We’ve watched Rebekah put this beautiful Mitered Crosses Blanket together for Kevin over the past few weeks. Here they are at Knit Night last night, with the finished product. Made entirely out of Madelinetosh Vintage, it has us all wishing for one of our own! See how she did mirror images with the colors? With the border, this one took 13 skeins. Next she’s thinking of doing this in a baby blanket with a lighter yarn and six squares. I’m thinking Cascade Superwash Sport would be perfect for a baby blanket like this. Or the Worsted 220 Superwash. Even though I love this in the Madelinetosh Vintage, moms always like things that are machine wash and dry. Make it easy on them.

Our Camp Loopy Project Two is to make an 800 yd. + project (using at least one color from your country’s flag). I’m still waffling on projects (although now thinking of this mitered baby blanket…). I keep looking at all of my options and garnering ideas from everyone. So my contest question for this month is: What is the biggest project you have made and how many yards (or meters) was it? Mine was the crocheted afghan I made for Camp Loopy last year – 2600 yards. Leave your answer in the comments below and we’ll do a random drawing next week for some $25 Loopy gift certificates! (And maybe I’ll get some more ideas from your comments in the meantime.)

Sheri shortonecupofcoffeetoday.Goingtomakeanothercup.

Back to the blog today. Thanks to those of you who worry about me and email when I miss a blog day. We were so busy getting Wollmeise orders out on Thursday and Friday, that I had to forego the regular Friday blog. But I’m still here and all is well!

Before we get to the Monday Update, we have some contest winners to announce! I had a 950+ yd. skein of Wollmeise Lace to give away on this blog post, and the winner of that beautiful cake of lace is: Michele in VA, who is now deciding what to make with it!

We’ve also tallied the votes for the Reader’s Choice Award for the First Quarter Project. The favorite, chosen by all of you regular blog reader’s, is: Stephanie from FL, with her beautiful Vernal Equinox Shawl out of Cascade Heritage Silk.  We also put all of the entries into the Random Number Generator to choose another winner, and that one goes to: Amy from NC who made a great hat out of Lorna’s Laces Honor. Both of you will be getting a $25 credit in your Loopy Ewe account. Maybe you’ll find something fun from tonight’s Update that you need (“need”)!

Now that the First Quarter Challenge is done and voted on, the Second Quarter Challenge Photo Gallery is up and we’ll start getting those photos approved and up for you!

We do have new things up on the website for you today. Just up, you’ll find:

- Fiberphile – Squooshy Sock 2 (shown here in Continuum). You’ll like this for socks. You might try one of these: Cadence, Maryanne, or Smaug Socks. I also like it for shawls. Look at the beautiful cabled edge on this Dubliner pattern.

- Frogtree Pediboo. Great for socks. Belle Vitini would be beautiful. Or Scales. We also have lots of people using this for shawls (and the Color Affection Shawl in particular.) It’s fun to play with the color combinations.

- Lorna’s Laces (Shepherd Sock, Solemate, Shepherd Sport, and new Sportmate) . Here’s a cute summer tank pattern that I happened across the other day: Laresca. It would be great done up in the Solemate. On the Sportmate (shown here in  - we have lots of colors on order, but (as usual) Lorna’s Laces sends the colors as they dye them. Here are 9 to start with, and we’ll have more as they work through the color rotation!

- Malabrigo (Lace, Arroyo and Worsted). Now is a great time to pick up sweater quantities of the Worsted. We have over 40 options for you. I also like this Barbara W Shawl for the Worsted weight. Lots of interesting stitch patterns going on in there. Or how about Lattice? That also has interesting texture and stitches.

- Trekking XXL (shown here in 165) – If I were making socks for someone who was going to toss them in the washer and dryer with no second thought, I’d make it out of Trekking XXL. This is a real workhorse yarn that holds up to pretty much anything you throw at it.

