Remember that song by the Carpenters? (Well, many of you won’t. You’re not old enough. And to tell you the truth, I wasn’t THAT old myself at the time.) It’s a rainy Monday here, but there are too many fun things going on to let it “get us down”. We drove up to Iowa to visit WH’s mom for Mother’s Day Weekend. It was a great trip and we had a relaxing time. I figured out that I have been visiting that house ever since WH and I started dating as Juniors in high school. Since my parents have moved twice during that time, and my grandparents are gone, that is the house that has been in my life the longest (and still available for me to visit.) It has a nice feel of “home” when we go there. And the bonus? The lilacs are blooming up there. Ours bloomed a few weeks ago and are now a pleasant (distant) memory, so it was fun to have a second chance at enjoying lilacs again. My mother-in-law told me about a new lilac bush that will bloom all summer long! (Except not in hot climates. I think that rules St. Louis out, considering the lovely heat we enjoy all summer. Oh, well.)

Today we’ve been working on the Monday Update and there are a lot of things you’ll want to check out. We put up:

- String Theory Caper in 25 colors and DK in 12 colors
- Malabrigo Lace in 19 colors
- The Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga in 15 colors
- Hiya Hiya new Puppy Snips
- Knit Girl in Idaho in a new 2-marker custom set, as well as a re-stock of the 4-marker custom set
- And added re-stocks in: DC Baby, Blue Sky Alpacas, Namaste (still backordered on a couple of Circular Case colors, though), Hiya Hiya needles and Dumpling Cases, and one color of Zauberball.

In knitting news, I’ve been working on my Mini Challenge Sweater and not veering from that project into others. This is quite the breakthrough. I’m usually pretty bad about having too many projects going at once. Well, actually, there are other projects “going”, it’s just that once I started in on my sweater, I stopped working on all other projects. I’m so determined to finish this in time for a couple of upcoming out of town trips. I’ll show you an in-progress photo on Wednesday. How is your Mini Challenge sweater coming along?

Sheri hopingformoregoodknittingtimetonight

These three. They did it. I walked into one of the classrooms on Saturday night at the Spring Fling, and found “The Adventures of Loopy” drawn out on the easel. Since these three had been in there preparing Cakeball Trays, they are the ones to blame. Or credit. I think K-the-Cakeball-Maker on the left was the artist, while the others no doubt gave input and spurred her on. (Personally, the whole wordless comic strip made me laugh. But then again, I’m partial to Loopy and felt a little sorry that he had lost his fourth red sock….)

Loopy’s Lost Sock

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who have a mother, are a mother, or know a mother.

Sheri wishingIcouldbringyouLoopyCartoonseveryweek!

I’m having a great time seeing the different patterns you all have chosen for our 6 week Mini Challenge! (And apparently a lot of you are like me – you do better with a shortened time period. It keeps us focused, right?) You can find some pattern links in the comments on that post, and you can find more under the Mini Challenge thread on the Loopy Groupie board on Ravelry. Remember, we’re offering a 20% off discount on the yarn for this challenge (details here on how to get the discount), if you don’t have something suitable in your stash. I’m making the Zoe Cardi with Universal’s Supreme Cotton and can’t wait to get it done. Come join us!

We had over 1100 entries in the “win a Spring Fling Goodie Bag” contest – wow! We let the Random Number Generator do its thing and it picked 6 names from the comments section to win the bags. We’ll be sending them out to: Sandi O. in MA, Ruth Anne D. in OH, Sara B. in CA, Monica D. in CA, Theresa T. in Italy, and Mary Beth O. in MO.  A big congratulations to the lucky winners and thanks to all of you for sharing your favorite pattern designers!

One of my favorite parts of attending Maryland Sheep and Wool is seeing all of the beautiful sheep. It’s just a good thing we don’t live on a farm, or I’d be bringing some home. I wish you could click on each picture and hear their loud “baaa’s”. Some of them were downright funny! Like this guy – I caught him in mid-baa:

This one was too tired to be talking:

You want to see that sweet face up close, don’t you? Here he is:

These two looked like twins:

And maybe these two, too? I loved the markings on their heads:

This sheep had such pretty colors – mocha, red, black, tan:

The Black Sheep seemed very mild. Not at all prone to cause trouble, as black sheep do.

