Instead of sharing my own recipe with you today (like I frequently do on Fridays), I’m directing you over to my friend Monica’s blog. She posted easy instructions on how to make those amazing Caramel Apples that you see selling for $10 each, in fancy stores. Don’t these look delicious? I tasted a couple, and I can confirm that they were indeed as good as they look. Check out the recipe on this blog post, from The Yummy Life. Then click on this post for tips on wrapping them up as gifts. It even gives you a link for free downloadable gift tags – how cool is that? (Photo from The Yummy Life, used with permission.)

Someday I should have Monica do a guest post over here for you. Her blog is one of the first things that I check in the morning, because I know there will be something yummy (to eat, to make, to share) there. While you’re over there checking out her blog, be sure to catch her recipe for  Maple Pumpkin Spice Lattes (in a crockpot – brilliant). It made the Top 100 Pumpkin Recipes list on the Huffington Post and is one of just a few finalists, pictured on the front page of that article. If you’re having a knitting group, book club, or fall party, you might try the lattes-in-a-crockpot approach. It leaves you with more time to hang out with your friends, instead of being chained to your latte machine, making one at a time. You might also want to make up a tray of these to serve to your group. Isn’t that pretty? Makes me wish I was having a party, just to put one of those platters together.

What are your plans for Halloween weekend? Since our days of dressing up little kids for trick-or-treating are over, I’ll probably be whipping up a batch of these lattes and knitting a few rows, in between answering the door to hear knock knock jokes and trick or treat choruses. I finished my Whippoorwill Shawl – photos after I block it. Maybe I ought to try this next?

Sheri buyingtrickortreatcandyIdon’tlike
sothatIdon’teattheleftovers

Loopy Elf Donna got a new puppy named Lucy. Is she not the cutest thing? She had just been to the vet, so she was exhausted from her big morning out.

She posed:

She checked out Loopy:

And then she zonked out, fast asleep.

Needless to say, all work of any kind stopped while Lucy was visiting. We all stood around and watched her sleep and talked about how darned cute she is.

So this month’s contest question is: What distracts you at work? Whether you work in the house or out of the house, I know there are things that pull you away from what you are intending to do. (Ravelry? I’m talking about you.) What distracts you?

Leave your answer in the comments and we will randomly draw names of winners next week. The prize – $25 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificates, so that you can splurge on some new yarn!

(Speaking of contests, have you clicked “like” to join our Loopy Ewe group on Facebook? We hold 24 Hour Quick Quizzes over there from time to time, with Loopy Ewe Gift Certificates for prizes. Don’t miss out!)

Sheri hopingLucywillcomebackandvisitusagainsoon

We’ve had an infusion of Mmmm-Malabrigo this week! Not only have we gotten a huge re-stock on the Lace, but we’ve also gotten in more sock and a few new colors of Rios. (New Rios: Purpuras, Zarzamora, Cumparista, and Archangel.) I’d really like to make a sweater out of Rios or Twist – love them both. Sweaters seem to take so darned long for me to knit, that I don’t do too many of them. I do love making and wearing them, but it seems like there are just too many other things coming in here every week, calling for knitting attention. (And I listen. BOY, do I listen. Then I start something new.)

Our first batch of Mary Hadley Loopy Mugs went up on the website (in addition to the extra Tumblers from the Anniversary Kit.) These pottery items need to ship by themselves, so that we can pack them effectively. If you’d like to order them, please order each one as a separate order. We will continue to stock this line of pottery, but keep in mind that each item is hand-painted by the Hadley artists. We get as much as we’re able to, and we have more on order when things run out.

We’ll keep the orders flowing, though, and will put the stock up at The Loopy Ewe as often as we are able to get it in. We’ll also continue to share new things in this line, as we go along.

Namaste’s Special Edition Oh Snap pouches are now available. These pink pouches (in both the regular 3-pack size and the XL/XXL 2-pack size) are available while supplies last. Namaste is donating 10% of the sales of these pouches to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. In addition to using these pouches for your projects-in-progress, people have also used them to store patterns (the largest size), to keep track of pens/pencils/lipstick/glasses in purses and totes, to keep iPods and earplugs together, etc. (Note – we still have a few left in our exclusive Red color, too.)

Also up in today’s Monday Update: New sheep/magnet cards from Thomas Joseph, beautiful colors of String Theory Hand-Dyed DK weight and Blue Stocking, patterns from Jared Flood and ShibuiKnits, a re-stock of Namaste Zuma’s, and 2 more colors of Dream in Color’s new Everlasting Sock Yarn. Along with last week’s Everlasting debut, this brings our total colors to 49. I’ve heard back from many of you who ordered this last week and got it into your hands – you love it! I’m not surprised.

Coming in Wednesday’s blog – a photo of something that has distracted us at Loopy this week, and a contest!

Sheri hadtoomuchcoffeetoday,mightbeupallnightknitting

We’re full up, here at The Loopy Ewe. We have 3500 sq. ft. of space, and we have used every bit of it. We have packed the aisles (here’s one side of one part, but of the rest of our Loopy space looks just like this):

We have used the tops of shelves:

We have built shelves in the old kitchen area and filled them with these tubs (double deep, filled with our Loopy Ewe Solid Line loveliness!):

We’re just plain full up, and I have no desire to move at the moment.

There is a weird little alcove outside our other door (down the hall from our main Loopy entrance). The alcove has always been completely empty and cuts behind the bathrooms in the main hallway. That is our back door (on the left) and the door to the business that has the very end of our building, on the right. No one else ventures off the main hallway, into this weird little alcove.

