Fall. That’s what. Lots of color (despite too much rain). We have reds and oranges and yellows.

Love all of these great colors which make the trees look like they are ablaze! Fall is my favorite time of year. (Although I might say that about Spring sometimes, too. I’m fickle.)

And there is knitting going on. Remember last week when I said that I wanted to make these cute mitts next? Here they are and I love them. Since I can’t keep my hands off of the skeins of Cascade Eco Alpaca when I walk by those shelves, I thought that I ought to make a pair of mitts to put ON my hands this winter. I made them extra long on both ends, because I like my wrists to be warm, and I like most of my fingers to be warm. (But I also like having my fingers not wrapped up in wool, in case I need to use my phone while I’m out and about.) In the “when will I learn?” category, I had to frog the first mitt when I realized that I didn’t pay attention to the cables and had one going one way and the next going the other way. Then I had to frog the second one when I realized that I paid no attention to the fact that I was supposed to be knitting the RIGHT one, not another LEFT one. (I tried just ripping out down past the thumb, but the yarn is so wonderously fuzzy that I was pretty sure it would be easier to just frog the whole thing and start over.) Really, I don’t know where my head was while I was knitting this week. Luckily, the end result was worth it and I will be wearing these all winter long. Need some quick gifts? The pair will only take a couple of evenings to knit and you’ll be done. Just pay attention to your cables and your thumbs. (Note – even with adding in extra length on both ends, it still only took 1 skein of the Eco Alpaca, with some left over. This would also knit up beautifully in Cascade 220, Malagrigo Worsted, Shibui Worsted, and Dream in Color Classy.)

There is a lot of yarn in the photo room today, getting ready for Monday night’s update. We may have filled up the whole UPS truck yesterday. I’m sure our driver was delighted to get all of those boxes out of his way, once he had made the delivery to Loopy Central!

Is anyone going to see that really scary movie that is coming out this weekend? Sometimes I like scary movies, but I think this one would cause me too many nightmares. I’m thinking I’ll pass on it. What’s another good one that is recently out? I’m in a movie-going mood and need some suggestions.

Sheri CollegeDaughterwenttovisitWebGuyinFLforherFallBreakthisweekend.
Betthey’rehavingfun!

I sure like this Multnomah pattern. I cast on for this second one, almost as soon as the first one was off the needles. It has 3 things that I like:

1. I can make it with fingering weight yarn. (Some of that laceweight yarn scares me. And we won’t even talk about broomstick lace.)

2. There is a lot of easy-peasy garter stitch.

3. The border is done in one of my favorite patterns – Feather and Fan.

Oh, and bonus #4. It doesn’t take 25+ hours to complete!

I was particularly motivated to get this one done because it is in Fall colors and I wanted to wear it this season. Although I’m sure I will wear it in the winter, too. I might need a spring colored version in a few months as well. I used 1 3/4 skeins of Colinette Jitterbug, and I adapted the pattern by knitting to 265 stitches before starting in on the Feather and Fan border.

Have you heard that shawls and scarves are “in” this season? (We are nothing if not hip, right?) I don’t see a lot of handknit shawls for sale, but I have been seeing quite a few scarves in the catalogs. Most of them are big, warm, worsted weight ribbed versions, done in solids and stripes. Like this one. And I liked some of the color combinations in this one. Here’s another, and another.

If you’re looking to make some of these, you can’t go wrong with Cascade 220. It has every color and shade variation known to man. 2 skeins of Cascade will do you. Or if you like the 4 color versions, get 4 colors and make two scarves out of them. How about team colors for someone’s favorite sports team? Or school colors for your sons/daughters/nieces/nephews? Maybe your sister always wears black and needs a red/white/black striped scarf to pep things up? Or maybe your brother would look great in a classy black/light grey/dark grey combo? Don’t worry about a pattern. Just do a simple rib (K1,P1, or K2, P2) and play with the colors and stripes. You can make them all the same width, or do random patterns. If you make one, I’d love to see photos! Here are some quick three-skein combos that I put together on the table in front of the Cascade wall. All of these are from the Cascade 220 line.

Colors on the left: 4001, 8893, and 9408

Colors on the right: 2403, 9499, 9543

Colors on the left: 7811, 8414, 9411

Colors on the right: 9407, 4008, 8339

Colors on the left: 9424, 8686, 1208

Colors on the right: 8906, 8404, 7814

It’s time to vote on your favorite finished Girasole from our 3rd Quarter KAL. Hop on over to the Loopy Photo Gallery and pick one, then email your choice to support @theloopyewe.com.  We’ll tally up the winner next week. I know many of you are still working on yours. Just add it in to the gallery whenever you finish up. We love seeing how they all are turning out!

