-1Wow – what a fun weekend we had with all of the Spring Flingers! The best part for me was getting to meet so many of the people that we have come to know and love over the past 18 months at The Loopy Ewe. What a fun group of women. Here is our group shot (missing a few people who were …. ahem …. busy rolling in the yarn that they had just purchased on their Loopy Central Trip….) By the time they arrived here for the weekend, they had all become great friends through the Ravelry Loopy Spring Fling group and it was like a reunion of sorts. We had fun knitting, taking classes with Wendy and Cookie A, eating great food, making Starbucks and Coldstone runs, and having everyone over to Loopy Central. They have already informed me that they want a spot at next year’s Fling. :-) Of course there are soooo many others of you that we want to come, too! So we’re working on how we’re going to make that all happen. We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, here’s a photo-summary of some of the highlights!

We started on Thursday afternoon with registrations and goody bag handouts. (I’ll photo the goody bag for Wednesday’s blog. Remember, I’m giving one away to the randomly selected winner of the April Blog contest. Did you do your 3 random acts of kindness this month? I’ll have you post them on Wednesday’s blog for a chance to win.) We had knitters knitting all over the hotel lobby, confounding the other hotel guests as they wandered by and wondered about all of the people laughing and talking with sticks in their hands.

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Then Leslie arrived with cupcakes from an amazing cupcake place here in St. Louis and pandemonium broke out. Don’t mess with knitters trying to get at their cupcakes.

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That night, we started with a Dessert Reception and there were many wonderful choices to select from. (Because, you know, the cupcakes didn’t fully meet our “dessert quota” for the day. And besides, that was hours ago.) Here you see Claudia talking with Adrienne. Claudia doesn’t like to be in pictures (that was her in the group photo behind the Spring Fling sign) but she’s ok with people taking her backside.

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We had a large room with comfy chairs, tables and room to spread out and knit. One of the things I loved was that most people moved from table to table at different times of the day, so that everyone got to know everyone else.

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Capi brought Crocs for Claudia. I think Claudia has worn them every day since then, and we’re off to shop for more today. (I asked her if she’d rather do some sightseeing or some shopping and she quickly voted for shopping!) Remember Capi’s Limelight Interview where we had a photo of her Croc collection?
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There were classes going on all day Friday and Saturday, as well as scheduled trips to Loopy Central. I went on the trips to Loopy with the shuttle bus and it was so fun having everyone here in person! The last group in on Saturday afternoon was so worried that there would be nothing left for them to shop from and they soon discovered that the shop stays well-stocked, even after lots of dedicated Loopy Groupies have been there in person. :-)

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After they finished shopping, people sat on the red couches or in our entryway, knitting while everyone else checked out. One thing about knitters, you can always count on them to entertain themselves with their knitting if there is ever wait-time.

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Everyone had a great time shopping and went back to the hotel with full bags at the end of their trip. They all wanted to know which group spent the most money at Loopy – are they competitive, or what? I’m not telling!

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Even though we have switched to Loopy Peppermints for orders now that the weather is warm again, we still keep a full bowl of chocolate kisses at the shop. (In fact, Little Loopy likes to swim in them.) I thought you might also like to see Claudia’s socks. She likes to wear mis-matched pairs. With this pair, she carried over a little color from one to the other. We loved her socks!

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On Saturday’s Loopy Central visits, we had these cute cupcakes for the shoppers! Susan-the-awesome-assistant’s sister and niece made these for us.

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One evening, a few of us went to the Japanese Steak House for dinner and were entertained by the waiters/chefs who prepare your meal at your table. Here you see (left to right) Kelli who was here all the way from New Zealand, Cookie A from CA, Capi from AZ, Wendy from VA and Sharon from CA. (Claudia and Janice are hiding….)

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Because knitters are all alike, we wondered what size needle the chopsticks might be, so Wendy got out a needle gauge to check it out. There was a gal at the next table who noticed this odd behaviour, and said, “Hey are you knitters? I am too!”

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Back at the Knitting Lounge, there was lots of fun going on. Adrienne shared spinning with several people. Here she’s giving a demo to Kelli. Stacy, of Tempted Yarns, also brought her wheel and inspired us with her spinning.(I didn’t take nearly enough photos this weekend. I missed several opportunities. Next year I must do better.)

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Leslie got a group of knitters together before the Fling and 16 of them made squares for an afghan for Claudia. It turned out beautifully and Claudia was so touched. I have offered to ship it to her, but she won’t give it up. I’m not sure she trusts me not to keep it …..

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Another group, led by Tammy’s beautiful voice, wrote a song and sang it the last night we were there. Guess what? You can hear it on Flickr right here. It was so funny!

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All too soon our long week-end was over and we had to say our good-byes. (Kelli and Claudia were roomies, so you get another backside photo of Claudia in her very cute Wicked Sweater made from her own Peppermint Prince colorway.) We left with fuller suitcases, more projects on our “must knit” list, more yarn for our stashes, less sleep, more food, and more friends than when we arrived. And we all want to do it again. Next year, y’all have to join us. (Allen – it ought to be “all y’all”, right? I had some southern-speaking lessons from Allen of Numma Numma this weekend.)

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Special thanks go out to Janice, my dear friend from Iowa who held down the fort at the hotel while I was back and forth to Loopy, to Cookie A and Wendy for classes that everyone raved about, to Claudia for making her first trip to the US, to Web Guy for driving down from college to help out and meet everyone, to Wonder Husband who made a gigantic sock blocker for everyone to sign (I’ll show you on Wednesday), to Knitting Daughter who helped here at Loopy Central, to the Elves who put in a lot of overtime last week and over the weekend, to my mom for making brownies for us, and to all of the rest of you for such a fun weekend. We miss you already!

(And Claudia wanted to add a few sentences – see below.)

Sheri nowheadingofftoshopbecauseClaudia’ssuitcaseisn’tquiteover-stuffedenough,apparently

From Claudia: Hi Ladies it was a pleasure and great honour to meet you all. Next year, same place, same fun, wouldn’t that be cool? Thanks for all and I didn’t expect to get such a warm welcome. Love you all, American knitters, American beef and your comfy beds (not your swimming pool toilets with too much water, it scares me)

Claudia