“We’ve got the spirit, yes we do, we’ve got the spirit, how ’bout you?” Remember that cheer from your school days? (Do they still do that one?)  It went back and forth from one team to the other team and eventually degenerated into both sides chanting “we’ve got more, we’ve got more”. Well, we have Team Spirit around here, too.  We have teamed up with Lorna’s Laces to bring you an exclusive line of Team Spirit colorways, for all of your favorite teams - professional teams, little league teams, high school teams, college teams, etc. So many of you have loved our Loopy Ewe red/white colorway (and we keep having to order more), that it got the wheels turning.  We’ll start with team colors for the two baseball teams that reach the World Series (and Lorna’s Laces promises to have it to us within days of finding out which two teams will go), and then we’ll add in many other team colors.  Here’s your job - leave your suggestions for YOUR favorite team colors in the blog comments.  We’ll take suggestions until next Friday, October 10th, and then we’ll randomly draw a winner from all of the comments for a Loopy Ewe gift certificate. Then, we’ll go through and get the most popular two-color combinations into production and have them here asap. Just think of all the people who would love socks/scarves/hats out of their favorite team colors!

Speaking of socks, we have more yarn barreling down on us by the case-full. Yay!  Here’s a sock that I knit up using Sereknity (I knit it this summer while on vacation, but I forgot to share it with you when we received our first order of Sereknity and put it up. It knit up very quickly, making me think that’d I’d do the matching sock right away. But … I haven’t yet. Seemed like I had plenty of time to get it done before sock-wearing weather came back to St. Louis this fall.) I love the yarn base and also thought it was fun the way the stripes swirled up around the ankle.  The colorway is Cowgirl and we do still have a few skeins of that in stock.  There are actually quite a few colors of Heather’s yarn that I love. (It really IS a problem to be surrounded by all of this beautiful yarn, day in and day out, but I know that I will garner no sympathy from any of you.)

Next week’s Sneak Up - fun stuff. We’ll have: Noni Patterns (felted and children’s clothes), Fleece Artist Casbah, Beanie Baggies (including a new red/white one), Creatively Dyed Roving and Luxury Sock, Sanguine Gryphon Silk/Merino Roving, Gales Art Black BFL Roving, Lawre’s Laine bags (new fabrics), Lorna’s Laces Supersock and Roving in Amy’s Vintage Office (the Amy-blend yarn base will be here shortly), Sanguine Gryphon Eidos, Chewy Spaghetti, Scarlet Fleece, and another exclusive colorway from Dream in Color - “Don’t Be Blue” in the Classy weight. (We said we’d keep that colorway in Smooshy exclusive to the Don’t Be Blue Kit people, which we will, but we thought you might like it in Classy for scarves and sweaters. It’s gorgeous!) And coming the week after that (so far) - roving from Zen String and more Harry Potter yarn from Opal.  They’re shipping it to us today.

For your chocolate fix this weekend:

“5 Minutes to Chocolate”

4 Tbl. flour
4 Tbl. sugar
2 Tbl. baking cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbl. milk
3 Tbl. oil
3 Tbl. chocolate chips
dash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to your favorite large coffee mug and mix well.  Add in egg and mix thoroughly, then add in milk and oil and mix well.  Add chocolate chips and vanilla.

Bake at 3 minutes in the microwave. (The cake may rise up above your mug, but it will back down as it cools.  The blue Loopy Ewe mug - from our Second Anniversary Kit - will allow just enough room on top to add a scoop of ice cream.  You know, if you were so inclined.)

Don’t forget to leave us a comment with your favorite team color combinations. We’re looking forward to getting started on that for you!

Sheri it’sgoingtogobackupto80degreesherethisweekend.What’supwiththat?

I was given permission to take over the blog today so that I could tell you all about my Summer Vacation. This is the second year in a row that The Loopy People have sent me out on the road for some R&R over the summer. You might think it’s all “yarn and chocolate” here all the time, but let me tell you, there is a lot of work involved in keeping Loopy Central running. I was glad to scoot out of here for a few months so that I could hang out with all of you.  And ohhhhh, the places I went!  You can see my whole scrapbook of pictures here with over 250 photos in there, but I picked out a few to share with you. (I know they’re all different sizes - but you know that you can click on any of them to see me the photo better, right?)

