One of the fun things that we did at the Fling was to have everyone sign a 6 ft. tall Sock Blocker for Loopy Central. (I did get some funny looks as I was carrying this big “sock” through the hotel. Some guy accused me of being a Red Sox fan, FPS!) I found the perfect place to hang it in our foyer, so that we can remember all of the fun people who were here for our first Spring Fling. (I photoed it with the door in the picture so that you Flingers would be able to picture where it is, now that you’ve been here in person.) I wonder how many of these will fit on the walls here? I guess when we’re out of wall space, we’ll stop having Flings? (Or move. Yeah, that’s a better idea. We’ll move and get more wall space.) Now I get to walk by the Big Blocker every morning, and think of all of you as I start work! It’s very handy to have a hubby who can make such things.

Here is a picture of the Goody Bags that we gave to everyone when they checked in. It includes the red/black backpack (which I liked a lot because it has pockets and straps and is designed vertically instead of being a horizontal carrying bag). Inside was a skein of Wollmeise which Claudia dyed up for me just for the Spring Fling. (This is the first time she has done more muted colors – it almost looks like a watercolor painting of meadows and sea – which makes it a very special colorway, indeed.) We also included a pattern and samples from Cherry Tree Hill and Claudia Hand Painted (enough to make some sock blocker keychains or mini socks), some wonderful “Everything Balm” from Goodies Unlimited, a brand new pattern from Wendy and one from Cookie A (along with my favorite new heavy vinyl “pattern holder” – I use these all the time when I knit), a Loopy Ewe coffee mug (no, we can’t sell them because we don’t want to ship them, but they were perfect for giving away in person!) and of course some Loopy Kisses. We had a great time putting these together for everyone. And now, you have a chance to win one! Remember when I told you about April’s blog contest and gave you all month to do three random acts of kindness? Today is the day to report in and leave your comments as to what you found to do for others this month! You need to have done three RAKs to be entered into the random drawing, and I will draw the name a week from today. If we have a lot of entries, I’m happy to draw for 2 or 3 Goodie Bags. We love giving away prizes. So leave a comment with your RAKs and inspire all the rest of us to get out there and do the same!

No Sneak Up this week, but we have wonderful things in store for you next week. All of the shirts, hats, and sweatshirts will go up. (Don’t worry – we ordered a lot and still have multiplies in all sizes. The Flingers didn’t clear us out!) We also have more Pattern Tamers, a fun Loopy Necklace, Lawre’s Laine BigBags (ohsogorgeous), Duets, Schaefer Anne, Yarn Love, Seawool Fiber Roving from Creatively Dyed, Cashmere Sock Yarn from Perchance to Knit, and possibly (depending on how much time we have to get photos done) two new indie dyers – Beyond Basic Knits and Enchanted Knoll Farms.

Guess what? It’s time to Take Loopy on Vacation again! He had such a wonderful mix of adventures last summer and he has been bugging us about it all winter long. He’s ready to go again! Beginning with orders placed on May 1st, we’ll be including a Loopy Postcard in your order while supplies last. (We will plan to send one postcard with your first order in May. If for some reason you need a second postcard with your next May order, just leave us an order note.) I know that a lot of you have your very own Little Loopy, and it’s perfectly acceptable to pose and photo Little Loopy on your vacation, instead of the postcards. We’ll leave it up to you as to which you prefer. We’ll start a new ‘08 edition of Loopy’s Summer Photo Gallery next week so that you can start sharing his adventures. We will have prizes at the end of the summer again, and will have you vote in several categories, so get photo-ing. Last year we had prizes for: Best faraway place that Loopy visited, most famous person that he met, most creative photo with Loopy, and most unusual place he visited. If you have any more fun ideas for additional categories, email me and I’ll share them on a future blog post.

Winners of the Q1-08 Challenge – for “randomly drawn from all entries” the winner is: Juli’s skirt. For the Reader’s Choice award from those who voted: Jennifer’s Venezia. Each wins a $25 gift certificate to The Loopy Ewe. Congratulations to you both! Don’t forget our Q2-08 Challenge that runs between now and the end of June.

I had an email from Claudia this morning and she has arrived safely back in Germany. Her family is glad to have her back, but I miss her!

