Three things that were waiting for me when I got to Loopy Central this morning:
1. A notebook full of things to put up for tonight’s Sneak Up. (Now up!  Even though we expanded to 18 “What’s New” pages, we still ran over…)
2.  This cute sheepy wall cling, that is now clinging to my computer instead. And since there were four in the package, one is on Susan’s computer and two are on the Loopy ‘fridge.
3.  More boxes of yarn.

Three things that are taking up too much of my time:
1.  Ravelry
2.  Facebook
3.  Laundry
(I like the first two, so they’re ok. I tend to try and ignore the third one…)

Three things that I did this past weekend:
1.  Bones, Season Two (half of it)
2.  Dinner out with my hubby
3.  Worked on my Jaywalker sock.

Three things I’m tired of:
1. Plain vanilla stitches and simple ribs.
2. People who take advantage of others and their generous hearts.
3. Moving yarn around here at Loopy, trying to make room for more.

Three people who won Loopy Gift Certificates from last quarter’s challenge:
1.  Michelle for Autumn Thriller (Knitter’s Choice Award)
2.  Kelli’s NHM #9 Mittens
3.  Barbara’s Dashing Blues
(I hope everyone is working on a Clapotis for this quarter’s challenge!)

Three things that you NEED to check out from tonight’s Sneak Up:
1.  Dye Dreams
2.  Dragonfly Fibers
3.  Fiesta Ballet
(Well, there are 18 pages you need to check out.  But start with those three.)

Three things on my To Do List this week:
1.  Make Valentine Cookies
2. Watch last week’s episode of Lost before Wednesday night brings yet another episode.
3.  Start a few new projects. (Don’t I need a Chevron Scarf out of 2 colors of Fiesta Ballet? I know. It’s a sickness…)

Sheri gotanylistsofthreethatyou’dliketosharetoday?

I can tell that Christmas is next week, because my mind has reverted to thinking in lists. Somehow that makes everything seem more manageable to me. (Never mind how MANY lists there are to think about. If I only have to think of 3 things at a time, it all seems more do-able.)  So today it is time for another Three Things blog.

Three favorite things that I have received recently:
1. This creative “Loopy” drawing by Carlo, Elf Sue’s son (who came to work with his mom last week) I asked for more so that we can put them on the Loopy refrigerator.
2. The crocheted Loopy that the nice people at Malabrigo sent to us for fun. (No wonder they wanted to take my Little Loopy when I saw them at Stitches!)
3. New yarn from Yarn Pirate, Tuscan Grove, and Spirit Trail Fiberworks. But I know that I don’t get to keep those.

Three favorite songs for the holidays:
1.  O Holy Night
2.  Silent Night
3. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

Three songs that I’m really really tired of hearing:
1.  Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
2.  I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
3.  Same Auld Lang Syne

Three things I need to finish up:
1.  Scarf (cashmere kit from Jade Sapphire)
2.  Scarf (Purple Spangle, from Jojoland)
3.  Scarf (Chevron, with Fiesta Boomerang. I will not start a new one until this one is finished. I will not start a new one until this is finished.  I will not start a new one until this is finished.)

Three more things I need to finish up:
1.  My second Transition Glove. (Apparently my second sock syndrome applies to gloves, too.)
2.  My second Malabrigo Sock
3.  All of the other second socks (approx. 35. ahem) that need to be completed.

Three things I’m anxious to knit after the gift knitting is done:
1. These fingerless mitts from a new indie dyer yarn I’m trying out.
2. Socks out of a new pattern that will go up on our Free Patterns page soon, out of Creatively Dyed Calypso.
3. Scarves (the addiction is apparently not over yet. I am waiting for it to pass.)

Three things I found this week that bring back memories:
1.  This pincushion. There was one in my grandma’s sewing basket and I always thought it was colorful and fun!
2. This slush mug.  My brother and I both had one and we kept them in the freezer at all times.
3. This video.  A favorite when the kids were young.

