About a month ago, I posted on the Loopy Groupie board on Ravelry that I was looking for some test knitters and sample knitters to work on some projects with us over the next few months. We had SO many replies!  I’m still going through them all. I used Ravelry simply because it was easy to click over and see samples of each person’s work from the past. It also helped me to be able to see what different people have had experience in. I was looking for particular types of project knitters in some cases. What I didn’t expect was to find things on project pages that I then added to my list to have sample knit for Loopy Central. That was fun, too!

The first sample has arrived back and it turned out great. Michelle had this Koolhaas hat on her project page and I emailed to see if she’d be willing to knit one up for us to keep at the shop. She did a beautiful job. This is knit up in the large size and used one skein of Cascade 220, with 1.5 oz. of yarn leftover. What a great gift-knit for the guys and gals on your list. (I think it looks great on Ava with her red lipstick.)  We have more samples in-the-works and more to send out, so I’ll keep you posted as they come in. A big thank you to Michelle for her lovely work on this sample!

Our ArtYarns order arrived last week and went up tonight. There are gorgeous colors in this batch. We ordered both the Regal Silk and the Beaded Silk. I took two skeins of the beaded yarn home over the weekend and knit up this scarf. You can find the free easy-peasy stitch pattern here. If you’d like to make it a little skinnier (and about 5 ft. long) , use one skein and cast on 16 stitches. If you want to make it wider, use two skeins and cast on the full 24 stitches (between 6 and 7 ft. long). Since you’re knitting on size 10 needles, it really knits up fast. The one-skein version would make a quick and easy Mother’s Day gift and the open lacework makes it perfect for spring and summer wear. Now that I’ve made a beaded one, I found myself contemplating the Regal Silk colors this morning to make another one in the non-beaded variety.

In other product news, we also added in Tempted’s Lovely Grrl (a beautiful silk/merino blend, great for one-skein shawls), Mountain Colors new Crazyfoot sock line, Madelinetosh Sock in a bunch of new colors for us, Hand Maiden Sea Silk, Team Spirit (more in the fingering weight for summer), Loopy Sticky Notes, and of course the ArtYarns new additions.

Keri from 3AM Enchantments dropped off 4 cases of Petit KIP Bags, regular sized KIP Bags, and Accessory Bags last Friday. Those are scheduled to be photoed this week and up next Monday. I also had an email from Blue Sky that they’re packing up our Blue Sky and Spud and Chloe orders today, but I’m not sure how long those will take enroute. We’ll keep you posted!

Sheri workingonaSpud&Chloesock,photossoon

But this time, I didn’t have to knit it. I just get to enjoy it! After I made one for my brother for Christmas, I mentioned to Knitting Daughter that I just loved the scarf, but couldn’t even think about knitting another one. (It’s knit as a tube, so it’s row after row after row of going around and around, knitting … knitting … knitting.)  She offered to make me one for my birthday and I quickly picked out the colors and wound them up before she could come to her senses and change her mind. This one is done in Cascade Eco Alpaca, (in Baby Camel and Natural) like the one I knit for my brother. It is warm as can be and feels absolutely wonderful to knit AND to wear. I just love it. And now Knitting Daughter is going to knit one for herself, using Alpaca With a Twist Baby Twist in a blue and a charcoal.

Have you ever made a recipe that was so much work that you filed it in the “never again” file? (But it was so tasty, that you found yourself getting it back out and making it another time?) That’s what today’s recipe is. A “boy this is a lot of work but it sure tastes great” kind of recipe. I love the Spicy Cashew Chicken at The Cheesecake Factory. Since you can Google and find pretty much any recipe on the planet, that’s what I did, and I made it while we were in Colorado.  Next time I might just go eat it at the restaurant ….

Spicy Cashew Chicken (Cheesecake Factory Style)

4 chicken breasts, cut into 1-2″ pieces
1 cup Seasoned Rice Flour (recipe below)
2 cups Rice Flour Batter (recipe below)
1 1/2 cups Spicy Soy-Sherry Sauce (recipe below)
1 cup cashews, roasted and salted
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
2 tsp. white sesame seeds, toasted
2 tsp. fresh parsley, finely chopped
1+ cups peanut oil for frying (as needed)
rice, cooked and ready to serve

Make the Seasoned Rice Flour (1/4 lb Rice Flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/3 tsp. black pepper, 1/4 tsp. Paprika, 1/4 tsp. baking powder. Add together and mix well.)

Make the Rice Flour Batter (2 cups Rice Flour, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, 1 qt. ice cold water.) Combine dry ingredients and then add in ice water and stir until well combined. Store in refrigerator or on ice to keep cold at all times.

Make the Spicy Soy-Sherry Sauce (2 cups Hoisin Sauce, 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup Sherry Wine, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1/8 cup Chili Garlic Sauce, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 lb. fresh garlic, minced, 1 tsp. crushed red chili flakes.) Mix everything but the sugar. Add sugar in last, whisking well, until evenly combined.

Heat the peanut oil in a large wok or saute pan.

Put chicken pieces in a large bowl and add the Seasoned Rice Flour. Gently toss so that all of the pieces are coated with the flour mixture.

Dunk each chicken piece into the Rice Flour Batter, coating evenly. Add the chicken pieces to the hot oil, making sure that none of them overlap (single layer). Allow to cook undisturbed for 3-4 minutes per side. Drain pieces on a wire rack, while you’re doing another pan full.

