Here I am in Colorado and all of this lovely new yarn is in St. Louis. That is definitely a drawback to working long distance for the time being. (Not for too long, though. We’re narrowing down the options for where we want Loopy to land here in Ft. Collins.) In the meantime, here is the new yarn that is tempting me today. Just up:

Madelinetosh Pashmina – this sport weight yarn continues to be a favorite for just about everyone. The base is 75% super wash merino, 15% silk, and 15% cashmere. Great for socks, but equally wonderful for shawls, scarves and mittens. How about making: Foliage Lace Mitts, Wandering the Moor Shawl,  or the Shoulder Wrap. (Shown above in Steam Age.)

Madelinetosh Sport - this is our first batch of this base and I think you’re going to love it. We have it in 75 colors to insure that there are enough color choices for you. I’m making socks with it, but you know it’s also going to be just right for hats and shawls and gloves and vests. (Shown here in French Grey.)

Hand Maiden Swiss Mountain Silk – This is one you’ll want around your neck or on your hands. It’s one of the “ahhhh” base yarns. (You know, where you touch it and say, “Ahhhh….”). I think it would be lovely in the Annis shawl.

Fiberphile – a few additional colors that didn’t get up when we got the merino/cashmere/nylon base in recently. Between the soft base and the gorgeous colors, this yarn doesn’t stay around for very long.

Three Bags Full – bigger project bags (9 x 4.5 x 4.5) from Michele. If you’re like me (and I love it that so many of you are), you have a few ton of projects on the needles and it helps to have a different project bag for each one. Or … maybe that’s just me doing the justification thing again. I can talk myself into so many lovely things.

Fifth Anniversary Colorado Celebration Yarn – We have another wonderful company who has dyed up another beautiful colorway for us, in order to celebrate our Fifth Anniversary. As I mentioned last week, we are using our new state – Colorado – for inspiration. This week, you’ll find “Colorado Spruce” on the Solemate base from Lorna’s Laces. Please note – it we run out quickly like we did last week, you can pre-order from the next batch by sending us an email: support@theloopyewe.com. We do our best to anticipate the right quantities ahead of time, but sometimes you all surprise us!

Sheri triedanewcoffeeplacehereintown – DazbogCoffee.Superb.

You know we love contests around here. It’s fun to have you participate and then share some prizes with you! Next week we’ll have our Fifth Anniversary Contest, but first we have a couple of other ones to wrap up. During Project Two time for Camp Loopy, we divided the participants up by Trail Guides. Some of the Trail Guide groups have been very active on Ravelry, talking about their projects. We asked each group to come up with a colorway and name to commemorate their time together. I told them I’d pick my favorite for awarding some prizes, but that we’d have ALL of the colorways dyed up for fun. Watch for news of Camp Colorways this fall!

The competition was fierce, and it was hard to make a decision. But the final winner is Lulu’s Lightening Bolt. I picked this one because not only is the inspiration-photo pretty, but I liked the story behind it. These campers really got into the spirit of Camp Loopy. They said, “After one of our hikes got cancelled due to a thunder and lightening storm, we decided we would love a yarn to memorialize our time spent in the lodge together waiting out the storm, watching the wonderful colors light up the sky.” Click here if you’d like to see the photo. I used the random number generator to pick three comments for winners on their Ravelry thread. Cairnknits, Brainsneezes and Shedubba each win a $20 Loopy gift certificate for participating in the winning colorway thread!

I also have the winner of our Second Quarter Challenge, which was to knit for charity (or using a pattern that benefits a charity). The winner is Sarah from MN who knit the Japanese Garden Shawl (which was designed by Wendy Johnson, with pattern proceeds for April donated to the Red Cross. Wendy’s generous contribution brought in more than $6000 for the Red Cross!) Sarah donated her beautifully finished shawl to Wrapped in Care, a charity that provides shawls to women in the hospital who have just lost a baby to stillbirth or neonatal loss. Sarah has won a $35 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate, for the Challenge.

