Leftovers.  That’s the third best thing about Thanksgiving. (First is the “Thankful List”, second is the wonderful food, and third is the leftovers.)  I hope you all had a wonderful celebration of reflecting on the things you are thankful for.  We’re still in holiday-mode (that means hanging out, watching movies, knitting, shopping, etc.) but I did want to share a recipe with you today, as well as listing the November Blog Contest winners before it gets to be December.  This recipe was a new one that I tried last week and the Elves and WH pronounced it good, so I’m sharing it.

Butterscotch Apple Bars

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups diced apples
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
12 oz. butterscotch morsels

Beat oil, sugar and eggs thoroughly.  Add in flour and cinnamon and mix well.  Add apples and nuts.  Spread batter evenly into a 9 x 13 greased pan.  Sprinkle the butterscotch chips over the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour (or less.)

And the randomly drawn winners (two winners, because we pick two any time the contest entries go over 500 comments), are: Stephanie in Wisconsin and Tammy (I’m not sure where Tammy lives, but I’ve emailed her – so if you’re a Tammy and you wonder if it’s you, check your email!) Both have received a Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate (you know, to entice them to continue to build their KADD …)

December ushers in our annual Random Acts of Kindness weekly contests. Check back on Monday for details.  The prizes each week include Wollmeise and other fun things!

Sheri backtothetaskofrelaxingandenjoyingtimewiththefamily

This is what the dining room table looked like last night. Stuff. Do you know what this means? College Guy and College Girl are home!  And that means “stuff”. When they were in high school, these little piles used to drive me nuts. (”How about taking that up to your room?”  “How about putting that plate and fork IN the dishwasher instead of on the counter above the dishwasher?”  “How about hanging that coat up?” “How about ….” fill in the blank.) When they went off to college, they took all of their stuff.  All of a sudden, it was a little too tidy looking. (Not the island in the kitchen – that collects mail day in and day out, and we won’t speak of that. That’s someone else’s problem.) Funny, the things you miss when they’re gone.  I can’t believe I miss the little piles of stuff that indicate they’re home. I won’t mention one “How about …” all weekend long, because I don’t want them to move any of it. (Well, maybe they could put their dishes in the dishwasher. I’m not too attached to that). Instead, I’ll be cooking and baking and totally enjoying having them home. These cookies came out of the oven last night – our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, with these fun chocolate chips that I found in the grocery store just for the holidays.

We’ll be off for the rest of the week, enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States. (All orders placed after noon today will begin shipping on Monday.) To all of you who are celebrating it, Happy Thanksgiving! And to every single one of you (celebrating Thanksgiving this week or not), please know how much we appreciate YOU here at The Loopy Ewe. You’re at the top of our Thankful List!

Sheri whocan’tbelieveitwillbeDecembernextweekalready

Today’s Limelight spotlights Anne Hanson, the designer of all of those beautiful Knitspot patterns that we never seem to get enough of! (And for those of you attending our next Spring Fling, Anne will be here teaching classes on lace knitting for us. I’m excited about that! Spring Fling signups will go up in December. I’ll keep you posted.)
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Loopy: Hi Anne!  Thanks for taking the time to be in our Limelight today. How long have you been a knitter and who taught you to knit?
Anne: I’ve been knitting for 44 years. My grandmother taught me when I was 4 years old; I had pestered her for some time before that to teach me. My biggest interest in learning was a fascination with stitch patterns; I wanted to make them all, but especially I wanted to make cables (ha, I learned right away that it would be a while before I could do that!). Stitch patterns have always been another language to me.

Loopy: Another knitter who learned from her grandmother – that’s wonderful. What is your favorite item to knit?
Anne: Hmm, that’s a tough one! There are so many things I love to knit, but I guess I’d have to say my favorite would be a sweater.

Loopy: From looking at your patterns, it does look like you have plenty of knitting interests.  Your patterns cover quite a wide variety of things. How did you go from knitting to designing?
Anne: I started at a pretty young age . . . I’ve always been a person who wanted to create something new to use knowledge I gained about structures and techniques. I also have a deep background in sewing and garment construction, so once I understood how garments went together, I wanted to create shapes of my own, both in sewing and knitting.  The big attraction with knitting is the ability to create a unique fabric as well. I put together my first sweater design as a teenager, and though my gauge was off and it ended up too big for me, it was a nice cabled design, which my brother wore for some time.

