Eat more vegetables and completely avoid Lima Beans and Creamed Corn. (I already have the last part down. Just need to work on the first part.)

Frog the UFO’s that I don’t like and stop feeling guilty about it. Life is too short to spend time knitting something you don’t completely love. (Photo: Top scarf: Finished, Second Scarf: about to be frogged, Third Scarf: already frogged, Fourth Scarf: Finished, Fifth Scarf: still like, need to finish, Sixth Scarf: Finished.)

Start enjoying exercise instead of looking at it as an evil necessity. I’m sure that’s possible. Somehow.

Spend more time keeping up with friends and spend less time working.

Buy several more knitting bags. (I already have this one down, too.  You need to be sure to throw in some resolutions which guarantee success from the get go.)

Stop staring at the yarns that are on my desk “to be knit next” and just get to them. The colors are gorgeous, the yarn is soft, and I’m anxious to see how they knit up.

Clean out the back room in the basement. There. I said it.

Worry less and pray more.

Plan next year’s Christmas knitting list early. And then do something about it in a timely manner. FPS.

Do things to bug my two kids as often as possible. (Hee – just wanted to see if they were reading the blog today….)

Continue practicing Random Acts of Kindness all year long instead of just thinking about it in December.

Happy New Year to all of you! We have lots of fun things planned for The Loopy Ewe in 2009, and we look forward to sharing them with you as the year progresses. Thanks for making 2008 such a wonderful year.  You all are the best!

Sheri haveyouthoughtaboutyour2009resolutionsyet?

Good News: We’re back! The Elves and I all had a great long weekend with our families, and are back pulling and packing orders for you today.
Bad News: Some of you might have to wait another day for your order to ship.  There were a lot of orders to print out today, but we’re whipping through them as quickly as possible and got a lot out already. We know you want your yarn!

Good News: Time off means knitting accomplished and movies watched. I finished this Chevron Scarf that has been “in process” for quite awhile now.  It’s out of Fiesta Boomerang Madrid and Plum Pudding. (Pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.) I finished it so that I could start yet another one.  The new one is out of Cloud 9 and Clematis.  So far, so good.
Bad News: Another scarf. FPS.

Bad News: The Post Office.  I could leave it at that but …. I won’t.
1)  Still waiting on a pallet of shipping boxes ordered almost a month ago. And two more orders of boxes since then.
2) “No one knows anything.  We can’t get any answers about this either, Ma’am, but I’m sorry you don’t have your boxes yet.”
3) This box that arrived today.  You don’t even want to know what’s in there.  It was one of several from this dyer and two were damaged.  grumble …. post office …. grumble
Good News: The people at our local post office are very nice.  They sent a carrier out with as many extra cases of shipping boxes as they had in stock. They know that knitters are waiting.

Bad News: UPS. They can drive through the parking lot 3 times before noon, but still can’t deliver our boxes to us until 5:30 at night, for some reason. What’s up with that?
Good News: They always bring a lot, and it’s always fun to open everything they bring us.

Good News: The winner from last week’s RAK contest (randomly drawn) is: Alice from NC.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the month of December! We had 633 RAKs reported in, but many of those comments contained more than one RAK.  That’s a whole lot of thoughtfulness going on.
Bad News: Our weekly RAK contests are over for another year, but maybe we’ll do a monthly one from time to time.

Good News: I’m having fun mixing up the order of bad and good news in this post.
Bad News: I need to stop writing and get back to packing orders. (Or maybe that’s good news?)

Sheri whoisapparentlyalittlegrumpyfromdealingwithshippingservicepeopletoday
Gotanygoodnews/badnewstoshare?

Today is our last reporting day for our annual December Random Acts of Kindness contests. I’m a little sad about that!  I have so enjoyed reading about all of the ways that you have found to bless other people this season.  It always makes me think that I need to be more aware of doing these kinds of things throughout the entire year and not just for one month in December. (Kind of like I always say I’m going to start my Christmas knitting a whole lot earlier “next time”.  The best of intentions.) Thank you to everyone who participated this month and for being willing to share your good deeds. I know it’s a whole lot easier to do them than to write them up, but you have inspired many others with your tales of kindness – which is a RAK in itself.  Leave your comments today about the RAK that you did this past week, and I’ll use the Random Number Generator to pick the last prize winner on Monday’s blog.

I took some photos of recently finished projects for you, now that the gifts have been opened. You’ll see that my scarf-addiction was well reflected in the gifts I knit up this year.  I did start fingerless mitts yesterday, but I will admit to taking 2 colors of Fiesta Boomerang home this week to start a new Chevron Scarf, too. (Pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts.)  I asked Knitting Daughter if I should start the Chevron or the fingerless mitts and she said the mitts because “you need to finish that other Chevron scarf you were doing before you start another one.”  I must work on Knitting ADD with that girl.  (Wait – or maybe she needs to work on KADD with me.)

