It’s time to get out of Dodge. This is one of my dining room windows this morning (the one by the air conditioner vent.) See the steam on the outside of the window? That’s because it’s nice and cool INside, and miserably hot OUTside. Heat indexes of 105-110 again today. I think they said we’ll have 11 straight days with heat indexes over 100. (Not so bad if you’re in the desert, downright miserable if you add humidity to it.) So tomorrow, we’re heading to the mountains where it’s cooler during the day and delightfully chilly during the night. Perfect weather. I’d stay the whole summer if I could, but we’re just staying through the Fourth of July weekend. (No, this isn’t just because of the weather right now. We’ve had this planned. But good timing, right?)

When you go on vacation, do you like to “Do” or “Be”? A Do-Vacation is where you go with the purpose of doing a lot of things. Perhaps it’s a new place to you and you want to fully explore everything that you can when you’re there.  You’re on the go most of the time.  You take a bazillion photos and collect memorabilia along the way. You come back from that trip and say, “We had an amazing time and saw so many cool things!” You might not be rested and relaxed, but you’re invigorated in other ways. I’ve been on some great Do-Vacations.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Be-Vacation. Maybe you’re going to a place where you’ve been before, and your life has seemed so crazy busy lately that you just want to get there and “be”. You want to chill out and stop all of the “doing” that you’ve had going on in your life lately. You hang out, you catch up on sleep, you sit with a cup of coffee and contemplate things, and you don’t need many photos of the occasion. You come back from this trip feeling rested, relaxed, and ready to jump back into things again.

Which do you prefer? I imagine that sometimes you like to DO and sometimes you like to BE. Sometimes in the same trip! We’ve been going to this same place in Colorado for years and years, since my parents have a place out there to stay in. I am looking forward to relaxing and having no set schedule for a bit. I look at our Colorado vacations as mostly Be-Vacations. We pick a few things to Do as well, but my overall goal is to Be while I’m out there. (That doesn’t mean we just sit around. There is plenty of knitting, movies, cooking, shopping, swimming and walking. But it’s a very relaxed pace.) We leave at 7 am tomorrow morning. Of course my clothes are not packed. And of course my knitting projects have been packed since Saturday. Priorities.

I’ll be updating the blog once in awhile while I’m out there, as well as checking in on Ravelry and sorting through a few emails. But I won’t do too much “Do-ing”, so as not to interrupt my “BE-ing”.  The Loopy Elves will keep your orders shipping out in a timely manner. If you need anything, feel free to email Susan (susan AT theloopyewe DOT com) or call in. Susan and her family have just spent a week out there in Colorado and I’m sure she’ll need lots of emails to feel like she’s back in the game again here at Loopy. (Don’t tell her I said that.)  If you check the blog sometime tomorrow, I’ll show you a photo of my most unfavorite spot in the middle of Kansas. It gives me the creeps. Later this week, I’ll do the drawing for this month’s blog contest and will announce the Winners of Wollmeise.

Sneak Ups? We’re planning on them this week and next week, if all goes as planned!

Sheri ifyoucouldchoose,wouldyourathermostlyDOorBEonvacation?

Sometimes we come across unusual street names as we’re packing orders. (No, I’m not going to mention any. You might live on one and think that there is absolutely nothing unusual at all about it.) We have fun seeing where everyone lives and seeing if your street name “goes with” your city and state. Some do, and some …. well, you just have to wonder. We have street names here at Loopy Central, too, complete with signs so that in-person shoppers can find the section they’re looking for. Here we have Lace Lane, Roving Row, Worsted Way, and Pattern Place.  Not only do the in-store shoppers use them, but they are useful to us, too. Before we expanded last summer, you pretty much knew where anyone was at any given time, because …. well, they were right there. Now, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “I’ll be back in Roving Row if you need me” because Roving Row is all the way back there by the Wall of Cascade.  And that’s a far bit away from the front room.  You’re welcome to come play in the streets here any time!

I tried a new crockpot recipe this week (adapted from a Betty Crocker slow cooker recipe) and it smelled great when I walked in the door after my day at Loopy. Better yet, it tastes wonderful, too.  I love crockpot recipes at all times of the year, but it’s especially nice in the summer when you really don’t want to heat up the whole kitchen. (I could not get a good photo of this to save my life. I took 12 and this was the “best” one. Sad, isn’t it? Sorry for the blur. But it does taste good!)

Hoisin Pork Roast

3 lbs. pork roast
1 medium onion, sliced
1 cup Hoisin sauce
2/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tsp. ground ginger (or 2 Tbl. grated gingerroot)
4 tsp. sesame oil
fresh cilantro leaves, if desired

Place roast in slow cooker. Cover with onion slices.  Mix remaining ingredients except cilantro, and pour over roast and onions.

