Linger. Webster’s says (and yes, I had to put my reading glasses on to read that teeny tiny paperback dictionary print) that “linger” means “to remain long or be reluctant to go”. We like it when you linger at The Loopy Ewe! (You’ll linger even longer pretty soon, when our cool new search feature goes up. It’s fun to play with. But first, College Guy needs to finish up with Finals at school.) This is the time of year that we linger on our back porch, and I just love it. We eat dinner out here every night. Dinner in the wintertime consists of sitting at the kitchen table and eating, and then getting up and going on about our night. It’s a nice kitchen, but we don’t usually linger. Dinner on the back porch consists of eating and then sitting there and talking for quite awhile. The birds are singing, the cats are exploring, and we …. linger. It’s peaceful and relaxing, as any good lingering place must be. Of course it’s also good for knitting! I hope to be getting some good knitting done this weekend again.

Today’s recipe really is called “Yummy Salad”. That’s not a very creative title, but it is a good salad. You can also add in some cooked chicken to make it into a meal.

Yummy Salad

1 head lettuce (bite-sized pieces)
1 head cauliflower (bite-sized pieces)
2 cups Miracle Whip
1/2 to 1 lb. bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1/2 med. purple onion, chopped
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup Parmesan Cheese
1 cup dried cranberries
(next time I think I’ll also add some sliced almonds. It would give this a good crunch. I’ll have to pick up a bag the next time I’m at the store use one of the seven bags in the pantry, FPS.)

Mix the Parmesan Cheese with the Miracle Whip. Layer the lettuce, cauliflower, Miracle Whip mix, bacon, onion and sugar. Cover and refrigerate. Toss just before serving.

Tonight we have “Senior Celebration” for Knitting Daughter. I can’t believe that she is graduating from high school in just over a week. That means that, come Fall, WH and I will be Empty Nesters. Boy, did those 18 years fly by. (I have to keep telling myself that it’s a good thing when they grow up and you’re proud of them and they move on to the next stage in their lives. Right?) I think I’ll head out to the porch and “linger” a bit with Zoe. She likes to linger out there, too.

Sheri
doyouhaveaplaceinyourhouse
thatisperfectforlingering?

Usually it happens when there are bills to pay. I hate paying bills. There is no reason for this. There’s money there to pay them. I just don’t like sitting here and going through all of the steps. (Online bill paying. I know, I know.) My point is, on bill-paying day, I get SO MUCH DONE (yes, I meant to yell that) because everything “else” I can do is a way to procrastinate the bill paying. Well today was not bill-paying day, but it’s “getting ready to be gone for over a week” day and apparently, that has a similar affect on me. I had to stop and watch the daycare (across the parking lot from Loopy Central, visible out our windows) do bubbles. There were a ton of them, but you will only be able to see them in the photo if you click to make it bigger and then look really hard. In my defense, I’m pretty sure that everyone would stop what they were doing to watch bubbles, right? And then a friend sent me this link and not only did I have to watch him speak in Indian, but I had to click on all of the other dialects, too. (I did manage to not click on any other videos. YouTube is dangerous. There’s always something else funny to see.) And then I had to click on the different Hoops and Yoyo animated cards, because I hadn’t done that in awhile. We love Hoops and Yoyo here. I showed you the Panic Button that we use here, but did you see what we have hanging in the shipping closet? (You press the button and they invite you in with a song: “Come in our room, come in our room, it maynotbeclean but you’re welcome to come in … our …. room. Come ON in!”) It used to be on the door handle to that area, but we went in and out so much that we sort of got a little tired of hearing it. At any rate, that is sort of how my day has gone. The upside to this is that it guarantees that I will get a LOT done tonight, because …. well, because now I have to. FPS.

Also in true “Sheri” form, I have already decided on the knitting that is going with me on my trip, and of course I have no idea what clothes I’m taking. (Who cares? It’s vacation!) For my knitting, I’m taking my lace project, my DC KAL sweater, my Sanguine Gryphon sock, by secret project sock, and four new sock yarns that I need to knit. I wonder what I’ll get done?