Loopy: Lucky for him! You are a prolific pattern writer, putting out new patterns every month.  Does your brain just overflow with ideas?
Anne: Hahaha, it does . . . I pretty much eat, sleep and breathe knitting ideas, which can be exhausting. Sometimes my head hurts from having too many! And often I get way ahead of myself. It’s a challenge to manage a runaway imagination. It helps to be a good editor; it’s important to know how to weed out, sort, and save some ideas for another time.

Loopy: How many new patterns a year do you shoot for?
Anne: I don’t really shoot for a specific number; my production is more organic than that. I just make things that I want to knit, using yarns that I’m eager to work with, and that I think other people will also be interested in, and if it seems right, I create a pattern for it. It really helps to have a blog to put things out there and test the responses; that can be a good guiding force, though of course, not the only one. Now that I’ve been marketing my designs for a few years, I plan around the seasons a little more in order to provide knitters with the patterns they are seeking for the moment. Right now I am working more on warm knits and accessories and a little less on lace scarves and shawls (and warm knits are what I want to be making now, too!). In january, I’ll start transitioning into spring knits and more lace.

Loopy: Do you always knit up the first version, or do you chart it and have test knitters do it up for you? And how do you find your test knitters?
Anne: Yes, I almost always knit the samples for my designs; there are just a couple that I haven’t knit myself. The sample is a good way for me to work out precisely what the design should be and to find any tricky areas that will need specific pattern directions. I can create a much better pattern by knitting the sample. In a few cases, where the sample is a variation of another design (such as the stole version of a triangle shawl) I can let go of knitting the sample myself, but I only do it when time is too short to accomplish it. Plus, sample knitting is so bloggable . . . hee-hee! Once I get my sample to the point where all the components are working, I write up the pattern and send it to some test knitters. I like to have at least two test knitters of differing skill level on every project, if possible. I find it incredibly valuable to have feedback from knitters of all levels. Test knitters come to me mostly from my readership; usually someone will write to tell me that they are interested in doing it and we will work on a small project together to see if they like the process enough to continue. I try to keep it fun!  It’s important to have test knitters who work fairly quickly, are diligent about feedback, and stay on task within the process. I have been very, very lucky to work with a rotating group of knitters who are talented, patient, enthusiastic, and offer constructive support. Being more of an “outlaw” myself, I am very grateful that others want to work with me this way; I consider it a gift and an honor to work with knitters who take on that role.

Loopy: And I can only imagine that they consider it an honor to work with you on your new designs. What is the most challenging thing that you have knit to date?
Anne: Hmmm, that’s an interesting question, because my biggest challenges have always been “firsts”. The first lace shawl I designed (the four seasons shawl; not a pattern I offer in my shop) was challenging because I did not foresee that I should have planned ahead more. I ended up juggling at every pattern transition to make what I HAD knit work with what I wanted to knit next; it ended up taking a year to complete because I had to stop and start so often. My first lace knitting surely must have been challenging, though I honestly don’t remember when I started working with lace patterns. Reading a pattern for the first time and trying to figure out what the heck they meant with their very abbreviated instructions was challenging for sure. Knitting with fine yarn for the first time was challenging and it took a long time for very fine yarn to grow on me. Right now I am trying to get myself psyched up to some day knit a stranded sweater of some kind with steeks. I’ve never done one because that kind of knitting is rather slow (and I like to be quick), and because I’m a lazy knitter and I keep looking at the task as if it will be a big pain in the neck. Yet, I have always yearned for a beautiful fair isle sweater and I’m not going to get one unless I knit it for myself. hahaha, so that’s my challenge right now, to discover the fun in a project like that. and it might take years . . . once I get past these types of initial challenges, I don’t find any particular kind of knitting all that difficult; when it comes down to it, knitting really is just knits and purls and yarnovers.

