Today we have Mona and Stephanie from Dye Dreams in The Loopy Limelight. I was so happy to find their booth at Stitches East last fall, and quick to talk to them about adding their line here at Loopy Central. I love what they do with semi-solids. I added a couple of my photos, below, that I have done up in their yarns. Their colors are perfect for showing intricate patterns in your socks, hats, scarves, mitts, gloves and shawls. We have two of their lines here right now, Comfy and Dream, and have more coming soon!
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Loopy: Hi you two! Thanks for being in the Limelight today. So first tell us, how long have you been knitting and who taught you to knit?
Stephanie: I’ve been knitting for over 40 years – I started at a very young age.  My great-aunt Bert taught me how to knit.
Mona: I’ve also been knitting for over 40 years.  My Dutch mamma taught me to knit on long double point needles with the right needle held under my arm.  My first project was a pair of baby booties knit with fingering weight wool for my 1st grade teacher.

Loopy: It’s always fun to hear about knitters who have had this passed down in their families. Hopefully we are all trying to do that with family members around us. What is your favorite item to knit?
Stephanie: While I love knitting socks and always have a pair on the go, nothing beats the sense of accomplishment that comes from completing a sweater.
Mona: I also always have a pair of socks nearby and really enjoy knitting them because so many different knitting and construction techniques can be used — cast ons and cast offs, heel and toe shaping, textures, lace, cables, beads, multi-color, etc.

Loopy: What is the most challenging thing that you have knit to date?
Stephanie: That’s a hard question – maybe some of my lace projects.  I think I need to set myself up with a challenging project.
Mona: The most challenging project I have undertaken is a beautiful lace shawl called Renaissance Shawl by Not Just Plain Jane Knits.  The pattern has no charts, just pages and pages of written instructions.  I’m nearly finished with the project after working on it on and off for the past couple of years.  It will be a pleasure to finally be able to wear it.

Loopy: Wow – you will have to email us a photo of that Renaissance Shawl when you’re done, Mona. We’d love to see it.  And Stephanie – how about doing the Second Quarter Loopy Challenge with us? I know where you can get some beautiful semi-solid sock yarn to work with …    How did you two go from knitting to dyeing?
Stephanie: Years ago I started dyeing fabric and clothing.  The move to yarn and fiber was a natural progression.
Mona: Several years ago, I started spinning with a group that has an annual dye day where they experiment with various dyeing techniques.  They generously taught me to dye and I was bitten by the bug.  After numerous dye “play dates” that left me feeling invigorated, it was easy to begin to dream of taking this to the next level as a business.

Loopy: I’d say you’ve both been seriously bitten by that dyeing bug! How do you come up with your colorways, and do you have a favorite?
M&S: We are always looking for new color ideas and inspiration.  Some of our colorways happen by accident and others are the result of careful planning and trial and error testing.  There are times when we are trying to achieve a particular color for a specific purpose.  The “discards” from that process sometimes make it into our line of yarns.  In the end, though, they are all our favorites.

Loopy: I had fun getting that box of variations on forest/sage green from you awhile back for the kit we were working on. It was hard to choose. (In fact, didn’t I say, “I’ll take this one for this kit, but then can you do these two in the regular line?”) Too many great possibilities! What is your favorite part of your job? And your not-so-favorite part?
Stephanie: My favorite part is attending various fiber events and meeting so many creative, talented people.  My least favorite part is ramping up and getting everything  ready so that we can attend these events.
Mona: I enjoy the fiber events, too, but it’s really satisfying to get feedback from customers about how much they enjoyed working with our products.  I can relate to finding a pattern you enjoy and a yarn that feels nice in your hands in a colorway that works; it’s a joy to knit that project.

Loopy: Do you do this business full-time, or on the side?  And is that hard?
M&S: Both of us do this in addition to other full time commitments.   It is challenging to juggle everything – our families have been very understanding and supportive.

Loopy: It’s so nice that they support and encourage you, as I would think that it would be difficult to make everything work without that. Does anyone else in your family knit?
Stephanie: All of my children knit, including the boys.
Mona: I come from a family of knitters.  In the Dutch school system my parents attended, all young girls were required to learn to knit, crochet and embroider.  My mother and her sisters knit first out of necessity and later, out of a love for the craft and they passed this on to their girls.  I have two teens, a boy and a girl, and both learned to knit when they were younger although they aren’t active right now.  I also taught my husband to knit and he always has a pair of socks on the needles.

Loopy: Oh, that’s great! It’s really fun to share knitting with family members (unless they are the type who might go shopping in your stash. Or maybe even then, too.)  Are there other hobbies that you enjoy?
Stephanie: I enjoy spinning and reading although these days most of my books are audio books.
Mona: I enjoy gardening, as well as reading and walking.

