You all have made it a very very (very very) busy month for us here at The Loopy Ewe. And we SO appreciate it! We’ve had fun packing up your orders. You might notice that we’ve sent out some of the sale orders sans tissue paper. It was either that, or take an extra 2 days to get all of the orders out. We figured you’d just as soon have the yarn quicker. Once these anniversary sales are over, we’ll get back to orders as usual around here. Although if you want to keep up this pace, I can always hire more Elves. We’re up for it!
Wow – 1800+ comments on last week’s contest blog. How fun is that? It was interesting to see where you heard about us. Yes, we DO love and appreciate Wendy an awful lot. And Lime & Violet. And the Yarn Harlot. And … well every single one of you who have ever passed our website on to your friends and knitting groups via podcasts, blogs, emails, Ravelry posts, and word of mouth. Our goal is to always live up to the positive things that you have said about us, and we promise to take good care of your friends, here, too. 🙂 We are sending out 8 prize packages, from randomly selected comments off of last week’s blog. The winner’s are: Janice in VA, Laura in UT, Maria in MN, Natasha in VA, Meredith in MI, Ann in OH, Melissa in UT, and Rachel in VA. (I think that Virginia and Utah were well represented this time.) I’ve sent emails to the 8 of you, so check your email in-box if you think it might be you. We’ll pick the last round of winners from this post, and we’ll announce them next week.
Today’s Anniversary Sale (our last one) includes 20% off all Fiesta Yarns, 20% off all Monica Knits Patterns, and 20% off all Loopy Ewe Accessories. (In stock items only.) We hope you have fun picking out some new things. We’ll be including a free sock pattern if you purchase 2 skeins of Baby Boom (the sock is shown here), and a free scarf pattern if you purchase a skein of Ballet. All free patterns are while supplies last.
In addition to the Sale, we’ve also added in a whole bunch of stuff for the regular weekly update. Just in, you’ll find:
Polar Knits Worsted Weight
Dream in Color Classy re-stocked (including our exclusive Don’t Be Blue colorway)
Dream in Color Smooshy re-stocked
Dream in Color Smooshy Sock Summit Exclusives
Lorna’s Laces Whidbey Island (exclusive Sock Summit Colorway)
Ella Rae Lace Merino
String Theory Caper Sock
Hand Maiden Casbah (so many great colors in stock)
Tempted Luxe Girl (new cashmere line)
Opal Rainforest Five
Addi Lace Turbo 16″ circulars
Addi Click Tips and Connectors
Fiesta Baby Boom in new colors
So hop over to shop! But before you go, answer this question in the comments for your chance to win a prize package in our last anniversary contest. (Of course we’ll be back with our September Blog Contest before you know it.) Question: Who has had the biggest influence on your knitting? It might be a pattern designer, or a blogger, or a friend, or a group on Ravelry, or a podcaster or … even yourself. Maybe you’re good at poking around and inspiring yourself to learn new things and branch out. Food for thought. And then for a blog comment. 🙂
We’re taking pre-orders on the new Namaste bag colors, which we expect in within the next week or two. If you’d like a RED Hermosa, or a BLACK Zuma, or a BLACK Laguna, simply send us an email (support AT theloopyewe DOT com) and we’ll reserve one for you. The Hermosa’s are $75 and the Zuma’s and Laguna’s are $69.
We’re heading up to Indiana to take Knitting Daughter back to college this week, so I won’t be blogging again until next Monday. Maybe I can get some of these half-finished socks done enroute so that I’ll have photos to share by then. Or maybe I’ll be too busy shedding tears. You know how that goes. I’m hopeless.
Sheri thinkingthatfallisintheair
eventhoughLaborDayisstill
twoweeksaway
A lot of people have influenced me over time. I had not knit for quite a while when I found some knitting blogs that got me itching for my needles again. The most significant to me were Knit and Tonic, Nona Knits, The Yarn Harlot, and Wendy Knits. I find each of these women really fascinating!! Now that I’ve started knitting again and have accumulated an OMG stash, Loopy Ewe keeps me buying altho I think I have more than I can do in this lifetime!!
I think Ravelry as a whole has had an incredible influence on my knitting. There are so many patterns I would not have tried on my own… Also, Betsy McCarthy, author of Knit Socks! used to frequent my LYS, and encouraged me to try socks for myself… The beginning of my obsession and she doesn’t even know it!
I was influenced by my mother in the fact that she made sure we, as children, were given knitting lessons. An elderly neighbor, who knitted for a living, gave lessons on the side. She was of german descent and knitted continental style. So, when I was in fifth grade and my sister was in third, we learned to knit. We actually got quite advanced for children as we were knitting vests and sweaters at the time. I made my mother a sweater as a thank you for letting us take the lessons. It was from a kit, and was way more sophisticated than anything a child would usually knit, but I did it! What is funny about the whole thing is that my mother and I never sat and knit together. Ever.
I would have to say myself even though that sounds awfully self-centered. I get inspired by colors and random thoughts in my head.
I know what I’d like to say. I’d like to say it was my mom who had influence in my knitting. It was she who taught me to cast on and knit many many years ago. Alas, though, I became a teenager and everything to do with my mom became instantly un-cool. My nana, though, crocheted, and that I have to admit is my first love. About 5 years ago, we were beginning to pack up our house in FL to move up to KS, and I put most of my yarn and projects away to hide the clutter. Then I couldn’t take it, and in a fit of desperation, I bought a learn to knit kit and knit up a completely awful baby hat.