Sheri stillwaaaaybehindonemailsbutIpromiseI’mpluggingawayonthem!

Look what happens when we’re all busy packing your Sneak Up orders and turn our backs on the Little Loopys. FPS! They’ve been having a heyday, all over Loopy Central. We’re out of these cute guys at the moment, but more will be here in a couple of weeks. And that’s good, because we’ll once again be doing our annual “Take Loopy on Vacation” contest over the summer! We’ll start sending the Loopy postcards with orders sometime in May, but we thought that some of you (150 of you Little Loopy Owners so far) might rather be taking your stuffed Loopy to pose in interesting places, instead of a postcard. Either one will work for the contest this summer. The postcards are fun, too. We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with for Loopy to experience in the coming months. He LOVES to travel. We’ll keep you posted on that summer contest in the next month or so.

Here’s one of my new recipes from vacation-cooking. I had a couple of you email your sympathies that I had to cook on vacation. Actually, I love cooking when I have time for it. On vacation, when there is nothing sitting there needing to be done, it’s fun to spend some of the afternoon making a nice meal. It’s the day in and day out cooking when you’ve been-busy-all-day-and-there’s-still-so-much-to-get-done-but-your-family-needs-to-eat cooking, that I don’t particularly care for. We did go out for some meals on vacation, and WH is completely up for that, but I do like to cook.

Mexican Calzones

1 (15 oz) pkg. refrigerated pie crust (room temperature)
1 lb. ground beef
1 (4 oz) can diced green chilies
1/4 cup water (note: this is less than the taco mix pkg. calls for)
1 (1.25 oz.) pkg taco seasoning mix
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
Salsa or Taco Sauce
Sour Cream and Guacamole (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown beef in large skillet and drain. Add chilies, water and seasoning mix and stir well. Let cool slightly.

Place pie crusts on cutting board and unfold. Cut each crust in half, making 4 half circles. Divide beef mix and cheese up between the four halves. Dampen the edge of the crust with water and fold the sides over. Crimp the edges with the tines of a fork. Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes.

Garnish with salsa/taco sauce/sour cream/guacamole. YUM!

I also wanted to let you know about our April Blog Contest, which will be a little different. Remember all of our Random Acts of Kindness contests in December? It was so fun to see all of the ways you came up with to help others. At that time, I decided that we had to do a RAK contest a few times a year instead of just in December. (All in the interest of encouraging those types of activities year-round!) So we have dubbed April another RAK month here at Loopy. The contest requires you to do THREE RAKS between now and the end of the month. On Wednesday, April 30th, I’ll do the RAK Contest blog entry where you will leave your comment with the three things that you did in April. We’ll use the random number generator to pick a winner. The prize is a good one – we are giving away one Spring Fling Goody Bag to the winner. These are the bags that our Spring Fling retreat-attenders will be getting the weekend before that, and the approx. retail value of the bag and contents is $75. Only one person outside of the Fling attenders will get one – the winner of the April contest! (Note – if a Spring Flinger happens to win, you can choose to either get that bag, or something else. We’ll talk!) Check out some of those RAK posts (in the comments sections) from December if you need some creative ideas for nice things you can do for others during this time.

I’m knitting this weekend. And you?

Sheri speakingofcooking,KDmadedinnerforuslastnightanditwasdelicious.
Yay,KnittingDaughter!

As promised, here are a couple of new sock photos. I have another one done, too, but it’s a new indie dyer that we haven’t announced yet. I’ll save that photo for later! I love these Noro socks. (Color S185)I was so anxious to see how they’d wash up, as they are definitely scratchier feeling to knit. (I survived it, just because the whole color thing was so fun to watch progress.) They softened up in the wash. I hand-washed them in Soak (let them soak in the water for about 15 minutes) and let them air dry, like I always do. (I always hand-wash all of my handknit socks. I’ve never felt like it took very long, and after putting all of that knitting time in, I’m all for making sure they last as long as possible! After I wash them, I roll them up in a towel to get rid of excess moisture, and then dry them on this, which is mounted on a wall in our bathroom. I love it. I know, I know – you’re supposed to “dry flat”. But once I have rolled them in a towel, there is not enough moisture and weight left in them to stretch them out of shape when hanging on this rack.) Back to the Noro socks, I was glad that it softened up some after washing. I knit these on size 0 needles and the stitch definition still looks great, post-washing. This sock is still not as soft as others, but honestly, when it’s on my foot, I can’t tell the difference. I’m working on the matching sock now, and will absolutely make more. There are several other colorways I want to try out. (Also great yarn for scarves, mittens, gloves, etc.) It’s one of those yarns that you’ll either like or not, but I love it!

