We have fun new things up on the website in tonight’s Monday Update! Pop on over.  Just up, you’ll find:

Into The Whirled – This is a new indie dyer to us, and you are going to love their yarn. Cris and James dye up these beauties in Phoenicia, NY and we will be adding more weights/bases as we go along. Tonight we’re putting up their Pakokku Sock yarn, which is a 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon fingering weight that has 460 yards per skein. If you’re not a sock knitter, trying using this for a Hitchhiker or a Lintilla. Those are two of my favorites for multi-color skeins. That’s what one of my skeins is going to become! (Shown here in Kimuro).

Woolen Mill Street – We have a new batch of Corriedale Roving from Christine, who dyes up her yarn and fiber in Missouri. So many fun colors in this batch! (Shown here in Haymich Abernathy).

The Loopy Ewe Solid Series – we’ve re-stocked Cardinal, Cherry, White, and Indigo.

Malabrigo – re-stocks in Worsted, Lace, Sock, and also Book Three in their pattern books.

ChiaoGoo – re-stocks on all of the needle sizes.

Loopy Cakes – We’ve re-stocked a few of the sold out packs and added three new ones for tonight: Lucky, Brrr, and The Abbey. (Time out – did you watch Downton Abbey last night? I mean, seriously? I didn’t see that one coming. Not spoiling it for any of those who haven’t caught that episode yet. But boy, this show keeps my interest. I do find it a bit hard to knit while watching it, though.) Back to Loopy Cakes – we really have a great time coming up with these fun little packs of colored cakes for you. It just takes us awhile to wind all of those little balls and get them ready to put up on the website! (Shown here in Lucky).

Rowan – Re-stocks on the Fine Lace. This gorgeous yarn is 80% Baby Alpaca and 20% Extra Fine Merino. That should tell you how soft and warm it is! 437 yards per ball, great for shawls, stoles, and wraps.

Rowan – KidSilk Haze Glamour - A wonderful laceweight skein of 55% Mohair, 22% Silk, 20% Nylon, 3% polyester, with an extra ply of sequins mixed in to give it some pop. Not only is this great for evening wraps and scarves, but it would also make a nice trim on gloves or sleeves. It would be beautiful for Ice Queen, Wisp, Winter Berries, Party Lace Scarf, and Mohair Bias Loop. (Shown here in Blushes).

Knitting Gadgets - re-stocks on various notions, including Chibi’s and the Sock Doctor keychain.

Have fun checking out the new things, and we’ll work on getting your orders packed up and shipped out tomorrow!

Sheri wantingtostartaHitchhikerTONIGHT
butmustfinishsomethingelsefirst.Dang.

We put lots of pretty yarn up for you in tonight’s Update! We just added in:

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock - We’ve re-stocked several colors and added in the Christmas in Downton colorway, which we were happy to see had been added to the regular Lorna’s Laces lineup. This fingering weight yarn is 80% Superwash Merino and 20% Nylon. Great for socks, but also fun to knit up in scarves and shawls that look great in multi-colors, like The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief, the ever-popular Hitchhiker, Willow Cowl, Twinkle Twinkle Blanket, Trillian, Ananke, Mormorio, and  Aquaphobia Socks. (Shown here in Flames.)

Lorna’s Laces Worsted - This is a great, soft, durable yarn for all of those projects that you want to toss into the washer and dryer. (Like the baby blanket I did last week.) Kids sweaters, adult sweaters, vests, scarves, hats – it all works up great with this yarn. We’ve re-stocked several colors (shown here in Lakeview) as well as the Christmas in Downton colorway. Here are a few fun patterns that would work well with it – Milanese Lace Topper, Narragansett, Cowboy Cowl, The Dudester Scarf, and Doux.

String Theory Blue Stocking – this fingering weight combination of blue faced leicester (a strong wool) and nylon, makes this yarn great for socks (durable) and shawls (an extra slight sheen). Karen and Tanis do a great job in dyeing up semi-solids and skeins with many layers of depth. It looks great with patterns that have some pretty stitches going on. You might take a look at –  Canyonlands Shawl, Zilver, Occitan, Treppenviertel, My Cup of Tea Socks, Truckle, and Treebeard Socks.  (Shown here in Canyon).

