I’ve always loved Sharon’s sense of color.

For those of you with cats and an iPhone or iPad, you might check out the Cat Toy app. Here, Gracie (right) and Zoe (left) are watching the butterfly fly around the screen. It comes with a Butterfly, Spider, Laser Dot, and Mouse. Generally, Zoe is too smart to be fooled by this toy (although she is more entertained by the butterfly), but Gracie wants the mouse on every evening, so she can try (once and for all) to finally catch that dumb mouse, as it runs across the screen. Gracie isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack, but she makes us laugh and she’s a sweetheart. She dives at the screen and talks to it. I’m hoping she doesn’t put a paw through it one day…  Does anyone else have a cat or dog that has more sweetness than brains?

Sheri goodbye70′s,hello30′s.
Somuchforspringweather.

These merino/cashmere/nylon blends really spoil a person.

- more Lavishea in all scents and sizes (those gals worked hard to get us one more order before the holidays!)

- Madelinetosh Sock (80 more colors went up) and Pashmina (the wonderful merino/silk/cashmere blend).

- Jojoland Melody Superwash and patterns (check out Jojo’s scarf patterns. So pretty in this beautiful color-changing yarn.)

- Entrelac Stitchmarkers (my favorites, because they’re small and unobtrusive and pretty.)

- Addi Lace Clicks (we’ve worked our way through all of the pre-orders that we had for these, so now we can share them on the website. These have been popular!)

- Loopy Lite Kits (the remaining kits from our Loopy Lite Fall Sock Club, containing an exclusive skein of Madelinetosh Sock, two patterns written for this kit – socks and mitts – and a black and red Loopy Messenger Bag.)

We’ll have one more Monday Update for 2010 – next Monday. I’m anticipating Gale’s Art, Fiberphile, Lorna’s Laces, and more for you on Monday. We won’t have new things to go up on 12/27, since we are taking Thursday and Friday of next week to enjoy the holiday season with our families. No photo time.

On another note – I have a new Christmas CD that I’m really enjoying. One of my friends on Facebook suggested it, and I’m so glad. It’s piano music that combines Christmas Carols with Classical songs (like Silent Night combined with Clare de Lune, We Three Kings with Fuer Elise, Hark the Herald Angels Sing with Handel’s Largo, etc). If you’re tired of all of your regular holiday CD’s,  (or need some stocking stuffers or a couple more gifts for people on your list) you might give this one a try. It will put you in the spirit and relax you at the same time!

Sheri finallycoldenoughforwoolsocksaroundhere

I finished another sock this week and wanted to share it with you.

Since I have finished one in-progress project, I get to start another one, right? Never mind all of the ones currently in-progress. Let’s focus on the fact that one is FINISHED. And another needs to be STARTED.  (Yes, I guess I am yelling. To make my point. I’m sure it helps as you read along and is not at all annoying.) Finished (FINISHED!), equals the opportunity to get another started (STARTED!). Fortunately it’s still too hot to do much outside, so that means air-conditioning and knitting is on my list for this weekend. Speaking of hot, how hot do you think it is, when you have two furry beings on your lap, needing attention?  I was knitting my Wollmeise Citron, which I’d like to point out is also FINISHED. (Yelling again. Stop it.) Back to Gracie and Zoe, the cats – this can be nice in the wintertime when the house gets a little chilly, but not so much in the middle of the summer when the air conditioner is already working as hard as it can. Not that they seem to understand the difference. Or care.

Have a great weekend and I hope it’s nice and cool where you are.

Sheri allergictoheat.I’mconvincedofit.

The pattern is easy – I started toe up and used this pattern:
16 rows Coffee
4 rows Surf
8 rows Mocha
4 rows Surf
and repeat.

On the heel, I alternated between just the Surf and Mocha (4 rows each) in the middle of my 16 Coffee rows. I love the color combination. I need your opinion on the second sock – should I make it just like this, or should I do 16 rows of the Mocha and sandwich the dark coffee color in between the Surf? Slightly different?

Of course then I had to come in to Loopy and play with more possibilities. (Don’t you wonder what the other people in our building thought, when I started sticking yarn in the bushes and taking photos?) For this pattern, I try to pick a light and dark color in the same family, and then a “pop” color. The socks take 1 skein of each color, although you’ll have leftovers of the colors in the 4/8/4 sections. Here are some other quick combos that I pulled this morning:

Blackberry, Mauve and Malachite:

Mulberry, Carnation and Coffee:

Serenity Green, Pine and Plum:

Black, Apricot and Orange:

Lake, Whisper Blue and Kiwi:

Strawberry, Slate Blue and Navy:

What do you think? It’s fun to play with colors, isn’t it? I thought I’d start in on my Norwegian Rose socks tonight, but I’m vacillating. I really want to start an old-fashioned granny square blanket, too. And I am anxious to start one of these patterns as well. Decisions, decisions.