And we have winners from our October blog contest, last week! Thank you for all of the cupcake suggestions (and for making me make peanut butter frosting). We’re sending colorful yarn prizes out to: Noella in MA, Shelane in FL and Bonnie in OH. Congratulations to each one of you!

Sheri nowthinkingImightneedastripedscarf
Butfirst,I’llstartTravelingWoman

Paul and I went back in time yesterday. There is a little German festival in Marthasville, MO each fall, called Deutsch Country Days. It’s on the property of a private farm. This family has acquired 19 log buildings and a covered bridge, from places around the St. Louis area, and reconstructed them on this wooded property. They have done a great job of keeping most all of the trees around, and just putting up the different buildings on the hillside. During the Deutsch Days festival, most of the dwellings have people in period costumes, recreating the tasks from those days. We saw pies baking in a hearth fire, sausage being stuffed (I never like seeing that), wash being cranked out, and meats being smoked. The blurb on the website says they’d demonstrate natural dyeing, German fractur, and sad ironing as well. Isn’t all ironing sad? (I had to look that up. It means “heavy, dense” in Old English. You know, those metal irons that they heated by the fire?) We also saw rug hooking, rug braiding, quilting, and lace making. And I found this cute puppy for sale, but WH said we didn’t need a new puppy. I had a hard time tearing myself away from him. (The puppy. Not WH.) It was a beautiful, cool fall day, perfect for spending the afternoon enjoying a peek at the past (and being really happy that we don’t live there.) I’m sure the owners of this farm were really happy to have sunny weather, as it has been raining here for days on end.

We also saw this gal working on an afghan in the mock-general store:

A spinner demonstrating how to make yarn:

And plenty of music and song:

If you live somewhere in Missouri, you ought to check it out next year. I’m sure we’ll go back!

In knitting news, my second Multnomah is blocking and I’m almost done with those fingerless mitts that I mentioned on Friday. Photos on Wednesday. Now it’s time to start the Traveling Woman shawl.

In Monday Update news, we have a brand new indie dyer just up that I know you are going to love. Kimber (of Fiber Optic) is a chemist and after listening to her talk about dyeing for 15 minutes at the Sock Summit, I was sold on her incredible yarn. (Not that one look at her line didn’t already sell me on it.) The dyes almost take on a multi-layered look. Lovely. We also added in new Trekking XXL colors, re-stocked some Lorna’s Laces Sock and Sport, and added some new Kalamzaoo Knits patterns (baby socks that I want to make even though there is no baby in my life, and the holiday ornaments that we all loved last year, plus a new mitten ornament.)  Come check it all out.

Sheri sunisshiningforthethirddayinarow.Amazing!

I couldn’t help it. I needed cupcakes. Or cake and frosting. Or heck, just chocolate brownies and frosting. Reading through every single comment on Wednesday’s blog post made me hungry hungry hungry for it. I’d say the most common “favorite” was carrot or spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. (Mmmm, cream cheese frosting.) But many of you like plain ‘ol flavors, too. Nothing wrong with that! My favorite cupcake at The Cupcakery in St. Louis is the Peanut Butter one. (Chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting.) After reading all of your comments, I did a Google search for peanut butter frosting, used my favorite brownie mix, and whipped these up. Then I sent a batch of them to work with Paul and brought the rest of them in to Loopy Central this morning so that I wouldn’t eat them. (Of course I had one two last night. That took care of the craving.) Did anyone else find themselves baking or buying cupcakes this week?

Peanut Butter Frosting (from allrecipes.com, with modifications based on some of the reviews. This frosting is way too good.)

1/2 cup butter, softened to room temp
1 heaping cup of creamy peanut butter
2-4 Tbl. milk
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Mix butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add powedered sugar gradually, beating the whole time. Add vanilla and then the milk as needed (1 Tbl. at a time.) When well mixed, turn up the speed and whip for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

Thank you for all of your votes on Loopy’s Summer Vacation! Here are the winners:

Most creative: Crab Loopy from Linda

Farthest place that he traveled: Great Wall of China from Toria

Photo that made you wish you were there: Loopy Goes Canoeing from Liz

Each of the winners will receive a Loopy Ewe Gift Certificate. We also drew one name randomly from all entries to win a Gift Certificate and that one went to: Jennifer from CA for Loopy Goes Back in Tyme. Thank you to everyone for participating!

