It was hot again today. Actually, more humid and muggy than anything. I made a Sam’s run for more peppermints and tootsie rolls for all of you, and was never more glad to get into the car’s air conditioning after loading all of those packages up into my car! Even though it’s hot and humid, I’m ready for Fall weather. Are you? In the hopes of speeding it along, I brought out all of our Fall house decorations and put them up around the house yesterday. I think this is my favorite season for spicing up the house – even more fun than Christmas. When we moved into our house 15 years ago, I didn’t really like this over-the-sink window in the kitchen. It was just kind of …. weird. But I soon discovered that I could fill it for each season, and now I’d be hard pressed to give it up. The little window looks into our screen porch so it can’t really be called a “garden window” any more, but it’s just nice to have changing scenery to look at. (The other thing I like about this photo? It shows – clearly – that I need to add in a few more things. Which might necessitate a little shopping. Yes, I do like a fun mish-mash of things full up in there for Fall.)

But I know the real reason you came over to check out the blog tonight. You were wondering what went up in the Update tonight, right? Well let me tell you. We added in:

- Namaste’s Messenger and Hip Holster bags in black. (We also have these two styles in Peacock.) The Messenger bag is great for larger projects. It also has a padded divider and I know some of you are using it to carry your laptop around. The Hip Holster is great for smaller projects (like a sock-in-progress), but several of you have mentioned that you’re using it for a purse. Also a great idea!

- Fleece Artist’s BFL Sock. You’ll like making socks out of this yarn, but it’s also perfect for shawlette’s – those 1-2 skein patterns for keeping you warm around the shoulders in the Fall. (I have Fall-on-the-brain. I can’t help it.)

- The Loopy Ewe Solids Line. We’ve added in one of the three missing colors – Vintage Rose (#69-84). That means, there are only 2 colors left to get in, and we expect those within the next two weeks. THEN we can get those color cards done and ready for you. I know you have been waiting patiently!

- Dream in Colors September Dream Club Yarn. This month’s skein is Groovy, their bulky weight yarn, in a colorway called Bayou. What’s nice about it is, it’s quick to knit up! The pattern with this is for Slipper Socks, which we will email to you separately. Here’s the thing you’ll want to know about this. We have a lot of people on pre-order for this yarn each month. We aren’t taking any more to the list, as we had to turn our numbers in to Dream in Color awhile back. However, we’ve also added extras to be able to put up on the website each month for the rest of you. Plus, the pre-order people have the option to buy it or not to buy it from month to month. That means that we’ll continue to add in extra skeins (if there are pre-order people who take a pass on it), each evening. All pre-ordered skeins need to be paid for by next Monday, so by Tuesday, we’ll have the final counts up for everyone else to purchase. Make sense?

Back to my knitting, now. For some reason I didn’t get very much done over the weekend on any one of my knitting projects. Did you?

Sheri didyougetaPumpkinSpiceLattefromStarbucksyet?
MoreevidencethatFallisjustaroundthecorner.

The house is quiet. Way too quiet. Knitting Daughter went back to school on Wednesday. There are no more computer cords, water bottles, extra shoes, piles of mail, and books laying around. (Oh, ok. There are. But none of them belong to her.) She was happy to be back in the college environment, after having a perfectly happy summer at home. WH and I are both glad that she is in a place that she loves. But jeez. We miss her. And the house is quiet. Way too quiet. We might’ve sought comfort in a little bit of Ivanhoe’s on Wednesday night. (In the form of a Trojan Three Shake – peanut butter ice cream, chopped peanut butter cups, topped with a scoop of cookie dough ice cream. Ivanhoes is reason #2 to visit little Upland, Indiana. 100 flavors of Shakes and 100 flavors of Sundaes. Reason #1, of course, is visiting Knitting Daughter.)

I’m keeping myself occupied with knitting. I’ve been working on Wendy’s Shetland Pi Shawl knit-a-long. I’m making mine out of The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga (Giant Stick Insect – although I prefer to think of it as “that really pretty green”). I kind of wish I had used Skinny Bugga instead, as I think this is a little heavy and thick. Plus, I’m in love with Red Spider Mite (although I prefer to think of it as “that really pretty red”). I know it looks like a big green blog so far, but just you wait. When it’s blocked, it will look smashing! This is a great pattern and if you haven’t started in on it, you ought to. When you focus on just one chart at a time, it’s totally do-able. I might make another one when I’m done.  I guess maybe before I do Shetland #2, I ought to finish Girasole #2 first. That would be the responsible thing to do.

