Time’s up! (Well – at midnight tonight.) Put down your needles and back away from Project One. I know that many of you have already finished, due to the 500+ photos already up in the Camp Loopy Project One Gallery. GREAT JOB on that! I’ve spent a lot of time looking at each one of your projects, and I’m really proud of the way you all have risen to the challenge. Your projects are just amazing and I hope you have had fun with Project One. I also hope that you’ve found a few more two-color shawls and scarves that you want to make, because then I’ll be in good company!

This is also the day we can jump into Project Two. Time starts now! For a refresher on Project Two details, see this post. You can start any time today, or after, with projects being finished on or before 8/15, photos uploaded 8/16. I am particularly amazed at the people who ordered yarn for project one a week or two after we had started, and they still finished ahead of time. Some of you must knit like the wind! Here is the beginning of my Project Two Mittens. I love cables and this pattern looks wonderful. If last month is any indication, I’ll probably find several more patterns to put on my list, as I see your photos start pouring in.

WH and I have a long car ride to Colorado next week. The time has finally come for the move! The movers arrive first thing in the morning to pack up the moving van (which means we’ll probably be up late tonight, finishing up the final boxing up.) One thing I’m not looking forward to? Two cats in the car for 14 hours. One of them will see this as a big adventure and will be perfectly fine. The other one doesn’t like change and will tell us about it the whole way there. Oh, it’s going to be a fun trip. One thing both cats will miss – having a screened porch to hang out in. Here’s a picture of Gracie, ohsoclose to a squirrel who happened to be climbing up to the bird feeder. He knew the cat was there – see the angry action of his tail, which is a blur? Gracie was stupefied. Zoe would have jumped at the squirrel and scared him to death. (Does that give you a clue as to which cat is adventurous and which cat is a scaredy cat?)

I’ll be somewhat removed from emails and Ravelry for about a week. I’ll check as often as I can, but if you need something that the Elves can help you with, please use the support @ theloopyewe.com address. After next week, I’ll be back to more regular communication. I will, however, have a Monday Update and blog post for you, so watch for that. More fun stuff has arrived!

Sheri whowillnotmissthisSt.Louisheatandhumidity

It’s time to unveil the specs for Project Two! Now remember, you can’t start knitting on it until July 15th.

* The knit time for this one is 7/15 – 8/15, with photos uploaded by 8/16. (Just one extra day for photo uploading, because this project won’t need to be blocked like Project One.)

* International Campers – due to longer shipping times, your project should be done 8/22, with photos uploaded by 8/23.

Project Two is called “Hiking in the Mountains”. Doesn’t everyone have to go on a hike when they’re at camp? I know that it’s not always in the mountains, but it always felt like you were dragging yourself up a steep hill/mountain, by the very end of the hike, waiting for it to be done. (Or was that just me?)

For this project, the challenge is to knit or crochet either a pair of socks or a pair of mittens or a pair of gloves, in an adult size. (No fingerless mitts this time around.) The other part of the challenge is that the pattern you use needs to contain cables, which are always fun to do!

Here are two blog posts (one, two) which contain more information on Camp Loopy and how the projects work. The first one is the original post about it, and the second one has the Q & A.

* Once again, we are offering you a 20% discount on the yarn for this project (limit one Project Two discount per person, you’ll need to leave an order note telling us which yarn is for Camp Loopy, and this offer expires 7/8). We’ll take the discount off when we print out your order. Make sure that the discount won’t take you under the $75 free shipping amount (for U.S. packages), if you’re going for free shipping.

* Once again, we are offering you double Frequent Shopper Benefits if you get the yarn from us during July’s Camp Store Week (July 1 through July 8th at midnight, Central Time) and complete the project with photo uploaded by the due date.

* Check your order form for the name of your Hiking Trail Guide. (It will be one of the Loopy Elves.) We’ll have a bit of fun with that this month, too.