I went to so many different countries and I liked most of them almost as much as the fun places that I went in the US. I had never see the Mona Lisa before, so that was fun. I like that she doesn’t have any eyebrows. I don’t either. Now Minnie Mouse - she does have eyebrows and it looks good on her. I’m not sure about the blue eye shadow.  But she was nice to me, so I think it’s ok that she wears blue eyeshadow. This Borg scared me, but I was determined to see if he had eyebrows, so I posed for the picture.  Funny thing is, I’m not sure if he had eyebrows or not.  I had to look away.

It was also fun to meet some famous people, although sometimes that intimidates me a bit. I went to Knitting Camp and met Meg Swanson. She was so nice and I’ll bet her mom, Elizabeth Zimmerman was nice, too.  She likes wool, so consequently, I think she liked me. I also met Beth Brown Reinsel. She designs beautiful sweaters, but she didn’t offer to knit me one. I think it was just an oversight. I liked meeting Lucy Neatby, too, because she does fun things with her hair and clothes. (That’s something that a sheep who wears red socks can appreciate.)

There were a few charitable things that I participated in. Some were set up by other people and some, I decided on my own. I walked with Melissa and her mom in the Relay for Life. That was cool and such a great cause. I went to Afghanistan to cheer people up.  It was a rather intimidating task because they are just so amazing there. I hope I made them smile.  Then I tried to push over that Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Why is that a charitable event? Because it’s half-tipped and it makes everyone nervous just to look at it. I thought I’d be doing them a favor by finishing it off and being done with it.  However …. it didn’t work. It’s still there, leaning and stressing people out and giving them a crick in their neck.

I visited some of my relatives in other parts. The Yorkshire Sheep pretended that they didn’t know me, but we share a great great great grandfather, so they were just being snooty. They’re awfully pretty, though. I come from a good line. The Black Sheep at Chirk Castle in Wales were actually friendlier to me. I think because they know that I have a black sheep brother (Brother Bart) and they can relate. And then I visited a few multi-colored friends in Wisconsin, because we have beautiful sheep here in the US, too.

Some people made sure that I tried some unique things while we were out and about. I liked driving the submarine, but I almost ran into another big ship so they made me give up the wheel and go back to being just a passenger again. My friend Janine let me touch the top of the Taylor Tower.  Now, mind you, both College Guy and College Girl attend school there, but neither of them have let me touch the Tower before. I must discuss this with them. And Carrie made me my own kilt and hat so that I’d be in character when I met author Diana Gabaldon. I like her Outlander books a lot.

There were so many more adventures - too numerous to tell. All in all, I visited a lot of cool places in the US with many of your families, had great meals out, did some beach bumming, knit a few rows,  and also hit: Fiji, Belgium, Turkey, Zambia, Monaco, Italy, France, Rome, Sicily, Tokyo, Venice, London, Spain, Africa, Germany, Cambridge, Mexico, Istanbul, Korea, Canada, Australia, Delphi, Croatia, Barcelona, Cannes,  the Swedish Polar Circle and the Finnish Polar Circle.  Whew.  I’m going to have to rest up a bit before I venture out again next summer.  Fortunately, I have my own sleeping bag and tent for the night, my own hammock for hanging out in the daytime, and a boatload of chocolate to get me through the winter.  Life is good.

