I think I like the Monday Updates just as much as you all seem to! I get excited to show you the new things that have come in from the week before. Tonight is no exception. I know that many of you have been waiting on the Madelinetosh DK to get back in stock. We were waiting for them to get enough DK yarn base back to dye up our order, and it finally arrived last week. We put 40 colors up tonight, and of course we’ll continue to get more in the weeks to come. This is a heavy DK/ light worsted weight and is great for sweaters and quick to knit hats and scarves. I also used it to make two Mara Shawls last winter, and I liked them so much that I kept them both. (Please note, I wear mine the other way. The none-bib way.) Mine each took about 2.5 skeins to knit. I knit the body out of 1 skein – just keep knitting until you run out – and then used the rest for the ruffle at the bottom.

We’ve also added in a new base from Juliespins – her Lace 960. That means there are 960 luscious yards of laceweight in each skein. It’s really beautiful. I shy away from lace. I made one scarf out of 100% silk laceweight, and I think it scarred me for life. (Was it the slippery silk? Or the fact that it was knit longways? Or the small diameter of laceweight? Probably a combination of all three. Julie’s superwash merino laceweight would probably be easier on my brain and fingers.) What is a good shawl pattern for 900-1000 yards of lace? Maybe if I see the right pattern, I’ll be tempted to give it another go.

We were able to get some more of the Regia World Ball yarn in again. This self-striping yarn is a lot of fun to knit up. Many of the colors will match up with your favorite sports teams, and the Italy and Rome colors are perfect for Christmas! (Oh – speaking of Christmas – Jill at Studio June is dyeing up more of the “It’s a Loopy Christmas” colorway for us, since the first batch sold out and many of you have emailed and still wanted a skein. We’ll have it in a couple of weeks. Let us know if you’d like an email when it arrives.)

To round it out, we have re-stocks and some new colors in three of Alpaca With a Twist’s lines - Socrates (fingering weight), Jumbo Baby Twist (DK weight) and Fino (laceweight, silk and alpaca. This stuff tempts me, too.)

I started a new shawl over the weekend, and I had to re-start it THREE times. Not because it’s difficult. Just because I apparently can’t read and count from time to time. What is the most number of times that you have frogged something and started it again? Is there a maximum number of times you’d re-do it before giving up? I was extra careful the 4th time and it worked. I’m not sure I would’ve given up, just because it is an easy pattern to begin with and there was no need for me to keep screwing it up. On a hard pattern that I had to rip a lot? I might give up after the third time….

Sheri timetoheadhomeformoreknittingonmyshawl

… is fun! My friend Janice had her first grandbaby this week. (No baby pics on her blog yet, but I know they’ll be there sooner or later. Edit: Now update –  Here’s the post with the baby pics!) This was my first chance to knit something for a baby, as most all of my friends are out of the having babies stage, and many of my other friends don’t yet have grandchildren. I put off making a decision on what to knit until a couple of weeks ago. There are so many cute options and I just couldn’t decide. I finally went with Felix’s Cardigan and Shibui Knits Bebe Hat. (I was going to knit the socks to go along with it, but ran out of yarn. I had a little ball about the size of an acorn left over. I was sweating it as I neared the top of the hat!)

The yarn is Dream in Color’s new Everlasting Sock, in a darkish version of the Morning Glory colorway. I picked this one because I was sure this baby would have blue eyes (thus the blue) and it’s possible that he might have cute red hair (thus the green). I really like how this yarn base knit up and look forward to using it for more projects. The colors are what most draws me to this line, but the non-striping, non-pooling is a bonus. A note on the patterns – I love the hat. The pattern is well written and the texture down by the brim is cute. The cardigan – I really like the way it turned out, but the pattern itself has some mistakes in some of the counts. I see others have commented on this on Ravelry, but apparently nothing has been fixed in the pattern because the comments were from months ago and I just downloaded it two weeks ago. Just a “beware” if you knit it. I basically ignored the numbers that were wrong and knit on, which worked just fine. The infant pattern is free on Rav. I think that most infants grow so quickly that a 6-12 month size (or bigger) would get more use, so I made this one in the 6-12 month size.