September’s Dream in Color Dream Club yarn has arrived! For all of you with pre-orders, we’ll be sending your invoices to you on Monday. Dream in Color asked all of their stores not to sell it or show photos of it before Monday, the 30th, so we’re going by the book. Technically, that’s still 2 days before it’s officially September, so you’re still getting a jump-start. The rest of the yarn (yes, of course we ordered extras for everyone else) will go up Monday night for you.

Is your house quiet or loud today? If it’s loud, can I come over and absorb the noise for a few hours? Just to see if it makes me feel better?

Sheri I’mprettysureourtwocatsaregrumpyaboutthis
“noknittingdaughter”situation,too

We’ve had fun celebrating our Fourth Anniversary this month! We’ve had two rounds of Anniversary Kits go up (all sold out), we’ve done a big blog contest, and now we’re rounding out this special month with a sale for you. Since we’re celebrating four years, we focused on that number for the sale – including, having these items (listed below) on sale for four days. Well, actually, today is a bonus day for you. The sale started today, and ends Sunday night at midnight, Central time. We’ll get your orders packed up and shipped out asap.

You’ll find four yarn lines at 20% off:
1.  Malabrigo
2.  Kollage
3.  Prism
4.  Lana Gossa

You’ll find four pattern lines at 20% off:
1.  Gardiner Yarn Works
2.  Heartstrings
3.  Shibui
4.  Knitspot

You’ll find four accessory lines at 20% off:
1.  Atenti Bags
2.  Della Q
3.  Primitives by Kathy
4.  Loopy Logo items (this includes everything in The Loopy Ewe section under Accessories, and also the bags in The Loopy Ewe section under Bags and Totes).

We hope you enjoy the Sale of Fours and find a few things that you need. Thanks for helping us round out a great anniversary month. And thank you again for your encouragement, your well-wishes, your wonderful testimonials and blog posts, and your ongoing support. These four years have been a whirlwind. We know how lucky we are to have you here at The Loopy Ewe, and we love having you around.

Sheri drivingtoIndianatotakeKnittingDaughtertoschooltoday
Feelingsad!

Between you and me, I’m happy to have a husband who jumps in to do laundry and can be counted on to do an emergency run to the grocery store when needed. So far be it from me to complain about him bringing the wrong thing an alternative item back from the grocery store. It just doesn’t seem right to focus on that little snafu. But I’ll be darned if I know what in the heck I’m going to do with all of that garlic. (The list said “large jar of minced garlic”. Please note the “large jar” size I was referring to is the empty one, on the right. That’s “large” compared to the one that is half that size and also available at the store. Never in my life have I seen or purchased the honking big ridiculously oversized 32 oz. jar that came home in the bag on this shopping trip. Seriously?) I made our favorite Garlic Chicken Pizza the other night. That used up a whopping 4 tsp. of garlic. Anyone have any other good garlic-y recipes?? Because I have a bit to use up.

The Socks for the Cure Kits from Skacel went up tonight. I love the blue color of the Trekking yarn. To re-cap, these kits come in a cute little zippered pouch with Trekking yarn (dyed especially for this kit in the Ovarian Cancer Research color), and a special sock pattern, along with beads for the socks. Skacel is donating 100% of their proceeds from this kit to the Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research, and The Loopy Ewe is donating 100% of our proceeds from this kit as well. You can’t get any better than that! We can get more if we run out, so don’t worry about it. We bought a lot for this first go-round, but if we run out, just email us and we can make sure that you get notification when they go back in stock again.

Also up tonight: String Theory Hand Dyed Yarn’s Caper Sock (!), a brand new sportweight yarn from Enchanted Knoll Farm, more Sweet Georgia’s Cashsilk Lace, two new Monica Knits patterns, and the new Messenger and Hip Holster bags from Namaste (in Peacock. The black is enroute and will arrive later this week). Come check it all out!

Sheri helpingKnittingDaughterpackupforcollege.sadness.