Feather and Fan Scarf (pattern from Wendy’s website) out of Wollmeise Poison Nr. 5 Sock Yarn. (Did you know that Poison Nr. 5 is the most wish-listed item out of everything that we carry at The Loopy Ewe? That’s your trivia for the day.) This scarf went to College Girl because her favorite color is purple.

Noro Striping Scarf out of Noro Silk Garden Worsted. I was tempted to do one after Stephanie found herself doing multiples of them. (And you know me – always up for a new scarf addiction.) I used 2 skeins of 2 different colors.  You knit one row down and back with one color, and then the next down/back row with the next color, carrying them all up the side, slick as a whistle.  Easy 1 x 1 knit/purl rib the whole way. I did 39 stitches on size 9 needles. I’m ready to do another one of these. (Does that surprise anyone?)

Cashmere scarf that was frogged 5 times because I was trying to find “the right” pattern. I ended up doing the simple 1 x 1 rib in hopes that it was plain enough to entice a certain Web/College Guy to wear it.  The 1 x 1 rib makes for a very thick, warm scarf. I know it looks like an eggplant color (and actually, that would be a nice scarf color) but it’s very chocolate brown (called Brawny Brown). Not a hint of purple in it at all.

Collar Wrap from handspun (in a pattern that I bought from someone at Midwest Fiber.  She doesn’t have a website or I’d steer you there.  It’s basically a chevron pattern with 4 rows of plain garter stitch thrown in after every set of chevrons.) This is my mother-in-law, who came down to spend the holidays with us.  I also made a Chevron Scarf out of Noro Silk Garden Worsted for my mom, but forgot to get a picture of her in it! Here’s a picture of it, though. It was one of the earlier gifts I finished.

Spiralucious Cowl in an amended pattern (because someone didn’t read the directions and interpreted “move 1 stitch left/right” in a slightly different manner.  But I still love it.) Knit double-stranded out of Dream in Color’s Starry Black Parade.  I wish you could see the silver sparkles better – it’s so fun! (More Starry scheduled to arrive in January.)

This week’s Sneak Up just Snuck Up!  Today you’ll find: Yarn Pirate’s Alpaca/Merino, Lorna’s Laces Roadside Gerry (that’s the Annie Modesitt special colorway – we have it in Sport, Sock and Roving), Dream in Color Classy in their new semi-solid/solid colorways, Hand Maiden Casbah, Spirit Trail Fiberworks, Gypsy Knits DK (I’m thinking this would also make a gorgeous Chevron – it’s so soft and beautiful), Noro Silk Garden Worsted, and Tuscan Grove – a new indie dyer. (Well – sort of new.  Remember Cider Moon? Of course you do.  We all loved Cider Moon!  The Cider Moon Girls are now doing their own thing. You can find Jacki selling her beautiful batts on her etsy site here, and Gail has joined with her sister-in-law Laura to form Tuscan Grove.  We’re thrilled to have those beautiful color combos and their special yarn back here at The Loopy Ewe.)

That’s it for today. We have a full day-off schedule of knitting and digging in to the many DVD’s that found their way under our tree.  Then it’s over to my parents house to celebrate my dad’s birthday tonight. (Happy Birthday, Dad!)

Sheri ifthegiftknittingisdone,whyismy”tobeknit”liststillsolong?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us here at The Loopy Ewe. We hope this week holds a lot of knitting time for you (and some new gifts from The Loopy Ewe under your tree).  We’re off for a couple of days now, but I will blog on Friday so that we can do our last RAK contest, and to show you some of the things I have recently finished knitting. (The sweaters on the Little Loopies came from JoAnn’s Fabrics, and the sweater on the Big Guy came from some other store. Susan keeps picking up sweaters to dress up the Loopies that live here at Loopy Central…)

Sheri wishingyouthePeaceoftheSeason

Brrrrrr.  I might have mentioned that I really like cold, snowy, blowy weather. And that’s true.  But I’ll tell you, it was really tested this past weekend. (Not the snow – one can never have too much snow.) We spent a few days with our friends in Iowa, where they had just gotten a 13″ snowfall the night before. It was beautiful!  But what really tested my “I love cold weather” mentality, was the freezing cold.  On Sunday, the wind chills dropped to minus 30 degrees.  (Minus. Thirty. Degrees. As in below zero.  As in really really cold.)  We all took that as a sign that we were meant to stay in and knit and play games and drink coffee and cozy up by the fire. There were five of us knitting (me, Knitting Daughter, Janice, her Knitting Daughter, and her Knitting Daughter-in-law).  The guys joined in on the games and the hanging out, but none of them are knitters. Go figure. We didn’t actually sit around the table and knit, because it was far more comfortable to sit on the couches and enjoy the fire.  But this photo will give you an idea of the projects we were working on.  All scarves. We had a great weekend.