The second sock is the Araucania yarn. To be honest, I saw this skein and thought it looked awfully splotchy. A very unique looking yarn, to be sure! However, I only had to knit a couple of inches on my sock to realize how absolutely gorgeous it was all knit up. All of those splotches add up to an amazing mix of colors and I will be knitting more of these socks as well! (Not sure of the colorway on this, but it’s one of the ones that was on backorder in our first order from them, so we’ll have it eventually!) Both of these experiences are a good reminder not to judge a sock yarn until you’re worked with it. Knitting it up tells you a lot about the dye and color. What seems to be “splotches and unevenness” in the skein (or “abrubt color changes” or any other description that comes to mind) will bring about different results in the knitted fabric. You might love it, or you might hate it, but it will be different when you work with it. (Of course you can also check our photo galleries to see how things look when they are knit up. You all have been so generous in sharing your finished sock photos for all of us to see and benefit from.) The same goes for washing the socks, and of course wearing and washing them more over time. What might look great all knit up, might not wear so well. (Or, it might wear very well!) I know that I baby my handknit socks with the handwashing. I also don’t normally scuff around in them without shoes or slippers on, and I most often wear clogs, so I don’t get a lot of wear-out on the heels. (That’s not why I wear clogs – I just like how easy they are to kick on and off.) So, lots to consider when picking out the sock yarns that YOU want to work with and wear. That’s why we try to keep so many different options for you! This was done in the Loopy Laces pattern by Wendy. (It’s Wendy’s birthday today – go tell her Happy Birthday!)

Speaking of options, are you wondering about next week’s Sneak Up? Here’s the list so far, although we reserve the right to add to it if we get more photos done:

- Hand Maiden Casbah Sock
- Schaefer Anne, Lola and Heather
- New Dream in Color Classy colors
- All of the Dream in Color Baby lace colors
- Fiesta Boomerang and Baby Boomerang
- Yarn Nerd
- Mountain Colors Bearfoot
- New Sakina Needles Roving
- New Yarn Ball Earrings from Romi
- New Loopy Ewe totes (in the larger size – same as our Loopy Groupie bags, but black handles and zipper. We’re saving the red handles/zipper for Loopy Groupies. You all have been asking to be able to buy this size, and we have them for you!)
- New Loopy Ewe canvas totes – the perfect size for sock projects (and they’re RED!)
- New Loopy Ewe coffee travel mugs (because, you know, we like coffee around here)

Coming up the week of January 14th: Wollmeise Sock Yarn, Plucky Knitter Lace, Sheepaints, and more.

Spring Flingers! Watch for an email next week, telling you how to go about paying for your deposit for the retreat. We won’t have you sign up for your classes until March, when the balance of the fee is due. We’re excited to have all of you attending, including some of our favorite Canadians, as well as Kellie all the way from New Zealand and Claudia (the Wollmeise herself!) from Germany! We can’t wait to have all of you here.

Our final Random Acts of Kindness winner is: Heather from IL. Congratulations, Heather! Thank you ALL for participating in this fun month-long contest. We’ll be sure to do it again next December! (Although I’m hoping that we’ll all keep RAKs on our minds throughout 2008. We’ll have to have a quarterly check-in and contest, just to keep things moving.)

Fourth Quarter Challenge photos are due in by January 10th! The Challenge for last quarter was to knit something with 2 or more colors/yarns. I’ll remind you after the 10th, to go vote for your favorites and then we’ll announce the winners. You can see the entries so far, here.

