I’ve done posts in the past on storing stash yarn (including serious posts and not-so-serious posts), and on what you can do with yarn bits ‘n bobs, but I haven’t done posts on storing needles or patterns, yet. Several months ago, I got tired of my basket of misc. circular needles and decided to get organized, once and for all. I picked up three of the Namaste Circular Needle Cases and stocked them with all of my circs. (Three, because it took three to fit all of them in.) I use the green one for the 8-16″ lengths. (Green for “growing”. I figured that would help me to remember it’s the littlest lengths of needles). I use the red one for 22-32″ lengths. (Red because it’s one of my favorite colors and I knew I’d be using that one most of all.)  I use the black one for 36-60″ lengths. (Black because we had more black cases in stock at the time!) I really like the way this has worked out. The cases are compact and easy to store, and it’s easy to grab one of them if I’m going on vacation and want to take some with me.

I haven’t organized my straights and DPN’s into one good system yet. I have several small organizers that I’ve picked up over the years, but the problem is, that leaves all of my needles in different places instead of into one system. (The other problem is, I happen to like all of the different little small organizers that I have. So maybe I’ll leave that alone for the time being.) I do have misc. straights and DPN’s in vases like this, both here at Loopy and at home. I like the way it looks, even though it’s not set up for quick and easy needle-finding. If you do this, be sure to cut a piece of felt to put in the bottom of the vase, to protect the points.

The other thing I don’t really have organized are my patterns. Who has some good tips for pattern organization? With many of my sock patterns, I’ve typed up the stitch pattern into a larger font (hello eyes that can’t read tiny print like they used to) and I store them inside the page protector for that pattern. I also keep several of my favorites written up on index cards. I like the ones that this etsy artist has. And I use Dropbox between my computer and iPad for the patterns that I have scanned and saved as pdf’s, so that I have some current patterns available there as well. But I don’t have any easy way to access ALL of my sock patterns or ALL of my shawl patterns, etc.

Do you have any needle or pattern storage tips that you can share?

Sheri whothinksbeingorganizedsavesmoretimeforactualknitting

Three things I wonder:

1.  Why do the purple iris’ in my back yard smell like grape Kool-Aid? (Turn the smell-o-meter up on your computer and you can smell it. I think that’s the F6 key.)
2.  Why is it going to be 92 degrees here tomorrow and yet it’s only May? Is that really necessary?
3.  What roll do weeds play in the whole scheme of things? (Also Poison Ivy.)

Three things you need to know:

1. There won’t be an Update tonight because I got distracted by the Fling and didn’t order yarn for two weeks. FPS. Call me a slacker.
2. We had a big batch of Wollmeise (the slightly underweight skeins that Claudia’s mill sent her by mistake) that we put up this afternoon, instead. It’s sold out now and we’ll get these orders out for you tomorrow.
3.  We put the whole batch of Wollmeise up at once this time, so that’s it for this shipment. No need to watch for more this week.

Three bits of news about Loopy contest:

1. The randomly drawn winner of the First Quarter Challenge is Dana from WA. She knit up a beautiful Capelet with 2 1/2 skeins of Bugga. She won a $30 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate.
2.  The “Knitter’s Choice” winner of the First Quarter Challenge goes to Barbara from IL, who knit a lovely Smocked Cable Coat out of Madelinetosh Vintage. She also won a $30 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate.
3.  You still have a chance to win a Spring Fling Goodie Bag! Leave your comment on this blog post. We’ll draw the winners on Friday.

Three things I have not been doing lately:

1. Knitting.
2. Knitting.
3. Knitting.

Is there anything that you have temporarily slacked off on lately? (Good or bad?)

Sheri lackofknittinghasnotaffectedmystashacquisitions.
Forsomereason,itdoesn’tworkthatwaywithme.

Last night was our late-night shopping hours evening. We’re open later the first Thursday of each month. Some Thursday nights are crazy busy, and other nights are calm and laid back. Last night, we had a great group of knitters pop over from Illinois to hang out, shop, and knit. In that group there were experienced knitters and brand new knitters, which is always fun. Some of them were just learning to knit socks and were being encouraged and instructed by the more experienced knitters in their group.

But the unique thing about this group? Some of them were the very first in-person shoppers to visit The Loopy Ewe. Here’s a photo of their first trip, back when Loopy was just a teeny tiny corner of shelves in my basement. They could stand in the middle of it and reach any shelf and any skein of yarn. (I’m not exaggerating.) The thing is, I think they had just as much fun on that first visit as they did on this visit (and all of their visits in between). It doesn’t matter how many shelves of yarn you have – just getting knitting friends and yarn together pretty much guarantees that fun will follow.

I made up a couple of extra Spring Fling Goodie Bags, just so I could share them with you in a blog contest! This year’s bag was a clear vinyl tote with shoulder straps, that came with a yellow-checked Loopy Ewe Mug, a sample of hand lotion, a Loopy sticky note set, and a skein of Wollmeise in a variety of colorways. Would you like to win one? Just leave us a comment below and answer this question: How many years have you been knitting? We’ll draw for the Goodie Bag winners next week.

