We had a great weekend visiting College Guy for Parents’ Weekend. As usual, I discovered a few things about college days. Or at least I remembered a few things about college days. (Here was my list of things learned last year.) College Guy goes to Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. They joke about it being in the middle of a cornfield. I should’ve taken a photo, because it really IS surrounded by cornfields! Thankfully Marion, Muncie, Indianapolis and Fort Wayne aren’t too far away, so they can always go there for fun. It’s a great school and just won a top award for colleges of its size (as seen in the banners that are proudly displayed around campus now.) So – the things I learned this year:

1. College kids can put up with parents hanging out in their dorm room, as long as it’s for a relatively short period of time. Like an afternoon.

2. Guitar Heroes is fun. (I’m expanding my skills. This summer they made me do DDR – and do you know what that is? I didn’t. This weekend I learned how to do Guitar Heroes and I’m thinking we might have to get that. I’m sure it’s good brain exercise, somehow.)

3. It doesn’t matter how good the food is in the Dining Commons during Parents Weekend – all of the college kids still want to go out to eat with you.

4. Roommates can be a good source of information. We all went out for lunch on Saturday (parents + siblings + kids – 12 of us) and roommates like to tease each other. If you’re a parent and if you’re smart, you’ll smile and nod a lot, and this usually keeps them joking and talking, and sharing important info.

5. Most dorm room couches are old and ugly. But very very comfortable. (They’ve been flopped on so many times, that they’re very accepting of any and all body types that want a place to sit.) I have yet to see a nice dorm couch.

6. Cookies are still required upon entrance. Extra credit is given if you happen to also bring PopTarts or something else equally healthy.

7. I miss hearing college chimes. Did you go to a school that had chimes? Walking around campus and hearing them play still takes me right back to my college days.

8. College kids go jogging at midnight and think nothing of it. What’s up with that?

9. Ivanhoes is still the best place for ice cream sundaes and malts. I wish I would’ve taken a picture of what I got. Trojan Two – cookie dough ice cream, chocolate covered graham crackers, and peanut butter sauce. There may have been something else in there, too, but who pays attention after the first delicious spoonful?

10. College visitation weekends are no time to diet.

Today, I’m back in the swing of things here at The Loopy Ewe! In fact, we have exciting things going on around here. More on that later, as things progress. I will tell you that there is a Sneak Up going on right now! Head on over and you’ll find Classic Elite Alpaca Sox, Wendy’s Patterns, Yarntini and Yarn Pirate, a great deal on a few Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids, and more. (Note – of course some of those might be sold out again by the time you read this – but just remember, we ALWAYS have more on order!)

Lastly – the winner of our September Blog contest from last week is Emily. She wins a fall skein of Wollmeise and Yarntini this month! I have loved reading every one of your fall comments. I’m glad I have so many fellow-Fall-fans!

Sheri makingsocksoutofthatnewAlpacaSoxyarnandboyaretheygoingtobetoastyandwarm!

1. “You know, I think it would be fun to learn how to knit a scarf to wear this winter. How hard can it be?”

2. “Isn’t my scarf great? I want to knit another.”

3. “Purling? Oh, no. I just do the regular knit stitch. I don’t want to try purling or anything complicated.”

4. Sigh. “I have 25 scarves and now I’m bored. How many scarves does one person need?”

4a. “I need to find another hobby.” Some people – the people-who-tried-knitting-briefly – choose to exit here.

or

4b. “Maybe I ought to learn to purl.” (The True Knitters continue on.)

5. “Socks? On those little toothpick needles? Are you kidding me? Absolutely not.”

6. “Socks! I love knitting socks. And aren’t they wonderful to wear? I need a bunch.”

7. “Stash? Oh, I just buy one project ahead, so that I know I’m going to use it. I don’t believe in the stash concept.”

8. “Stash! Everyone has stash. You never know what you’ll want to knit next. Of course I have a container full of stash.”

9. “I have more yarn than I can ever knit in a lifetime. Maybe I better stop finding more.”

10. “Yes, I have a lot of yarn and it’s always fun finding more. I’m a Yarn Collector and Knitter!”

Sheri I’mtotallya#10howaboutyou?

We knit socks. We have leftovers. We must do something with the leftovers in order to make more room for new sock yarn. What to do?

1. Sock balls. Every time I finish a pair of socks, I roll the extra yarn up into a ball and plunk it in this glass jar. Obviously I need a larger glass jar. I also think this is handy because if I ever need to mend a pair of socks (and you know, I’d ONLY ever mend hand-knit socks), then I just come to this jar and find the right yarn. I like it.