Seeing the empty space, I got the idea that maybe we could put cabinets in there for a little extra storage. I asked permission this past summer, the landlord gave me the go-ahead to do it, and WH built these really really nice, lock-able cabinets. White cabinets on white walls. Nothing flashy. Just custom-made, heavy duty cabinets. See? (Before there were there? Just an empty, never-used corner in the alcove.)

In the meantime, the building obtained new management, and the new landlord called to say that “someone” had complained about the cabinets. Since there are only two doors in the alcove and one is ours, it doesn’t take much thinking to figure out where the complaint came from. Apparently this has a “negative impact” on the (otherwise empty, boring, useless) space. White cabinets. On white walls. In an empty little alcove. What do you think? I think neon pink knitted closet covers might give them a bit of that “negative impact”, don’t you? I’d just like them to live up to their reputation. Right now the whole thing just makes me say FPS.

Sheri alwayssomethinginterestinggoingonaroundhere

*for pete’s sake

I love shawlettes. I made my first one last year about this time, and was hooked from the start. I love that many of them are made out of one skein of fingering weight yarn (hello, sock yarn stash!), I love that they knit up relatively quickly, I love that you can wear most of them around your shoulders OR around your neck, and I love that that versatility makes them perfect for even the non-shawl wearers on your list, who will use them as a very pretty scarf. (Need more reasons? See my “Top Ten Reasons to Love a Shawl” post from last year.)

Today, I thought I’d share some great shawlette patterns with you, as you continue making up your list of things to knit for others during this holiday season. Ravelry patterns have an (R) before them.

Lighter Weight Shawls:
(R) Whippoorwill Shawl (I’m working on this one in Madelinetosh Merino Light Tart and Fig. Love it. Are you on our Loopy Ewe Facebook page? I gave some color combination suggestions over there on Monday.)
Traveling Woman (The red one, pictured here. One of my first shawls, and a great one for newer shawl knitters.)
Multnomah (The blue-green one, pictured, and the fall-colored one, pictured. I think this was my very first one. Try this. Easy peasy and beautiful.)
Ishbel (The yellow one pictured here. I made this one this summer and love how it turned out.)
(R) Clothilde (On my list. Love the pattern lines in this one, and it calls for DK weight.)
(R) 28′s Cousin 53 (Because I like the name! And it looks fun to knit. A good one for wearing like a pretty scarf.)
(R) Shaelyn (Another one that looks fun to knit.)
All of Wendy’s Shawlettes: Argus, Chevron, Lady Bertram, Miss Woodhouse, Printemps, Seaside, Transverse, Winter’s Morn, and Woodland Walk. (Because I tried to pick just one or two and found it impossible.)
(R) Maia Shoulderette (So dainty and feminine looking.)
Seascape (I know it is meant to be all gauzy-ish – Shibui’s Silk Cloud would be lovely, but I’d also like it done up in a fingering weight semi-solid like Madtosh Sock.)
Citron (The multi-colored Wollmeise one pictured here. Lots of solid knitting on this one, but I do like it.)

Try these yarns: Amy Butler DK, Artyarns Regal Silk, Blue Sky Alpaca Silk or Royal, Dream in Color Everlasting, Fiber Optic, Fiberphile, Kollage Luscious (great non-wool option), Lorna’s Laces Honor or Pearl, Madelinetosh Merino Light or Sock and The Loopy Ewe Solid Series.

I could go on and on with shawlette patterns. I just love them!  But I’ll stop with the lightweight ones for now.

Heavier Weight Shawls:
Mara Shawl (I made two of these and kept them both. Green/teal one, pictured here, and the navy one, also pictured.)
(R) Tesni Shawl (I keep “getting ready to” knit this one. Still not OTN. Still love it.)
Frost Diamonds (Lots of fun squares worked into this pattern.)
(R) Olatz (Just a hint of lace and it looks nice around the neck).
(R) Glimfeather (Beautiful cables, all done up in a pretty red, how could this one not be on my list? Wow.)
(R) Summer Flies (I’d love to see this done up in Black Cascade Eco Alpaca. Warm and gorgeous.)

Try these yarns: Amy Butler Aran, Aslan Trends Royal Alpaca, Blue Sky Worsted Hand Dyes, Cascade Eco Alpaca or 220, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, Madelinetosh Vintage, Malabrigo Worsted or Rios or Twist, and Spud and Chloe Sweater.

Of course there are all kinds of full-sized shawl pattern options out there, too, but this is supposed to be a “quick and easy” list for you. Did you find any new ones you’d like to make?

Sheri watchingmyshawlettelistgetlongerandlonger

If you read the blog a couple of weeks ago, you know what popped up on the website tonight – Dream in Color’s brand new sock yarn, called Everlasting. The colors are truly amazing. The DC gals sent me some samples of this a few weeks ago, and when I opened the box, this is what peered back at me – colors, colors, colors! I quickly rounded up one of our Loopy Sample Knitters to work one skein of it up into a Winter’s Morn shawl. (Thanks again for your quick, beautiful work on this shawl, Laura!) We have it for you in 47 colors. The last 3 are on the way and we’ll put those up as soon as they get here and get photo-ed. This is an 8 ply fingering weight, 100% superwash Australian merino wool, spun and hand-dyed in the U.S. Perfect for socks, shawls, hats, mitts, gloves, sweaters and vests. We have lots and lots in stock, and we’ll get more when it sells out. I know you’ll have fun with this one and I’m looking forward to seeing what patterns you pick to go with it.

Also up tonight: Loopy’s Knitted Bag and Loopy’s Crocheted Bag (these would make cute sock-in-progress bags, don’t you think?), some new colors of Zauberball Starke 6 (great for heavier socks, scarves, hats, mitts and gloves) and re-stocks plus new sizes of Kollage Square DPN needles. Pop on over and check it all out.

Sheri lovingthebeautifulfallweatherbutnottheallergiesthatgowithit