- Zauberball (Sock, Crazy, and Starke 6). The long color repeats make this one a fun one to knit up. Try the Loreley Scarf, the Wingspan, or a Ten Stitch Blanket.

- Go Knit Bags – all sizes and colors re-stocked. Especially handy if you’re picking out new projects today and will need new bags to keep them in. (Like I’m doing.)

- StitchSavers (shown here) for those pesky stitches that hop off your needles and try to ladder down, when you’re not looking.  Also, Puppy Snips were re-stocked. Cutest little scissor ever.

- Needles – all HiyaHiya’s, ChiaoGoo’s, and Addi’s re-stocked. (Della Q makes one of our favorite needle organizer bags, just in case you also need one of those. And I love the Circular Cases from Namaste for needle organization, too.)

Have fun shopping and we’ll get your orders all packed up and shipped off to you quickly. We know you’d like them yesterday!

Sheri weknowthisbecausethat’showweare,too

Many of you are familiar with Kelly at Romney Ridge and her wonderful sheep. Kelly does the Romney Ridge Calendar for us each year. (If you follow her on Facebook, you’ll get to see cute pictures like this all of the time!) When I saw this one, I emailed her right away to ask if I could share it with you, and also to see if I could get a big print of it for display here at Loopy. That’s Maggie O’Toolie standing up at the front and poking her nose through the fence. You can see Mabel behind her with the big ears and underbite. Kelly said the grain truck was coming down the drive, and they were all crowding forward because they know what the grain truck means! We have a big print of this on canvas, behind our checkout counter. It’s fun to have these sheep watching us pack up and ship off your orders every day. Here’s a link to the photo, if you want to have your own copy of Maggie and Mabel and the rest of the gang.

It’s time to pick a Reader’s Choice for the favorite First Quarter Challenge Project! We had 173 entries in the contest and each person had to knit with a yarn that contained some percentage of silk in it. The finished projects are beautiful. Congratulations to all who knit with us and completed it on time! Take a look in the Photo Gallery and tell us which one is your favorite (support@theloopyewe.com). We’ll compile the votes and will announce the winner (plus the randomly drawn winner as well) soon.

You can still join us for the Second Quarter Challenge, which is to knit something up in a yarn that contains some percentage of cotton in it. Perfect time to make yourself a spring/summer sweater if you have warm weather coming soon!

Sheri timetomakethecoffee.HappyFriday!

Have you branched out in your knitting? I started with scarves (knitting 20 or 30 of them, probably) and moved on to socks. I thought I’d prefer sock knitting for the rest of my life. Then I tried shawls and quickly became hooked on those, instead. It’s interesting to see how things evolve as you learn and grow, isn’t it? I’m glad that I didn’t just stick with scarves. Or socks. And I’m glad I’m not going to stick with just shawls forever, either. There are too many fun things out there to work on.

Two things I want to try next. First – Colorwork. In particular, colorwork mittens. Oh, I tried one. But I need to get much much better at my tension, before I feel like I can enjoy the whole colorwork knitting process. There are bunches and bunches of wonderful colorwork patterns that I have made note of, for when I get good at this.

I’d also like to learn to knit those cute little amigurumi/mochi creatures, just because they’re adorable. I bought this book because of the cute gnome on the front. (And several cute patterns on the inside.) I think the little creatures would be fun to pop in the mail to a friend or tie on a package. I also might need a few sitting along the top of my computer.

So that’s one important technique on my To Learn list, and one just-for-fun thing on my To Learn list. What is on your To Learn list? Leave a comment below and we’ll do a drawing next week for Loopy Gift Certificates (so that you can pick out something and move forward on one of your new projects or techniques!).

Sheri thatcolorworkmittenintheabovelink?Itturnedoutwaytoobig.
Iamstilllearning……

I could’ve sworn Baby Hazel’s mom said she made this hat out of 220. So when I went off to get some yarn to make one, I was thinking worsted weight. It ended up being …. um …. too big for a baby. On the plus side, if you want it to fit an adult (and many made comments asking how to do that on this pattern), then just knit it out of worsted. Or if you want it to look cute on your pet sheep – worsted will do as well. For babies? Stick with the fingering weight.