Thanks for all of your sweet comments about the Loopy Tumblers that we sent out in the Anniversary Kits this year. So many of you have fond memories of growing up with Mary Hadley Pottery (or you have collected it yourself for years). It was fun to work with them on the tumblers this past spring. Of course, we couldn’t just leave it at tumblers, now, could we? (Because Loopy looks too darned cute, “Hadley-fied”). So we have a few more options coming in late September for you. We’ll fill you in as soon as they start arriving.

I did want to show you one new piece now – our new Loopy Ewe Yarn Bowl! We’re taking pre-orders on it, starting today. I have a good number of them currently being made (due in stock in mid-September) but I know that many of you like to pre-order things like this, so that you’re sure to get one from the first batch that comes in. We will continue to have these made – it’s not a one time deal. But if you want to get in on the first shipment of them, you’re welcome to email us (support@theloopyewe.com) to get your name on the pre-order list.

What IS a yarn bowl, anyway? Well, it’s great for yarn management – for containing yarn balls/cakes while you’re knitting. You set your yarn in the bowl and thread it through the hole, and it keeps your yarn in one spot, unwinding smoothly as you go. No more cakes and balls rolling around on the floor or jumping out of your lap as you knit. (Of course this does take some of the fun away from your pets, if they’re prone to want to chase the moving yarn balls. So you might need to think about this.) Each bowl has been hand-painted by one of the Hadley artists, then glazed and kiln-fired at 2100 degrees fahrenheit. You could also eat a very large bowl of ice cream out of it, but you’d have to eat fast, before it starts to melt and drip out of the yarnhole….

Our Loopy Ewe Yarn Bowl is approx. 3″ high and 7″ across. I’ve shown it with one skein of worsted Dream in Color Classy caked up. It’s a great size for all weights, from laceweight to Aran. The cost of the bowl is $40, and it does need to ship on its own, so that we can pack it up safely for travel. We will let you know just as soon as they arrive. I hope you like them as much as we do. I love knitting with mine!

Sheri happythatweekendsbringmoreknittingtime
Ihopeyouhaveagreatone!

I thought I had everything covered in my own personal Yarn Rules on Monday. (And I liked the yarn rules you all shared in the comments, too.) I have thought of another one. This one still must follow the first three rules, too, but here is the 4th rule:

4. If a yarn line or indie dyer is retiring and you really like their stuff, get it while you can.

It’s sad to me when I learn of dyers giving up their business. There are always good reasons for it, and I know that none of them make the decision lightly. But when I love their yarn (and I wouldn’t have them here at Loopy unless I loved their yarn), it’s sad. I wanted to let you know about two indie dyer companies who are closing up shop. Mona and Stephanie of Dye Dreams, have made the decision to stop dyeing their line. This has been one of my favorite semi-solids lines for a long time, and I’m sad to see them go. We still have some in stock in Comfy Sox (100% Superwash wool), Dream Sox (75% Superwash wool, 25% Nylon), Luster Sox (100% BFL wool), and Twinkle Toes (50% Superwash wool, 50% Tencel). I think that any of these bases and colors would make a beautiful pi shawl like the one Wendy is doing as a knit-a-long. Are you doing that with her? You will need 1300-1400 yards of fingering weight yarn for this circular shawl. I am working on it, too, and am using a fingering weight yarn as well. It’s going to be an easy knit – even for those of you who might not have done lace before. Part Two comes out in the blog today, so if you haven’t started yet, you’re not even really behind. It’s a fun knit!

The second company – I had an email this morning from Michelle in New Zealand, sharing the sad news that Needle Food is also closing shop. The first thing that attracted me to Michelle’s line were the intense colors and fun combinations. I’m glad that we still have some left here at The Loopy Ewe (and I might’ve plucked out a few skeins for myself this morning). But I wanted you to know, in case you’ve had your eye on some of these. I love these colorways knit up in socks, scarves, mitts and hats.

We wish all of these gals the best, as they move on to other things in their lives. I’m happy that we got to share in their talents as long as we did. (And I know they’ll keep up with their knitting!)

Of course that means we’ll be adding in a few more indie dyers in the coming months, and that’s always exciting, too. We’ll keep you posted as we have news to share.

And finally – something to make you smile. Check out this little lamb named Bea, who can hear her owner calling her, but can’t quite figure out where the sound is coming from ….

Sheri thinkingyoucan’thelpbutsmileathoppinglambs