Loopy: Well your Four Seasons Shawl is just beautiful!  And with everything else that you do, I’m surprised it only took a year. Speaking of challenging, what do you think is your most challenging pattern for knitters?
Anne: The Bee Shawls and Morning Glory have more challenging stitches than some of the other shawls; Irtfa’a and Lacewing have more challenging construction, where the knitter has to keep different instructions for different sections in mind at the same time.

Loopy: I know that lace knitters really love your challenging designs, and the beautiful shawls that result from them. What is your favorite part of your job? And your not-so-favorite part?
Anne: I really love engineering a pattern; it’s a fascinating process to bring the work from an intuitive level (designing on the needles) to a practical level (a written pattern for what I did on the needles). I get a big thrill from putting stitches and construction on paper in a logical way so that others can create the same piece. And of course, I love knitting and handling all sorts of yarns . . who wouldn’t love that? My least favorite part of my job is compromising between actual knitting work and completing tasks related to running my company.  There are many many roles to play in running my own business, and too often I have to borrow from my knitting time to get everything done.

Loopy: I can relate to that!  The knitting part is definitely more fun than the nuts and bolts part of running a business. Does anyone else in your family knit?
Anne: My mom knows how to knit but she doesn’t any more. My sister knits quite a bit. David has progressed from not wanting to knit at all, to saying that he thinks he might want to learn some day (that has taken 12 years though, so we won’t hold our breaths for it . . .)

Loopy: Well “some day” is better than “not at all”, so you’re right, it’s progress. Are there other hobbies that you enjoy?
Anne: I love cycling, traveling, cooking, and working in my vegetable garden.

Loopy: And what would be your favorite way to spend a day off?
Anne: A nice long bike ride with David, followed by a good meal and a nap, then spend the rest of the day knitting.

Loopy: That sounds like a good plan! Anything else you’d like to add?
Anne: Thank you for having me as your guest! Answering these questions has been very thought-provoking and given me plenty to mull over.
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In The Loopy Ewe news, did you catch the re-stock over the weekend and the new stuff up today? Dream in Color Starry, Namaste Zuma Bag and Accessories, sKNITches Big Tryst, 3 AM Enchantments bags, more Trekking, past sock club and kit patterns, Hand Maiden Casbah, Prism’s Merino Mia, and more.

Isn’t this beautiful?  Dream in Colors gorgeous colors, and a bit of silver sparkle spun into the Smooshy yarn base to make it pop. This is their new yarn base called Starry. (And I knew that my hubby’s photo would turn out much better than my attempts.) We plan to have this up at The Loopy Ewe early next week. I know these would be beautiful as socks, but I think we’ll also see a lot of shawls and scarves and hats and gloves and mitts knit up in this, too. (Why hide it in your shoes?) I will confess to having cast on a cowl. FPS*. I am having a serious problem with casting on. In Wednesday’s post I referred to my newly-discovered (newly-admitted?) KADD. I don’t have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) but I definitely have KADD (Knitting Attention Deficit Disorder.) My number of WIP’s is ridiculous and it doesn’t seem to matter how many I have on my list – it just keeps growing. I do have a lot of single socks, but lately, the thing I keep casting on is scarves. One right after the other. I AM finishing some of them. I had to – they’re for Christmas gifts.  But there are still too many mid-stream that get set aside for the next sparkly fun interesting exciting pattern or yarn that comes along and intrigues me momentarily. It really is fun to make scarves and mitts and hats out of “sock yarn”. And it’s a good way to keep motoring through my stash. (But I don’t think it counts as “using it up” when it sits there as a half-done WIP. sigh.)  This weekend I’m spending some time organizing the stash. I hope I come out alive.

Today’s recipe is one that Elf Karen shared with us and then I made some changes to it. (I don’t change knitting patterns all too often, but I seem to change recipes when I make them.) It’s delicious and perfect for a cool winter evening.

Chicken and Mushroom Soup (or leftover turkey?)

6 cups water
2 quartered onions
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped celery leaves
5 chicken breasts

Cook the chicken breasts in the above mixture until tender. Remove the chicken and chop into bite-sized pieces. Strain the rest of the mixture and reserve the liquid.

2 cups diced celery
2 cups diced onions
1 lb. sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup butter
5 cups fresh white bread, cubed

Saute the onions, celery and mushrooms in butter until soft. (Do not brown.) Remove from pan and then add in the bread crumbs. (You may need to add more butter.) Stir until well coated and toasty and remove from heat.