Sheri it’shothothotoutside,butIstillhadcoffeetoday.
There’ssomethingwrongwiththat.

Remember when I showed you that pretty Alchemy Juniper sock last week, knit up with a fun pattern out of

We added new things to the site tonight – come take a look!  We put up:

Huckleberry Knits Willow (the BFL base. This is the colorway/line that I went on the hunt for at Sock Summit!  Here’s the sock that I knit with the Mercado colorway)
Hand Maiden Swiss Mountain Sea Sock (one of my very favorite yarn bases from them. So luscious!)
Numma Numma Toasty (Allen sent us a big order with all of our favorite colors)
Perchance to Knit (restocked the Midnight Rainbow/Harlot’s Peacock in small and large skeins)
Soak in the new “Unleash” scent (celebrating Ravlery)
Shibui Sock (re-stock)
Through the Loops patterns (new and re-stocked)

We’re already working on things for next week. I’m happy that one of the new accessory lines that I ordered at TNNA has arrived. You’ll love it. We’ll get it photo-ed and up for you next Monday.

I did my monthly “80+ lbs. of chocolate kisses” shopping at Sams today, and had no less than 9 people make comments about it as I wheeled the cart by them. Surely I’m not the only person at Sams who buys 24 of the 56 oz. packages of Hershey’s kisses at a time, right? FPS. I know there are a bunch of chocolate lovers out there.

Sheri happytosayIdon’teatanyofthem.BecauseifIeatONE,IhavetohaveTEN.
That’sjustthewayitgoes.

Ok, so I stand corrected.

Here’s a new sock, just off the needles. I really like knitting with Alchemy Juniper (this one in Aubergine). Great twist, great feel, beautiful color options, and comfortable socks. I’ll bet it knits up into gorgeous shawls, too.

The pattern came from Carol’s book, Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn. I originally bought the book for two reasons – because Carol is a friend of mine, and because another friend stopped by Loopy one day with a sock out of this pattern and I fell in love with the way it looked. (So really, I intended to buy the book, but James’ sock made me go back to my computer and order it right then and there.) The pattern is Braided Gem Socks by Elizabeth Ravenwood. I’ll definitely knit this one again, as well as a few other patterns in that book. (Ok – first I’ll knit the matching sock for this one, and then I’ll use the pattern again.)

I still haven’t started my sweater for the KAL yet. There’s a reason for that. I had settled on a vest pattern and then another good sweater pattern came along. (Note to self: STOP LOOKING!) Now I think I’m back to doing a sweater and will do the vest next time. I’ll decide soon soon-ish.

Sheri stillhaveabout4sockson-the-needles.
Howmanyistoomanytohaveinprogress?

We have another whopper one for you today because so many things arrived over this past week. One line that I’m thrilled to have back in the shop is Sweet Georgia. If you’ve been with us since the beginning, you know that Felicia’s line is one of the first few indie dyer lines that we added in here. After carrying it for quite awhile, Felicia decided a year-long dyeing break was in order and off she went to travel the world. She came back with more color ideas and a desire to dye, which was good news for all of us! We have our first shipment from her, which is her popular Tough Love Sock Yarn, in many beautiful colors.

Another new dyer that we just added in is Huckleberry Knits. I found Scarlet at Sock Summit this summer. Or, rather, her yarn found me. I was sitting in a talk by Barbara Walker and the person in front of me was knitting the brightest (happiest) colorway I had seen in a long time. Since the session had already started, I couldn’t ask her what it was. But I did walk the marketplace later that afternoon, determined to find it. Sure enough, there it was in Scarlet’s booth. Success! This is the sock that I knit up with it and I really love it. We have Scarlet’s worsted line here right now, with the fingering weight line coming sometime in January. (I wanted the Worsted line, too, because I think her colors would make some really great sweaters.)

We’ve also added in: More Dream in Color Starry, Baby and Classy, more colors of Lorna’s Laces Worsted, Shepherd Sock, Shepherd Sport and Helen’s Laces (also from Lorna’s, the Loopy Ewe colorway in Sock and Sport), 50 colors of Madelinetosh Worsted, a new batch of Sereknity Yarn and Fiber, Mind Your Knitting Beanie Baggies, 3 AM Enchantments bags and wrist tags in the Sheep-y fabric you all love, the new Red bags and accessories from Namaste, and a new pattern from Wendy Knits that gives you fun things to do with your sock yarn leftovers. Come on over and check everything out!

And that’s why we were so busy around here last week. This week is shaping up to be the same way. We like that.

Sheri startedmyTravelingWomanShawlovertheweekend
andIhopetohaveitdonesoon.Greatpattern.

