Yes, it’s true. Loopy was almost done in by the Sneak Up this afternoon. Miss Violet emailed in the midst of the Sneak Up and said, “OMG – we broke The Ewe!!” As you can see by the photo, he was certainly tripped up by the whole thing. Spent a few minutes with his red stocking feet in the air. However, a few tweaks (and a Cinnamon Dulce Latte) and he was back on his feet in no time. For all of you who were witnessing the process – thank you for hanging in there! Seriously – those guys at the server place will never believe that what we just went through this afternoon was caused by some people buying sock yarn. (Gotta love it.) I was online with Web Guy when we put everything up, and it quickly turned into syrup. (Slooow going.) I asked him about it, he checked, and then said, “It’s handling over several hundred requests per second.” (seriously?) And then he said later that in the two hour Sneak Up period, the database answered three quarters of a million queries. (seriously? I don’t even really know what that means, but it sounds like a heck of a lot of something going on.) So, um …. that’s why Loopy rolled over temporarily. I think the next Sneak Up will have to be at some obscure time of the night to prevent a bit of this. (I know all of our international customers would love that).
If I ever get all of these orders packed and out the door (and it’s iffy, I’ll tell ya), then we DO have more yarn that has arrived on the premises in the last two days! 20 new colors from one of our favorite yarn lines, as well as our latest indie dyer, Stone Barn Fibers (and big thanks to Loopy friend Capi for telling me about them last month!). Also just in today, to-die-for lace from Susie at Perchance to Knit. Just a few skeins so far, because that was what she had on hand, but of course more is on order. You will not believe this lace. I have orders in with several other new indie dyers as well, so keep a watch on the blog for announcements as our orders roll arrive in-house. Would you believe that I was actually thinking earlier this week that we all probably needed a week off from Sneak Ups in this household? That’s not going to happen with all of the boxes that keep arriving at my door. 🙂 (And for those who are sad to have missed Yarn Pirate and Perchance to Knit – more is coming from both of those talented gals in the month of May.)
Remember me telling you that I started my lace shawl over the weekend? I’m using the Sea Silk in Nova Scotia (which I see we have already sold out of – although there are still plenty more gorgeous colors of that Sea Silk in stock and they just shipped off more colors to us, so that should be arriving any day.). Here is the little bit of progress I have made. I will not tell you how long it took me to get to that point (but it involved two separate rip-backs. ahem.) I’m thinking it will start to go faster now – and am so anxious to get back at it. This Sea Silk is wonderful to knit with. I’m not even a shawl-wearing person, but I will be a shawl-knitting one. I love it!
Sheri whoisnowgoingtogostartpackingallofthesewonderfulyarnsup sothatyoucanhavethematyourhouse!
dude, seriously. Poor Loopy needs a few shots of sheepy tequila after today’s workout.
Poor little guy. 🙂
And if your server folks don’t realize the Power of Teh Sox Yarnz by now? Tequila for them, too. (Butters them up for when you ask for more bandwidth, see.)
Sheri,
I just can’t believe it! I checked the site three times today for the update, then left to hit the gym for a couple hours. When I got back, the much-coveted Yarn Pirate had come and gone already! However, I did score a couple Seacoast beauties (Blueberries and Apricots and Sea Pinks). I’ve neve knitted with this before so am excited to try something new. What pattern are you using for your Sea Silk shawl? I have two hanks of Glacier, but can’t decide on a pattern. Yours is looking lovely!
Woo-ee! That was wild!
Your shawl is gorgeous.
Yeah, I was at work and decided to take a peek, and the site was grinding along slowly, and I ALMOST got some YP in Primrose, but once again it jumped right out of my cart while I was trying to check out!
Glad I got a few sneak-ups last night…wish I’d been able to see a “sneak preview” in the Loopy Room yesterday (but I had to do something else at that time….). See you next week!
Your shawl looks fabulous!
Darn … missed Yarn Pirate again. It’s becoming obvious that I’m destined never to get my hands on a Cannon Beach colorway 😉
I just can’t seem to get the hang of these sneak ups! It’s hard to be discreet at work too, you know, continually refreshing your page. Thanks again for allowing me to come out on Saturday. Even though I missed out today, I still came away with some of your beautiful yarns!
I was at least 500 of your three-quarters of a million queries. Refresh…refresh…refresh…oh wait, it’s over, I can quit now. I’m only 1 order away from the much coveted Groupie status, and I do not approve of your idea of posting the next Sneak-Up at some obscure time in the night. I need my beauty sleep!