2. Toe rings. It’s summertime and we’re all walking around in sandals …. and not wearing our wonderfully handknit socks. Why not match yarn to your outfit for the day, and tie on a toe ring? It’s the next best thing to wearing a handknit sock, I’m sure.

3. Blankets. True, it would take close to forever to knit a whole blanket out of your leftover sock yarn, but if you do a bit every time you finish your socks, one day you’ll be done. Won’t the end result be beautiful?

4. Cat toys. While Zoe is wonderful about leaving skeined and balled yarn completely alone, heaven forbid that a tail of yarn might dangle out to catch her attention. She’d love her own yarn-ball cat toys. Of course she’d eat the yarn and then there would be trouble. But maybe your cats are better behaved.

5. Face cloths. If the thought of a whole sock yarn blanket is intimidating, why not make up some face cloths with it? They’d be soft, machine washable, and beautiful.

6. Tying the stash cupboard shut. Of course I’m speaking of the cupboard where your yarn stash lives. No one needs to go in there except for you, right? (No one SHOULD go in there except for you, right?) Tie it shut and tell everyone that you’re working on things for Christmas and it’s not to be opened or disturbed.

7. Baby socks. One can never have too many pairs of socks for babies. Baby socks make nice gifts (they are great to keep on hand) and they take little yarn, depending on the size of those cute tiny feet. Maybe your next baby gift ought to be a “sock wardrobe” – different colors for the multiple wardrobe changes that babies seem to go through.

8. Reminders. Maybe you’re like me. Maybe not. But oftentimes I’d rather be knitting than … doing household chores, for example. And have you ever forgotten to do something because you became so involved in what you were knitting? Leftover sock yarn is great for tying a string around your finger so you don’t forget. Or tying several strings around several fingers, if there are many things you are putting off while knitting. This might apply to me.

9. Chevron scarf. You all know that I’m having fun with my Chevron scarf. Why not make a “scarf of many colors” and make it in all different sock yarns? The dip-and-weave pattern in the Chevron scarf mixes it all up very colorfully.

10. Save your seat. Have you ever wandered into the tv room to knit, only to find “your knitting seat” occupied? Annoying, isn’t it? Now you can use your leftover sock yarn to tie up an effective road block. Just loop a long tail of yarn across it to keep people out. Depending on your family and how likely they are to obey that, you might also need to add a sign to further dissuade them. Mine would not be dissuaded by yarn. Come to think of it, they probably wouldn’t be fooled by the note either. Maybe I need to resort to just leaving a bunch of yarn balls in the chair.

Those are a few ideas, but I’m sure you have more. What have you done with your leftover sock yarn?

Sheri no,I’mnotseriousaboutallofthese,butI’llleaveittoyoutofigureoutwhicharemeantinjest!

Based on the past few months, I’m thinking there are probably a LOT of you who are going to need new places to hide store all of your yarn. So I walked around my house and found some new hiding storage places that I thought I’d share with you today.

Behind your frames	In your Crocs
In the cookie jar	In your coat sleeves
With your cookbooks	In the plants
In your baskets	Under the piano cover
In the harp	In your ceiling lights

Sheri Iknowyouhavefoundotherplacestohidestorestash.Telluswhere!

As most of you know, I have a wee problem with twinless socks. To that end, I have found OTHER uses for them, because it’s apparent that they will never become a pair.

Wallet	Flower Pot
Bunny bed	Candle holder
Water bottle holder	Golf club cover
Needle case	Envelope
Shampoo dispenser	Remote holder

Pretty good use of twinless socks, wouldn’t you say? So I’m using them creatively. OR – I’m going to embark upon an adventure called “Summer of the Second Sock” – SOTSS – and finish up a match to these about every 2-3 weeks throughout the summer. Actually, at that rate, it will turn into FOTSS as well, but that’s ok. At least I have a plan. Maybe before winter hits, I’ll have 20 new PAIRS of socks …. and will have made more twinless ones in the meantime. So, did I miss any good uses of twinless socks? And did you miss the Sneak Up today?

Sheri whoreallyISdeterminedtomakematchestoallofthesesocks

It was very fun reading all of your “reasons we love sock knitting” for last week’s contest! (And over 200 entries – that was great!) I kept thinking that all of the non-sock knitters out there ought to read through the list. They’d be convinced in no time, wouldn’t they? So, using the random number generator, the winner of this month’s Loopy Loot contest is: Kelli. Kelli, email me your address and I’ll pop the Loopy Loot in the mail to you!

