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?

Susan-the-awesome-assistant gave me this today and I couldn’t love it more. Doesn’t everyone need a Panic Button? Plus, when you have Hoops and Yoyo telling you to “stay calm, stay calm, stay calm” until they change their mind and tell you to “PANIC!!!”, it only makes you laugh. This will come in so handy here at Loopy Central. You know, when the phone is ringing off the hook, or the mailman arrives too early, or a skein of yarn goes missing, or …. you’re trying to settle all of the attendance details of The Loopy Ewe Spring Fling Knitting Retreat. Stuff like that. I hit that ol’ Panic Button a lot today. But I think the Fling is finally finished. (I haven’t emailed anyone yet. Don’t hit the Panic Button if you haven’t heard from me yet. I’m doing that next.)

So, the Fling. Just a few bits of information so that you know how it went.

- We had a lot of people sign up. (We love that!)
- There are not spots for everyone. (We knew that. But we still don’t like it.)
- This is being put on as a Customer Appreciation Event for The Loopy Ewe. What that means is that we didn’t pad anything in the price to make money from it. (Not that any of you complained about the price – which was nice. But I still wanted to tell you that we’re just covering our costs – nothing more, nothing less.) And it’s not a knitting convention with classes and markets, open to anyone who wants to pop by. It’s a way for us to give back to you, our wonderful customers. It’s, 1) a weekend knitting retreat at a hotel and 2) a way for out-of-towners to be able to visit us here, since you’re not in town and able to pop by whenever you want (although we do have a few great St. Louis customers spending the weekend with us, too) and 3) a way for us to be able to put faces with the names that we have had fun “getting to know” over the past year and a half and 4) a chance to have some knitting fun together. Those were our goals when we set this up.
- Since it’s a Customer Appreciation event, Loopy Groupies did get an extra ticket in the lottery. It wasn’t a guaranteed “in”, as we have many non-Loopy Groupies who will be coming, too, (and probably a few Loopies who didn’t get pulled) but it did give you a leg up. Also, any of our indie dyers who wanted to come, got an extra ticket, because we sure appreciate them, too! Lastly, those of you from other countries who signed up – I’m so impressed that you’re willing to come all this way to visit us here. What fun! You got an extra ticket, too.
- We have a good sized Waiting List and I fully expect some cancellations, so some of you will still get in.
- Because I’m a sap, I did add five extra spots to the weekend. I just hate telling people no, and that was five less that I had to disappoint. (I’m fully capable of saying no, however, so don’t think you now have me figured out. Ask WH and my kids.)
- Wendy and Cookie have graciously agreed to each add a FOURTH class to their schedules, because I saw so many of you on Ravelry talking about wanting to take both of the classes. I’m hoping that this will allow many of you to do that. (Yay, Wendy and Cookie!)
- We’re really excited that you want to come, and we’ll do our best to make it a great weekend for you.

I think that’s it. Now I need to start sending out the emails (you’ll hear from us either way. If you haven’t received notice by tomorrow – Saturday, please email me, as it means your email didn’t go through). I’m not sure about the blog schedule next week, as we’re taking some time off (although your orders will still go out!) and we’re heading up to Iowa for a wedding next weekend. I’ll check in via the blog if I can. (Well, I’ll do a quick blog on Monday, so that you can post your RAKs for the week.) I hope we all keep these up even after the holidays are over. Someone mentioned in one of the comments this week, how people are more conscious of helping other (with clothing or finances or extra time or whatever) during this season, but there are still so many needs out there in January and April and September (and all of the other months of the year.) I’m hoping that this has put me in a better habit of reaching out and sharing all year long. I’m working on that.

Sheri hopingtodosomefuncookingthesenextfewdayssothatIhavenewrecipestoshare,too