Ok – many of you emailed or commented to say that you don’t want the term “Sneak Up” to go away. Truth be told, we will always refer to it as the “Sneak Up” here at Loopy Central, because … well, because it’s ingrained in our brains that way. So call it whatever you’d like, but you know that it means new things going up on Mondays, and that’s the most important part. Things are always hopping here, and we plan to keep it coming!

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. The groom was one of Web Guy’s college roommates and the bride was his long-time girlfriend. (Nathan’s long-time girlfriend. Not Web Guy’s long-time girlfriend!  That didn’t come out right…) It’s so fun when you know both the bride and the groom and can celebrate the long road that has brought them to this place. Here’s a photo of the three roomies (handsome fellows) and the beautiful bride. Web Guy is the tall one on the right. One of the sad things about your kids graduating from college is that you don’t get to see their college friends nearly as often. I miss them (and their nice parents – Hi Jari!).

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! Our first customers of the day (on a Road Trip from Oklahoma) rang the doorbell promptly at 10 am. When we opened the door, we were greeted with masks and a loud “Trick or Treat!” So we filled up their bags and purses with lots and lots of yarn as their treats for the day. (Um, no. Just kidding. They filled up their own bags quite well!) We wanted to make sure you knew that both Big Loopy (who stands on top of one of our yarn shelves, keeping an eye on things every day) and the Little Loopies (who congregate on the Loopy Island up front) are dressed for the day. Elf Donna makes sure that they are prepared for the different seasons. And then Susan brought Halloween tattoos and made us wear them. Should I keep mine on for the wedding that I’m attending tomorrow in Ohio?

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. Here is my first String Theory sock, folded over (not yet washed or blocked. Just in case you’re looking that closely). I wear a size 11 shoe, so my socks are always a good test of yardage. That’s one positive, I guess. I like my cuffs to be the same length as the foot of the sock, when folded in half. Once in awhile I’ll make them a little longer if I’m having fun with the pattern and there is still plenty of yarn left, but normally, I double them. When knitting socks, I split the skein into 2 equal balls using a winder and a scale to measure the weight, and then I knit toe up. This way, I never have to worry about running out down by the toe, from having knit cuff down. You can see the little bit of yarn I had left from this first String Theory sock. Actually, I screwed up the two balls a little and I used the smaller ball first. So I can say with great confidence that there is PLENTY in that skein to make a pair of socks. I knit this one on size 1 needles with 60 stitches. I can also say with great confidence that whenever we wrap up a set of small sock blockers, I am totally jealous of that person with the small feet.

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

I am having plenty of time to knit and relax on this trip. (And I continue to photo the flowers.) A few of you have mentioned my numerous blog posts while vacationing and I think you’re worried that I’m not enjoying my vacation. (Or else you’re tired of me blogging. Could be either one.) The funny thing is that it’s easier to blog on vacation, because:

1. We’re doing things that I can talk about and photo. In a typical week, my life is pretty much LoopyLoopyLoopy. Not a whole lot of new and interesting things to blog about. (That doesn’t mean we don’t do anything else, but I don’t think you all need to hear that WH and I went to a movie, or I found an old friend on Facebook, or church was great on Sunday, or we got together for dinner with friends, or I cleaned the house.)

2. I have more time to blog. As I said above, a typical week includes a lot of LoopyLoopyLoopy work.

3. I like keeping in touch with you.

When I’m back in St. Louis, the regular blog schedule will come back. (Hopefully I’ll have yarn news for you that first week back. Lots of yarn enroute.)

Here is the sock that I finished a few days ago. This is one of our new indie dyer lines – String Theory. Someone brought me two skeins of this amazing yarn to the Spring Fling in April, and that’s about all it took for me to get in touch with them. It’s one of those merino/cashmere/nylon yarn bases that we all love, and the colors are just gorgeous. In fact, I carried 4 different colors around with me the afternoon they arrived, because I couldn’t decide which one to use first. I’m in a teal-y mode these days, so this one (Bimini) won. (I left the rest for all of you from this first batch, but I do plan to add to my stash as we get more orders from them. It was beautiful to work with and the sock is so comfortable to wear.) I used the Celebratory Chevrons pattern that Debbie O’Neill designed for our very first anniversary. You can find it in the Free Patterns section of the blog, here. This is the second time that I’ve knit this pattern and it continues to be one of my favorites. (Speaking of the anniversary of The Loopy Ewe – we will again have a fun kit to celebrate our THIRD anniversary, which is in August. We’ll have details of that after we get back from having a booth at  The Sock Summit, the first weekend in August.)

The Sneak Up just went up for the week – did you catch it yet? In addition to String Theory, we also added in new colors in Noro Silk Garden Worsted and Kureyon Sock, new colors in Araucania Multi and Semi-Solid, Ella Rae Lace Merino line (which is actually perfect for socks, as well as lace knitting), plus re-stocks in Gale’s Art Black BFL Roving, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock and Wooltop, Dream in Color Smooshy, and Araucania Itata. We also re-stocked The Loopy Ewe clear bags and the GoKnit bags over the weekend. Next week, I’ll tell you about more new lines that are coming soon!