2 tsp. sage
2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. poultry seasoning
6 Tbl. chicken stock base
5 cups evaporated milk
3 Tbl. flour

Add sage, pepper, poultry seasoning, chicken stock base, and evaporated milk to a large pot.  Stir to heat through.  Whisk in flour as needed, to thicken slightly.  Add reserved liquid from above, as well as the onion/celery mix and the chicken pieces. Heat through.  Just before serving, add bread crumbs and parsley (if desired) to each bowl.

Before I close, here’s the question for you to answer for the November Blog Contest. I’ll randomly select one person from the comments section, next Friday. So you have a week to leave your comment/entry. I know that there are many of you who, like me, have KADD. I see your orders. I peek at your Ravelry projects pages, I read your comments on Wednesday’ blog. I just know these things. For me, the thing that seems to entice me to start something new is either 1) a new yarn that I am itching to try or 2) a new pattern that intrigues me.  If you have KADD, what is it that gets you picking up another set of needles and beginning something new? (And if you don’t have KADD, just go ahead and admit it. That will get you an entry into the contest, too. Any tips on how to avoid KADD? Don’t say “discipline”….)

Sheri 2or3projectsgoingatonceseemsreasonable
12ormoredoesnot.Ohwell.

*FPS = For Pete’s Sake

Last weekend I was knitting with mountains and snow outside of my windows. What a sight!  You get the fire going, you settle in with a Latte and a good pattern, and hunker down for some serious knitting. It was so fun. We did find plenty of time to do a little shopping (I visited my favorite soap shop – the

people who made the Loopy soaps that were in the last Sock Club box), and we always manage to make a meal out of Nick & Willy’s pizza when we’re out there.  I’m ready to go back any time, but there’s the little issue of Loopy Central and work.  So the Colorado visits are pared down to a couple of times a year, but we do make the most of them when we go!

I have some yarn photos for you! The first one is a scarf that I’m knitting up with a yarn that I wanted to try. I bought it at Stitches and have decided to add the line in here. Any guesses on what it is? (Oh, it’s more fun to have you guess!) Here’s a sock I knit up last weekend and it’s a new indie dyer line that will be arriving in December or January. (Well – a kinda new indie dyer to us, kinda not. How’s that for puzzling? Any guesses on that one?) Here’s a question for you.  This is their sportweight yarn and there were 250-ish yds. in the skein.  I divided it in half and knit toe up for my size 11 feet.  I typically make the cuff as long as the foot, although in this case, I ran out of yarn too early. (But boy did I love how fast that yarn knit up.  You gotta love sportweight and size 2 needles. And the sock is so comfortable.) I think I’d like 300 yd skeins in sportweight – what do you think? (The pattern is an easy one – just knit 4 rows, then do a [slip1, K] row and then a [slip1, P] row.)  The last photo shows a few more skeins of yarn that I bought at Stitches and am contemplating (as in, contemplating the possibilities of adding some of those lines in here.  Any thoughts?) I thought you might like to see some of them what came home with me. (You recognize the one on the far right – it’s Dianne’s Creatively Dyed Calypso – that new line we have on order from her.)

Guess what arrived today? Boxes and boxes and boxes of Dream in Color Starry. I am in love.  I took a photo of a few of my favorite colors, but it didn’t turn out that great. I’ll have WH do a GOOD photo and then will post it on the blog on Friday. We’re working on the photos this week so that we can get it up on the website for you next week.  That way, maybe you’ll get it over the Thanksgiving holiday and will get to jump right into knitting it. Because you’ll want to.

So check back on Friday. I’ll be sharing a good soup recipe that I tried last weekend, as well as sharing the Starry photo, and we’ll have our November Blog Contest, too.

Sheri whohasdecidedshehasKADD.Knowwhatthatis?(I’llsharethatonFriday,too.)

P.S. Bunches of new stuff went up at The Loopy Ewe last night – did you see? Including our Team Spirit colorways from Lorna’s Laces!