So I will miss all of you until I’m back in the office on Monday, the 31st! (I think I’ll blog that day. I know Monday’s are Loopy Limelight day, but I’m sure I will need to tell you about all of the knitting I got done on vacation.) We only have dial-up where we’re headed, and I’m so spoiled by fast internet connections that I’m not sure how much computer time I’ll put in next week. (Well, and then there is all that knitting to be done.) To keep you amused while I’m gone, the Elves will be putting up our March Dream in Color Classy order sometime next week. We will once again offer you a 20% discount on the Classy if 1) you have emailed me that you are participating in our Dream in Color Knit-A-Long and 2) you MUST leave an order note that says “DC KAL” on your order for the Classy yarn. They’ll be processing those while I’m gone next week and the only way they’ll know that you get the discount is if you put that note on your order. The discount is good while this batch of Classy lasts or until Friday evening, March 28th (whichever comes first). We will continue to get Classy in, but this is the last time we’ll be doing the KAL discount for this go-round, so get it while it lasts. Our Knit-A-Long is simple - pick a color of Dream in Color Classy to knit with, pick a sweater pattern that you’d like to do, and get knittin’! If you’re on Ravelry, come to the Loopy Groupie board and join in the KAL discussions. We have given ourselves a deadline of June 1st to get it done.

Before I close, the winner of our March Blog Contest (and I loved reading your truths and lies!) is: Jamie from NJ. Congratulations, Jamie - we’ll be sending you your fun prize in the mail tomorrow!

Ok - I’ll be back on the 31st. Get lots of knitting done between now and then so you can tell me what you did!

Sheri anyoneelseeverprocrastinatefindotherworthythingstodoattimes?

Sheri’s blog today is brought to you by The “Loopy Elves”.

Why are the Elves writing today’s Blog? Well, it all started back in December when we were trying to figure out what to buy Sheri for Christmas. Think, think, think, what does Sheri want? The only thing we came up with was “time”. Now, since you cannot buy time, we had to think of some creative ways to save Sheri time. We decided a few surprises to save her some time through the year might be fun. In January, we all came in to work one night to help get the Sneak Up orders finished for that week. The February time saver is writing one blog. We could write more, but we know Sheri likes writing her blog, so we can’t take away her fun. In March, we are going to …. Oh wait, we can’t say, because that would ruin the surprise. (Vicki, Mary and Susan are in this photo.)

What happens at Loopy Central anyway? Well, we have a lot of fun. Sneak Up days can be a little crazy, but everyone seems to have their jobs. Vicki is usually the order puller, Anna is our #1 wrapper (we believe she wraps so well based on her previous life as a newborn nurse-wrapping all those little bottoms). Kathy, Inventory Manager, is the expert boxer (that is, putting the orders in boxes) and properly labeling them for whoever is printing the labels. Mary fills in wherever needed, and usually does some pulling, wrapping, and boxing before she heads home. Sue is also an expert wrapper, and prefers to spend her time wrapping and pulling instead of printing shipping labels. Sue is also great at remembering all the little notes that you all add to your orders. Susan is the main printer of shipping labels and answering the phone (but if you have a specific knitting question, you better ask for Kathy). Wendy does some of the photography (although WH still does some of the photos and all of the actual color correcting before the photos go up on the website). Rachel just started last week and is still learning the ropes. We had her jump right in.

Other fun facts at Loopy: if it is your day off, you will be blamed for anything that goes wrong. (Well - in the most loving way possible.) We do double check orders, but sometimes we do make mistakes. (We hate that.) We don’t call them mistakes when pulling orders, we call them “tests” for the people wrapping the orders. It has been noted by several Elves, that Susan gives the most “tests” (obviously her past life as a teacher coming into play). Thank goodness our wrapping Elves are good students and catch most of the mistakes “tests” before the order goes out and then arrives at your door. (Sue, Kathy and Anna are in this photo. Rachel and Wendy are photoless - we’ll get them later.)

We do have chocolate breaks, and we all try to eat at least 4 carrots a day (Vicki’s rule). Anna and Sue always seem to know what is going on in the world and with the weather, which in St. Louis, is always changing. Several of the Elves have children at the same school, so if there is something going on at school, sometimes we leave Loopy Central shorthanded. Of course, that is one of the best things about working here—the flexibility! We also love yelling out our favorite customer names, yarn names (Eureka), and certain street names, (Savsangaregatan). We really do have fun at work, and some of us are even learning how to KNIT!