Sheri hopingyourweekendbringsyourelaxationandsometimetoknit!

Three things I don’t like about The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling:

1.  Lack of sleep. Someone will point out that this is entirely my own fault, but I would disagree. How can you go to sleep when there are people in the Knitting Lounge, having fun? You can’t. You must stay up.

2.  An overflowing “To Make” list. Next year I will just have to ban all of those knitted items that people wear to the Fling. Never mind that their fellow knitters are the perfect audience to appreciate what they’ve made and are wearing. Seeing the beautiful variety of knits always instantly triples my To Make list and FPS, who has time for that?

3.  Telling everyone goodbye at the end. The weekend seems to go so fast and I always wish I had had more time with each person. Also, every year I say “This was the BEST group we’ve ever had. We need to bring them all back next year so that we can do it again.” I said it again this year and I mean it. (I guess I might’ve said that in past years, too.)

Three (or rather, a bunch of) things I love about The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling (besides the Dessert Reception and awesome teachers, which I shared with you on last Friday’s blog already):

All of the people who set aside a few days of their life to fly in and share their love of knitting with everyone around them.

The Conference Center Manager John, who loves our group so much that he took a photo of the group with his cell phone (because he said he needed a photo “of my ladies”.)

And who wanted to learn to knit, so he sat down with Sarah and jumped in.

And who then left us this note on the conference center screen on the last night.

Also, watching people shop in person at Loopy. It makes them happy! And even though they shopped in groups of 35 at a time, they remained happy and calm. Because they’re awesome that way.

And knowing that they also have all the patience in the world while waiting for others to check out, because they’ll just take a seat and knit.

Seeing several people go back for just one more thing they wanted to take home (like Cindy who had to have this gorgeous bag, so I made her pose with Web Guy while she was checking out.)

And watching the enabling extend past yarn and into shoes, as Angela helps Mya order shoes on her cellphone on the shuttle trip to and from Loopy. We love yarn. We love shoes. What can I say?

Also, having international travelers – Claudia came from Germany for her third Fling, and Linda from Australia and Sarah from Canada. Plus Web Guy from Colorado, Knitting Daughter from Indiana and Janice and her daughter K and my mother in law who all drove in from Iowa. And cake balls. And door prizes. And secret surprise yarn. Yep. It was fun from beginning to end. When can we do it again?

Sheri whostartedanewprojectattheFling.
Iknowthatdoesn’tsurpriseyou.

We’ve just re-loaded our shelves (and it took up lots of shelves) with 73 colors of Madtosh Vintage for you. Doesn’t that make for a fun Monday Update? (Shown here in Iris, which I picked because the Iris bulbs in my yard are coming up and are exactly this color of purple. Plus, they smell like grape Kool-Aid.  My flowers. Not the yarn. Although wouldn’t that be fun if the yarn smelled like grape Kool-Aid?) Now is a great time to order a sweater’s worth of Vintage for your next project. I loved the cute sweater that Angela had on at the Fling this weekend, made out of Vintage. Our lunch table saw her walk by and I think we all immediately put that pattern in our Favorites list on Rav.

We also put up:

Cascade Ultra Pima – in three new colors, including a true black.

Tempted’s new Prissy Grrl Lace and Prissy Grrl Sock – a lovely blend of baby alpaca, silk, and cashmere. I think this would be beautiful knit up into shawls.

Malabrigo Silky, Rasta, Rios, Lace, and pattern books. Between all of this Malabrigo and all of the Madtosh Vintage, we were fairly buried in cases of yarn last week. I think our UPS driver would like us to stop ordering so much.

Schaefer Nichole Two-fers – this is a special deal, because their mill messed up and sent them 4 oz. skeins instead of the usual 5 oz skeins. We sell the 4 oz. skeins for $28 and due to a deal with Schaefer, we’re offering these double 4-oz skeins for just $30. There are 324 yds. per skein, so you’ll be getting 648 skeins in the two-fer. Perfect for slightly larger shawls. (Shown here in Josephine Baker).

Patterns from Knitspot (re-stocks and 8 new ones) plus JC Briar’s new book “Charts Made Simple”.

Mill Hill Beads - re-stocked (as well as the beading crochet hooks).

Laci’s Wrist Ball Holder – for those of you who missed them before the first sell-out.

2011 Mother’s Day Kits – many of you found these already, but for those of you who missed this update at the end of last week, we still have a few left and ready to ship.

Dream in Color’s Dream Club for May – a skein of Baby in the exclusive Sour Pear colorway. Baby is a 700 yd. skein of light fingering / laceweight, loosely twisted for ultra softness. Your purchase of this skein also comes with the emailed pattern for Flyaway, a cute (and quick to knit) vest.  We have some skeins available now, and we’ll put another batch of this up next Wednesday (5/11) as well. Watch for the emailed pattern within 48 hours of your order shipping. (And let us know if you don’t get it. Sometimes they bounce back, and sometimes they take a trip around cyberspace or jump into your spam folder.)

Sheri seriouslylackingsleepafterSpringFling,butohwhatfun!