Today we have Dianne from Creatively Dyed in The Loopy Limelight. You have so loved her unique and beautiful Luxury Sock yarn and Seacell Roving and I know you’ll also snap up the new line that she is sending soon! (Her dye techinque on this new line involves using 15 colors per skein.  The results are stunning. We hope to have that in just after Thanksgiving!)

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Loopy: Hi Dianne!  Thanks for being in the Limelight today. Let’s start at the beginning – you’re from Trinidad – how did you end up living here in the States?
Dianne: I came to America at the age of 13 because my mother wanted a better life for her children than my country had to offer.

Loopy: We’re glad that your family found their way over here. Are there things you miss from your country? And things you love about living here?
Dianne: I miss the food the most.  I didn’t learn to cook many of our traditional foods before I left Trinidad.  I have lots of cook books from my island but the ingredients are hard to find in my area.  I have to drive 3 hours to Atlanta, GA for my country’s food.  I love living in America because of the opportunities that I have here I didn’t have in Trinidad.  In my country most citizens do not go to college even though we have some of the best colleges in the world on the island.  When I came to America with one suit case containing all my worldly processions, I said to myself I’m going to take advantage of everything America has to offer.   I wanted to go to college and wear better shoes than the ones I left behind in Trinidad that I kept repairing with a safety pin so I could play with my many cousins who lived near by. I remember when I came to America and found out that television was on 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.  Television in Trinidad only came on from 9am-12pm then from 3pm-9pm when I left in 1988. Most of the programs on TV were Indian Movies, Sesame Street or political talk shows.  Not much to watch for a child my age so I spent most of my time reading books or playing with my cousins.  My first week in America I watched so much TV that my eyes hurt.

Loopy: That must’ve been an interesting indoctrination into things here in the States. Not necessarily a good one, but I’m sure you learned a lot. Now let’s get to the knitting – how long have you been a knitter and who taught you to knit?
Dianne: I’ve been a knitter since February 2004.  During my year in graduate school (Pursuing my master’s degree in Technology Management) I made a friend who happened to be a knitter.  I learned to crochet at the age of 10 from one of our neighbored ladies but I hadn’t crocheted in years.  My friend said you should learn to knit to relieve some of the stress. I called my local yarn shop to take the class but they didn’t teach beginner knitting classes.  I went to my local Michaels with another friend from work because I didn’t know what to expect.  I remember my friend learned the stitches right away but I struggled with every stitch.  I was determined not to let this set control my life. I went home and stayed up until 2 am knitting because there was no way she was going to be knitting without me.  It turned out that my friend learned the stitches but hated knitting, for me it opened a new world.

Loopy: What a great lesson in determination and perseverance. What is your favorite item to knit?
Dianne: My favorite thing to knit are socks. A couple of years ago I was bedridden with my 3rd sinus infection in a month.  I knit 2 pairs of socks in 3 days for a friend.  I don’t know what it is about knitting socks for me because I’ve had as much as 7 different socks on needles at one time.  I tend to have my socks in various stages and my favorite pattern of all the sock patterns I’ve ever seen is the 2X2 rib.  I can do that pattern in my sleep.

Loopy: You had a yarn shop for awhile.  How did you go from owning a shop to dyeing?
Dianne: I opened my yarn shop in 2004 and closed in 2007.  While I had my shop there were other shops in the area who would receive the same items that I did then put them on sale within 2 weeks of delivery.  I wanted something that was mine that no one else had or could acquire.  I begun dyeing my own yarn. I gave away yarn for months then after taking a sock dyeing class at John C Campbell Folk School I begun selling my hand dyes in my shop.  It was funny because I often thought that my finished product was horrible but one of my good friends would tell me to stop being so hard on myself.  She liked it and if others had any sense of style they would like it also.  She’s still one of good friends and customers.

Loopy: And now you have a whole bunch of people all over the country who love your yarn and collect your different colorways! How do you come up with your colorways, and do you have a favorite?
Dianne: I have to be honest, I have no clue.  When I first started dyeing yarn I tried doing repeat colors for my shop but I found that it was like pulling teeth for me to do repeats.  I’m blessed to have some of the best bases spun for me and I decided that I would become an artist whose paintings represent what’s in their heart.  I do my best work when I blast gospel music and let the skein talk to me.  I start with one color then stand back feeling the vibes coming from the skein and create my work of art.  I believe that dyeing unique color ways that I never write down is my favorite colorways.