Let’s see, well, it wouldn’t be any fun if we couldn’t tell you a few things coming to The Loopy Ewe, boxes arrive everyday! (Just ask Kathy). We just received some new bags, and believe it or not, new yarn, if only we could remember the name….. (We’re not really going to tell you any secrets. You’ll see soon enough!)

Anyway, thanks for letting us take over the blog for a day, and many thanks for giving us job security with all your orders!!

The Loopy Elves wholoveandappreciateallofyoualmostasmuchasSheridoes

P.S. Note from Sheri: Aren’t the Elves fun? And thank you ALL for the very fun birthday wishes!! It was a wonderful day yesterday and you put a lot of smiles on my face! Now I’m off for a few days of college visits with Knitting Daughter, so no blog on Monday and no emailing for a bit. But I’ll be back with you on Wednesday the 5th. Until then, have a great weekend and get lots of knitting done. I’m working on this pattern with a new lace line that we have coming in soon. Woohoo!

Sliding right in under the wire, the Monday Loopy Limelight blog post! We were still a little busy here today. And I swear that I’m going to get to all of the emails in my in-box, and all of the Loopy Groupie Ravelry posts that I’m behind on. Susan theawesomeassistant who’sinthedoghousefortakingsuch alongtwoweekvacationtoItalyFPS will be back on Wednesday and then maybe things will normalize a bit. Just in time for me to go on a little jaunt out of town! Final college visits with Knitting Daughter. But more on that later. Right now, I want you to meet my friend Janice. For those of you attending the Spring Fling, she’ll be here helping out all weekend, so you can meet her in person!

Loopy: You’re one of the famous “Loopy Legends”, so we’re glad to talk with you today! I also hear that you’re one of The Loopy Lady’s good friends. How did you meet and how long have you two known each other?
Janice: It is such an honor to be named among the Loopy Legends! The Loopy Lady and I have been friends for MANY years. I can remember when we first met very clearly. It was the Fall of 1981 and I drove down to Iowa State University to visit my boyfriend (now husband) for the first time and Sheri (who had been his friend since 7th grade) offered to let me stay with her in her dorm room. Well, I was quite nervous, but Sheri made me feel quite at home. We realized very quickly that we had many things in common, especially the fact that we were both avid cross-stitchers and could both talk DMC. Over the years we have remained very close.

Loopy: So, you probably have some good stories to tell. We’ll have to talk later. But in the meantime, any interesting tidbits you want to tell us about her?
Janice: Well, she is a ‘collector’. She collects baskets; bags; snowmen; Christmas elves; Brighton; single socks etc.. and she is VERY persuasive at getting her friends to follow suit! Now confess… How many of you are now knitting a sweater out of Dream In Color Classy because Sheri thought it would be fun?? She is good!!!

Loopy: I do see evidence of some of those collections from time to time. And she is quick to point out that you are responsible for talking her into some of those obsessions interests. You’re very persuasive, too. How long have you been knitting?
Janice: Well, Sheri is the one that taught my daughter and I how to knit back in June of 2005. My daughter was a natural and took off right away, but I decided it really wasn’t for me. (GASP!) I finished my scarf (only because my daughter refused to finish it for me!) and called it good. But Sheri does not give up easily!! She knew I LOVED felted bags, and convinced me that I could do it. So on our next vacation together she helped me knit and felt my first bag! THEN I was hooked!!!! She told me, however, that I really needed to learn how to knit socks because she had a dream of starting up an online sock yarn store………..

Loopy: What is your favorite thing to knit and what do you do with most of the things you knit?
Janice: Well, I would have to say my very favorite thing to knit is felted bags. I am a bag lady at heart, and it was after I made my first felted bag that I knew I would be a knitter for life! Of course, one can only use so many bags, so I have teamed up with a friend who also makes felted bags and created ‘Purses with a Purpose’. We sell our bags and use the profits to support a woman in Russia who works with orphaned teen girls who have been placed in a woman’s prison (the orphanages only go to age 14) to teach them the living skills they will need once they are released from the prison. I also enjoy knitting socks; fingerless mitts and hope to tackle a sweater this year! (Because Sheri thinks that would be a good thing to do…..)