We’re still tallying votes on the Project One Reader’s Choice award, so we’ll wait and announce all Project One winners in a week or so. Just know that we’re working on it. And then pretty soon it will be time to vote on Project Two.  Your projects this summer have been stunning.

Before I go – here’s a quick and healthy (as promised) recipe to try out this summer. We had this at a friend’s house this summer and it quickly became one of our favorite side dishes.

Susan’s Roasted Sweet Potatoes

4-6 sweet potatoes
Olive Oil
Oregano
Salt
Thyme

Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them into 1/2″ thick discs. Put in a large bowl and add a few tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tsp. of Oregano, and 1 tsp. Thyme. Stir to coat well. Layer the potato discs in a single layer onto a foil-covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and more Thyme and Oregano, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until tender.

We have big things going on downtown this weekend. So much to explore. What are you doing this weekend?

Sheri surehappytohaveKnittingDaughterhomeforaweek

I have a few miscellaneous things to share with you today. First of all, check out the great squirrel picture that WH took. It almost makes squirrels look cute (instead of the birdfeeder destroying, birdfood stealing imps that they are).

Gracie and Zoe continue to find sunshine to sleep in around the house. Today, they seemed to want the same sunbeam at the same time.

Zoe likes to sit on the back of my chair when I’m working. I keep thinking she’ll nod off to sleep and fall off. It could happen. She was sleeping on my lap the other day and had a dream that made her jump and she bounced right out of my lap and onto the floor. Then she looked at me confused, wondering what just happened (and why we were all laughing …)

I’m sorry about the Anniversary Bugga selling out so fast. If you’d like us to reserve a skein for you from the next batch, email us: support@theloopyewe.com. Next week we’ll have another dyer/colorway for the anniversary!

Camp Loopy Reminders:

- remember to finish your Project Two projects by 8/15, with photos uploaded by 8/16 in order to qualify for double FSB points (if you bought the yarn during Camp Store Week – 7/1 – 7/8) and in order to qualify for the Wollmeise bonus (if you complete all three projects by the deadlines).

- to qualify for bonuses, remember that the yarn you use must have been purchased from us during or after Camp Store Week for that project. As we said before, that’s the way we insure that you aren’t sharing an old project with us (or that you didn’t start the project before the start-date.)

- you are welcome to knit from stash and upload a photo to the gallery, as long as it’s yarn that you purchased here. Your photo will be eligible for the random gallery drawings that we will do, even though it won’t be eligible for double FSB points or the Wollmeise bonus.

I know we covered all of these situations in the Camp Loopy Q & A blog post and on Ravelry, but I thought I’d mention it again.

Have you checked out the socks, mittens and gloves that have been uploaded so far? I have had such a fun time seeing what you have done. I’ve also decided that I need to knit a pair of Cookie A’s BFF Socks, and I want yellow mittens out of  the Wood Hollow pattern and red mittens out of the Eugenia’s Mittens pattern. My fall, winter and spring knitting has been set, between Projects One and Two. I’m almost afraid to see what you all do with Project Three.

Got any Bits and Bobs to tell us?

Sheri fivemoredaysandthenwecanstartthelastCampLoopyProject!

Would you like to know that I’ve been doing all day? Spending money, and bolstering the economy in my own little corner. Specifically, I’ve been ordering yarn, yarn, yarn, yarn, yarn. Plus bags and needles. (No, not yarn, bags and needles for my own self. Yarn, bags and needles for all of YOU! Although I do have a bad habit of making sure some of these things get moved into my own stash, when they arrive. Job hazard.) You all had so much fun ordering yarn for your Project Three Camp Loopy projects, that it left some bare spots on the shelves. No worries. We get yarn in just about every day. (For example, check out today’s webcam photo for the some of the 13+ cases of yarn that arrived today.) But I did have to order an extra large amount today, to fill up even more shelves.