Three things on my schedule for today:
1.  Orders!  We’re still swamped from this week’s Sneak Up but we’re all pulling and packing as fast as we can to get them out to you.
2.  Emails. I am woefully behind. Why? See #1.
3.  Unpacking boxes of new yarn that have come in this week so that we can get it photoed and up for you.  I think the next Sneak Up will be the Friday or Saturday after Christmas. We have lots that has arrived to get up for you. (We will do a few re-stocks in the meantime. I have more Jojoland yarn and patterns that will be here in a day or so, in addition to a few other things.)

Sheri doyouhavethreethingstosharetoday?

It must be the season. Everything just keeps getting Loopier around here, in terms of busy-ness!  Perhaps it’s very fitting, then, that our Little Loopy has grown up.   When I called in another order for Little Loopies, our imprinting company told me that the Little Loopies were sold out (which was really no surprise to me, because I know how many of them are now living at all of your houses!), but they had a slightly larger size that they could do for us if we’d like. Sure – we’d like that.  When they arrived last week, we all oohed and aahed over them.  They are just as fun as the little guys, only in a bigger way.  (I took a photo with the big and the little, just for size comparison for you.) We will be able to get the little ones back in again in a few months if we’d like, but in the meantime, you have the chance to get the Big Guys. We like it when we have a full order of Loopies at Loopy Central, because they’re perched all over the place, waiting to be sent off to a good home!

We put up more great things for you today, too. Under What’s New you’ll find more of our exclusive Don’t Be Blue in Dream in Color Classy, 3 new colors of Team Spirit (burgundy and gold, orange and black, and yellow and black), The Sanguine Gryphon Bugga, new Knitspot patterns, more Zecca (look at all of the fun colors in these Snip Tipz – this is one of my favorite Zecca items), Namaste Buddy cases, Fleece Artist 2/6, Black Funny Fibers, Scarlet Fleece, Pattern Tamers, Sock Sacks and Fiesta Boomerang (which has me itching to start a few new color combos of Chevron Scarves.) We also re-stocked several popular items last week – did you catch them? We have more Bee Bars in stock, as well as Marie Mayhew patterns, HiyaHiya needles, Designs by Romi pins, and GoKnit pouches. Sometime in the next week or so, we’ll be putting up the new Lorna’s Laces  Commentary Colorway (named after Annie Modesitt), a new Alpaca yarn blend from Yarn Pirate, more Hand Maiden Casbah, the new semi-solid colors in Dream in Color Classy, and a few other things that will be in this week.

Thank you for posting all of your RAKs last Friday. Once again, I’m just so inspired by all of the creative and wonderful things that you think of to do for others during this time. We’ve all had fun reading through your comments.  The Random Number Generator picked Jennifer from California as the winner from last week.  I’ve sent you an email, Jennifer! If you missed the chance to get in on the RAK contest last week, we’re in the middle of another one.  Do a RAK for someone this week and post your comment on this Friday’s blog post for a chance to win the next drawing.

The other thing I know you’ve been waiting for this week is Spring Fling signups. I’m happy to announce that we’re ready! You can go here to signup.  We’ll close signups on Friday of this week and will then email everyone to confirm their spots after the weekend.  We’ve added in some extra spots this year, but if we do get more signups than spots, we’ll fill by lottery. (This is once again a full weekend package. Unfortunately we aren’t able to offer single day passes or a classes-only option.) We are looking forward to having all of you Loopy friends in for the weekend so that we can share Loopy Central and knitting time with you!

Sheri finishedmyspiraluciouscowlthisweekend,photossoon

Three things we did this weekend:

1. We took the kids up to college at Taylor University in Indiana. (As a mom, I like checking in on the campus webcam which updates every 60 seconds from 7 am – 5 pm. It’s nice to see what the weather is doing up there each day, and usually you can see kids walking by. One time I actually convinced College Guy to stand there for a minute so that I could see him. He hasn’t agreed to that since. In fact, I think at the time, he told me he was only doing it once. Period. I’m sure College Girl will be more agreeable about such things.) Here’s an early morning photo that WH took while we were up there.
2. Had coffee at Paynes and ice cream at Ivanhoes. (You don’t visit Upland without doing both of those things. It’s just foolish to try to avoid them.)
3. Used up a box of Kleenexes on the ride home. But thanks for all of the hugs and sympathy you sent our way last week. It was much appreciated!