Loopy: The DC Sweater KAL - good idea! You need to join in on the fun, for sure. We hear that you’re also a wonderful cook. Do you have a favorite recipe you’d like to share with us?
Janice: Well, I don’t know about wonderful, but I do LOVE to cook! It’s hard to choose just one recipe, but this is one of my favorites to have in the fridge for snacking on. I did start a recipe blog where I have been sharing our family’s favorites. http://jarladysrecipes.blogspot.com

Calico Bean Dip
1 can Black Beans
1 can Blackeye Peas
1 can whole kernel White corn
2 cans petite diced tomatoes

1. Drain and rinse all. Mix together.
2. Cut up 1-2 bunches of green onions. Add to bean mixture.
3. Chop up about 1/2 bunch of cilantro. Add to bean mixture.
4. Pour in about 8 oz. of fat free Italian dressing. (I like Wishbone Fat Free Italian)
5. Mix all together and marinate overnight (or at least 4 hours.)
7. Serve with Tostito Scoop chips.

Loopy: I’m not sure sheep eat beans. But I know that everyone else will love that recipe. On to another subject - What is the best and worst job you ever had?
Janice: My worst job was a telemarketer for a water-proofing company in Minnesota when I was 14 years old. I still can recite most of the speech I had to make when the unsuspecting person on the other end of the phone line picked up!! And I only worked there for 2 weeks!! My best job was teaching conversational English to a group of Japanese ladies while we lived in Japan. A VERY interesting and wonderful experience! Of course my DREAM job would be a full-time elf at Loopy Central!!!

Loopy: I have it on good authority that you’d be hired in an instant! What is your idea of a perfect day?
Janice: Well, to start out it would be sunny and 80-85 degrees. I would be spending the day with family and friends playing games, going on hikes, ordering take out and ending the day knitting and watching a movie. I would laugh until my sides hurt. There would be chocolate and a quick trip through Starbucks drive through. Oh, and I would win all of the games I played!!

Loopy: It’s a wonder that you and The Loopy Lady are friends. You know that she likes cold weather, and doesn’t like to play games, right? But I think she’d be right there with you on the chocolate, Starbucks, knitting, movies and laughing part of the day! Any weird habits that you have that you’d like to share with us?
Janice: Let’s see. I love to microwave my M&M’s. Some people think that’s weird. I also put my Diet Pepsi cans in the freezer to make them really cold, often with disastrous and messy results!! I raise tomatoes just for my favorite tomato-potato chip sandwich. And my favorite pizza is onion. Other than that, I think I’m quite normal.

Loopy: Onions on pizza? That one I don’t get. But I do M&M’s. Any book or movie recommendations?
Janice: Well, since one of my favorite things to do is to watch a movie and knit, there are several that are my all time favorites. ‘Miss Potter’, ‘The Italian Job’, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, BBC’ Pride and Prejudice’ to name a few. I also LOVE the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Bourne series. It’s been awhile since I’ve read a good book, as it is hard to read while one knits or spins!! I think I’ll have to look into books on tape!!

Loopy: Any thing else you’d like to add??
Janice: Yes. You still owe me a pair of socks. Two non-matching singles will do!
Sheri: They’ll be ready for you any time you want to come down here and get them!!

Sheri shereallydoeshavellamas-isn’tthatonecute?

This is my knitting room in our basement. (Actually, it was where we had our first Loopy space. Can you believe we started in this cute little room? I can’t believe that either. We went from here to “the whole rest of the basement” to where we are now. We like where we are now. But I digress.) I decided that this little spot would be a nice place for knitting. I put in a comfy chair (which is just barely visible in the right corner) and a case for my sock yarn stash, and an area for my spinning wheel and roving. I love it down there. I really need to add a bookcase for my knitting books. (The antique cameras are WH’s collection, and I like those, too.) So I’m interested in hearing what you all would do with a room to make it your ideal “knitting room”. I would add a fireplace and windows. Not possible in my room, but it would definitely be on my “ideal” knitting room list. I’ll probably add a little tv on that cabinet there. That’s do-able. And obviously I will need much more storage space for roving, so I’ll have to deal with that as I go along. But I do like it in there. Now I just need to find more time to be there. Maybe “no clocks” ought to be a rule in knitting rooms. Who wants to watch the time when there is knitting to be done? (Hey - if you click to enlarge the spinning wheel photo, you’ll see an eerie picture of Zoe, hiding behind my wheel. That brings up another “must have” in a knitting room - a cat or two. But preferably ones who won’t play with the yarn or roving. I lucked out - neither of our cats play with knitting stuff, although they’re totally up for playing with yarn if you pull it along the floor and make it look fun.)

