Contest blog entry where you will leave your comment with the three things that you did in April. We’ll use the random number generator to pick a winner. The prize is a good one – we are giving away one Spring Fling Goody Bag to the winner. These are the bags that our Spring Fling retreat-attenders will be getting the weekend before that, and the approx. retail value of the bag and contents is $75. Only one person outside of the Fling attenders will get one – the winner of the April contest! (Note – if a Spring Flinger happens to win, you can choose to either get that bag, or something else. We’ll talk!) Check out some of those RAK posts (in the comments sections) from December if you need some creative ideas for nice things you can do for others during this time.

I’m knitting this weekend. And you?

Sheri speakingofcooking,KDmadedinnerforuslastnightanditwasdelicious.
Yay,KnittingDaughter!

Clearly I need to take a week off to knit more often. (Well, and a 14 hr. car ride each way to Colorado and back didn’t hurt, either.) I took all of my knitting in another one of my new favorite bags – one from Offhand Designs. I ordered one to try it out …. and I just ordered more to share with all of you because I liked it so much. I’ll let you in on those when they come in – hopefully soon. (I have a bag problem. You needn’t point out how I keep adding bags to my collection. I already know about it. And besides, it doesn’t help to comment on it, as WH knows full well. It tends to make it worse….) The other two bags that I took with me? A small GoKnit pouch (those will be up at The Loopy Ewe this week) and a Lawre’s Laine bag (beautiful and the perfect size. The inside of mine is lined in the most beautiful purple color. More of those are on order, too.) Yes, I like bags a bit.

First off, I finished a second sock. I know – that’s completely against my character. However, I owe this pair of socks to my very good friend Janice and let’s just say she ought to have had them awhile back. I picked a bad pattern for these socks and that’s what kept tripping me up. The pattern itself is not bad – I really like how it turned out. But this pattern plus loosely twisted yarn plus fuzzy alpaca equals a sock that you never want to work on. It’s something I found in some stitch dictionary and you knit the third stitch on the left needle, then knit the second stitch, then knit the first stitch, then pull the whole load of them off the left needle at the same time. Why didn’t I just frog it when I was doing the first one? Because I had tried two other patterns with this sock and frogged both of those. (I do realize that shouldn’t matter. Next time, I will frog the third time, too.) These socks are very warm and wonderful, and that’s important to Janice who lives in Iowa and doesn’t like the winter very much. These will keep her toes toasty. Just in time for spring.

The other two socks I knit (back to my old self – both are singles) are yarns that will go up at The Loopy Ewe next week. The first is Creatively Dyed in her Luxury Sock yarn base. It is made up of 80% merino, 10% nylon, and 10% cashmere. Not only is this yarn wonderful to work with, but the resulting sock feels great on, and you can see that the dyework is gorgeous. I knit this with Cookie A’s monkey pattern (available free on Knitty) but I knit them toe up and did short row heels. I like this pattern toe up. It’s the first time that I have done it this way, and I think I’ll give the cuff-down-Monkeys the heave-ho and always do it toe-up from now on. (Speaking of Cookie A, she has 3 new sock patterns that we will have for you by the end of next week. Her patterns are so fun!) We have several wonderful colorways in this line that are being photo-ed here this week. I know you’ll like them!

The second single sock is from Spindle City Yarns, and I really liked working with this one, too. I am making these as a birthday gift and this is not my size sock, so that will force me to make the matching one and get them done. Although now that it’s done, I kinda wish I had made it for myself. The intensity of color (and the combination of the colors in this one) makes for a very pretty sock. I used the Cross-Hatch pattern from the More Sensational Knitted Socks book. Another easy pattern to do, and I like the results. I also like that this yarn base is 75% Superwash Wool and 25% Nylon. I have had to mend a few socks lately and I’m beginning to like the nylon addition more and more. I will be knitting more from this line, as there are a lot of “must have” colors in this first batch that they sent to us.

I also started my Dream in Color Knit Along sweater while on vacation. I have not knit a sweater since Junior High. (It was ugly, too. So I really shouldn’t count it.) I was a bit apprehensive about the whole sweater thing, but I really wanted a sweater out of DC Classy, so I started the KAL. I knew if I had accountability from a few others an amazing number of you who decided to knit with me, then I’d get it done. I have discovered that I really love sweater knitting, and now I’m on the lookout for other patterns that I want to do. I’m not sure if I’ll be convinced to use other yarns for sweaters besides the DC Classy, though. It’s such wonderful yarn to work with and there are several other colorways that I want to have for sweaters. (Yes, we will have more Classy in again this month.) Some of you KALers are already done with your sweaters. I have had fun seeing the photos come in to the gallery! Keep sending them in. Our official ending date is June 1st, so there is still plenty of time. I’ll show you a progress photo of my sweater next week.

Speaking of the photo galleries, you have until the end of this week to submit your Q1-08 photo for our First Quarter Challenge! We’ll do voting next week. I will show you what I made next month, as it’s a gift for someone in April and I can’t show it yet. We’ll also be announcing the Q2-08 next week, so stay tuned for that.

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Obviouslytheyarecompletelycaffeinatedandjustabitconfused.