Last night one of our Knit Nighters (Cricket) demonstrated steeking (eek!!) on her beautiful Dale of Norway sweater. She bought this yarn for this sweater just a month or so ago and is already just about done with it. Cricket is a wicked-fast knitter.

She demo-ed how to crochet an edging to prevent raveling. She is turning her sweater into a cardigan, which I think is a great idea.

Most of us covered our eyes when the actual cutting began.

Check out St. Louis Elf Donna in the group photo above. (In the tan shawl by the round rack, getting ready to take a picture of the steeking.) She came to visit this week, which was very fun, and I’m glad she could be here for one of our Knit Nights, too!

I’m still not convinced I could take scissors to my knitting. I’d have to work up to that in life.

Have you steeked yet?

Sheri whowillnotmakethataQuarterlyChallengetechniqueanytimesoon.

Three cats, two raccoons, miscellaneous birds, and now a squirrel. All of them frequent the water in the bird bath and the bowl of cat food on our deck. I didn’t know that squirrels ate cat food, but this guy was pretty content to just sit there and eat and eat and eat.

The only reason WH puts up with the cat food on the deck? He figures it’s better than listening to me go on and on about wanting another cat or a dog or any other kind of additional pet. Cat food on the deck is a heck of a lot cheaper. Plus it gives him a chance to take some nice animal photos from time to time.

Do you have any visitors in your back yard?

Sheri whodidnotnamethesquirrel.
Ortheskunkwhotriedtovisitlastweek.

It has been a busy day (getting all of your Second Quarter Challenge orders out), so this is coming to you a little late in the day. When we pack up your orders, we always have fun talking about what you might be making (and hoping that you get it done so that you’ll submit a photo for us to see!) We love being a part of your shopping here, from me checking out your selections when I write on your orders, to the Elves pulling them and packing them up carefully. Thanks for letting us be your personal shoppers as we walk around the shop, filling up the order bin for you. We get to enjoy all of your yarn vicariously and then send it on its way to your house!

Tomorrow we’ll be doing more shopping for you, because we just put up some beautiful things on the website for tonight’s Monday Update.

• Malabrigo Worsted – 28 colors to choose from for sweaters, vests, hats and scarves. (Shown above in Nostalgia.)

• Malabrigo Rios – 5 colors are in – more on the way soon.

• Malabrigo Arroyo – everything re-stocked.

• Malabrigo Lace – 30 colors for your summerweight shawls and wraps.

• Malabrigo Pattern Books 1, 2 and 3

• Cascade 220 – the wall is filled up again. I love it when the 220 Wall is full.

• Cascade Heritage Sock – fingering weight, great for socks!

• Cascade Heritage Silk – fingering weight, great for shawls (with that extra silk in there.)

• Della Q Bags – re-stocked.

• Knitter’s Pride Interchangeable Tips – sizes 4-13, to go with the cords we have up.

• Knitter’s Pride Cable Needles – 3 to a set.

• Mary Hadley Loopy Ewe Yarn Bowls – remember, these have to ship separately so that we can pack them well. We’re happy to have these back in stock!

• Mary Hadley Loopy Ewe Flared Mugs – ditto. They must ship on their own, and they’re as cute as ever.

• Perfect Notions Cases – for your stitchmarkers, darning needles, little stitch counters, etc. I keep one in each knitting bag.

• And at the end of last week (in time for our Cotton Challenge), we added in:

• Cascade Ultra Pima

• Cascade Fixation

• Namaste Bags – Messenger and Boardwalk (backpack) bags, and Buddy Cases

• Knitter’s Pride Needles – re-stocked

• Stonehedge Fiber’s Shepherd Wool Worsted - re-stocked (and shown here in Misty Blue.)

You’d think that all of those updates and re-stocks would last us a good long while, wouldn’t you? But the back stock room is filled up again with new boxes that arrived today, which we’ll work on for next Monday. Aren’t Mondays fun??