Love, Loopy

P.S. Thanks for voting on my adventures!  Here are the winners who will be getting gift certificates from The Loopy Ewe:

Best Far Away Place: Cappodocia, Turkey
Most Interesting Person: Sherlock Holmes
Most Unusual Place: The Mexico Sisters in the Convent
Favorite Photo: Loopy Camping

I know what I used to think of it. “No time for that.  Barely enough time to knit, so definitely no time to add spinning in to my life.” My, how things change. I went on a little knitting weekend last fall with four really great pushers enablers spinners who were determined to get Janice and I spinning by the end of the weekend.  That’s pretty much all it took, and now I’m hooked. (I did do another post, telling them just what I thought of their attempt to sneak spinning into my life.)  I was right, though. I don’t have enough time for knitting and now I don’t have enough time for spinning, but oh well.  It just means that there is always something relaxing to do! And honestly - aren’t there some days/nights where your eyes are too tired to pay attention or your brain is too tired to concentrate on knitting? No?  Hmm.  Maybe it’s just me. But there are some times when sitting and spinning is just the perfect activity.  Of course once you get the hang of it, then you see some roving and can’t wait to see “how that spins up”.  It is definitely an occupational hazard to have all of this pretty roving on the shelves at Loopy, because I see a lot that I would like to try out.  I have these two all balled up and ready to knit into something. I’m not sure what.  Any ideas?  The top cake is some Tempted Roving, and the bottom cake is Creatively Dyed.  I have no idea how many yards of each are in there.  I ought to pay attention to those things.

Here’s a skein of Lorna’s Laces that I finished up over the weekend. I love how it turned out. I have about decided that I should be spinning more than 4 oz. of a colorway because it gives you so many more knitting options. I was also thinking that when you buy roving, you really extend the entertainment value of your dollar. You get several hours of spinning before you even spend several hours knitting it up. You can’t beat that. (See how my brain works in justifying these things?)

So I have some questions for you spinners and non-spinners.  Answer one of the questions (or as many as you’d like) in your comment post by September 12th and we’ll randomly draw a winner for a Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate! Here are the questions you can choose from:

1.  Are you a spinner? If so, what prompted you to learn to spin?  If not, what has held you back?
2.  If you’re a spinner, did you learn on a drop spindle first? And do you recommend that to beginners before moving to a wheel? (Note - we have drop spindles going up on the website next week and more on the way.  Note #2 - I was a dismal failure on drop spindles, but I know there are a lot of you who like them.)
3.  Spinners - do you like spinning 4 oz. braids, or do you generally like to spin up more of a certain colorway? (Do you have in mind what you will knit with it before you spin it?)
4.  What are some things that you have made from your handspun (or handspun that you have purchased)?

Thanks for participating in the contest.  As a newbie spinner, I am looking forward to your thoughts on all of this!

Sheri it’sacloudydaytodayandit’sgoingtoraintherestoftheweek.Yay!(Iknow,I’mweird.)

Wow. I can hardly believe that we are celebrating our Second Anniversary at The Loopy Ewe! Things have changed so much here since we first opened. We started with just a few lines (Regia, Claudia Hand Painted, Lorna’s Laces, Cherry Tree Hill, and Schaefer) and things have grown just a little bit since then! We started in this little side room in our basement (which I thought was a perfect little “sock yarn nook” and would serve us well) and now we’re waiting to expand our space again for the 3rd time. (I hear pounding. I think walls are coming down next door and the space is being made ready, but they haven’t punched through to us here yet, which means they’re not yet ready to make it all one big space.) We started with a few hundred skeins of yarn, built it up to 7977 at this time last year (remember that blog contest?) and …. well, let’s just say that we have thousands more than that now. (ahem. Someone keeps ordering more.) We started with just two customers - my mom, and my good friend Janice, and now we have lots of you and you all have become very dear to us. (You make it possible for there to BE a Loopy Ewe!) Thank you for all of your support and encouragement over these past two years. Y’all are so much fun and we feel lucky to have you. We’re looking forward to many more years with you.