Some of you have asked when we’d have the stuffed Loopy sheep back again. The company we get them from discontinued them this summer. (With no warning. FPS.) However, we pleaded with them (and showed them the travels that Loopy has taken) and they agreed that we needed to have them again. Or rather, they agreed that if we purchased a whole BUNCH of them, they’d have them special-made for us. So they are being made as we speak, and we’ll get the batch in again in late Winter/early Spring, just in time for another round of summer travels and such. We miss seeing all of the Loopy guys hanging around here. It will be fun to have them back!

Found another pattern I want to make. It looks like a quick knit. It’s this, by Loopy Groupie Jess. (I can only find the pattern on Ravelry. Sorry about that.) And I’ll make it out of this yarn. I love that yarn. But first I need to finish the second Multnomah, so I’ll be spending time on that this weekend. What will you be spending time on?

Sheri weadded13moresetsofshelveshereatLoopyCentralthisweek.
Lotsofyarnonorder.

We need some color here in St. Louis – how about you? It has been raining for days and will continue to do so until Saturday. Now you know that I like rainy, cloudy days, but this is getting ridiculous. So I thought I’d share a fall photo that my hubby took last weekend. Click on this indian corn photo to make it big, and check out the kernals on the ear third from the left. Amazing! I’ve never seen a colorburst like that before.

Good news – because I’m within a day’s delivery from Dream in Color, we’ve been able to re-stock all of the Knitosophy line already. (And our wayward box of the BOLD colorway arrived. I took a quick photo of it here – beautiful blues – but I’ll make sure that the “official” photo gets taken later this week, too. I did add them to the site. I didn’t want you to have to wait on ordering it, as several of you have asked about it.) This new dye method turns out gorgeous colorways. If you were in our sock club in 2008, Veronica experimented with this method on the Spicy Kisses colorway that she did for us that summer. I’m having trouble deciding which colorway to knit up first. I like Butterfly and Superhero because of the color mixes. But Blossom is so tangy that you can almost taste it. And I love the thought behind Strength and Laugh. (Come to think of it, those would be good colorways to use for socks or shawls or scarves for people who need a little of that in their lives.) Hard to decide. I know you all had the same problem, because so many of you bought several of them! It will be fun to see your projects as you finish them up.

While I’ve been knitting at night, I’ve been watching the Food Network. Big mistake. Now I find myself wanting cake when I go to bed. I used to like white cake with chocolate frosting, but then I tried Kirstin’s Chai buttercream frosting on a spice cupcake and that immediately moved to my favorite spot. Although now that I’ve seen this “Decadent Chocolate” photo, I think I might need to try one of those for comparison. (Photo used with permission.) Unfortunately As You Wish Bakery doesn’t ship, but I will let you know if that ever changes. I’m definitely ordering platters of her cake balls for next year’s Spring Fling. I have an “in” with her mom, Janice, who comes down to help me with the Fling every year. I’m sure she’ll deliver. This month’s blog contest question – what is your favorite flavor of cake and frosting? I’ve saved some skeins full of color for prizes and we’ll draw for them next week, so leave your comment below to be entered!

Sheri thinkingImighthavetodriveuptoIowatohaveoneofthosecupcakessoon

…. this. The dad-gum road construction that has been going on along the road that runs right next to our building, since sometime this summer. Tired of the jackhammers and the cones and the workers and the person that felt it necessary to drop this scooper on chunks of pavement to break them up, resulting in more building shaking. This photo was taken from inside my office, so you can see how close we are to the mess fun.

…. talk of the H1N1 flu. And whether or not to get the vaccines, and whether or not they’re safe and have been tested enough, and whether or not they’re going to run out, and whether or not you’re gonna git it. (I’m getting the vaccines. Talked to my doc. Enough said.)

…. waiting for UPS/Fed Ex/USPS to deliver yarn orders. We have so much on order that is due in “any minute”. When are they going to arrive? NOW is a good time. Let’s deliver it now.

…. wearing reading glasses for everything. After a whole life of 20/20 vision, it stinks when your eyes get older and turn against you, making things blurry up close. On the flip side, I can see anything going on at the Montessori school across the parking lot in perfect detail. Let me know if you need to know anything about their playground or the cute kids. I have it covered.

…. more yarn than I have time to knit. But it’s a curse that I’m willing to live with (and add to) indefinitely. Come to think of it, I’m not really tired of that at all. Not one tiny bit.

Speaking of which, we just added some beauties to the website! You’ll find Dream in Color’s new Knitosophy line, as well as the special Ocean Currents Limited Edition Smooshy colorway that they sent to us, Fiberphile’s amazing colors, Hand Maiden Swiss Super Sea Sock, Tempted Glam Girl (the one with the silver, and new colors), and patterns from Monica Knits and ShibuiKnits. Good stuff. Hop over and see.  :-)

Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian Friends!

Sheri anythingyou’retiredoftoday?