We’ve been busy putting away yarn and adding more shelves here. Here is my favorite row - we call it “Dream in Color Alley”. (Is that like Diagon Alley in the HP books?) Actually, it’s not currently fully stocked and it only contains the Smooshy and the Classy - the Baby is in our lace section. But boy is it fun to have a whole row of DC. Don’t you love the smell of their yarn? That whole row smells great.

I made it through all 689 entries of last week’s blog contest, and it’s time for the winners! Actually, since there were so many entries, I drew three names to win instead of one. All winners have been emailed. Congratulations to Sharon in TX, Chris in Canada, and Jen, who will be getting a skein of Wollmeise as their prize. I think this was one of my most favorite blog contest questions, as it was just so fun to read all of the responses. BOY did you all make me feel a lot better.

Sheri wehadsomuchsnowlastnightthattodaywasanoschoolsnowday-woohoo!

Well I know that I told you I’d put a photo of our Indie Dyer visitor on Monday’s blog, but I forgot it was a holiday here. I decided that I needed a haircut more than I needed to blog - ha! So Monday was a nice day off and I got lots done. (Following a weekend of knitting and movie watching with Knitting Daughter, which was also wonderful.) But now we’re back, full speed ahead! We were happy to have Stephanie from Spritely Goods pop by for a visit on Friday Stephanie lives in Arizona and was in town on business, so she rented a car and drove down to Loopy for a couple of hours during a morning off. It was so fun to have her here! She gathered up all of the Spritely Goods yarn that we had left in stock (and it’s not much - it’s pretty well sold out) and we took her photo. Fortunately, she just shipped us another large order, which we’ll put up as soon as it arrives.

One of the things I did this weekend was to frog the Fleece Artist Sea Silk lace shawl that I started awhile (ok, QUITE awhile) back. I screwed up the rows and decided I needed to just start over. The bummer part is that I worked on it for a long time on Saturday and haven’t even knitted back as many rows as I frogged. Ugh. But it’s my Q1-08 Challenge and I will keep going on it. I’ll take a photo when there is something interesting to see. Right now, it’s still looking a bit pathetic. I did, however, finish my Noro Socks. I just did a basic knit with a bit of ribbing on the top. I knit them top down (short row heel, because I wanted the color bands to stay consistent) and I really love them. As I mentioned before, I handwash all of my socks, and these did soften up after washing. (They’re still not as soft as many socks I have, but they feel just fine on my feet and that’s the part that counts!) I have a few other colors that I want to do in the Noro. We have more of every color on backorder and they were hoping to have them in by the end of this month - then more in March. We’ll get that up asap. Keep an eye on the photo galleries, as people submit photos of the different Noro colorways and how they work up. (Have you checked out our photo galleries lately? The Socks on Trees gallery has almost 500 photos in it. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a photo of a sock done up in every colorway that we carry? I love seeing the finished sock photos pop up on the products pages.)

We’ve been re-stocking a bit here and there this week. More Knitting Pure and Simple patterns arrived, as well as the Sock Guides, and a lot more of our Loopy Totes. We put Knitspot patterns up over the weekend (some fun new ones, too) and Mountain Colors patterns as well. We also have a lot of new things for you for next week. Our Namaste bags have come in (and I still can’t decide which color and which style will be mine), the new Lorna’s Laces colors are here, more Sakina Needles roving, Numma Numma is back (yay!), a new order of Swiss Mountain Cashmere from Hand Maiden, Duets, and new bags (in blue and brown - one of my favorite color combos) from Mrs. Kwitty. And by next week’s Sneak Up, we’ll be on our new server. We might also have an updated “look” for the website, but we’re all weighing in with opinions and there are some …. differing opinions. So we’ll see what we end up with.

Sheri newblogcontestonFriday,socheckbackwithus!