There are so many more things on my to-knit list that I want to get to. And so many different yarns that I want to work with. I might end up doing only one handknit gift this season – a shawl for a friend. Is that bad?

Sheri happythattheweekendishereanditwillbeCOLD!

You’re thinking I’m going to talk about knitted cloches, right? But I’m not. I’m going to talk about glass cloches and a topic that has nothing to do with knitting. I visited my friend Meda last weekend. She’s the person that got me into cloche-ing. (She also accuses me of making the word “cloche”, which is a noun, into a verb – cloche-ing. As in, “Look – that’s a fun little fall decoration. Very cloche-able.”) Cloches were originally designed in the 1800′s as a way to protect new, tender plants. Putting a cloche over a plant turned it into a mini greenhouse and protected it from predators, while ensuring an environment rich in carbon dioxide and heated by the sun. Nowadays, people use them to create small displays or vignettes, to showcase different treasures, or to highlight something fun.

In October, I did a fall theme with the little cloche in the first photo, above. I popped in an owl, a couple of pumpkins, some candy corn, and a squirrel. It’s amazing how many little decorations I already have, that fit perfectly into a scene like this. I’m already looking forward to doing one up for Christmas, then Valentine’s Day, and beyond. (Birthdays would be fun – you could add a few photos of the birthday person, along with a few little things that remind you of them.) My friend Meda has several around her house, each containing a different type of something. Here is her fall themed cloche (love the little pumpkins in the teacup, and I also love the antique tea strainer alongside.) She had a baby shower recently and put antique baby items under a cloche and used it as a centerpiece.

Here’s one of her other displays, which shows old treasures from her grandmothers (compacts, purses, perfume bottles, etc,). She and I both like antiques, so we have had fun finding little bitty things that would be fun to cloche around. I also think it would be fun to display my favorite skein of yarn (all caked up), some older knitting needles, and a little knitted toy in one. Maybe I need to get one to use at Loopy. Cloche-ing takes ordinary things and turns them into a display. (You can find inexpensive cloches at places like Home Goods, Marshalls, Target, etc. You can also use glass cake domes, little glass cheese domes, etc. Some come with a stand or pedestal, but it’s also easy to put it on a tray.)

So – do you have any other cloche-able ideas? What would you put under glass?

Sheri whomightnothaveusedtheseglasscloches
whenbothkidswereyoung

(Note – tomorrow is a no-mail holiday here in the States, so we will be closed. We’ll be back packing orders and welcoming in-store shoppers on Friday!)

Remember this shawl (Citron, free from Knitty.com) that I knit up this past summer? I wanted something simple to knit while on a trip, and this fit the bill. It’s made out of Wollmeise Lace in the Raku-Regenbogen colorway. I love the color and I love the shawl. The thing is, it only used just under 2/3 of the skein. I have a 110 g. ball left over, which I estimate to be about 600 yards of the very popular Raku-Regenbogen. Do you want it? Just leave a comment below, telling me what you’d knit with approx. 600 yds. of Wollmeise lace, and I’ll use the random number generator to pick a person to win this pretty cake of lace. (Note – it has been to Claudia’s shop in Germany, because that’s where I knit my Citron. I’m just sure that makes it even more valuable …)

We have some great new things up on the website tonight. Pop over and check them out:

Madelinetosh Pashmina – The lovely sportweight yarn that is 75% superwash merino, 15% silk and 10% cashmere. YUM. Great for sweaters, scarves, shawls, hats and mitts.

Wool Candy – One of our new indie dyers! We’re delighted to have Adrienne’s beautiful work at The Loopy Ewe, and I know you’ll love her colorways. Be sure to click on the photos to see it all up close.