So how about some pattern ideas to get your creative juices flowing? Here are just a few cable-y options to get you started:

For socks: Diamonds and Cables, Ribs and Cables, Basket Case Socks, Cables Galore, Twisted Celtic Cable Socks, German Stocking Pattern, BFF Socks, and Taglioni.

For mittens: Bavarian Tulip Mittens, Knitted Mittens with Cables, Glitten, Hugs and Kisses Mittens, Cherry Mittens, Aran Winter Set Mittens, and Wood Hollow Mittens.

For gloves: Knotty Gloves, Three Oaks, Brunnhilde, He’s Driving Me Wild Gloves, Knitted Gloves with Cables and Bobbles, and Lady Sunshine.

Of course there are a lot of beautiful fingerless mitts with cables that could be turned into mittens or gloves, with a little know-how. I’m not linking to them, because someone will then knit them as a mitt and say “but you linked to it in your blog as one of the ideas!!”.  Just keep in mind that you can be innovative and turn fingerless patterns into regular mittens and gloves by combining a favorite mitten/glove formula (construction and number of stitches) with a fingerless mitt stitch pattern that you like.

We have a winner from our Crazy Campfire Story! Congratulations to Deb from West Virginia who wins two skeins of Claudia Hand Painted Fingering Weight yarn, in her choice of color. (She picked Cabin Fever to remind her of Camp Loopy when she wears the socks). Thanks to all who helped to participate in the storytelling. What a fun time Loopy has had!

So back to Project Two – who’s in and what are you going to make? (And don’t forget to bring along your walking stick and your Deep Woods Off.)

Sheri stillsoimpressedwiththeProjectOnephotosthatcontinuetopourin

P.S. Happy Canada Day to our Canadian Loopies, and Happy Fourth of July to our U.S. Loopies! Have a great, safe weekend, everyone.

There are a lot of things that come to mind when people think about Camp. Like hiking, campfires, swimming, singing, stories, and that blasted person who plays Reveille at way-too-early-o-clock in the morning. (Go ahead and click on the “sound” link on that Wiki page. It will transport you RIGHT back to early morning camping. Ugh.) Another thing that I think of when I think of camp? Flags. Not just the good ol’ USA flag, but special camp flags.

We definitely needed a Camp Loopy flag. But instead of making it up to depict the Camp Loopy logo (which would be cute, but not useful), I decided that a multi-colored bunting would be a lot more fun and a lot more practical. I picked three of my favorite colors from Cascade 220 (8895, 8505, and 8908 ) and doodled up a quick pattern for you. You can find it on the Free Patterns link over there in the right hand column of my blog. I hope you enjoy it!

I knit it so that the flags were spread out a bit. I like it this way because we have a fence in the back yard and I like looping the rope-y part behind the posts. However, you can also knit it so that all of the bunting flags line up continuously together. Just delete the spacing between them, when knitting up the pattern.

Other ideas for this pattern:

- do it up in holiday colors (Halloween? Valentine’s Day? Christmas?) and string it along a fireplace mantel.

- ditto for seasonal colors, Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. It would also look cute looped around a chandelier (away from the bulbs, of course).

- do it up in nursery colors and decorate a baby’s wall or shelves.

- do it up in multiple colors and use it for all family birthday celebrations.

- do it up in your favorite colors and use it in your craft/knitting corner. That’s what I’m doing with the set that I knit here.

They’re quick and easy to knit and it’s fun to come up with different color combinations. Got any color combo ideas you want to share?

Sheri whoalsowantsoneoftheseinautumncolors

The Campfire Story about Loopy is cracking me up! Did you read it? Loopy started off knitting in the attic of a house and he has: taught the UPS guy how to knit, drunk a portion of  shrinking potion, followed the Wollmeise trail to Germany, danced with blue and green lights, talked to Dr. Who, and met friends along the way. Great job on the story-telling! I’ll draw a yarn winner next week, so feel free to continue the story over the weekend.