Loopy: You do come up with some very unique color combinations, and they knit up just beautifully. (Here’s a sock that I knit up with one of your skeins of yarn, so that everyone can see how the colors mix together as you knit. Pattern: Cookie A’s Monkey Socks, done toe-up.) What is your favorite part of your job? And your not-so-favorite part?
Dianne: Favorite part of my job is that I get to take my daughter back and forth to school every day.  I know that some people may not think it’s part of my job but it is.  After years of working 8-5 and missing out on so many of her plays, school trips (I love to volunteer) or games, my job as an indie dyer helps me stay close to my only child.  I don’t get paid even 1/10 of what I received at my job as a computer programmer but the smile on her face is worth all the money in the world to me.  Another favorite part of my job is vending at a show in an area of the country that I’ve never been to before.  This year we went to CA (to name one state among so many); I’ve been there several times (in my previous life) but never got to see the redwoods or the Golden Gate Bridge. My not-so-favorite part is when I get soaking wet because I’ve dropped a bucket of water.  One time I dropped a bucket and I got wet from head to toe.  All I could do was laugh because if this is the worst part of my job, I’m blessed.

Loopy: Ha!  I think we need a photo of that sometime. Tell us about your family and how do they help in your business?
Dianne: My family is s huge part of my business and I couldn’t be where I am today without them.  My husband (aka superman aka Jerry) works a full time job yet he still has time to listen to my request for this or that for my business.  When I have shows that I know are to big for me to handle, he always finds time to come with us.  He built my racks, the stands for my pots, ran hot water to all my pots so I no longer had to use buckets; he’s currently running lines to all my pots for a new 300 lbs gas tank for my studio.  I’m blessed because all I have to do is give him a description of what I need and he does his best to create it for me.  Our daughter (aka princess aka Diana) is one of the hardest working teenagers that I know.  I pay her for her help (she doesn’t accept candy for payment like she did when she was younger) after school and for helping me out at shows during the summer.  She doesn’t have much time during the school year but she does her best to help me on the weekends.

Loopy: It’s so great to have a supportive family and I’m glad you share a photo of the three of you. What would be your favorite way to spend a day off?
Dianne: I haven’t had a day off since July 2007 when we took a family vacation to Cancun, Mexico.  While we were there I couldn’t dye but I did get to plan colors from the beautiful colors of Mexico.  We went on vacation this year about a 4 hour drive from our house and you guessed it.  We came home early because I wanted to dye.  In 2009 with my show schedule it doesn’t seem like I’ll have a day off until November.  I work so hard because our daughter will be leaving for college in less than 4 years.  I believe that the next generation should not have to use student loans like I did so I’m working hard so I can pay her tuition.

Loopy: College costs are skyrocketing these days. I know your daughter appreciates all of your hard work to help pay for that coming up in her life. (Or if she doesn’t appreciate it yet, she will someday!) Anything else you’d like to add?
Dianne: I am a workaholic who loves her job and wish I found this job earlier in life.  I have an AA in General Studies & a BS in Computer Science & one year left to finish my MA in Technology Management.  In my previous life I used to be a computer programmer. I am SO BLESSED.

Loopy: And we feel blessed to have you here at The Loopy Ewe.  Thanks, Dianne!
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So many fun things arriving at Loopy Central and we’re photoing as fast as we can! Wait until you see the cute sheep-y bags from 3AM Enchantments – too fun.  And we have that special new line from Dream in Color called Starry arriving this week in all colors, including their brand new semi-solids.  Can you guess why it’s called Starry? Here are the new colors you can look forward to (but these were dyed on the regular base – not Starry.  So the photo will give you no hints on Starry yet…) New color names (L-R): Cinnamon Girl, Gold Experience, Shiny Moss, Bermuda Teal, Romeo Blue, Purple Rain, Absolute Magenta, Tea Party, Grey Tabby, Black Pearl and Crying Dove.  We’ll be getting these new colors in Smooshy and Baby and Classy as soon as they’re available, but first we’ll have them in Starry.

Sheri backfromColoradonow,photosonWednesday!