It’s a new Quarter, which means a new Loopy Q1-08 Challenge! This quarter, the challenge is to knit something that you have not knit before. I don’t mean “try a new pattern for your socks”. I mean, if you have never knit socks, knit socks. If you have never knit a shawl, try a shawl. Or mittens, or gloves, or fingerless mitts, or a neck warmer, or a Chevron Scarf, or a sweater, or a vest, or ….. well, the list is endless, isn’t it? (And hey – if you haven’t spun before, get some of the beautiful roving we have going up next week and make “spinning” your “Q1-08 Try Something New to You” challenge!) You have until April 10th to submit the photo to the Q1-08 Gallery and there will be two winners. 1, a winner by random drawing from all of the entries, and 2, a “Knitter’s Choice”, awarded to the project that gets the most votes from all of you. So figure out something that would be fun to learn and do, and jump right in. I’m going to attempt a shawl. Again. (I loved working on it – see blog post here – but that’s all I ever did on it. There were just too many socks needing to be done. I’m going to frog this and start over and am bound and determined to do the whole thing this time.) What do you think you’ll work on for the Challenge?

Sheri savingthenewgiftphotosIwantedtoshowyouforFriday’sblog,
alongwithanewrecipeforyou.Thispostisalreadytoolong!

What a full week it has been! A fun Christmas (I have some cute gifts to show you on Wednesday – you might want to put these two artisans on your “future gifts” list), and a fun time in Iowa. We spent a couple of days with WH’s mom in Clinton. (With Iowa being the hot-bed of political focus right now, both Obama and Edwards were in town the day we were there.) On Friday, we mostly stayed inside and watched 8-10 inches of snow fall all day long. Isn’t it beautiful? (Great knitting weather. I have new socks to show you later in the week, too. Finished the Noro sock and am totally in love with it. So much so, that I’m starting the second one tonight. And you KNOW that means something. I’m the Queen of the Single Sock.) While we were visiting WH, College Guy set up a laptop for his grandma, and gave her some important lessons. All appears to have gone well with that. (Notice that her office has a RED wall. I liked it a lot!)

On Saturday we traveled across Iowa (in some weird white fog) to attend the wedding of our godson and his beautiful bride. We’ve known this handsome guy since he was just a few days old, and met his wife-to-be this past spring. Aren’t they a happy looking couple? It was a joyful wedding and we are so happy for both of them. This is the son of our good friends Steve and Janice. Want to see more photos? She blogged some fun ones! “Small World Moment” – when I saw a friend from high school scooting into one of the pews for the wedding. Then I realized that she was a teacher at their high school and must’ve had the bride in class. “Smaller World Moment” – when it dawned on me that my high school friend’s last name (her married name) was the same as the bride’s maiden name and realized they must be related. (Yep – she’s an aunt by marriage.) What a small world.

On Sunday, we hung around for brunch and talking. Here is a picture of three of my favorite kids. (Only two are mine, but I’d gladly claim the third. She’s Iowa Girl, sister to the groom.) They’ve all been good friends their whole life. Do you have any friends like that, that you have known your whole life? My oldest friend that I’m still in touch with is actually Steve, father of the groom and father of Iowa Girl. (Also father of Iowa Guy, not pictured.) We met in Junior High. (This was before he and WH met and became such good friends, so I get to claim being Steve’s oldest longest friend.) Other than that, my oldest longest friends go back to high school days.

Today is our last Random Acts of Kindness reporting day. I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed reading all of the kind things that you have done over the past month. This contest really has helped me to keep it on my mind and continually look for ways to make a difference to others. One of my plans for tomorrow is to figure out a plan for each month of 2008 and what I can do to make a difference. Please leave your RAK comments (and your other comments!) below, and I’ll do one more drawing on Wednesday of this week. The winner for last weeks’ drawing is Barbara in LA. Congratulations to you! We’ll plan to get all of the drawing gifts out the end of the week. Thank you all for participating!

Sheri noSneakUpthisweekbutthenexttwoweeksaregonnabedoozies!

Just a quick blog today to remind you to leave your RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) comments from last week. Remember, we’re all trying to make December our month to go out of our way to pass on kindnesses (or “Pass the Cheer” as Starbucks advises.) I’ll announce the contest winner (drawn from all of today’s comments) on next Monday’s blog if I don’t blog again before then. I’ll have lots to tell you about when I get back!