Swan’s Island Fingering Weight- a great value with 525 yards in the skein. Perfect for shawls, scarves and cowls such as Brandywine Shawl, Aurora Australis, Saltwater, Botanical Garden Shawl, And So Are You, Biscuit, Tilting Ladders Cowl, and No Two Snowflakes Cowl. (Shown here in Beetroot).

We also put one last box of Socktopus up (we think. They keep showing up!) We added the Christmas in Downton colorway in Lorna’s Laces Solemate. And we re-stocked The Loopy Ewe Solid Series in Oyster and Butter.

Have fun checking out the new things and we’ll get your orders out asap. We know you want them quickly!

Sheri whyyesIdidhavefunlookingatpatternstodayonRavelry.
Whydoyouask?

This was a project made with lots of love. My BFF Monica (author of the crazy-popular blog The Yummy Life) is getting her first grandbaby soon. So exciting! And of course when I first heard, I immediately thought of all the fun things I could knit for that new little person. I finally settled on a baby blanket, because when I had Web Guy oh-so-many-years-ago, someone sent me a wonderful handknit baby blanket and I used it all the time. I wasn’t even a knitter at the time, but I loved that sweet blanket. Here’s the one I just finished:

I have had the Pine Forest Baby Blanket on my favorites list ever since Knit Nighter Robyn made one last year and worked on it on Thursday nights. It’s such a beautiful pattern and a little more interesting than the same old knit and purl baby blankets that are out there. I picked Spud and Chloe Sweater because I like that it’s machine wash/dry, and it’s 55% merino, 45% cotton (so not as hot as all wool). I used these cute heart stitch markers between repeats, and it was a nice visual of all the love I was knitting into that blanket as I worked along.

I think I’m going to have to send Little Loopy along with the blanket, as he’s a bit enamored with the whole thing. Plus, he loves babies. Every time one comes in the shop, he hops into their baby carriage. I’m not sure the moms always appreciate that.

I might need to make this baby a sweater for next fall, too. And I’ll definitely make this blanket again. I love how it turned out. Baby things are so much fun to knit.

Sheri nobabiesinmyfamilyrightnow,soIhavetoborrowthemfromfriends

P.S. This blanket would also be beautiful done in Dream in Color Classy, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, and Cascade 220 Superwash – all yarns that are machine wash and dry, which is important to moms with young kids.

It’s nice to be back with you for a regular Monday Update again! We have been stockpiling things in the stock room over the holidays, and tonight we start back into sharing the new things with you on Mondays. Just up, we added in:

Madelinetosh Merino Light. This single-ply fingering weight yarn is great for shawls, scarves, lightweight sweaters, and more. I used it for two different two-color projects (and have a few more 2-color combos squirreled away in my stash for more shawls to come.) I used it for a Pamuya:

And I also used it for a Whippoorwill:

It’s a wonderful base to work with. If you haven’t yet tried it, you ought to.

Dream in Color Smooshy with Cashmere. This is a luscious base. Also wonderful to work with, and so soft to wear. It would make great socks, scarves, cowls, hats, shawls, mittens and gloves. I used it to make a 28′s Cousin 53:

We also added in notions from HiyaHiya – Puppy Snips, Kitty Snips, Dumpling Cases, and Yarn Ball Stitchmarkers. How cute are these Snips?

We’ve also re-stocked the HiyaHiya needles (circulars, DPN’s, Interchangeable sets and tips, etc.)

And several different scents and sizes of Soak wash.

Remember, all of your 2013 purchases accumulate points in our new Loopy Rewards Program. We keep track and send you fun little gifts each time you earn them. We’ve had a great time sending out reward gifts already this week, and we look forward to sending out many more. We appreciate you all here!

Sheri thinkingaboutstartinganewprojecttonight.Howaboutyou?

We have a lot of fun with our Quarterly Challenges each year. Be sure to take a look at the projects completed last year in the challenges for First Quarter, Second Quarter, and Fourth Quarter. (During the summer we do Camp Loopy instead, which involves a monthly challenge for 3 months in a row. You can find those photo galleries here, here and here. Lots of beautiful projects in there!)

Before I announce the First Quarter Challenge for 2013, we need to vote on a Reader’s Choice award for our Fourth Quarter participants. Take a look at the Fourth Quarter gallery and email us your favorite project (support@theloopyewe.com) and we’ll announce the winners soon. Thanks for your voting help!