In honor of our Second Anniversary, we put up the Anniversary Sock Kit last night (edited: now sold out…), and we’re having a blog contest today! We have set aside plenty of prizes (including several skeins of Wollmeise that I saved just for this) and we’d love for you to enter. All you have to do is leave a comment on today’s blog and you’ll automatically be entered. (Any comment will do: “Happy Anniversary”, “have a good weekend”, “enter me into the contest”, “I need a latte”, etc. ) We’ll leave it up to you. We’ll announce the winners next Friday, so you have a week to read this and leave your comment. We also put up a new Photo Gallery - one called “Loopy Central”. (We started calling it Loopy Central way back when it was still in our house. It just means the heart of all things Loopy - it’s where everything happens!) The gallery contains photos taken around here, to give you a picture of where your orders come from. We will continue to add to this photo gallery as we get the new space set up, and I’ll add photos of all of the Elves, too. We hope that it makes you feel a part of things here at The Loopy Ewe. (And remember, you’re always welcome to come visit in person. We’d love to see you.)

Sheri friendscomingfortheweekend.mustcleanthehouse.
wouldratherbeknittingthancleaning.Wouldn’tyou?

…. because you never know what you’re gonna get. (That’s a nice way of saying that today’s post contains much miscellaneous information.) And because I wanted to show you a picture of the way-too-fun felted chocolates from my friend Claudia. Notice Zoe’s paw in the corner of the photo - she wanted to try them. They are so realistic looking!

We had fun reading your answers to Wednesday’s “we wonder” questions! You know, the “Why doesn’t anyone knit socks for us” was totally a joke. Well, they did actually say that, but they weren’t seriously wondering. That’s kind of like asking, “Why doesn’t anyone give me a million dollars?” The fact that several of you were up for knitting Elf Socks was so sweet! I’ll see if any of them would seriously like to take you up on that. Many of you wondered how we can pack orders all day and not want to take all of this yarn home to knit. Well, half of the Elves aren’t knitters, so it’s less of a temptation for them. Although it IS making them feel like they want to learn. We’re going to set up a Knit Night this summer, to teach them. (And I can say that I have a very difficult time passing up any of the yarn, as my stash will bear witness to. It’s just more knitting time that I need!) I liked what “Northmoon” had to say: “I never have knit emergencies. That’s the beauty of knitting - if it doesn’t work, frog and start over. If I don’t finish a gift in time for a birthday, buy something else and aim for Christmas.” and as Gretchen pointed out, “I avoid cutting close to deadlines by not setting myself any. Sure it may take three years to knit up those socks for Christmas, but Christmas comes EVERY YEAR.” That got me to thinking - the phrases “knitting emergency” and “knitting deadline” go completely against why I knit, which is to relax, enjoy, and have fun. I’m deleting “knitting deadlines” from my phraseology.

We have new Loopy Groupies to welcome in, and as promised in the last Loopy Welcome, I didn’t wait nearly as long this time to post about them, so the list is manageable. (Like about a month, instead of several months this time!) We love our Loopy Groupies and are so happy to have each one of you join in with us here. So hugs and congratulations to the latest batch: Laura from DC, Kara from NE, Kaye from OK, Lisa from PA, Maria from GA, Gerry from TN, Jenny from IN, Kelly from CA, Denise from OH, CG from KY, Chelsea from CA, Jane from MA, Jan from OH, Debbie from WI, Joan from WA, Amy from ID, Sheryl from RI, Shannon from APO, Carolyn from AK, Marsha from NY, Kelly from KY, Linn from Norway, Susan from WI, Gladys from FL, Ceylan from TX, Jane from MD, Athena from CA, Mary Anne from ID, Maria from MN, Diane from PA, Kathleen from VA, Nancy from OH, Malia from VA, Sheila from GA, Mary from MO, Miranda from MO, Marianne from The Netherlands, Whitney from NY, Melissa from CA, Rebecca from MI, Kristi from IL, Sheryl from OR, Sally from NY, Mette from Norway, Vicki from PA, Andrea from Canada, Toni from AZ, Sandy from NE, Heather from NY, Sue from IL, Lee Ann from TX, Diana from MT, Loretta from VA, Wanda from NY, Corey from NC, Wendy from VA, Marita from VA, Cindy from PA, Jean from OR, Jennifer from PA, Gail from TN, Cynthia from NC, Patricia from IA, Crystal from MA, Marianne from PA, Alyssa from NY, Ashley from IN, Bonney from NH, Diana from MO, Erin from CA, Marisol from CA, Clair from Canada, Alice from NC, Andrea from VA, Maria from MN, Ebony from MD, Nancy from MN, Llynn from TX, Misty from CA, Cindy from OR, Nancy from MN, Kimberly from CA, Lisa from PA, Kelley from AZ, Kim from OR, Lisa from IL, Susan from NY, Sharmista from WI, Vicki from MA, Zoe from CA, Thao from CA, Janet from PA, Carol from VA, Sandra from IL, Heather from IL, Rhoda from CA, Deborah from MA, Amber from IN, Rebecca from IL, Shari from FL, Kathy from NY, Pamela from NY, Emily from IL, Donna from GA, Jan from MD, Jacqueline from WA, Sharon from Australia, Michelle from IL, Betty from Canada, Shawneed from CO, Melana from CA, Nancy from IL, Andrea from ND, Martha from ID, Susan from OH, Maarit from Finland, Sarah from IL, Gloria from PA, Sarah from NJ, Marie from CA, Heather from AZ, Juana from FL, Gina from WA, Judith from Canada, and Rebecca from VA. Yay!! (How do you get to be a Loopy Groupie? By ordering from us! When you get your sixth package from us, we include a Loopy Groupie Welcome Bag and promote you to official Loopy Groupie-dom. It’s that easy. It’s our way of letting you know how much we appreciate your continued business.)