The sheep that made me want to eat Oreos:

The one that was too hot and tired to prop his own head up:

The Evil Dude:

Sheep Curls:

And a clear indication that some four of these sheep were supposed to go home with me:

I’ll add a few more sheep photos into Friday’s post. I took too many!

Sheri whodidn’tseeanyangorabunniesthisyear.Weretheythere?

Elf Donna and I are back from Maryland Sheep and Wool and I have one word about it: HOT. HOTHOTHOT. HOT. HOT. (And did I mention that it was HOT?) We had a great time visiting vendors, gathering with Loopy Groupies, and talking to the sheep. But in between, we were guzzling massive amounts of Water and Diet Coke. We both looked and felt completely melted by the time we made it back to the hotel that night! I’m not sure what the temperature was on Saturday (in the 90′s), but on Sunday, our car thermometer said it was 99 degrees. Would I go again? Sure. It was fun being there. But it was HOT. (In case you were wondering about the weather. I wanted to be sure to mention the heat. Hot.)

This was our rental car. We agreed that it was the perfect weekend “Loopymobile”. I have lots of fun sheep photos – I’ll post those on Wednesday. In the meantime, I know that your favorite part of Monday blogs would be the part where I tell what new things we have added in to the website for the week. So here is what we added for the week:

- Madelinetosh Vintage (only the first 16 of the 72 colors that we ordered, but we decided that we might as well let you start enjoying them now. We’ll continue to add to the line as they make their way here. They have had a bit of a struggle getting enough of the base yarn in.)

- Studio June 8 Bells (a gorgeous 100% superwash heavy fingering weight in a base that you already love from other dyers.)

- Dream in Color Baby (in the 11 new semi-solid colorways, which will knit up beautifully in shawls. Also a big re-stock on the colors that were sold out.)

- Born to Knit (The Elise mitten pattern that many of you have seen and been waiting for. I set a copy aside for myself and will be picking out two solid colors from our upcoming Loopy Line to use with it.)

- Sajou Scissors (2 new designs that were on backorder from our original order. We’ve already put in a second order to re-stock the designs that sold out the first time around. Those ought to be in again soon.)

- 3 AM Enchantments (2 more fabric choices on the Petite KIP bags. I know these bags are your favorites!)

- Stitchmarkers and Stitchmarker Holders from Dyelectable (great for organizing the ones you have, or starting a new collection.)

I have a new 6 Week Mini Challenge for you! I know that many of you are still working on the sweater/vest challenge that I extended to July 1st. But I also know that some of you are ready for a new Challenge, because you’ve been emailing me and asking about a new one. So here’s a short-term Mini Challenge for you. (Why 6 weeks? That brings us to around July 1st, when the Sweater/Vest challenge will be done, plus it insures that your project is done by mid-summer and ready to wear.) Here’s the Challenge:  Knit a short-sleeved or sleeveless summer sweater/tank between now and July 1st. I already started mine using Universal’s Cotton Supreme. YUM!

As with all of our challenges, you can use any yarn you’d like. If it’s a yarn that we sell at The Loopy Ewe, you are welcome to photo your completed project for the Mini Challenge photo gallery we’ll add in, so that others can see it. If it’s a yarn that we don’t sell, you’re still welcome to take the challenge and knit along with us and we hope that you’ll share your photos on Ravelry. If you need to buy yarn for this challenge, we’re offering you a 20% discount on the yarn for this project, if purchased between tonight and May 14th. (Offer limited to one project per person.) To get the discount, you must leave us an order note telling us that you’re participating in the Mini-Challenge and telling us which yarn in the order is for the challenge. We’ll manually adjust the price to the discounted one, after you put in the order. If you are in the U.S. and are trying to get to the $75 level for free shipping, make sure that the discount won’t dip you below that, as we’ll then need to add the regular shipping cost back in.

Feel free to leave links in the comments for the patterns that you are considering for this challenge. I know others will appreciate the ideas!  Short-sleeved sweaters and tanks are so great for layering throughout the spring, summer and fall. I plan on getting a lot of wear out of mine.

Sheri whothinksSt.Louisweathermightnotbesobadafterall
Todaywasalovely,completelytolerableday