We’ve been kitting these up and sending them out the door for a few weeks now, so I’m looking forward to seeing some finished mittens and socks pretty soon. I love Jane’s patterns, and we’ve carried them here at The Loopy Ewe for a couple of years now. With our Loopy Ewe Solid Series line, it just seemed natural to come up with kits for the patterns. (And a big thanks to Jane for working with us on them.) We sent a kit out to one of our Loopy Test Knitters – the amazing Jettshin on Ravelry. Take a look at her Projects page. Wow! We had her do up a pair of the Cupcake Mittens, to make sure that we had allowed plenty of yardage in the kits. (There was plenty of yarn that she sent back with the finished mittens, so the answer is yes.) In fact she knit two pairs – the first came out a little small, using size 1 needles. The second pair (shown here) came out perfect with size 3 needles. Be careful to check your gauge when you work on these kits. With colorwork, sometimes you’ll want to go up a size or two.

We have these kits for several of Jane’s most popular socks and mittens, so check them out and jump into some colorwork. (Warning – it’s kind of addictive.) Elf Lori has been doing most of the “kitting up” and we like keeping her busy at the winder. She’s a pro at this.

Sheri whowillbemakingthegnomemittensoneofthesedays

What a crazy winter we’ve had around here. On Saturday, our area had a 6″ snowfall. I don’t ever remember getting so much snow in one winter season, much less this late in the season. On Saturday, we had …

… snow on the Hyacinths …

… snow on the Bradford Pear Trees …

… and snow all the way up and down the street.

By Sunday afternoon, it was all gone and the green grass and blooming flowers were once again sharing their color and beauty. Crazy. I’m a big fan of snow and cold, but once the flowers start blooming, I’m done with winter. (Apparently not.)

We put up more fun things on the website today, and I know you’ll enjoy them! We have:

- a big order from Malabrigo, which brought Worsted and Sock weights, plus a few more Rios (shown here in Zarzamora) and Lace colors.

- We added in a great batch of String Theory Hand Dyed Caper Sock. (These are still one of my very favorite pairs of socks. And I knit the second which, as you know, is very unusual for me. I just love that yarn and wanted to wear both socks, not just display one here at Loopy.)

- We have the March Color Cruise coloway from Fiesta in both Boomerang and Baby Boom (shown here – called Barcelona). We’ve also re-stocked a big batch of Fiesta Boomerang as well. (This was one of my very favorite scarves. I gifted that one to a friend. I’m almost done with another. Pick two colors of Boomerang and jump in!)

- We added in gorgeous colors of Superwash Sock from Josette in Maine and her Enchanted Knoll Farm line. (I’m using Whale Song for some socks.)

- We have more Hazel Knits, finally! I know you love Wendee’s yarn base and colorways – we do, too. It’s fun to have it in stock again. (Shown here in Ice Cream Sundae. Yum.)

Enjoy the perusing and shopping, and we’ll get your orders packed up and shipped out tomorrow and Wednesday. You want them by this coming weekend, right? (We’re still working on teleporting the international orders. Two day shipping to any location around the world. We can get that going, right? We’ll keep working on that. In the meantime, we’ll use the good ol’ USPS.)

Sheri withacoldoffice.Mightneedtoturntheheatbackon.

What project would you talk about, if someone asked to see (or hear about) your best knitting project? We’ve talked about knitting for relaxation vs. knitting for a challenge before. I think all of us agreed that we have some projects that would fit into each category. There are times when we don’t want to have to think about what we’re knitting, and other times when we welcome the challenge. But what do you consider your best work ever?

I think my most intricate looking project was my Girasole that I did almost two years ago. However, if you have knit one up yourself, you know that it’s surprisingly easy to knit. My most difficult project is still in progress – my Summer Sliding socks by Jeannie Cartmel. Not because the pattern is all that difficult, but because it’s one big massive chart and I’m not a big massive chart reader. Sloooow going, but I do like the looks of the finished socks. I’d need to wear them with a skirt so that everyone could see the intricacies. (No. I really wouldn’t do that. I’d just pull up my pant leg and make sure everyone appreciated them as I went through my day.) But did I mention it’s a big massive chart? And I’m not a big massive chart reader?