Since it is Spring Break for Knitting Daughter, I thought I’d share the things that we have on our list to do this week. Do YOU have any fun plans for Spring Break? Anything that I left off my list that I need to add to it? Because College Boy comes home on Friday for his Spring Break next week, so I’ll need a whole new list for that!

1. Shopping. We all know that I need to get out and exercise my poor credit card a bit more, and there are all kinds of fun spring things that need to be bought up, aren’t there? Like these cute flowers for my garden window in the kitchen. I kinda decided on a teal blue and red theme in there for the next couple of months. Fortunately, Knitting Daughter reaches her shopping patience rather quickly, so I can’t exercise the card TOO much.
2. Stocking inventory. Boxes, boxes, boxes are coming in and we’re unloading them as fast as we can. Today, more Scarlet Fleece, more Schaefer Anne and Lola, and a few things that we’re not quite ready to debut yet. (WOOT! Don’t you want to know? Soon.) On the way to The Loopy Ewe later this week, more Yarn Pirate, more Cider Moon, more J-Knits, and more other wonderful things. I need to buy some more shelves for The Loopy Room. That needs to go on my shopping list this week.

3. Walking. Knitting Daughter and I are going to get back to our walking routine, which I just love. (Do you know how much kids talk when they walk? It’s wonderful.)

4. Knitting. Did I mention that I had to upgrade from the 3-tier basket to this 5-tier basket? I just figured that I’d use the 3-tier in The Loopy Room for something. And, just for the record, I did do that. For a brief time. But now …. well, the 3-tier basket is full of yarn, too. I have my sock yarn stash in this 5-tier, and my lace and other yarn stash in the 3-tier. Anyone want to place bets on how soon I’ll “need” another 5-tier? OH, I hope I get lots of knitting time in this week.

5. Cooking and baking. My motivation is needing good treats for College Boy when he arrives this weekend. He’s fun to cook for. Do you feel like it shows love to your family when you make special dishes for them? I think I get that from my grandma. She was always trying to get us to eat more when we had meals over there. And now, my mom is making dinners for us on Monday nights because Mondays are always WAY busy here at The Loopy Room. She must get that from her mother (my grandma). We sure LOVE it. Isn’t she wonderful?

6. Movies. Knitting Daughter and I love to watch movies and knit. It’s kind of our thing. We have a stack of movies to watch, but also are in need of more good suggestions. Anyone have any ideas? Because truthfully, we’ve already seen most of these. We might need to get hooked on another good tv/dvd series as those seem to last a long time. So far, Gilmore Girls and 24 have been our favorite tv series on dvd.

7. Planting. ugh. I don’t like gardening. Not a bit. I love the look of flowers popping up in my yard, and I love having flowers cut in a vase, but I don’t like the work to get them going. However, I do need to at least get some good flowers going in the pots on the front porch. Last spring we were so busy building The Loopy Ewe, that we never did plant things in those planters.

8. Felting. Have you been over to Woolpets to find these wonderful felting kits from the very talented Laurie? Now, I have never needle-felted before, but I have been assured that it’s easy peasy. So I have four kits that KD and I will attempt to make this week. You’re probably thinking that a smart person would buy one and see if they liked needle felting and could actually make something recognizable before splurging on … ahem …. several. You’re probably right. I’ll keep you posted on our success.

9. Hanging out with the mum-in-law. We love having Wonder Husband’s mom come to visit and can’t wait for her to arrive later this week. She’s an incredibly easy “guest” to have around and we always want her to stay much longer than she does. Boy, did I luck out in the mother-in-law department.

10. Starbucks. That pretty much goes without saying. With KD home, she can bop down there and get coffee for us with her wonderful discount and that’s hard to turn down. I’m trying to avoid the Caramel Frappuchinos. Do you know how many calories are in there?? (And the “lite” version is just not good. The best part is the whipped cream with the caramel drizzle on top.) So, I try to limit those to once a month. But we will enjoy Peppermint Mochas and Vanilla Lattes and Cinnamon Dolces all week.

So – did you already have Spring Break? And for those of you without kids, don’t you think you still need to celebrate a Spring Break week? I think you deserve it. What things will you do?

Sheri stillworkingongettingmostofthesenewyarnsupforyoulaterintheweek