Cover and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours or until done.

Remove roast to serving platter. Skim fat from surface of juices in cooker. Serve ribs with sauce and sprinkle with cilantro.

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back with you on Monday. In the meantime, do you have any unusual street or city names that you have come across?

Sheri soridiculouslyHOTandHUMIDhereinSt.Louisrightnow

There are so many of you out there making Girasoles with our KAL and I wish I could invite everyone to a Sit & Knit one night to work on them! (Never mind that we couldn’t contain all of the KALers here at Loopy Central if you all came on the same night. This is just me, thinking wishfully wishfully thinking contemplating how fun it would be.) See this little circle? It’s the start of Knitting Daughter’s KAL. She and Elf Donna talked themselves into making one and I’m really happy about that.  Donna is using Cascade 220 and KD is using Cascade Heritage. KD has knit plenty of socks and scarves, but this is her first lace project and her first chart-reading project. I think being a Loopy Elf for the summer is getting to her….

Thanks for weighing in (snicker) on Brownie Batter Blizzards. I’m glad that it’s a limited edition flavor and that it will be going away soon. I have a better option for all of us. Remember when I blogged about Marlon and her amazing knitted pastries back in February?  As soon as I saw them, I was trying to figure out how to get some, as they are just too cute. I told her that she really ought to set up an Etsy shop so that I could buy some other people could enjoy her beautiful work, too. And she did! As soon as she opened, I hopped over there and bought these two – the Fruit Tart and the Chocolate Strawberry Cake. They arrived in a cute package, and got here lickety split (when you consider that she shipped them from Amsterdam). I thought that I’d set them out on display in our kitchen at Loopy Central, but I have kind of been enjoying them in my office for too long, now. I don’t want to give them up. (Check out the latest pastries in her shop. The whipped cream cracks me up! And the Poached Pear in Wine Sauce? Rhubarb Pie? Carrot Cake? sigh.) She plans to continue to add a few new ones in most every week, so bookmark it and keep an eye on things there.

My contest question for you this month: If you were knitting up your favorite dessert, what would you be knitting? (Not a fan of desserts? What other food item do you think would be fun to see knit up?) Leave your answer in the comments and I’ll draw for the winners next week. Since Marlon used Wollmeise Rhubarb in her Rhubarb Pie, I think we’ll use Wollmeise yarn for the prize in the contest. That seems fair.

Sheri whowouldliketoseeChocolateTruffleCakeknitup

Knitting Daughter and I had a fun weekend. Web Guy is still traipsing around the country and Wonder Husband drove up to Iowa to see his mum and sister, so we stayed home to tend the fires. Or the knitting and the cats, as the case may be. I hope you had a fun weekend, too!

Three things I knit upon this weekend:
1. Challenge Socks. I know they’re supposed to be done by the end of June. (Well, at least ONE. You know me when it comes to pairs of socks.) I love the pattern (Summer Sliding) and the yarn (Numma Numma), it just takes more concentration than I usually have in the evenings when I knit.
2. So I felt that I really needed to start my second Girasole. Remember, that’s the whole reason I did the KAL – because I wanted to make another one. I’m making this one in the shawl version out of Schaefer Anne. (Black Magic colorway). Isn’t it fun how the colors are knitting up? I’m on Chart D. Part of the knitting is tucked under. I really tried to put off starting this next one, but obviously it didn’t work.
3. I also felt the need to cast on another project, because this is a new yarn that I’m trying out and I needed to get on it. So far, I love it. A little splitty, so I have to pay attention. But it’s knitting up beautifully and I will love wearing it.

Three things we did besides knitting this weekend:
1.  A little shopping.
2. A little tv watching and movies.
3. A little Brownie Batter Blizzard. (When are they going to take that extremely effective stupid Dairie Queen Brownie Batter Blizzard commercial off the air, FPS?)

Three things going on around here today:
1. Lots more KAL orders going out. It’s so fun to have so many of you joining in on this!  Remember, the discount ends at midnight tonight.
2. We have a new rug in our Sit & Knit area. This will relate to something later in the summer. For now, I just wanted to show it to you because we like it here.
3.  Lots more yarn has come in, but we haven’t had a second to unpack any of those cases all day.

Three reasons to leave a comment today:
1. Reading your comments is healthier more fun a better way to spend my time than having another Brownie Batter Blizzard. And SOMEtimes it’s more fun….
2. I like knowing that you all are out there and actually check in on the blog from time to time. It’s nice to get to know all of you “regulars”!
3. The more comments there are tomorrow morning when I come in, the longer I can sit at my computer, drinking coffee, and enjoying them. (Not that that will affect your Sneak Up orders, because the Elves will be here and they will hop right on those. But it will affect how much coffee I can get in before attacking the orders with the Elves.)

