Loopy had the chance to attend the Kentucky Derby, and of course he was all over that. Although he’s a bit scared of horses, he likes all of the celebration and hoopla that surrounds the Derby. Loopy Groupie Dana from MO let him ride along in her hat box. Besides getting to hang out with Dana, he also had a chance to meet Bob Costas:

And then got to celebrate the winning ticket with a little bit of liquid refreshment.

All in all, a very good weekend for Loopy. Is anyone else taking Loopy on vacation anywhere soon? He’s ready to get on the road again and he travels light (given the fact that he wears the same t-shirt 24/7….)

Sheri thinkingLoopyhasbeenonmoreexcitingtripsthanIhave

So far today, I have:

- Ordered 2700 skeins of yarn. Still need to put in a few more orders this afternoon, though.

- Checked on orders expected from two yarn companies that were supposed to have arrived by now. (Now suspecting the UPS guy. Not our regular guy – he’s nice. It must be a substitute.)

- Met my landlord (based in Alabama, visiting here today) for the first time. Not sure he’d been in a yarn shop before.

- Tried to figure out which DVD of Downton Abbey is the right one to buy with the least amount of problems associated with it. (Lunch break.)

- Picked up and put down and picked up and put down a new silk blend and a new cashmere blend that are going up next week. (Going back there to pick them up again one more time before I go home tonight.)

- Answered emails, but still didn’t get my in-box to single digits.

- Walked over to Target (in this beautiful 73 degree weather) to get decaf coffee and cookies for a yarn meeting here tonight.

- Pondered my project wall and wondered if it’s wrong to have more than 8 planned projects in the works. (Well, not WRONG, but foolhardy? I’ve been doubling up on the bins. Two projects per bin now. I’m pretty sure I could get three in there if need be.)

- And now I’m getting ready to sit in my Red Chair with a fresh cup of coffee, to do some long term planning. I like that corner of my office.

What did you do today? Anything fun?

Sheri oneproblem:theRedChairfacestheProjectWall.
Notalwaysgoodforconcentrating.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day (for those who celebrated it this week) and now I’m sure you’re out shopping ’til you drop, getting the bargains at Target (although the lady in the commercial worries me), Best Buy, etc.  I’m not one of those people who get up early to get a bargain, just because I like my sleep a little too much! But I might get out there later today, just to get more Christmas shopping done.

I wanted to show you a picture of our newest elf. Remember Lucy’s first visit to The Loopy Ewe? She came back to visit again this week, and she has grown! We posed her by Loopy again for comparison. This time, she didn’t want to sleep – she just wanted to play. In fact, she nose-butted Loopy right over, after this photo was taken. (I’m sure she thinks he’s a rather boring 4-legged companion.) We were glad that Lucy’s momma (Elf Donna) brought her by for a visit again.

Are you getting any knitting done? I’m working on a Little Jazz, a Tesni Shawl out of Malabrigo Rios, and a sock out of DC Smooshy with Cashmere. Trying not to cast on a Shur’tugal, because I liked the looks of the one that my friend James put on his blog this week.

Sheri youknowmebetterthanthat.
ImightcastthatShur’tugalonafterall.

It has been fun reading about the projects (and color combos) that you’re thinking about for the Third Quarter Challenge. In addition to the blog comments, also check out the thread on the Ravelry Loopy Groupie board if you’re still looking for ideas. Then – get knitting!

Several of you have emailed to ask if we were doing Loopy’s Summer Vacation again this summer. We’ve done that for 3 years in a row, and this time we want to mix it up a little. (And since so many of you now have your own Little Loopy guys, we’re going to have you use those, or your favorite Loopy Tote, or you in a Loopy shirt/sweatshirt – anything with our logo on it, for the photos.) Here’s the deal. Every so often (not just this summer), we’ll throw out a Loopy Photo Topic, and we’ll give you a few weeks to take a photo and submit it to the “Where in the World is Loopy?” photo gallery. When the deadline is up, we’ll pick a winner to receive a fun prize. We’re starting you out with a super easy assignment: show us a picture of Loopy visiting someplace in your hometown. It could be:

Seeing the chocolates in Belgium:

Visiting the beach in Hilton Head:

Checking out his ancestors in Yorkshire:

Riding horses in MN:

Or any number of things from YOUR hometown. Pick a spot to take your Little Loopy (or your Loopy tote, or your Loopy paraphenalia), and let us see the photo evidence. We’ll pick a winner at the end of July, so you have until 7/31 to upload your photo. (How to upload? Log into your Loopy account, click the blue “Add Photos” link on your account page, and follow the easy steps.) Thanks for taking Loopy along with you. He loves to travel!

We’re celebrating Independence Day here in the U.S. this weekend. The mail service “celebrates” it on Monday, the 5th, by shutting down the mail system, so we will be out of the shop on Monday. All Saturday – Monday orders will start shipping out on Tuesday. (And we will have a regular Monday Update for you. More cool stuff has arrived!)

Sheri minichallengesweaterisdoneandblocking,photossoon…

These three. They did it. I walked into one of the classrooms on Saturday night at the Spring Fling, and found “The Adventures of Loopy” drawn out on the easel. Since these three had been in there preparing Cakeball Trays, they are the ones to blame. Or credit. I think K-the-Cakeball-Maker on the left was the artist, while the others no doubt gave input and spurred her on. (Personally, the whole wordless comic strip made me laugh. But then again, I’m partial to Loopy and felt a little sorry that he had lost his fourth red sock….)

Loopy’s Lost Sock

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who have a mother, are a mother, or know a mother.

Sheri wishingIcouldbringyouLoopyCartoonseveryweek!

I admit that I’m weird and I admit that I’m an animal lover. When you put those two things together, you get a person who comes up with names for the animals that frequent their backyard. (I feel that I know you all well enough to admit that.) The Cardinal Pair that have lived in our backyard for 6-7 years are Fred and Ethel. (Fred had to be the name of the Cardinal. If you’re a St. Louis Cardinals fan, you will totally understand that.) The duck pair are Gus and Mary. Now we have two cute chipmunks. I named the first one Charlie, and then Knitting Daughter came home for the summer and told me that there are two chipmunks, not one, and she named the other one “Chip”.  (Apparently this naming-thing is hereditary.) I guess Charlie is going to be short for Charlene, which happens to be my mother-in-law’s name. It’s a good name.

The interesting thing about Chip and Charlie, is that they have taken full advantage of the fact that our trees need to be pruned. They now climb the huge bush outside the corner of our screen porch, and get themselves onto the “squirrel-proof” birdfeeders. These feeders close up when the weight of a squirrel gets on them. Chipmunks aren’t that heavy. (Although both Chip and Charlie ARE going to be that heavy pretty soon, if we don’t get that bush trimmed up.) They sit there and feast and feast and feast. They have also learned that our cats, Gracie and Zoe, won’t bother them. Well, Zoe (the smaller cat, looking at the camera) would take them out in a second if she could get at them, but since they’re outside and she’s not, she appears to be a safe bet from the chipmunks point of view. Most afternoons and early evenings, the cats can be found sitting right there, watching the excitement unfold beneath their noses. This is their favorite time of year, when it’s cool enough for them to be out on the porch, watching the birds and the ducks.

Zoe’s other favorite place to be is curled up on my lap, whenever I sit down to knit. You’d think that having a lap of cat and a lap of Alpaca would be too hot, but so far it has been very tolerable. For those of you without cats (or lap dogs), this probably looks like a cumbersome way to knit. But you get used to it, if you’re an animal person. This is the Girasole that I’m working on – more news about that in Wednesday’s post.

Sheri goodSneakUpwentuptonight-didyouseeit?