Of course we do have fun stuff that we just put up for you today. We’ve added in:

Anniversary Celebration Yarn! Can you believe we’re celebrating our Fifth Anniversary this month? Sometimes it seems like it has been AGES longer than that, and sometimes it seems like we started The Loopy Ewe just a few months ago. In the past we have done kits to celebrate our anniversary, but we wanted to change things up this time. Instead of ONE yarn to commemorate the anniversary, we’re bringing in three special colorways – a new one each week for the rest of August. We asked three of our favorite dyers to do an exclusive for us. Since (as you know) we are moving The Loopy Ewe to Colorado this fall, we thought it would be fun to also celebrate our new state in the process. Our first colorway (available now) was done by The Sanguine Gryphon on the Bugga base and is called Colorado Hairstreak, because the Colorado state insect is the Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly. (And who better to do the state insect than the Bugga folks??) I hope you enjoy it! (EDIT: Wow – you all snapped that up FAST. If you didn’t get a skein and would like some, send us an email support@theloopyewe.com and we’ll save you a skein from the next batch. Sorry for the quick sellout.)

Swan’s Island - I had never heard of Swan’s Island blankets before (because, lovely as they are, they are waaay out of my price range for blankets. Although there sure are a lot of people who know about them. I think they were once one of Oprah’s favorite things. That tends to bring a bit of publicity.) But the minute I felt their new yarn line, I was on board to add it here at The Loopy Ewe. This organic merino is naturally dyed, organically processed (making it softer – less harsh chemical usage), and comes 525 yds. to a skein in the fingering weight, which is a great deal. I want a shawl out of it, and I want a pair of socks out of it. And then maybe something else, too! We still have a few colors that will trickle in, but most of them have arrived.

Lorna’s Laces - more colors in SoleMate (the temperature regulating yarn – so cool), and re-stocks in Shepherd Sock.

Fiberphile – the merino/cashmere/nylon base that we all love, in Georgia’s beautiful colors (shown here in Bluebird). I have two set aside to make a Batik shawl. (Actually, I set them aside out of the last order, and then got all carried away with Camp Loopy and those projects. But Camp Loopy is almost done, which means I can start knitting up the bazillion projects that I have in my queue now.)

Fleece Artist 2/6 - we put in several big orders at market in June at the Fleece Artist booth, and they are starting to arrive. This week it’s 2/6, and next week we’ll have Hand Maiden Swiss Silk for you.

Patterns – two Club Loopy patterns have been added to our Club Section. Now available: A Breath of Fresh Air Scarf and Frosted Fields Socks.

Pop on over and start stocking up for fall. And check in next week for our Fifth Anniversary Contest, which we’ll talk about on the blog!

Sheri whomighthavehadtoomuchcoffeewhileworkingtoday

I had a lot of fun knitting up these mittens for Project Two of Camp Loopy. Love the yarn (Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino Worsted) and love the pattern (All the Water from Through the Loops). I’m already thinking that I’d like to have some red mittens, and then maybe some sunshine yellow mittens as well. Once Camp Loopy knitting is done, I’ll have time to work on the long list of favorites that I’ve compiled this summer!  For those of you still working on Project Two, remember you need to have your photos uploaded to the Project Two photo gallery by 8/16 (international campers by 8/23). Don’t worry if you don’t see them approved by the deadline. Sometimes I have a backlog to work through. But each one comes through with a date and time stamp, so I know exactly when you uploaded them.

Believe it or not, I’ve actually had some time to try a few new recipes in the past couple of weeks. (Partly due to the fact that we’ve had people visit us already.) One of the recipes I’ve loved the most are these Cake Ball Truffles. They are …. so awesome. They’re not cake balls, because you don’t bake a cake and crumble it up to make the insides. You just make the batter (no eggs, so it’s safe to eat) and then roll them into balls and dip them. Easy. Yummy. Give them a try if you like the taste of cake batter like I do. The original recipe comes from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog.

Cake Batter Truffles by The Girl Who Ate Everything
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup yellow cake mix
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
4 Tbl. milk
2 Tbl. sprinkles

Truffle Coating:
16 oz. almond bark or white candy melts
4 Tbl. yellow cake mix
sprinkles

(Note – I doubled this recipe so that I could use almost the whole box of cake mix. And because one can never have too many truffles.)