I want to wish every one of you a blessed holiday season, with lots of special times with your families. (And a Merry Christmas!) We’ll have a whopping Sneak Up for you when things get back to normal after the holidays. (Probably the first full week of January.) The new Dream in Color colors arrived in Classy, as well as all of the Dream in Color Baby Lace. Plus, the Cherry Tree Hill DK weight one-of-a-kind colorways that we’ll have on sale for you, Romi’s gorgeous earrings and pins, Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and all of the things I listed in the last blog. Ohhh, it’s gonna be fun!

Sheri finishingordersfromtodaythengoinghometomakecookies!

We did get 8″ of snow this weekend! It was so pretty falling on Saturday. Knitting Daughter and WH were working, so College Guy and I went shopping in the snow. Still not done with Christmas shopping, but I’m getting closer. I also spent some time spinning and knitting. These Noro socks are really fun to knit. In fact, I was having so much fun watching for the next colorway to emerge that I probably made the cuff of these socks too long. Oh well. I am knitting these on size 0’s and getting 9 st. to the inch. I got 8 st. to the inch on 1’s, but it felt like the knit material was a little too loose. I like it done on the 0’s, better. This is color S185. We have lots in stock and more due in any day, so you ought to be in good shape for getting it here as soon as we get it put up for you! (Added later: Noro is up – go see!)

These RAKs have been so interesting to read. I find that I’m frequently saying, “Oh my gosh.” As in, “That’s a great idea!” or “What an amazing and giving person she/he is.” or “I need to be doing that, too.” And I have loved all of your blog comments, but also all of your emails as well. It has alao been fun to help many of you do some yarn-y type things anonymously. I had one email last week and she wanted me to share this with you. I do agree with her that giving sacrificially is a really nice thing to do and kind of the “next step up” in RAKs. Read and see what I mean:

“Hi Sheri- have been thoroughly enjoying the RAK challenge on your blog- you’ve inspired me to sacrificial giving- and I’d like to put out a challenge to others- to do the same… RAKs can be big or small…. but what’s really changing me in practicing this– is by making them sacrificial… not just giving out of abundance- but giving as a sacrifice.

Recently a knitter on ravelry had his entire stash raided and stolen…. (long story). I knew I’d be sending out yarn.

First, I looked through my stash to see what I could spare— then I saw my gorgeous skein of Wollmeise. Wollmeise has to be a healing balm in any situation- don’t ya think? (Of course I bought it from The Loopy Ewe) I already pkged it up- It’s shipping to him in the morning.

I know- I know it’s just yarn- but I cannot tell you how good it feels to know he’ll be delighted- (oh man- I hope so) and that this little sacrifice might bring a little Christmas cheer into his life.) I’d love to anonymously challenge others to step up their RAKS to something that is a bit of a sacrifice…. and see how wonderful that feels!”

I know that many of you have already been doing RAKs that stretched you. Remember that giving sacrificially doesn’t have to involve money – it might also mean sacrificing some of your TIME to help someone else out. It’s a whole different level of feeling great about helping others, isn’t it? Keep up the great work! You all just inspire the heck out of me. Leave your comments today on the RAKs that you’ve worked on this past week. Again, on Wednesday, I’ll use the random number generator to pick a winner of this week’s Loopy Loot gift package. I know that’s not why you do RAKs, but it’s meant to encourage you to share your RAKs and ideas with all of us so that we can do them, too!

I’ve been doing some spinning, too. Not too much, because of the volume of knitting that needs to be done. But here is my latest and I love this colorway. I have a spinning area set up in the basement (actually, the very first Loopy Room space – I’ll have to photo it for you.) I’m hoping to do more spinning over the holidays, as I have a long way to go in order to get good! But I’m working on it. Are there any St. Louis spinners out there? I’m thinking of doing a monthly evening “Spin In” here at Loopy Central.

We’re ready for preliminary signups for Loopy’s Spring Fling Knitting Retreat! We’re leaving them open until Friday morning. We’ll get back to you by Friday of this week to confirm your spot. (Why not just take the first 60 signups? I didn’t want you to have to stay glued to the website and battle for a spot!) Your deposit isn’t due until January 15th, and we’ll send you a bill for that. Go check it out. We have Wendy and Cookie coming to teach classes, and lots more fun things planned. We can’t wait to have you here!

Sheri WebGuyisprintingpostage/addresslabelsforyourorderstoday.Nicetohavehimhere!