When all of the chicken pieces have been fried, empty any remaining oil from the pan and then use it to heat the Spicy Soy-Sherry Sauce. When hot, add the chicken pieces and cashews to the pan and mix well, heating through.

Serve over rice and enjoy!

Quick question for you – we’re having the blue/gold Team Spirit colorway re-done, and Beth from Lorna’s Laces sent two “gold” samples for us to choose from. I have laid them on top of the current skein of blue/gold (which is not gold, thus the reason for us getting them re-done). Which gold do you like better – the brown-gold mini skein on the left or the yellow-gold mini skein on the right? Help us decide!

Sheri Backtothatrecipe – Itreallywasgood.Itreallywasalotofwork.

We pulled into St. Louis from our loooong drive home and were amazed to see all of the Bradford Pear trees in full bloom. It looks like Spring has arrived! (It was also humid and mid-70′s at 11 pm at night. Definitely Spring in St. Louis.) The grass has greened up and the other blossoming trees are not far behind. As long as the humidity stays relatively low, springtime in St. Louis is usually a good thing.

Our time away as a family was fun and we fit a lot into the schedule! And of course the Elves did a marvelous job of keeping things running smoothly while we were gone. I had to bring Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Toffee back for them as an extra thank you. (Have you tried that chocolate?)

We typically drive the 13+ hour trip in a day, but this time we broke it up into two days so that we could pick the kids up at the Denver airport earlier. That also meant that we had time to stop at a couple of yarn shops that we had seen advertised on billboards every time we drove out to Colorado. The first one was Quilt Cottage in Hays. If I was a quilter, I’m sure this shop would’ve been like a candy store. It also has a large corner dedicated to yarn, which is where I spent my time. Then we stopped at Gove City Yarns & Antiques. We had to drive 10 miles off the highway to get there. It is a shop full of stuff, with a lovely shop-owner! However, I don’t think we saw one other person or car in the two-block downtown area while we were there. It was like a deserted ghost-town. (That’s WH wandering down the sidewalk. Really – it was the shop owner and the two of us in town that day. Very quiet. A bit strange.)

It snowed a lot while we were in the mountains. We haven’t skiied in years, but we do like to snowmobile and always plan an excursion while we are there. Here are Web Guy and Knitting Daughter, waiting for our tour to get going. (It was getting pretty warm, but I still find it funny that Florida Resident Web Guy is in short sleeves, trying to cool off.) The nice thing about riding a snowmobile is that you can get to the top of the mountains and see some really pretty views, without having to hike it. Not that I’m lazy like that or anything.

We took a couple of daytrips to Denver and then to Ft. Collins. I visited two yarn shops in Ft. Collins. My Sister Knits was a wonderful little shop. We plugged the address into the GPS and I was pretty sure that I had copied it down wrong, because it took us down a residential street. I noticed a little “open” sign hanging on a tree in someone’s front yard, and behind the house was this charming little house-turned-shop! It’s as cute on the inside as it was on the outside. I loved shopping there. I wish I would’ve taken a photo of the hen cage to the right of this photo. It’s an interesting backyard setup. (I wonder what the neighbors think?) I also visited Lambspun, which is located in a house on the edge of town.

I did get a lot of knitting done. A couple of stealth projects (to be shown as soon as I can show you), plus a sock in the new Mountain Colors sock yarn. What a great yarn base they came up with. This was fun to knit and comfy to wear. I used the Shells pattern, which I think is from one of Charlene Schurch’s sock books. It’s in my little pattern notecards that I keep in my bag. This yarn started arriving this week, so we’ll be photo-ing it and getting it up for you next week.

I also finished all but one sleeve of a Noro sweater that I started last year on Spring Break and then tucked away in my knitting closet for …. a year. No reason. Now I’m determined to get it done. I’ll show you photos when I get it finished. I knit up another Little Jazz scarf-lette for a friend, in a beautiful Fiber Optic colorway. (Pattern available in September.) I started another scarf-lette for myself out of Hand Maiden Swiss Mountain Sea Sock (love love this yarn base) and another sock in an upcoming yarn line. Are you wondering what Knitting Daughter worked on while she was there? My birthday present.  She finished it and it’s beautiful. I’ll share a photo on Friday!

Sheri longpost.Toldyou’dI’dmakeupfortheboringMondayone!

Or at least headed in that direction. Today we have been driving endless miles between the mountains and the flat lands of Missouri. Guess which scenery I like better? I’ll be back at Loopy Central tomorrow, but I knew you wouldn’t want us postponing a Monday Night Update!  So the Elves have worked hard to get this together for you. We just added in:

Numma Numma Doppio (Allen’s merino/cashmere/nylon blend)
Sweet Georgia’s Superwash Sock (the 100% merino blend)
Shibui Sock (re-stocks in your favorite colors)
MadelineTosh Sock (re-stocks this week, new colors next week)

I’ll be back to the blog on Wednesday to show you some of the yarn shops I visited enroute, and a few of my finished projects. It was good knitting time, in addition to the other things we did. I hope you had a productive knitting week, too. Did you finish anything last week? I’m knitting my way home today, too.

Sheri boringno-photopost.I’llmakeupforitonWednesday!