There are winners from our blog contest last week, and I don’t know about you, but I got downright hungry reading all of those responses. Since there were over 500 entries, we drew for 2 winners instead of just one. So congratulations to Kristy from Ohio and Kimberly from Canada. Both have been notified by email about their $30 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate. (Just in case you’re also a Kristy from OH or a Kimberly from Canada and are hoping that it might be you….) We have fun contests coming up for July and August as well, so watch the blog for that!

July Sock Club packages are being assembled and are almost ready to go out. Watch for your invoice in the next few days, and we’ll start shipping them out next week. (Note: The Loopy Ewe Sock Club runs for a whole year at a time and we’re completely sold out for 2008. We’ll have 2009 sign-ups in mid-January.)

We’re heading off on vacation, and you know what that means? Some great knitting time in my near future! We are driving down to Florida to see Web Guy. (I know. Florida in July? Craziness. What we don’t do for our kids. Or rather, for ourselves, when it comes to seeing our kids.) The Elves will be here packing up and shipping out, so you won’t see any disruption to your ordering. They’ll even write on your order notes while I’m gone! And yes, we think we will have a Sneak Up for you next week. We’re still trying to get more photos done, so I can’t even tell you for sure what will be up. I can tell you what is here that we’re working on photo-ing: the new Mountain Colors roving (doesn’t it look pretty?), Neighborhood Fibers Sock, Sugar Bunny Blvd, The Dyeing Arts Roving, Spirit Trail Fiberworks, Sakina Needles Roving, and Farmhouse Fannie’s Fingering. Wonderful stuff! Our next Wollmeise order has started to arrive and we’ll work on getting that photo-ed, too. We’re waiting for the rest to come in, so don’t be watching for that until after the Fourth of July sometime. But at least you know it’s coming soon. (Claudia did a new colorway named in honor of Knitting Daughter called “Barista”. We love it!)

I’ll be off of emails and the blog until I get back in on July 9th. (Although I have two Limelights done that we’ll put up this Monday and next Monday, so check back!) If you need something while I’m gone, feel free to call in, or you can also email Susan (susan AT theloopyewe DOT com). I’ll look forward to re-connecting when we return!