Sheri that was seriously crazy! I thought maybe Loopy had frozen his little paws (hooves?!) making his way up here to Canada but alas it looks as though he’s upside down in your garden – too funny 🙂
Booo I missed the Perchance to Knit!
Based on what I know from our web monitoring at work, those 3/4 million queries include things like anytime someone hits a key to change the screen somehow, queries to/from the database that houses all your stock info and customer info etc. Still, that is some SERIOUS web activity. Good goin’ Sheri and TLE.
The Sneak Up left me speechless… and almost penniless. But very happy! :>)
Poor Loopy. I’d apologize for my part in the sheep-tipping but I’m not sorry. Well, I’m not sorry I managed to get some nice yarn. I almost missed it though, I think. I couldn’t get on as early as I had planned to today to check and see if anything had sneaked up (been sneaked up? which is it?). When I finally was able to get on the computer the first thing I did was load the browser and go to The Loopy Ewe. When I saw how slow it was to load the main page, I knew the sneak up had happened and hadn’t snuck by anyone. In fact I assumed someone had let the cat out of the bag on a message board or something before I managed to get there. I have a feeling the only reason I managed to score as much as I did was because other folks gave up and I didn’t during the hang. When I saw that “temporarily unavailable” page I almost e-mailed you Sheri to apologize for my part in taking down the site, but I wasn’t willing to take my attention away from checking for it to get back up for long enough to do an e-mail.
Your lace is beautiful. I bought that same colorway and it is lovely to see it knitting up so pretty. What pattern are you using? It looks very pretty. I might need to add it to my “really long list of things to knit that far exceeds my ability to get through in my lifetime so I hope they invent a really good tonic soon”.
I got to witness Loopy rolling onto her back, but what fun it was seeing all the new yarns! So what pattern are you using for your shawl?? I’m dying for some of that Seasilk, but can’t find a pattern that will work well with it…
Wow, the Sea Silk in Renaissance literally brought tears to my eyes. It is so beautiful. Somehow I don’t see myself having that kind of yarn budget in this lifetime though. But still, wow.
I had popped out for a Caramel Machiatto (Iced, it’s in the 70’s here today) and when I returned the sneak up had started! I scored some Seacoast and some glorious white lace yarn. I’m happy
Go ahead with the middle of the night thing, I’m an insomniac
My Sneak Away starts any minute.
You should be able to cache the queries so traffic back and forth to the database is not so incredible. Tell your web guy 😉 I can go on and on, but why when there is new yarn to look at? (although not as much as there was earlier, darn darndarn darndarndarn).
Of course I missed the sneak up – went away to do something for 3 hours( work actually), and GONE, GONE, GONE! I don’t even get to see pictures of the Yarn Pirate, or Perchance to Knit, let alone decide if I’d like it! It’s ok – not like my stash, ahem….buffet isn’t overflowing already. You pick the nicest yarns, Sheri! I wish I had your job!
You just made a poor college student much, much poorer. I’d bookmarked far more money for yarn this sneak-up (because of the lace yarn) than I usually do, but hadn’t actually planned to spend all of it. I spent all of it. Every penny. I’m much poorer, but very happy.
I lucked out though. I have a two hour break between my French class and my Nutrition class. And I’m sitting quietly in the library when I hit refresh… and the site doesn’t load. I sat bolt up-right, opened three more TLE windows for faster snagging (appologies for the bandwidth sucking), and waited… and waited… and then WHOOSH! MINEMINEMINEMINE! Even managed to snag some of the Yarn Pirate, though I passed this round on the Perchance to Knit. For some reason, none of the colors were calling to me.
Which brings me to a question.
Is there anyway that, maybe someday, you could set up a section to display the colorways of these lovely indie dyers? Just so we can see what they look like while they’re not in stock? None of the colors of PtK did it for me, but I don’t know if there were other colors that had sold before I got chance to see…
Whoooooo-eeeeee that was fun today! I have never seen your site so slow! It’s a little like a kids’ party when the pinata bursts open!
Can’t wait for my yarns… you are amazing. Wonderful site.
Let’s get that lovely Loopy back on his feet again… he looks so very sad and overwhelmed.
hey, if anyone wants to take a peek at my colorways i’m on flickr here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yarnpirate/sets/72157594556825276/
and you can always see them on my website.
i apologize for helping to crash your site. i was watching to see how fast my yarn sold. sorry 🙁
Alas, I missed the Yarn Pirate again. I had the Apple in my cart and had gotten to the payment screen when Loopy rolled over and when he got back up it had fallen out, I guess. Oh well, I’m consoling myself with the fact that I’m one of the lucky ones in the Sock Club, (which is going out soon, I suppose) and one of the kits will be Yarn Pirate so I’ll get some eventually. Actually, I had my share of luck in getting into the sock club because the very first time I heard of the Loopy Ewe (via Sarah, the Plucky Knitter—thanks Sarah!) and logged on was the day you announced the Sock Club. That day I didn’t hesitate but took a chance and signed up.