Three favorite ice cream dishes:

1. Trojan Two at Ivanhoes (cookie dough ice cream, chocolate covered graham cracker bites, peanut butter sauce, chocolate sauce. See why Ivanhoes is not to be missed?)
2. Cake Batter Ice Cream from Coldstone.
3. Really, there is no number 3. If I can’t have either of the two choices above, then I’m happy to pass on the ice cream.

Three things that I’m doing this week to cope with Empty Next Syndrome:

1. Reading a lot of books. (I need to take a little break from knitting. College Girl and I spent a lot of time knitting together and so this week it makes me sad. I’ll be ready to knit again next week.)
2. Going out to dinner and to movies and doing other fun things every night this week with WH. (Being home just reminds us that it’s too quiet. I know we’ll get used to it, but right now we don’t like it. We came up with a plan over the weekend to occupy our week.)
3. Packing up lots of your orders and staying busy at work. Thanks for helping with that – y’all are the best!

Three things that went on here at Loopy Central today:

1. Wollmeise Sneak Up #1 (of three this week) has been completed. Thanks for following the “limit 2 skeins of any one colorway per week, per person” rule. That did help!
2. Carpeting for the new space was delivered, and it’s the wrong one. We may not be ready to move in at the end of the week after all. Bugger. Why do rennovations always run into glitches?
3. Not enough emails and mail. (That doesn’t mean that I didn’t get enough – it means that I didn’t get enough answered today. Luckily, I’ll be back to work through more tomorrow.)

Three things I want to tell my kids:

1. We miss you! The house is quiet and Zoe, Gracie and Casey are bored with just us at home. Apparently there are just not enough laps for them to claim when it’s only the two of us. Not that Casey gets a lap anyway, but she does seem to be waiting for “the rest of the family” to get home at the end of the day.
2. Call us any time – you know we love hearing from you often. (College Girl – you get soooo much credit for calling me today – woohoo!)
3. Enjoy your last evening before classes start up in the morning. We’ll be praying for you and we love you bunches.

Sheri doyouhavethreethingsyouwanttoshareorthreethingstotellyourkidstoday?

Three projects that I’m still knitting and wondering how I can “up” my hours to 36 in a day instead of 24:
- DC KAL Sweater (one more sleeve and the ribbing to go)
- Noro Scarf (I’ve already picked a few more Noro colors that I must knit)
- Wollmeise Scarf (ditto. I want to make a Krauterbeet for myself.)
(The photo? Gale’s Art BLF Roving. It just arrived today. I thought it would make a colorful photo to start out the blog today. This is her regular BFL. We will have more of her Black BFL roving next.)

Three things that I’m putting off this weekend in order to get more knitting time:
- laundry (having no kids in the house all week did help to reduce the laundry load)
- cleaning (ditto. The house has stayed amazingly neat and tidy.)
- cooking (good time for eating out, right?)

Three places I will visit this summer:
- Ohio (TNNA Market is next week – I’ll go find more fun stuff for us!)
- Florida (taking a family trip down to see Web Guy over the Fourth of July)
- Indiana (to get both kids off to college in August. I can’t think about it.)

Three places I will not visit this summer:
- Colorado (my favorite vacation spot in the midst of St. Louis Summer Heat)
- Germany (even though it’s my turn to visit Claudia the Wollmeise)
- Michigan (although eventually I will get there to visit Friend Meg and Cool-Yarn-Store-ThreadBear!)

Three Eight+ fun things that will go up next week:
- 8 brand new colors of Noro Sock (oh, they’re so pretty. I took the photo so it’s not WH/Web Quality, but you get the idea of the new colors, until you can see them up next week.)
- 21 brand new colors of Araucania (I love knitting this yarn)
- Woolly Boully, Sheepaints, Gale’s Art BFL Roving (see first photo for a sampling), new Shibui and Claudia HandPainted colors, The Loopy Ewe Zephyr Stitchmarker Set, etc.