Sheri doyouhaveathingortwoorthreetosharetoday?

We have had the same forecast all week long. “Sunny today, with severe thunderstorms likely toward rush hour and into the evening.” Sometimes the storms come, sometimes they don’t. (That’s the view out my office window during a storm. Montessori pre-school across the parking lot.) Nothing says, “Hey, make some coffee and sit down and knit” like a good thunderstorm. Well, sometimes a good thunderstorm says, “Hey, make a fire and sit down with some hot chocolate and read a good book.” But this week the thunderstorms have been promoting knitting.  Good thing, because I have a bunch of projects that I’m working on.

Several of you have asked what I used for blocking my Girasole. I bought two sets of these at Sam’s. I like them because they interlock (which also means they come apart for storage). The colored side is knobby, but the black side is smooth.  I used all of the squares in two sets to block mine, which turned out to be 72″ in diameter (just what the pattern said it would be.) So far, we have over 250 people KALing with us on this, and people are still signing up – how fun is that? It’s not too late to join. Details here.

We went to a dinner earlier this week and had the best cookies for dessert. I decided that I needed to come home and duplicate the recipe. (This was a catered dinner at church, so no one was there that could pass on the recipe to me.) I think they go well with thunderstorms and coffee and knitting. Or hot chocolate, fires in the fireplace, and a good book. You choose.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

6 cups oats
2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups butter or margarine
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups dried cranberries
2 cups white chocolate chips

Cream together butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and flour, mixing well.  Add oats 2 cups at a time and mix until blended. Fold in cranberries and white chocolate chips by hand.

Scoop into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. (Cookies will flatten, so space well.) Let cool 2-4 minutes on pan before transferring to a wire rack.

Makes 6-8 dozen, depending on size. You can also freeze half the dough for later. I make the rest of the dough into cookie-sized balls, freeze on a cookie sheet, then transfer the frozen balls to a big zip-top bag when they’re completely frozen. Add a couple of minutes to the baking time if you’re baking the balls directly from the freezer later. If you click on that cookie photo to make it bigger, I think you’ll practically be able to smell them ….

Sheri whoishavingaGirlsWeekendwithKnittingDaughterthisweekend!
Whatareyoudoing?

Don’t you love to see a lace project blossom into “beautiful” as you pin it out and block it? Yes, the blocking process takes some (backbreaking) work. Yes, you do need to invest in quite a few T-pins to block a Girasole. But OH is it ever worth it. I had to leave mine all pinned out on the floor for an extra day, just because I liked walking by it and admiring it.  My hubby said, “I can’t believe that’s what you’ve had in your lap for 6 weeks!”  He’s right. On the circular needles, it just looks kind of like a balled up bunch of yarn. (Well, it IS a balled up bunch of yarn.) Of course Gracie had to keep a close eye on it to make sure that it didn’t get up and walk away. (Note the cat toy in the corner of the photo. She even stopped playing with her toy to assume the position of Girasole Guard.) After watching it for awhile she knew it was safe, so she walked right over the top of it and plopped her fluffy self down in the very middle. (Yes – I know I have a double YO in one spot where there was only supposed to be a single. But honestly, since that’s the worst of the mistakes on this biggest-lace-project-I’ve-ever-done, and since it’s fixable, and since this blanket stays with me, I’m ok with it.)

I’m still going back and forth about which yarn I want to use for the shawl version that I want to knit next. You all keep picking such fun choices that it makes me stop and re-evaluate my decision every day. I have 3 different choices sitting in my Loopy cart, waiting for me to decide.  I’ll keep you posted. For those of you who have bought this same Cascade Eco-Alpaca for your Girasole – isn’t it hard to put down? The whole reason I decided on this for my first one was because I had to stick my hand in this yarn every single time I walked by the shelves that house it here at Loopy. FPS. I’d like to make a sweater out of it one of these days, too.

In other yarn news, we have lots going on! I’ve been meeting with yarn reps and sending in orders and the boxes continue to arrive. (Wait til you see some of the new things that we’re bringing in. You’re going to love them!) One of my reps was here yesterday and he stood in the middle of everything and said, “It’s so big and bright and full and clean and colorful!” It’s always fun to share the in-store shop with people who appreciate it. (Like Jaci who made us all say, “awww!” by getting all teary when she walked into Loopy Central on her Spring Fling shopping trip. After ordering from us for so long, she loved seeing it in person. She took a photo of herself by the sign and sent it to her Teen-age Daughter, telling her that she had cried. Teen-age Daughter immediately texted back and said, “OMG. You did NOT!”  I guess Teen-Age Daughter wouldn’t have been touched by the tears like we were….)

Sheri whowishesyoucouldALLcomeshopinpersonhere!