Now for the contest. The weather is getting warmer here and spring and summer are just around the corner. It makes me wonder – do you have a favorite season for knitting? Fall, when you’re thinking of holiday gifts? Winter, when it’s too cold outside to do anything else? Spring, when you’re dreaming of lightweight shawls? Summer, when it’s too hot and you are thinking about cool-weather wear? Or do you knit year-round pretty much the same amount? I knit the same amount year round, in all seasons. I can’t imagine cutting back! Leave your answer below and we’ll draw for $25 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificates next week.

Sheri finishedthenever-ending-ruffleshawl.Picturessoon.

We’re finishing up the First Quarter Challenge in the next week (photos of your finished projects due uploaded to our First Quarter Challenge Photo Gallery by April 4th), so it’s time to look at a new challenge for April/May/June! In the first quarter, the challenge was to knit with a yarn that had silk in it. The challenge for the second quarter is to knit adult socks, a sweater or a vest with a yarn that has cotton in it. (Perfect timing for spring or summer!) It doesn’t have to be 100% cotton – it just has to have some percentage of cotton in the fiber content. Here are the particulars for this challenge:

You can have a discount for the yarn you are using for this challenge: If you need to purchase yarn for the project, we are offering you a 20% discount on it for the next week. (Limited to one Challenge Project’s worth of yarn ordered in one order, so calculate carefully and get the yardage you need when you place the order.) The discount runs from Friday, 3/23, through midnight on Saturday, 3/31. To get the discount, you must leave us an order note indicating that you are participating in the challenge and letting us know which yarn you will be using (for us to apply the discount to). When we get your order, we’ll apply the discount and adjust the order totals. If you’re in the U.S. and wanting to go for free shipping (orders over $75), please make sure that the discount will not take you below the $75 level, or the website will add the regular $5.95 shipping charge back in.

You can get a bonus for finishing in time: If you purchase the yarn for your project from us between 3/23 and 3/31, and if you upload your finished project into the Second Quarter ’12 Photo Gallery at The Loopy Ewe by 7/1, we will give you double Frequent Shopper points on your project’s yarn. (So if your yarn was $20, you will get $20 towards your FSB amounts when you purchase it during the discount week of 3/23 & 3/31, and we’ll add $20 more to your FSB totals if you get your project done and photo uploaded in time.) If you change your mind once you get the yarn and end up using something else for the project, it’s no longer eligible for the double FSB points, unless it’s yarn that was also purchased from us between 3/23 and 3/31.

You may also use yarn from your stash: You are welcome to use yarn from your stash, as long as it’s a line that we carry at The Loopy Ewe. If you finish in time and upload your photo to the Second Quarter Challenge Gallery, you will be eligible for the Reader’s Choice Award and the randomly drawn Challenge Winner award. ($25 gift certificates to The Loopy Ewe.) Be sure to indicate what yarn it is in the photo notes, when you upload your photo.

One thing to note – we will be doing Camp Loopy again this summer, and that will start with the first project in June – so we’ll have a bit of overlap between this challenge and Camp Loopy. But socks or a short sleeved sweater in DK or Worsted weight should knit up pretty quickly. No doubt you’ll be more than ready for Camp Loopy in June!

We just re-stocked a lot of our cottons for this, so here are some great choices for the challenge:

Fingering weight:

Crystal Palace Panda Cotton

Sport/DK weight:

Amy Butler Belle Organic DK

Blue Sky Skinny Cotton (shown above in Coral)

Cascade Fixation

Cascade Ultra Pima (shown above in Alaska Sky)

Kollage Riveting Sport

Worsted weight:

Amy Butler Belle Organic Aran

Kollage Riveting Worsted

Spud and Chloe Outer (shown above in Giggle – purple)

Spud and Chloe Sweater (shown above in Grass)

Universal Cotton Supreme and Batik

And some pattern ideas to get you thinking:

Stowe Sweater

Liesl

Buttercup

Neck Down V Neck T-Shirt

Simple Summer Tweed

Hey Teach

Shellseeker

Zoe Cardi

Neck Down Summer Cardigan

Ruby Tuesday

Lavendar Cardigan

Vine Lace Vest

Ophelia

Thomasina

Sea Glass

I could go on and on with patterns – there are so many great ones out there. I know you’ll find something just right for you. So who is in and what are you going to make?