Another thing that we enjoyed – Janice’s Tea Rings. Notice that “Rings” is plural.  That’s because there were 9 of us there and every time she pulled one out of the oven, it was instantly devoured.  She, being the good sport that she is, made another one Saturday night, and a third one on Sunday.  Does she spoil us, or what??  You’re definitely going to want to make one (or two or three) of these this week.  That gooey cinnamon and the sticky frosting are just as wonderful as they look in the photo.

Janice’s Tea Ring

* Dissolve 2 pkgs. yeast in 1/2 cup warm water (add 1 Tbsp. sugar to feed the yeast)
Let sit 5-10 minutes.

In the meantime:

Put in Cusinart/Kitchen Aid bowl: (referred to as mixer in recipe)
4 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Mix in another bowl:
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted shortening (not oil)
1 egg

1. Add yeast mixture to milk mixture and stir.
2. With mixer on, slowly pour the liquid into the flour mixture.
3. Let the mixer knead the dough for 5 minutes or so. (Check the dough periodically and if too sticky add a Tbsp of flour at a time until you have a nice dough.)
4. Knead on counter a few minutes.
5. Place in a lightly greased bowl and let rise until double.

* Note – you can also make this in a bread machine, adding the ingredients in the order listed, and let it go through the first rise cycle.  Then continue on with #6 in the instructions.

6. Roll dough out into a rectangle.
7. Spread with 1/4 cup melted butter and sprinkle generously with a cinnamon sugar mixture. (A little over 1/2 cup)
8. Roll up. Form a horseshoe and cut the dough every inch or so, but not quite all the way through. (I first cut off the ends and put in a separate pan for rolls)
9. Bring the dough together in a circle (on greased cookie sheet, or pie dripping pan) flipping each section on its side until it comes together.
10. Let rise again
11. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. (time varies a bit by oven…you don’t want it doughy)
12. Frost with powder sugar frosting.

POWDER SUGAR FROSTING

1 1/2 cups powder sugar
6 tsp. milk
1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix all together. Add additional milk tsp. at a time.

(Note – an even easier base recipe for this, when using a bread machine, is Janice’s White Roll Recipe, found here.  Then just follow directions 6-10.)

Thank you for all of your comments on Friday’s Random Acts of Kindness report-in! The winner last week (by random number generator) is Lisa from Missouri.  (Lisa, I emailed you!) Our last contest runs this week, with reporting in on Friday.  I hope you all have a fun time finding something to do that will bless others again this week.

Since this week is a holiday week, we will be taking a couple of days off to enjoy time with our families. We’ll be off on Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday and Friday. (That means there won’t be any in-person shopping hours here this week, or on New Year’s Day, but of course the online shopping goes on 24/7!) We’ll do our last Sneak Up of 2008 on Friday or Saturday, and we’ll be in on Monday of next week to start getting all of those orders out to you. I know that a LOT of you will have Loopy Ewe Gift Certificates burning a hole in your pocket by then!

Sheri it’s21degreeshereanditfeelslikeaminiheatwaveafterthisweekend

When there are cats and Christmas trees in the house, the inevitable happens. The cat hangs out under the tree. (Do dogs do this, too? Our dog was always too big to fit under there, but maybe smaller dogs like to get under the tree?) This behavior stops when we fill that space up with presents, but I have a thing about not putting presents under the tree until a few days before Christmas. In the meantime, Gracie’s spot is safe.  At least until Zoe – the other cat – decides it is her turn. Fortunately both of them leave the ornaments alone, and somehow, neither of them is interested in climbing the tree. I know.  I’m lucky. I think we’ll keep them.

Do you do appetizers or brunches during the holidays? Here is a good recipe that always go over well. (And it’s easy.  We all need easy during the holidays.)

Bacon-Wrapped Waterchestnuts

2 cans of whole water chestnuts
1 lb of bacon, sliced into thirds

Sauce:

1 cup ketchup
1 cup sugar
1 Tbl. lemon juice
(OR your favorite BBQ sauce)

Wrap each water chestnut with bacon and secure with a toothpick.  Layer on a shallow edged pan and bake at 350 degrees for one hour, or until the bacon looks done.  Drain and then pour the sauce over everything. Put back in oven until sauce is heated through.

We’re hoping to be heading out of town for the weekend, but I’ll be back to emails on Tuesday. (Hoping, meaning we’re keeping our eye on the storms going across the midwest. We were supposed to be gone Friday- Sunday, but now we’re trying for Saturday-Monday. Email Susan if you need help on Monday – susan AT theloopyewe DOT com. Or call!) I can’t believe that next week is Christmas already. This month went WAY too fast.

Don’t forget to leave your RAKs in the comments today! We have another drawing for this week’s contest and I’ll announce the winner on Monday again. I love reading your RAKs!

Sheri hopingtogetsomegoodknittingdoneinthecaronourquicktrip