Loopy: And what would be your favorite way to spend a day off?
Stephanie: If I were to get a day off, I would spend it knitting and spinning.  There’s nothing more relaxing than to have uninterrupted time to make progress on existing projects and to plot out new ones.  And I would stay away from the computer as it tends to eat up huge amounts of precious time.
Mona: Me, too, and do it with friends.

Loopy: Anything else you’d like to add?
M&S: Dye Dreams has been a great adventure.  Our initial vision was on a much smaller scale than where we are today.   We often look at each other and say, “Who would have thought . . ? “.
We’ve been knitting for a long time and never thought we would see such an explosion of knitters and designers.  We always knew that knitters were a creative, generous bunch of people.  We’ve had the opportunity to meet everyone from traditional knitters to knitters who think outside the box.  Some knitters are technique driven, others throw caution to the wind and wing it.  Dye Dreams has been everything from exhausting to exhilarating.  It’s been a rewarding experience.

Loopy: Thanks again for taking the time to talk to us today!
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Sheri wait’tilyouseewhatIfoundinmybackyardthismorning.PhotoonWednesday…

I woke up to such a great thunderstorm this morning. Long, loud crashes of thunder that seemed to go on and on. (The cats – not so thrilled with that. They dove under the bed.) This is what it looked like in my front yard today. It’s very green around here right now! I really ought to live in Seattle. By the afternoon, the sun was out.

We had a crazy day here at Loopy. I am particularly fond of the mailman today, as he brought us 2100 boxes. You gotta love a guy like that. Consequently, invoices for Sock Club were emailed out today, and the Sneak Up is back on for next week. (It’s a good thing. We have lots of things waiting in the queue.) You all are so good about paying those Sock Club invoices quickly. I think we got most of the kits out today as well. In case you didn’t catch it, we did re-stock all of our Namaste bags yesterday, including the Malibu and Laguna in Eggplant.

We were also busy with shoppers. Thursdays and Fridays are drop-in days, and it’s fun to see where everyone comes from. We get St. Louis shoppers, but we also get out-of-town shoppers almost every week, who are just passing through. (Can you imagine that conversation? “Honey, as long as we’re driving in the midwest on a Friday, can we drive an extra two hours to swing through St. Louis so that I can stop in at The Loopy Ewe to shop for an hour? Please?”  And you know how much guys like to drive longer and then detour. For knitting. Sometimes the weary husbands come in with their wives and sit on the red couches and eat Loopy Kisses while their wives shop. Other times, the wives send them down to Starbucks so that they can shop in peace. It’s kind of funny.)

One of the shoppers today was James. You’ve heard me mention him before, because he is the one who named the Elves. He came in about two years ago and commented on how “those Loopy elves” were scurrying around, packing up orders, and the name stuck. Today he brought his very first ever lace project, and his second ever lace project, both completed recently. His first lace project is this Girasole by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed. I am also working on my own Girasole and really enjoying it. (I’m using this yarn. James used Cascade Eco-Wool, I think.) We both agreed that this is a great first lace project, because the charts are so easy to read and do (and no purling. James is a fan of no purling. I’m a fan of knitting lace in the round so that you don’t have to make the symbols do the opposite on the back side of the project.) His second lace project was done for a friend – this pattern, out of Dream in Color Starry (he said it took 2.5 skeins). That’s Elf Donna modeling it, and she didn’t want to give it back. I don’t blame her. I love seeing completed lace projects. It’s amazing to me how you can turn yarn into such incredible works of art with two sticks. I am tempted to do another Girasole out of a fingering or sport weight when I’m done with the alpaca worsted one. (I know, I know. Finish the one I’m working on first…)

I hope you all have a great weekend. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you out there who are mothers or have a mother. I’m happy that our two college kids are meeting us halfway between here and their school so that we can have lunch on Sunday. That’s a GREAT Mother’s Day to me!

Sheri didImentionhowhappyIwastohaveboxesagain?BecauseIreallyam.

Part Two of my report from Maryland Sheep and Wool – there was also shopping! I kept half of my suitcase empty on the way out, just in case I needed all of that space for purchases. Somehow, I showed remarkable restraint. (Or it might be that with a shop full of yarn at home, I was able to bypass most all of the yarn. Or maybe because when I do knit, I like knitting with things that we have here, or things that I’m considering adding in.) I did love all of the sheep-y items that were available, like this “Keeper of the Sheep” box. Speaking of keeping sheep, did I happen to mention how much I would like to have a flock of them? Good thing it’s against the neighborhood rules. However, my friend Janice lives in Iowa on 10 acres. Do you see any reason why she couldn’t have a flock of sheep? I don’t either. (Janice? Sheep?)