Sheri asistypical,myknittingispackedandIhaven’tgivenathoughttomyclothesyet

Have I mentioned before that I have a bag problem, issues with too many bags, more bags than I could ever use, a lovely collection of knitting bags? I think bags appeal to my “I want to be organized” nature. Or my “Oh, isn’t that beautiful? I need that.” nature. Therefore, we tend to carry a lot of different bag options for you at The Loopy Ewe, and I have personally tested and used each type. (Yeah, that’s it. I NEED to be testing all of these lines….) At the moment, I have three favorites (and I’m fickle. This will change with the wind.) I love my Offhand Designs Weekender bag. I packed this one to the gills and took it with us on Spring Break. It holds so much, and it’s in my favorite colors, Peppermint Mocha. (They call it Ruby Splash, but it’s clearly Peppermint Mocha.) We got a lot of different fabrics in, but I went for that one right out of the box. Another favorite is my new Atenti bag, which arrived last week. I will admit to having trouble picking out the one I wanted, because they’re all so cute. I picked Pops, but I have my eye on two others as well. This is another bag that would hold a whole weeks worth of knitting if you were to take it on vacation. (It also makes a great carry-on bag if you fly.) The fabrics are gorgeous and the workmanship is top notch. I love this new line. A lot of you are getting these in the mail this week and I know you’re going to be so happy with them. We have another order to put in with them already. My other favorite bag is my Namaste Laguna bag that I just received in the new Peacock color. I like how soft the animal-friendly faux leather is, I like that I can just wipe it off with a damp sponge if someone’s Latte should happen to drip, and I like how roomy it is inside. We just got a whole new shipment of all of the colors (and the new Newport Style bag) in and put them all up today. I know you’ve been waiting on them! (Several of you also have bag problems lovely knitting bag collections, and I like that about you.) Oh - and the Red Canvas Loopy Sock Bags are back in stock, too. Another bag that I like….

Remember that Little Loopy mentioned that we have Elf Cassie working here for the summer? Cassie is in college and will be getting married this summer (but we get to keep her until August). Her brother and sister have taken to calling her “Keebz”, since she’s a Loopy Elf and they liken that to the Keebler Elves. (Doesn’t that sound like a brother/sister thing to do?) They bought her a fun shower gift - a Loopy T-Shirt - and they personalized the back for her. Here she is showing the front and the back in the photo. We thought it was really cute and made her wear it around Loopy Central today. (Does that make her fiance “Mr. Keebz”? Just wondering.)

Today’s recipe is a delicious Macaroni and Cheese dish that takes comfort food to a whole new level. YUM!!

Mac and Cheese Crumble

1 pound pasta (corkscrew holds the sauce on best, but use your favorite)
4 slices day old bread
1 Tbl. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lb. mozzarella cheese, grated (about 2 cups)
1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, grated (about 3 cups)
1/2 lb. Gruyere cheese, grated (about 3 cups)
1/2 lb. fontina or provolone cheese, grated (about 2 cups)
1/2 lb. bacon, cut into 1 ” strips
10 Tbl. butter (unsalted)
3 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup flour

Stir fry bacon pieces in a large saute pan until done. Remove to drain on paper towels. Chop bread by hand or in a food processor until crumbly. Add 2 Tbl. bacon drippings to 3 Tbl. butter in a pan, and toss in bread crumbs. Stir until they are lightly golden and crisp. Set aside.

Cheese Sauce: Heat milk over medium heat (do not boil). Melt 6 Tbl. butter in a separate saucepan and whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk in warmed milk next and cook until it starts to thicken (stirring occasionally.) Remove from heat and add in your cheeses, stirring until melted. Add bacon and salt and pepper to taste.

Cook pasta about 8-9 minutes in a large pot of salted water. Drain and rinse with cold water. Add pasta to cheese combination and stir well. Put in 9 x 13 pan and top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until hot and bubbling.

June Blog Contest: I know you’re not supposed to view food as “comfort” - any smart dieter will tell you that. Nevertheless, there are some foods (like mac and cheese) that just DO make you feel better. At least until you get on the scale again. Leave a comment and let us know what your favorite comfort food is - this could be something that you like to eat now, or something that you liked to eat growing up. We’ll use the random number generator to pick a winner next Friday from all of the comments. (The winners of our monthly blog contests receive a $30 gift certificate to The Loopy Ewe. Maybe you need a new bag??)

Sheri funtoseesomanyofyousigningupforthenextKAL!