BTW I love my Miss Kwitty’s bag and dpn case. They’re great. Thanks, Sheri!
And your shawl is lovely. You may surprise yourself and become a shawl person after you see how beautiful it is. Like others have asked, be sure to let us know what design you’re using and keep us posted on its progress.
Oh poor Loopy…..glad to here that he’s better again. 🙂
Your sea silk shawl is gorgeous.
I’m missed out on PTK and YP but I’ll be looking for more. I didn’t even make it to the site before it sold out. 🙂 I was trying not to torture myself. 😉
Oooh, poor Loopy. I too apologize for my part in posting about the sneak occurring on the Lime and Violet messageboard. I am glad to have actually gotten in on one of the sneaks though.
I was online refreshing all day (just like I promised lol) and was there right when it went live and it was immediately slow. So I opened up several windows of all the different yarns I wanted to look at so that they would load at the same time. Maybe everyone was doing that? lol
I freaked a little when I tried to check out and the server couldn’t be found. I think it took me about 5 minutes to finally make it to the paying part. I was so relieved to be able to get everything I wanted. My heart was racing for a little while there….
Poor Loopy – I agree, tequila all around!
I visited the ewe…
but it must have been after the sneak up…
I saw tons of new yarns with no trouble at all!!!
oh so pretty.. and fun!
I was so excited when I refreshed and saw new stuff, but I then I couldn’t manage to get to any of it!! Poor Loopy! For a minute I thought something was wrong with my computer, and then it dawned on me what was going on!! No Yarn Pirate, but I did get one skein of Perchance to Knit (I’d buy that just for the name!) and some lovely Claudia Handpainted.
Drat! I missed it! I’m never going to get some Yarn Pirate Malamute. *pout* However, I did go to my kids’ Spring Program. 🙂
Oh Sheri you just made my day! I’m one of the internatial folk and always miss the sneak ups. Obscure middle of the night should be the middle of the day for me!! Yay! 🙂
I’ve been lucky in this sneak up and the last one and managed to get just the yarn I was hoping for. I didn’t realize how good my luck was until I read this post and the comments. I had to go to a meeting apparently right as everything crashed and must have gotten back on line just as the server came back up ’cause none of my yarn disappeared from my cart while I was gone.
The yarns were beautiful on the screen! I’m so looking forward to feeling them!
It’s nothing if not nerve-wracking when you get to the last part of the check-out process and wait…and wait…and wait…and hope that the whole thing doesn’t crash before you get the reassuring message that your order has been placed! Whew! Looking forward to getting the PtK that jumped out of my cart last time but didn’t today. Your shawl is gorgeous; I’m trying to avoid lace until I get through all the sock yarn. Loopy might need to go to bed early.
Wow, totally missed the sneak up yesterday while I was at my guitar lesson. That’s ok though, still got my Loopy Ewe fix this week. The shawl looks great.
Got home from a work roadtrip, logged on and decided to see if the Sneak Up was there yet! Whoo-hoo…there it way. I got a nice skein of yarn in gorgeous shades. Of course I don’t remember what I bought I looked at so much of it. I missed the Perchance to Knit but that is OK. I just made a pair of socks from PK and love them but there will be more yarn other times. I just need more knitting time. That little guy in the garden is adorable…
Oh boy and our sock club boxes are due in a week or so!!! I might need some sick days…..so I can knit…..
I did have some of my yarn just out of my cart, but so happy with what stayed as well. Sweet Georgia and her yarn pirate! I hope her finger is doing okay! Sheri, I was thinking that so many people love her yarn and with the quarterly challenge of giving, what if Georgia created an exclusive colorway that was pricier and some of the proceeds could go both of the quarterly challenges along with the knitted items. I don’t know if it would be feasible, but it is amazing how quickly her items sell out. I should know, I have bought tons! In any event, it is always exciting to shop here. You are the best!