Beat together butter and sugar. Add the cake mix, flour, salt and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 4 Tbl. milk to make a good dough consistency. (Use more or less, depending on how it’s looking to you. You should be able to make a nice firm ball of dough with it.) Mix in the sprinkles by hand. Roll into 1″ balls and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Melt the almond bark in the microwave (30 seconds at a time, so that you are careful not to burn it.) When it’s melted, stir in the cake mix. Dip the balls into the coating with a fork, tapping the fork on the side of the bowl to remove excess coating. Place on a cookie sheet and top with sprinkles right away, since the bark will harden quickly. Chill until ready to serve. A doubled recipe makes about 3-4 dozen truffles.

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that sprinkles just make things look happy? That’s why you get two truffle pictures today. I’m promoting happiness. How are you promoting happiness today?

Sheri whopromisestosharesomehealthyrecipesintheweekstocome,too

Well I have to say, it’s good to be back to Loopy-ville after having two weeks off to move and unpack. (But it was good to have the two weeks off, too.) In the two weeks that we’ve been here, we’ve already had visitors. We’ve had my parents, WH’s mom and friend, my friend Meda, and our friends Steve and Janice and their kids pop in already.  The nice thing about people visiting you right away is that they don’t expect much in terms of how the house looks (or what meals you might want to make for them) so that worked out well.  Plus, we’re very close to a place called “Serious Texas BBQ” and we have gotten good at trucking people up there for dinner when they visit.

I promised to show you my favorite part of this place and here it is: the back yard. We have an overabundance of evergreen trees, as well as common ground on one side and in the back. You can be out on the deck and not see another house. (If you had been to our St. Louis house, you know that we had people RIGHTTHERE on either side and in the back. So this is wonderful. I anticipate spending lots of time back there, once things settle down a bit.)

And a few of you wanted to know where the cats like to hang out in the new house. Here’s Gracie’s favorite place – sitting along the back of the couch, looking out the window into the back yard.  Then falling asleep for a long cat nap.

Zoe is also into cat naps and can be found anywhere there is sunshine. Like on our bed in the afternoon. Or sprawled out on the warm tile in the mornings, as the sun pours into the kitchen. This house has a lot more direct sunlight and both cats are enjoying that. They used to fight over the one little sliver of sunlight that made its way into one of our dining room windows for a few brief moments in St. Louis. Now the whole back of the house is bathed in sunlight in the mornings and they have several warm spots to choose from.

We also have a little front office that I have taken over. In addition to a desk with a computer (where I can do my Loopy stuff), I have my works-in-progress cabinet and a chair for knitting.

So that’s a few areas of the house that we’ve been enjoying during our first two weeks here. But enough about that. Let’s get onto Contest Winners! We have three winners from last week’s Blog Contest, where I asked you to share some favorite summer memories. Thanks for participating! And congratulations to the winners that the random number generator picked:  Agata from MN, Retha from CT, and Michele from Saskatoon, who each win a $35 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate.

Now that all of the entries (751!) have been uploaded to the Project One photo gallery for Camp Loopy, pop over there and pick out some of your favorites. Aren’t they amazing? We’d like to award a Reader’s Choice Award, in addition to a couple of other awards that we’re going to do. Can you help us? Send your choice for your personal favorite to support @ theloopyewe.com and we’ll tally the votes and award prizes next week. Speaking of Photo Galleries, I’m working on the Project Two gallery. So far we’ve had 200 photos submitted and these mittens, socks and gloves are just gorgeous. Such happy colors! I’ll keep working on going through all of them to get them approved. I know you’d like to see them asap. I am just so proud of all of you who have been camping along with us this summer. You’ve inspired each other, and you’ve certainly inspired me. It has been a lot of fun! I hope you’re participating in Project Three with us. Remember, even if you have not done Project One or Two, you can still participate and join us in Project Three. Come along!

Sheri whoneedstoadjustbacktoaworking”sleep”schedule.
Stillstayinguptoolateinthep.m.andneedingtoomuchcoffeeinthea.m.