Our first challenge project for 2013 involves 1 skein of yarn and cables. You’ll need to pick a one-skein project that features cables in the design. You can use any weight of yarn, but just a single skein. You might consider Hats, Cowls, Socks, Shawls, or Mittens/Mitts/Gloves. One of my favorite cable projects was my Camp Loopy 2011 mittens (All the Water by Through the Loops, shown above.) At that time, I mentioned wanting to make a pair of red mittens, and a pair of yellow mittens, too. Of course I haven’t done that yet, so maybe now is my time. Although I could use a new cabled hat, too. And I saw some really cool sock patterns with cables. Choices, choices.

Details:

- The challenge runs from today through March 31st. All projects must be done and photos uploaded to our First Quarter Challenge 2013 Gallery by 3/31.

- If you’d like to order yarn for this project, you can get 20% off of the skein you choose to work with. This discount is available between now and next Friday, January 11th. You must leave us an order note, letting us know which skein you will be using for the project so we know which one to apply your discount to.

- If you purchase this project yarn between today and 1/11 and finish your cable project and upload a photo of it by 3/31, we will double your Frequent Shopper points for that skein. So if your skein is $18.50 after discount, you will see 18.50 added to your point tally when we ship the yarn, and another 18.50 added to your point tally when we have received your completed photo (by 3/31). With our new Loopy Rewards Program, the extra points accumulate to earn you even more rewards!

- You are also welcome to participate using stash yarn, as long as it’s a line that we carry here at The Loopy Ewe. You won’t be eligible for the double Frequent Shopper points, but if you finish in time and upload your photo to the gallery,  you’re still eligible to win a Reader’s Choice award or our random drawing done with all entrants.

Do you need some pattern suggestions for one-skein cable projects? I’ve started a list for you! If you have other ideas, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Hats: Princess Lace Beret, Soft Shimmers Hat, Koolhaas, Antler Hat, Declans Hat, Claudia, Gretel, and Iced Hat.

Mittens/Mitts/Gloves: Bellas Mittens, Fetching, Knotty Gloves, Vancouver Fog, Eugenia’s Mittens, Wanderlust, Yummy Mummy Wristwarmers, and Wood Hollow Mittens.

Socks: Owlie Socks, Java Socks, BFF Socks, Neely Ohara, Katniss, Sunshine, Aragorn, and Smaug.

Shawls: Marin, Creekwood, Batik, Sunset Shawl, Theia, Dubliner, and Lafant Wrap.

Cowls: Cream and Sugar Cowl, City Creek Cowl, Lava Flow Cowl (shown here), Nennir, Cabernet Infinity Scarf, Heart on a String, Tom’s Crossed Cowl and Caera Cowl.

Are you up for the Challenge? And if so, what are you going to make?

Sheri contemplatingyarnchoices

One of the classes we’re teaching this quarter is “Your First Mittens”. I wandered by the class while it was in session and decided I needed to make those mittens, too. They are incredibly thick and toasty feeling. Made from a bulky weight yarn, they really keep the chill out. You can find the pattern free (Super Bulky Mittens for Women) and I made it with 1 skein of Malabrigo Rasta. I did add a total of 4 extra stitches to the mitten to make it a little larger, and I also did 10 rows on the cuff to make them a bit longer. This pattern would be equally stunning in The Fibre Company’s Tundra or Spud and Chloe Outer. I made this pair for a gift, but since it only took me one evening of knitting, I’m planning to make a pair for myself as well.

While I was looking for that pattern on Ravelry, I came across a few other fun, bulky (quick to knit) mittens and mitts you also might want to check out: Raglan Mitts, Axel Mitts (I like the turn-down cuff), Highly Regarded Mitts, Chunky Cables Wrist Warmers, Shelburne Mittens, Basket Weave Mittens, and Herringbone Mittens.

Of course as long as you’re making mittens, you might as well make a hat to match, right? So check out these cute bulky hat patterns (and remember – bulky usually means quick-to-knit): Garden Gate Mittens and Hat, Super Chunky Super Quick Toque, Thorpe, and Bella’s Hat. With just under two weeks until Christmas, it’s probably time to do a few bulky projects. Do you like to knit with bulky yarn? Those needles (size 11) seemed so big when I started, but by the second mitten I was whizzing right along with them. Plus, I really like that the mittens are so warm and thick. I imagine it’s the same with anything you knit out of bulky yarn. There are definitely a lot of pluses in using it.

Sheri whomightbeanewbulkyfan