Sheri decidingbetweenUltraPimaandAmyButlerformyproject

It’s so fun to have Knitting Daughter home for Spring Break this week. (And I refuse to think about the fact that this is her very last Spring Break, since she’ll be graduating in May. Must not think about it.) We have some errands on the to-do list, but in addition to that, this is what we have planned for a good solid day while she’s home. We both love this show (and coffee, and knitting). I did notice one of the maids knitting on the show, but I’m pretty sure she was a fake knitter. (Really, how hard is it for someone to show the actress how to hold the needles and look realistic? Maybe they need one of us to go over there and be an on-the-set knitting coach …..) So –  today’s post is short and sweet. We need to brew more coffee and settle back in to the world of Downton Abbey.

Any other Downton fans out there? And why do we have to wait so long for Season Three??

Sheri patiencenotoneofmystrongsuits…

This week in particular, it seems like we are surrounded by awesome colors in the Monday Update. I told Inventory Elf Roberta to just bar me from the back room where all the new stuff is. It’s safer that way. We just added in:

Dream in Color – A special one-time Merino/Alpaca sock blend that is 1) soft and yummy, 2) warm, and 3) gorgeous. You get 420 yards in this merino/alpaca/nylon blend, and it’s perfect for socks or one-skein shawls. (Shown here in the Sprinkler colorway.)

Dream in Color - Another special one-time offering in 4 oz. Silk/Merino laceweight. They had leftover skeins of the March Dream Club silk/merino lace and offered it to us. We snapped that right up!  We have it dyed up in pastels (great for summer shawls) and deeper colors (great for fall and winter shawls). We also have permission to offer you a copy of the popular Vostok Shawl pattern with purchase, so leave us an order note if you’d like us to email you the copy. It’s the pattern that went with the March Dream Club yarn, so some of you already have it. With 1100 yards in this skein, you have a lot of pattern options. (Shown here in the Passion colorway.)

Shalimar Yarns - I’ve often coveted the many beautiful colors of this yarn (especially their fun Newsprint colorway), but when I picked up a skein of their Breathless yarn, I knew we had to have it here. This fingering weight yarn comes 420 yds. to the skein and is 75% Superwash Merino, 15% Cashmere, and 15% Silk. It would be awesome for socks, but I think even nicer for shawls and scarves so you can keep it up close and around your neck and shoulders. (Shown here in Byzantine.)

Kauni - We have a big re-stock on the solids and the multi-colors, just in time to jump into a Wingspan, or a Hitchhiker, or a Citron. The multi-color skeins are sold by weight – anywhere from 120-180 gr. per ball. As always, we re-weigh the skeins and sell them at their actual weight. Some of the skeins seem to come in under the actual weight shown on the label and we don’t want you to be shorted. I did notice that some of the labels now say “150 gr. +/- 10 gr. and that seems like a big difference, don’t you think? We’ll keep weighing them for you. (Shown here in the EZ colorway.)

Spud and Chloe – Re-stocks in all Fine, Sweater and Outer colors. Someone came in the shop last week to get yarn for a Delancey Cardigan. Wouldn’t this look great in Spud & Chloe Sweater?

Blue Sky Alpacas – Re-stocks in Worsted Hand Dyes, Alpaca Silk and Skinny Cotton.

ChiaoGoo Needles – we added in circulars in the 16″ length.

Mill Hill Beads – re-stocked. This would be a great time to get a skein of the new DC Alpaca or DC Lace special bases and some beads to go with it.

We’re looking forward to sending out lots of color to you tomorrow!

Sheri stillpluggingawayonSothiabutonthelastsectionoftheruffle