This is the Stella Pixie Hat, free here. It’s an adorable shape and Baby Hazel really looked precious in it when she was in the shop with her mom. I made it with Spud and Chloe Sweater, a yarn that I just love knitting with. I also did an i-cord tie (threaded through the folded over neckband) instead of the button closure loop. This might be my new go-to baby gift to knit. It was quick and easy to knit up and I think it looks adorable. (But in fingering weight next time.)

We have the February Dream Club color up on the website, and it’s a beauty. This semi-solid red/pink was dyed up just for the club and is dyed on the Classy base, so it comes with 250 yards in the skein. The pattern that goes with it is by Beth Kling, and is called Hearts on a String. A great way to keep your neck warm (and stylin’). We will email you the pattern within 48 hours of your Dream Club order shipping, so that you can jump right in and get started on it. I can also see this cowl done up in a navy blue or a charcoal grey to keep the whole thing a little more subtle. And I can picture this happy red February colorway in a scarf like ScWINoNa or Christmas Lace,  or fingerless mitts like the Cozy Thermal Mitts or Ragtop . Lots of ways to use both this yarn and pattern. Remember, we will have more skeins available in the middle of the week next week, too. We always put more up when the people who have pre-ordered make their final decisions.

We have winners!  Congratulations to our two in-store Grand Opening  winners – Catherine from Arvada and Debbie from Boulder.  And Congratulations to our two blog Grand Opening winners – Arlin from Indonesia and Windy from Texas. We will get these prizes in the mail to you all today. Thank you again to everyone who stopped in on our Grand Opening day and who left comments on our January Blog Contest post. I will be referring to those comments full of pattern ideas for a long time.

Sheri can’tdecidewhattostartnext.Shawlorsweater?Maybeboth.

This has to be the quickest knit scarf I’ve done. One thing I don’t like about knitting scarves is that they seem to go on and on forever and …. I get bored. But this was fun and the open lace sections made the inches just fly by. This is Wendy’s Lace Stripe Scarf from Wendy Knits Lace. My copy of this book has so many page corners turned down that it certainly qualifies as one of my top favorite knitting books, even though this is the first thing that I’ve made from it. Oh, but there will be more! This is out of 2 skeins of Madelinetosh DK in the Plaid Blanket color. I’m thinking that it would knit up even faster in worsted (although I would alter the number of cast on stitches so that it didn’t get too wide.) It’s a scarf pattern that I can see making again, maybe in Madelinetosh Vintage or Dream in Color’s Cashmere Worsted. (Neither picture captures the color just right, although the top one is closer. It’s more of a deep forest green.)

So do you have a pattern that you have enjoyed enough to knit more than a time or two? What is it? Leave your answer in the blog comments and you’ll be entered in this month’s blog contest! We are drawing for two goodie bags (shown here). Each prize contains our Small Loopy Project Tote, a Loopy Travel Mug, a Loopy Heel Soak (hiding in the back of the bag), a Little Loopy, and a skein of multi-colored Wollmeise (each prize bag has a different skein – we’ll send you a pretty one).

Our official Colorado Loopy shop grand opening is this Saturday, January 28th,  from 10 am – 4:30 pm. We will have an in-store drawing for two of these bags as well as giving away two of them here on the blog. We’ll announce the winners in next week’s blog, and will also contact you if you win.

I’m looking forward to hearing which patterns have captured your attention enough to make multiple times. I have several on my own favorites list! (Like these new Cloisonee Mittens out of Cascade 220. And wouldn’t you know, we just re-stocked all of our 220 colors? With 248 different color choices, I might get a little carried away with color combination options…)

Sheri whohassevenprojectsonthe”startrightnow”list
butwhat’safewmore?