Here is a cake that has ALL the right flavors in it – brownies, chocolate chip cookies, marshmallows, graham crackers, cheesecake, and chocolate frosting. Doesn’t it look unbelievably decadent? I especially love the thick layer of chocolate frosting on the top. I saw this over on Julia’s blog and asked permission to share the photos and recipe with you. (I was afraid that if I made it to photo myself, WH and I would then eat it. Which would have been very very good. And very very bad. But I will make it sometime, when there are more people around to eat it. It looks way too good to pass up.) You can find the recipe for this cake here. It’s a little long, so I’m sending you over there instead of typing it all up here.

Check out some of the rest of the recipes on Julia’s blog. She does a great job of coming up with unique flavors and combinations, that all work together to mix into something wonderful. Like Basil Cauliflower Pizza, Breakfast Cookies, Goat Cheese and Phyllo Pizza, Grilled Vegetable Platter with Cilantro Avocado Aioli, Chickpea and Feta Salad, and …. well, I’ll stop now. You can pop over there and poke through all of the categories on your own. I know you’ll come up with several “must make” recipes for yourself and your family.

Do you ever have a weekend where you SHOULD be doing one thing but you WANT to be doing another? I really should be packing boxes, since we’re moving our household in three weeks. But what I want to be doing? Working on my Pamuya Shawl. What should you be doing? And what do you want to be doing instead?

Sheri ormaybeIshouldavoidbothofthosethings
andjustmakethiscake?

We’re having a campfire and everyone is invited. Come out out of your cabins and tents and join us. Speaking of cabins, did you know that Claudia Hand Painted has a colorway called “Cabin Fever“?

She also has “Boot Camp“:

And “Campfire“:

Which brings us back to the point of today’s blog. Part of camping is sitting around the fire, telling stories, right? So let’s tell a story about Loopy. I’ll start, and anyone who would like to can add one sentence – just one sentence – in the comments below to continue the story. Once the comments start, you need to add your sentence so that it continues the story from the comment above yours. (I realize this might be problematic if you have never left a comment on this blog. Those comments go into a queue for approval, which will make them show up in the right order, but at a later time. But come to think of it, that might add a few interesting twists to the story!)

Next week, I’ll randomly draw a comment to win two skeins of Claudia Hand Painted in your color choice. So let the story begin:

It was a beautiful afternoon (although the forecast was for storms that night.) Loopy had a long list of things to-do, and a house full of people to entertain, but all he really wanted to do was to sit down and work on his Camp Loopy project. He grabbed his project bag and snuck off to hide in the attic for some knitting time. Loopy opened the two attic windows for a nice breeze and settled down to knit. He was in the middle of a long row of (K2tog, YO’s), when he heard a loud crash from the floor below.

(Your turn. Keep it going!)

It’s fun to have so many of you camping along with us at Camp Loopy this summer! Watch for the Camp Loopy Photo Gallery to go up this week, as I know that quite a few of you are already finished with your beautiful projects. (Not me. I will probably use every bit of the next 3 1/2 weeks to finish my project. But I’m enjoying it!)

We decided that you might need some new Camping Equipment, so we’ve put a few essentials on sale this week. You’ll find 15% off all water bottles, travel mugs, regular mugs, and knitting and project bags. (You thought we were going to say tents, sleeping bags, and camping stoves, right? But those aren’t nearly as fun as bags and mugs and water bottles.) The sale prices will be up until midnight this Friday, 6/24 (Central Time) and while supplies last, so enjoy it while you can.

We’ve also added in: Madelinetosh Sock – shown here in Fathom (with more going up next week – some needed to be re-photoed), Schoppel Walle Zauberball (try this fun pattern with a ball of this striping yarn), HiyaHiya (needles, Dumpling Cases, Puppy Snips, and project bags), Dream in Color Starry re-stocks, and a limited quantity of t-shirts from Lorna’s Laces (where you can choose from “I make pretty string” and “I make string pretty”, in two different t-shirt styles.

Check back for this Wednesday’s blog, where we’ll be telling an interesting Camp Loopy story around the campfire, and you will have a chance to participate in the story-telling.

Sheri alreadyplanningmyProjectTwoforCamp,
butmustfocusonProjectOneFPS.