Sheri workingonasweater,Girasole,sockandshawl.
Whatareyouworkingonrightnow?

While shopping in Colorado last week, I found some books that I needed. The first is Carol Sulcoski’s new book “Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarns“. Have you seen it? She does such a wonderful job of explaining how to avoid pooling/striping when working with handpainted yarns, including how to determine what your skein is likely to do, depending on the lengths of the color runs. GREAT info for all of us who love handpainted yarns. There are also 21 sock patterns by designers like Nancy Bush, Charlene Schurch, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Chrissy Gardiner, and more. Definitely a great investment. I also bought a book called “Beautiful Sheep” by Kathryn Dun.  Beautiful photographs of more breeds of sheep than you ever knew about, plus all of the statistics about each breed. I think I need to frame some of the photos and hang them up here at Loopy Central.

In addition to shopping, there was also some knitting time. (14 hours driving out + 14 hours driving home + a few afternoons of being “snowed-in-so-we’re-watching-movies” = time to knit). I finished up 3 socks that were halfway done, and I’m happy with all three.  The first is Dye Dreams in their new Dream Sox line. This is one of my favorite semi-solids to work with. Not only do Mona and Stephanie do wonderful dye-work, but the base yarn is terrific. It’s a superwash merino/nylon blend, which makes for a very durable sock. (And you’ll love how soft and squishable this yarn is.)  I used a pattern from one of Charlene Schurch’s books and the pattern really pops out. I have tucked away several more colors of this yarn for future socks.

The next sock I finished is my first ever Jaywalker. (Note – that link takes you to a page with a Ravelry link, or a link to email Grumperina directly for a copy of her pattern.) I thought the self-striping pattern would look fun in this pattern, and I really like how it turned out. This is a brand new indie-line for us, which comes from Canada. We’ll have Sweet Paprika’s line up  next week in both this Vivace self-striping fingering weight, and in their lovely Minuet worsted weight (along with some great patterns from them as well.) Self-striping hand-dyed yarn is hard to find, as it’s such a time-consuming process. I’m so happy to have found these gals and their company. When we unpacked these boxes, I will admit to taking a few more colors of these, too. sigh.

The last sock I knit up is out of Cascade Fixation. I had not knit with Fixation before (I just had a lot of you clamoring for it) and I’m glad I took the time to knit with it. This is such a comfortable sock to wear, and I like all of the color choices. Fixation is 98.3% Cotton and 1.7% Nylon. It as some stretch to it and is billed as having “100 yds, 180 yds. stretched”. I wondered how far that would go. I have seen people talk about the Vog On pattern from Knitty.com, so I thought this would be a nice little anklet sock to use with Fixation. (And they give directions for both cuff down and toe up in that pattern.) I knit it toe up and substituted my preferred short-row heel. I could’ve stopped at anklet length, but then I wondered just how far up I could knit. Some of you have asked “How long are you supposed to make the cuff?”  Of course it’s totally a matter of preference, but I prefer to make my cuffs about as long as the foot, when folded in half. This little $5.50 skein totally measured up. I was able to do my size 11 sock with my  regular cuff length and even had a little yarn left over. (Note to self: flatten out that picot edge when washing and blocking it.)  If you’re looking for a warmer weather yarn to use for socks for the spring and summer, give the Cascade Fixation a try. At $11.00 for a pair of socks, it’s a great deal. (People also use this yarn for knitting up bikinis, but that is SO not on my list…..)

My Noro Sweater is coming along great. (I’m making the Chevron Cardigan out of Knitting Noro. Good basic designs, and I’ve already picked out a second one that I want to make from this same book.) I have the body finished and now just need to knit the two sleeves. I realize that “just two sleeves” is still a significant amount of knitting to be done (not to mention the sewing up of all of the pieces), but it makes me feel like I’m closer to the end if I can say “just two sleeves”.  It didn’t help that I had to do some frogging (once for pattern errata, and someday I’ll get used to looking that up FIRST), once for knitter-error, and once to change the colors that were coming out. FPS. I’ll bet I could’ve had one of those sleeves done, if not for the frogging.  I’ll keep working on it and will look forward to showing it to you soon.

For those of you who have been waiting for us to get The Knit Kit in, it arrived this morning! I put it up and even though we ordered several dozen, it may very well sell out quickly. If you click on the link and find that they’re gone, I’m happy to save one for you out of the next batch.  Just email us if you want to pre-order for the next time (we’ll have more in in about 2 weeks.) These are such great little kits.

So what have all of you been knitting for the past two weeks?  Fill me in!

Sheri whohasnewREDLoopysweatshirtstosharewithyounextweek