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock – You may have noticed that our supply of Shepherd Sock has been dwindling. A few of you emailed in a panic, wondering if we were still carrying it. Of course we are. We love Lorna’s Laces! They have transitioned to large sized skeins (so you only need one per pair of socks), so we’ve been transitioning to that as well. We have oodles of colors on order, and you’ll see them trickling in over the next two months. Our first batch went up tonight.

Sheri whopulledherselfaWoolCandyforsocksandaPashminaforascarf

Remember last week’s blog contest, where I asked what distracts you from work? (Or knitting?) Many of us are distracted by the same things, and many of those things have to do with the computer. I think that I need to put the computer off limits in the evenings, with just a quick final check of emails before I go to bed. I get a lot of knitting done when I actually sit down and do it, but the trouble is that in the evenings, I’m frequently clicking around online, checking out blogs, yarn, and patterns. (Lest you think I won’t be able to stay on top of important things if I give up this trolling time, rest assured that I also do this during the day at work, since it’s part of my job!) I can only imagine how much more knitting I would get done. And right now, just before the holidays? It’s time to ramp it up and get moving on the gift knitting. Otherwise, no one is going to be getting any handknits from me this year.

One way I’m going to keep myself on track with my knitting focus, is to have that top photo as my desktop background for awhile. It’s a picture of Claudia’s Wollmeise shop in Germany. Knitting Daughter and I spent a lot of time here when we visited her, and this particular picture was taken the day we got to hang out for the whole time it was open, just knitting, chatting and drinking coffee on the orange couches. It was the best day! It’s a good reminder of why I love to knit, and I think it will be fun to have on my desktop for the next month. (Last month, I had this second photo as my wallpaper – a shot of the Cascade 220 wall here at Loopy. Equally knit-worthy and inspiring!)

So, what’s on your desktop, being used as the wallpaper? Does it make you smile? (Note – I used to keep my favorite photo of Web Guy and Knitting Daughter as my wallpaper, but it made me miss them even more. Every time I booted up the computer in the morning and saw their smiling faces looking out at me, I had a sad moment. Not that I don’t have eleventy billion other photos of them around my desk anyways. But somehow seeing them on my computer was an extra sad jolt in the morning ….)

Sheri workingonababyprojectrightnow-it’sittybitty!

Look what’s coming – those cute Namaste Hip Holsters in bright new colors! We will get these sometime in December, but we’re taking pre-orders on them right now. This style bag retails for $45, and will now be available in Red, Peacock, Lime, Eggplant, and Pink (in addition to the nylon Black and Peacock versions, which retail for $39). These are made in Namaste’s vegan, buttery soft non-leather material that you have come to love in their other bags. Not only is this bag great for your latest sock in progress, but we’ve also seen people using them for purses and camera bags.

Size: 8″ high and 6″ long, with 3″ wide at the base, 2″ wide at the top.
Details: gun metal hardware, with a big open space on the inside and a smaller pocket (for your cell phone or your knitting accessories) on the front. Included are a belt attachment and a should strap option.

Let us know if you’d like to pre-order one! (support@theloopyewe.com)

I also want to announce some contest winners. First of all, thanks to everyone who participated in our Third Quarter Challenge, which was to make something out of our Loopy Ewe Solid Series line of yarn. You can all of the entries here. Congratulations to Pamela who wins our Reader’s Choice award (and a Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate) for her adorable Whale of a Hat! And congratulations to Molly who wins the random drawing from all entries (and a Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate), for her Lost Throw. I hope you all will keep sharing your Loopy Ewe Solids projects with us. I love seeing the colors you’re combining and the projects you’re completing!

We also have winners from our October Blog Contest, which asked about the things that distract you from work. There were more entries for “computers, the internet, blogs, Ravelry, and The Loopy Ewe” than anything, and I can totally understand that! (Same here.) Congratulations to Leah in Australia and Andrea in CT, who won the random drawing from all of the comments, and have each received a $25 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate for their win.

Sheri whowillbeknittingtonightinsteadofputzingonthecomputer