I work nights, my real job is Th, Fr, Sa 730p-8a, my fake job is 10p-7a, so I was checking all night long hoping there would be the sneakup….the computer even slowed at one point to trick me. I went home and lay down at 830a and set alarm for 950a, EST, thinking maybe when the shop opened…I tried a few times, then I was talking with DS and he said check now, the computer was slower than molasses, we both said this must be it. I managed to put one Pirate and one Perchancein cart thought I had best pay and then look again, after hitting pay, a fatal error, FATAL? nearly killed me! When it came back only the Perchance was in the car, darn you who stole my yarn…so I added another Pirate and this time was successful. I went back when I notice the lovelty ?SC?from NH and managed to scoff one of those, being a New England girl how could I resist? DS even had the site up on his computer and we were going for other DS’s which is super sonic but I managed to get the two orders in. Lordy, I had only read about these, I didn ‘t even need yarn I just tubbed >50 skeins of sock yarn, LOL…the middle of the night would be great for me Sheri.
Ooooh,,, I forgot the sock club was coming, WOOHOO
Oh so rude of me…three posts…your lace is gorgeous, I just started lace knitting and think I will never wear a shawl, but I think that as I sit in my knitting chair with a blankie around my shoulders as I knit the lace…go figure…I had heard of cow tipping, is sheep tipping a Canadian thing? I hope to see your place live some day..
I enjoyed looking at all the new stuff in the Sneak-Up (and helping to crash the server), even though I can’t buy new yarn until next paycheck.
And I’m very happy that there’s enough Loopy customers to crash the server, because hopefully that means you’re making enough to stay in business for quite some time yet!
Wow Sheri! I checked before I left work, in the 20 mins to go home, the Fleece Artist Sea Wool was out! Drat! I have gift certificate, so I’ll be waiting! But seriously, it must make you smile to know how we love your site and all the yarn and other knitting items you sell! Sorry that we crash it from time to time though…well, kinda 😉
I claim no responsibility for nearly killing Loopy! I did my shopping at midnight last night, hours before the sneak up, I swear!
I was there! It was me…. lol But I got my YP! Hooray! Really, I’m extremely excited about getting some. 🙂 Thanks
Poor Loopy!
Nice work on the lace! (Funny, my Sea Silk is in the Nova Scotia colorway too.) And honestly, who really IS a shawl wearer unless she is a knitter? Even then, it’s not guaranteed.
I may have to visit soon, if nothing else to get that Cookie pattern and the movies (if you’ve gotten around to watching them).
I am so very, very guilty of nearly killing off Loopy. I emailed my bff with the news that the Ewe was gone for a moment & hopefully it would be back. I sat here hitting refresh every few seconds & when it did pop back up, I bought what I wanted as fast (as fast as molasses) as I could! Gorgeous new stuff! Can’t wait for more!
Sneak updates in the middle of the night US time? Brilliant idea, Sheri! that would be daytime here 🙂 Pretty please?
WOW! Based on the comments, I really missed a good Sneak Up! It’s probably a good thing based on my latest budget but I sure hate that I missed seeing the beautiful yarns.
Add me to the list of those who made poor Loopy roll over on his back—I’d been checking the site all day because I just had a feeling, but it was bedtime over here when I checked one more time and noticed that it was verrry sloooow! It was tense enough for those of us anxiously trying to load our carts and pay between the “Loopy is temporarily off line” screens; it must have been interesting for you, too, Sheri!
If you want to schedule the next Sneak Up for the middle of the night US time, that works for me!
Your lace is looking gorgeous. Keep us posted! And do tell what pattern you’re using!
In the middle of my order the site became slow and then I got a screen that said Loopy ewe is temporarily off line. I have to say I went in to a little panic but a few minutes later it came back on line and I was able to place my order. I scored lots of yarn pirate and get wait to see it person. Your shop has fast become my favorite place to buy yarn thanks for all that you do!
Love the shawl, the colors are gorgeous!
I had a panic when my order screen never did process. After about ten minutes, I finally clicked on my account though and saw that it was indeed a pending order. Sorry we flooded your system, but you always have such wonderful stuff!
I never dreamed of being a shawl person before I decided to make my first one just for the challenge. Now I have LOTS of shawls and wear them all the time. The patterns and yarns out there for shawls are just as wonderful as all the sock yarns and patterns! Yours is a very pretty; the color and the pattern work well together!
Sigh…. Ok, maybe next time on Yarn Pirate. I thought it was peculiar that it was sitting in the “available” line, but when I checked, there were zero items. I also managed some Seacoast, though.
The lace shawl is just beautiful; hope you have time to work on it today!
I was one of those that gave up.I’ve never seen anything like that! Maybe next time I will be able to hang in there and score.
Your lace looks great! I am still in the stage where I can’t even think about anything else but socks, however….
Have fun packing up boxes!!!!!!!
Well, I’ve missed another sneak up. I tried to log in yesterday and couldn’t get in. But, I know more is coming, so I’ll be patient! Your shawl is lovely. What’s the pattern?