I also enjoyed seeing all of the sheep photos/photo-cards/paintings. Here are just a few that I bought. See the one in the bottom left corner? The photographer had been photoing several sheep just around the bend, and when he walked down this path he found this sheep had just given birth to the baby. I also like the one on the top left – the sheep eating yellow flowers. After watching the sheep herding demonstrations, you understand why they say that sheep aren’t the smartest animals in the kingdom. However, they’re a lot of fun to watch, and they sure provide us with some great fiber. (The Border Collies that herded the sheep? Brilliant.  And they looked like it was all fun and games to them.)

I went to MDSW with Loopy Elf Donna (that was her petting the sheep in Monday’s post) and we arrived a day early. We had fun hitting a local shopping area and some antique stores. I bought this wonderfully preserved pair of baby socks, handknit in the early 1900′s. Aren’t they fun? I will have to have WH make a wee pair of sock blockers to display them on. I wish I knew the Knitter who spent hours knitting them up. (When I checked out, the sales gal said, “$24? Wow, that’s a lot of money for little socks.” Obviously not a knitter.) I wish I was good at translating this into a pattern for adult socks. I like how it looks. (Click on the photo to make it bigger. Does anyone recognize a pattern in there?)

We have cases and cases of yarn and Namaste bags to unpack today. Next week’s Sneak Up is going to be fun!

Sheri whothinkshercatswouldalsoobjecttohavingsheepinthebackyard

… at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. This was my first time to go, and I had so much fun!  Of course the yarns and fibers were wonderful, but I came home with mostly sheep photos. So many breeds and colors and personalities. It’s a good thing that I flew, otherwise I may have been tempted to do some bidding in the auction. I still think the grassy area next to our building is begging for sheep. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend.

No Sneak Up this week (mostly due to box issues with the post office – don’t get me started….). Just thought I’d save you some F5-ing tonight.

Sheri whohadfunseeingseveralofyouinMaryland!

Is it my imagination, or did Friday get here quickly this week? I like that! Friday is my favorite day of the week. Why? Because Friday means the start to the weekend. Although I’m normally here most Saturdays, trying to catch up on all of the desk things that didn’t get done during the week, it still feels like a weekend. Usually one or both cats come to Loopy with me to keep me company, and WH is here working on photos. By the afternoon (sometimes early, sometimes late), we knock off and take the rest of the weekend off. And there is always knitting on the weekends, which I also love. (Saturdays used to mean soccer and basketball games. Things change when your kids grow up and head off to college!)

This weekend I’ll be out of town and away from emails today through Monday evening. I’ll catch up as soon as I get back. In the meantime, I wanted to leave you with a good recipe to try. I had Tres Leches Cake in San Antonio a few years ago and have been looking for a good recipe for this for a long time. I adapted this from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe and made it in Colorado over Spring Break. It turned out great (even making ingredient adjustments for the high altitude baking, which is always a gamble. The recipe below is for regular altitude baking.) I hope you enjoy it!

Tres Leches Cake
2 cups unbleached flour
2 cups sugar
8 Tbl. butter, unsalted
4 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup whole milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
(I would delete the cinnamon the next time. Maybe that’s an important part of Tres Leches cake, but we decided we’d like the flavor better without it.)

Milk Mixture
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Frosting
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbl. light corn syrup

Start with the milk mixture. Pour the condensed milk into a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave it on low power, stirring frequently.  You will cook this until it is slightly darker and thickened (about 12-15 minutes). When finished, slowly whisk in the evaporated milk, cream and vanilla.  Let cool to room temp.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and set aside. Heat butter and milk together over low heat until the butter has melted, and set aside.

Beat eggs with electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Slowly add in the sugar until well mixed and beat until this mixture is very thick and glossy (about 5-7 minutes). Reduce speed and slowly add in the butter mixture and the vanilla. Add the flour mixture slowly after that.   Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes and let the cake cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.

Use a skewer to poke holes at 1/2 inch intervals across the top of the cake. Slowly pour the milk mixture over the top, until it’s completely absorbed. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then refrigerate uncovered for 3 hours or longer.

To frost: Remove the cake from the fridge 30 minutes before serving. Beat the frosting ingredients into soft peaks and then frost the cake. The frosted cake can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Now that it is May, we have a new “Loopy’s Summer Vacation Contest” starting up! This will be our third summer of sending Loopy out to visit places of interest with you all summer long. (Here are the two photo galleries from past contests. You can see that Loopy has had a LOT of fun traveling and seeing the sites with all of you.) We will include a Loopy postcard with your first May order and will continue while supplies last. Some people pose the Loopy postcard, others take their Little Loopy or their Big Loopy. Whatever works best for you is fine with us. You can start adding your photos to Loopy’s 2009 Summer Vacation photo gallery through your Loopy account, as soon as you get them.  (Jill – I nabbed your Beachbum Loopy photo from last year as the Highlight Photo for this year. It was a cute closeup!) We’ll accumulate photos all summer and will do the judging in September. Have fun!

Sheri sowhatisyourfavoritedayoftheweek?Andwhatmakesitafavorite?