We had a great time at the wedding in Ohio this past weekend.

I worked on Sock Number One of my “if it’s going to be gloomy then the least I can do is WEAR sunshine” socks. This is out of Lorna’s Laces Sport in Butterscotch (I love the golden color), and I used the Monica Knit’s Swirl Socks pattern. Changes to the pattern: I knit them toe-up with a short-row heel and used 60 stitches instead of 70. I’ve already started the second sock. I think Swirling Sunshine Socks (say that three times) will be perfect for gloomy days, inside and out. I know that many of you said you were also going to knit some sunshine socks, so you’ll have to let us know what yarn and pattern you have chosen. It’s good to have mood-enhancing socks, don’t you think?

We did a big Sneak Up for you this afternoon. Actually, some of you may have noticed that I have started referring to them as “Monday Updates” instead. A few people get all wigged out over the idea of  ”sneaking up” and think that it’s a marketing scheme. (That always cracks me up. It was simply a survival scheme. As in “let’s just put things up quietly so that the website doesn’t crash from too many people on at once” strategy. We said, “We can’t announce the exact time any more, so we’ll just sneak it up for you and then you can stumble upon it when you check the site.” This started being referred to as a “Sneak Up”.) We went to a much larger server over a year ago and so far it has handled even Wollmeise updates without completely crashing. Most of you know that we put a big batch of new things up most Mondays, so I’m now going with “Monday Update” and hoping that it’s a term that everyone can handle.

In tonight’s Monday Update: 6 more colors of Fleece Artist’s specially priced Nyoni, Dream in Color Starry (some of the colors have arrived back in stock. We’ll add the rest as they trickle in via UPS). Also, Dream in Color Baby, Perchance to Knit 24/7 Sock, Lorna’s Laces Worsted (more colors arriving as they get dyed up. This is such beautiful yarn!). We also added Black Bunny Fibers Classic, a re-stock of Woolpets (along with two new kits – Chickadees and Sock Monkey), Offhand Designs (in 2 new styles – Suzannah and Daisy, which is reversible so that you can have all of those pockets on the inside or the outside of the bag), Della Q needle cases (I love having my needles all organized in Della’s organizers), more Marie Mayhew patterns, and a re-stock of Addi Clicks in the new smaller soft-touch pack which makes it easier for traveling. Whew. I think that’s it. Come on over and check it out.

Sheri ithasbeenareallybusyMondaybuttheSUNisSHININGtoday
soalliswell!

Happy Halloween to all of you!

I have a new cookbook that arrived this week and I think it’s my most favorite ever. (Which says a lot, because I may be guilty of collecting cookbooks…) It’s called “The Pioneer Woman Cooks“. I can’t remember how I stumbled upon The Pioneer Woman’s blog, but I have enjoyed reading it over the past year. What I like about her brand new (first ever) cookbook is: great recipes (and ones that I will actually make), step by step pictures, and fun stuff to read about life on the ranch. Most of the new recipes that I have tried lately have come from her, and I was so glad when I read that she had a cookbook coming out this fall. I think it would make a great holiday gift for several people on my list. (You know, the ones I’m not knitting for. And since I’m only knitting gifts for a handful of people this year, there are quite a few on the “no knits” list.)

<– Look – pictures of horses! I always wanted a horse, growing up. I never got one. And I also wanted an Easy Bake Oven that never magically appeared under the tree. Do any of you remember “really really really” wanting some particular thing? (Because, you know, that’s the way we talked about such things at that stage of life: really really really. Like you’d REALLY REALLY REALLY die if you didn’t get it). So were there things you really really really wanted and … never did get? Or does anyone remember spending a few hours poring over the Sears WishBook, making your list of things you had to have in order to survive another year of life? Or does this whole conversation just really (really really) date me? Yes? Never mind, then.

Sheri whonolongerwantsanEasyBakeOven.
ButI’dstilltakeahorse,evennow.

A few people have asked me how long I make the cuffs on my socks, and whether or not a certain skein of yarn will make 2 socks.

I also knit up a Spirit Trail Fiberworks sock out here. I love the colors (this one is Turkish Stone) and I used my default no-brainer pattern – the Baby Cable Rib. That’s the pattern I use when I don’t want to have to think while I knit. (3 rows of K2, P2, then one row of K2tog but leave on the left needle, knit the first stitch again and pop it both stitches off, then P2). It’s a very stretchy, comfortable sock. We’ll have a Spirit Trail re-stock again soon. I had a lot of fun meeting Jennifer in person at Maryland Sheep & Wool in May, and picking out colors for our next order in person.

So, are you mostly a toe-up sock knitter or a cuff-down sock knitter?  And how long do you like your cuffs?

Sheri enjoyingthealmostdailyafternoonthunderstormsthatlastabout20minutes