Loopy Elf Sue shared a link with me this week that made me think about this topic. I hope I’m still making beautiful things when I’m 87. Read about this man who has knit up some really incredible lace creations.

So what project would you consider your best work ever? Tell us about it, or leave a link to a blog or Ravelry photo, if you’d like. I think I’m going to go back and pull out my Summer Sliding socks again. Mr. Gene Beugler is inspiring.

Sheri hopingyouallhaveagreatweekend

…. with an afternoon off? I think I’d get myself a cup of coffee and sit out on my back porch with a good book or a good knitting project, enjoying the spring air. This is the ideal time to live in St. Louis. Early Spring and late Fall are wonderful! Late Spring, Summer, and early Fall? Not so much. Unless you love heat and humidity. I don’t. So afternoons like this one need to be used for something fun, outside.

Thanks to those of you who posted about your ideal vacation destination last week. I wish I could afford to pick someone and send them to their spot! (Wouldn’t that be fun??) Instead, I’m going to be sending these two winners some lovely Wollmeise. Congratulations to Michele in Maine (who used to want to go to Paris, but wants a trip to Hawaii after this crazy cold winter) and Joline in Edmonton, Canada (who would love to go see an old friend in Ireland, who has certainly been through a lot).

For those of you working on the First Quarter Challenge, remember that your photos are due in to our photo gallery by 4/4. (If you have entered photos and they have not been approved, it’s because there was no yarn information given. Please be sure to include that information when you upload the photo, and be sure that it’s yarn available at The Loopy Ewe.) I love seeing so many of you cabling and look forward to the rest of the photos coming in. We’ll talk about the new Second Quarter Challenge next week.

Sheri stillfinalizingwhatthatChallengewillbe.Thoughts?

I need to find a new radio station. It’s so sad to wake up to the news, because the news of the day is not encouraging. I can’t get the situation with Japan out of my mind. We have so many sweet Loopy Groupies in Japan and I’m worried for them. And this morning the news was full of Libya. It’s hard to write peppy blog posts, when things are going on all around us that have such an impact on everyone. I don’t want to ignore what’s going on, but then again, I know you don’t come to this blog to get information on Japan and Libya. So I’ll continue to do the things I can in my own way to help the people in Japan, and I’ll keep the focus of this blog on yarn and fiber and color. In the meantime, did you see that Wendy has written a beautiful new shawl pattern called “Japanese Garden“? From now through the end of April, ALL proceeds from the pattern sales will be donated to the Red Cross for disaster relief efforts. I think it’s wonderful that she is doing that. I bought my copy this afternoon and am picking out some beautiful Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga to use with it. (Photos used with permission.)

Speaking of which, we have a lot of things up on the website for you today. (I promised you last week that we’d have plenty of fun, since we took last Monday off from updating. And if you checked out the Loopy Webcam today, you can see that we’re collecting more yarn and boxes for next week already.) We’ve just added in:

- The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga- including new colors. (Shown here in Archy and Mehitabel).
– Lorna’s Laces Worsted – in many new colors for us, as well as the new Spring Colors, and the ever-popular Zombie BBQ. We also have Zombie in the Honor base, which many of you are loving in this month’s Club Loopy.
– Dragonfly Fibers Merino Silk Roving – Kate’s beautiful roving makes me want to pull my wheel out and spin.
- Speaking of wheels – we have more Schacht Ladybugs available and ready for shipping.
- Kollage’s My Kind of Saturday Cowl is back in stock, for those who have been waiting on it since I blogged the one I made. Two of the sold out colors of Riveting are now back. We still have a bit on backorder.
- Knit Girl in Idaho has done more 2 and 4 piece stitchmarker sets for us. Cute as ever. I have lots of pretty stitchmarkers, but these are the ones I continually grab for when I need to use some. You’ll find these in The Loopy Ewe Accessories section.
- Della Q – new fabrics and styles of needle and project bags. My favorite is her Travel Case.
-  Blackthorn DPN’s – Made from the same material as the skin of stealth jets, these carbon fiber needles have the feel of wood with the strength of steel.
- The Loopy Ewe Color Cards – Now that we have all of the pre-orders taken care of, we have built up some stock again and are able to offer them on the website. We’ll keep working on them, so if they go out of stock eventually, it’s just temporary. These cards have samples of all 90 colors in our Solid Series. If you like being able to see how Ginger is different from Sienna and how Oyster compares to Dove, then color cards with actual yarn samples is definitely the way to go.
- Ysolda Teague’s Whimsical Little Knits Bk 2 is back in stock. We also have a new pattern book from Universal Yarn, called Summer Supreme. Great for pairing with their popular Cotton Supreme line.

See you on Wednesday. We’ll have Contest Winners to announce!

Sheri beautifuloutside,butIcanalreadyfeelhumiditygathering

We ship out a lot of boxes, week to week. While Web Guy was here, he decided to start making up some of the boxes that we’d need this week. Of course it would be too boring to just stack them in columns, awaiting the contents. He decided that Susan’s shipping desk needed to be enclosed with a fort. (Kinda wishing the webcam had been moved before this, so you could’ve seen it on camera, and then the destruction of it.) If you got a Loopy box shipped to you this week, it’s possible that your box was a part of the Loopy Fort in its former life. I especially liked the brown “roofing shingles” and the sheep peeking out the front. Susan admitted that it made a nice little retreat when things got extra busy that day. (She said “retreat”, but I think “hiding place”.)

We also got the Club Loopy pre-orders out this week and so we have now added the individual-purchase kits up on the website for sale. Click here to see them and purchase one. (Don’t click there if you have one enroute to you and want to be surprised by the contents.) I don’t ever put together kits that I don’t love, but this kit is one that I am extra fond of.

I’m off next week – part of the week for business and part of the week for fun. I’m leaving WH at home to tend to the homestead and Elf Karen (and Mary, Donna, Sue, Lori, Anna and Vicki) at Loopy to keep the orders flowing. Susan is also out of the shop next week, so we decided to hold off on a Monday Update. Our next Monday Update will be on Monday, March 21st. You know we don’t take many Mondays off from Updates. You also know that when we do take a Monday off, it just means twice as much fun for the next week. Something to look forward to!  Of course there is still plenty in stock for you to shop for and play with this week. At last count, it looks like:

99 Bags/Totes choices
142 Fun Accessory options
20 Kits to choose from
291 Needles & Hooks to pick out
857 Patterns to inspire you
61 Roving options to spin up
6 Spinning Supply choices
and 3337 Yarn options to choose from

Just in case you’re missing the regular Monday Update.

I’ll be back to the blog on Monday the 21st, and will fill you in on all of the latest happenings. In the meantime, I hope you get lots of knitting and crocheting done while I’m gone. I’m taking … a few projects with me. How many projects would you take along if you were going to be gone for six days?

And here’s the contest question (winners drawn when I get back!): If you won a week’s vacation to the destination of your choice – where would you choose to go? (I can’t send you on a week’s vacation if you win the contest, but I’ll send you some Wollmeise – how’s that?)

Sheri asalways,I’mpackingmyknittingbeforemyclothes

Edit: P.S. And I just now heard the news about the devastating earthquake in Japan. I think most of us would choose to forego the vacation and donate money.  But you can still tell me where your dream vacation would be, sometime down the road. In the meantime, all of us here at Loopy are keeping the people affected by the earthquake in our prayers.