Three Six+ new lines that you’ll see here soon:
- Neighborhood Fibers Yarn and Roving
- Spirit Trail Fiberworks
- Hazel Knits
- Malabrigo Worsted Weight
- Sugar Bunny Blvd
- Yarn Love Roving
- Indigo Moon Yarns
- (and a few more that are still a secret)

Three more fun things coming soon:
- our new Duets order which will contain some previous cool colorways that many of you have been asking for. Angela is the Queen of Heels and Toes Sock Yarn!
- new Knitting Bags (because we all know that I have a thing for bags. And I know you do, too. You’ll love these.)
- new non-wool sock yarn options (and some new wool sock lines, too)

Three things that made me happy this week:
- the best-ever Molasses Sugar Cookies that came in the mail from Michele in Maine
- emails from my two kids who are away
- yarn shopping spree from the new stuff that came in this week because I needed more in my stash (1 Woolly Boully, 4 Araucania, 2 Sheepaints and 4 Noro. In case you wanted to know.)

Three things I’m doing this weekend:
- eating out at Granite City because my friend Janice keeps telling me I have to go there
- picking up Knitting Daugher and Mum-in-Law from the airport (yay!)
- planting flowers in the flowerpots by my front door because it’s time, FPS.

Sheri anyonehavethreethingsthey’dliketosharetoday?

Three things that I find unbelievable:

1. It was 73 degrees at noon yesterday and hailing and snowing by dinnertime. FPS. What a weird place to live.
2. The number of boxes of yarn that have arrived in the last two days, waiting to be unloaded and inventoried and put up. Poor Elf Kathy is pulling her hair out.
3. The responses from last week’s blog contest. I have loved going through them, and have read every single one. There were way too many times when I sat there reading, thinking, “Oh, me too!” And of course I was all ready to click on “reply” to tell each of you what I loved about your posts …. and then realized I cannot reply to them all and still get through all 549 of them. Just know that there were many I wanted to reply to. I’ll pick a random winner on Friday!

Three things I did with College Guy, who was home for a long weekend and went back to school yesterday:

1. Played Guitar Heroes. (He’s really good. I’m really not.)
2. Watched movies. (I knit during them. He does not.)
3. Stayed up late and got up early. (He stayed up late and got up late. Parents can’t usually do that. Someone has to go to work to pay those college bills.)

Three commonly “stashed” items from last week’s contest:

1. Tea. So many of you have a tea cabinet. I have a coffee/tea cabinet and have a habit of buying tea, even though I rarely drink it. My friend Wendy (also a Loopy Elf) has special tea cabinet knobs on her tea cabinet. I like that!
2. Black beans. This I don’t understand at all. I don’t like black beans.
3. Lotions. I totally understand this one and am guilty as well. Never mind that I usually forget to use it. At least I have a good supply on hand.

Three things I’m currently knitting:

1. A sock out of that skein of Neighborhood Fiber Co. sock yarn that I showed you on the blog awhile back. It’s going to be one of my favorite socks – I can already tell. I will have to knit the partner to it.
2. The shawl-that-I-will-never-get-through but am determined to finish for the Q1-08 Challenge.
3. This yarn from a new indie dyer. Ok, so technically I haven’t started knitting it yet, but it’s sitting here on my desk, teasing me. I refuse to wind it until project #1 is finished. I must not be distracted. But OH am I ever dying to start it. (Notice I did not commit to leaving it alone until project #2 is finished. I’m no idiot.)

Three things I just don’t understand from last week’s blog contest:

1. Mashed potato fudge. Ugh.
2. Jenn, who forgets that she has ice cream in the freezer after she has tried a bowl of it. (Are you kidding me??)
3. All of you who have an excess of chocolate and wonder if this is a problem. (Um …. no. It’s not.)

Sheri thedeliverymanjustdroppedoffmorenewyarnshelvesforus
andgrabbedahandfulofLoopykissesonhiswayout.Thatbigbowl
isjusttoodarnedtemptingsittingthere.MyUPSgaltakeshandfuls,too.