Then I remembered my Grandpa. He was my mom’s mom, and he knit hats. Whenever he’d come for a visit, he’d always bring dozens of hats, and he’d take them up to my grade school, and the staff would sneak them to kids who needed them. I always thought that was so cool. I still have a few of the hats my Grandpa knit, and it’s so amazing to see my kids wear them. After I did that baby hat, I thought, I bet I could do a hat like my Grandpa did. I found a hat, figured out that it was a simple K2 P2 rib, and that he started with 100 st. I have since made dozens of the very same hat, and have given lots away. It’s hard though, since whenever I finish a new one, one of my 3 boys always thinks that it must be for him!
So, in answer, it’d have to be my Grandpa 60, as we called him, who had the greatest influence on my knitting. Even though he never taught me to cast on, never taught me to knit or purl, and never taught me to decrease and bind off, he taught me everything about the giving nature of knitting, and how, if we’re given a talent, it really should be shared with others and not hoarded and kept for ourselves.
Mrs. Wilson from my church, taught 8 girls the summer I was 10. That is the summer I knit my first sweater. I had to “frog the back umteen gillion times. I still have that little sweater. I think of Mrs. Wilson every time I have to frog something. I knit thru high school and put the needles aside until I married and had children. Once again they came out of hiding. I didn’t get really serious about it ( where I knit every day) until about 4-5 years ago. My mother doesn’t knit. My grandmother learned about 8-10 years after I did. Today I have a very good knitting friend named Kathy.
We share all thing knitting and inspire one another. The women in my volunteer group are also inspiring, as well as other knitting friends. I like to challenge myself and if I don’t know how to do something- there is always the internet, Ravelry, etc.
It is amazing that I never heard of EZ until a few years ago. I must have been living under a rock all this time 🙂
My library knitting group, nicknamed “Bottles and Cans Knitting” because we meet on the bottles & cans recycling Wednesdays 🙂
Lately, Ravelry.
The most influential people on my knitting have been all the friends I have acquired at my LYS, A Tangled Skein. Before our weekly sit’n’knit I was a rectangle knitter only. Scarves, etc. Now, I have completed multiple pairs of socks, a sweater, several tees and learned to knit lace. There is always someone there who can answer a question, help me work out a problem or give words of encouragement when I have taken on a project that is a little more than my experience can handle. They always help me through it and giveme just enough info to figure it out on my own! Just the most perfect way for me to learn! Because of my experiences with our group, I have grown as a knitter and as an individual and feel that my life has been enriched more than I can say. I look forward always to a new knitting challenge, knowing that my friends are always there to help if I need it!
I don’t have any knitters in my close family, so I taught myself via knittinghelp.com and some various books/magazines/websites. But Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Without Tears was probably the biggest influence on me. Her general philosophy of ‘it’s just knitting’ when things go wrong, and fearless attitude about what can be done, have made knitting a very low-stress and enjoyable hobby for me. The Yarn Harlot has also been very influential (and fun!)
Who influences my knitting the most? It must be those voices in my head!
I think the Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl McPhee) has probably been the biggest influence lately – just because she is so open about blogging when she messes up or misreads a pattern or gets bored with a project. It makes me feel like I’m not the only one 🙂 Lately, Ravelry has done the same, and the patterns search, combined with such supportive groups, has encouraged me to follow YH’s example a bit more and try new things – like the first toe-up socks I just finished!
Who has had the biggest influence on your knitting? My biggest influence in knitting was my friend Andera. I was told by my doctors to find something to unstress me before my heart gave out. Which was really hard for me considering at the time no one could really tell me what was wrong with my son. So she said why don’t I teach you how to knit because it help me. So I said I will try anything at this point. She taught me very well with in a week I was knitting socks and loved every minute of it. My husband will tell me if I am stressed go knit and relaxe. She also turn me on to dyeing yarn as well Which is a total blast and I love doing that to.
Now I can’t even think about my life without knitting or my yarn stash.
God bless
Tabitha
p.s. Please people keep donating that blood and plasma ! You are helping my family.(my son) I am very grateful to everyone who has ever donated. God Bless you all in every way!!
Number of Donors who have helped my family so far: 495 people !
Ravelry has had a big influence on me. Sheri, you have also, with your challenges and posts here of pictures of yarns and projects people have sent in. Wendy Johnson has influenced me alot and Elizabeth Zimmerman – I like the attitude that it’s OK to try it…and “go for it”. I still can’t seam a sweater, tho, so I’m waiting for someone to motivate me in that direction.
My dear friend Nicki. I’ve followed her throughout all of her crafting adventures – scrapbooking, jewelry-making – and swore I wouldn’t pick up her next one – knitting. But…she managed to get me hooked. And then, when I swore I would never ever knit socks, she showed me the light and I haven’t looked back! Beyond knitting, she truly is one of my very few most cherished friends. (And I think I get props for getting her hooked on The Loopy Ewe!)
Miss Elaine who showed me that I wasn’t too uncoordinated to knit, EZ for helping me to correct the twist in my purling and Ravelry for opening up the world of possibilities.
The biggest influences on my knitting have been Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Brenda Dayne. Listening to Brenda and reading Stephanie’s works have helped to keep me sane & on track as I continue on my knitting journey.
This will sound so narsacistic (lol), but I am my bigest inflluence. It all sstarted when I saw a scarf I loved at specialty shop in an amish community and decided I would rather learn how to knit than pay the price for the scarf. So I had a friend show me the basic knit stitch, taught myself how to purl off the internet and then decided to take a class months later when I purchased some expensive silk yarn to make my daughter a sweater after a few months of knitting. I convinced myself that I better make sure I was knitting properly before I “waisted” the pricey yarn. My instuctor Sue has influenced me since that first class. That was three years ago and I haven’t stopped knitting. My family room looks like a yarn shop and I even have sheep and yarn wallpaper border and lambs decorating the entire room :-)! I love to buy yarn, touch it, and imagine what it can become then make it happen. It is so fulfilling to see the finished product and so much fun to watch it emerge and then be used!
My Grandmother was a crocheter and tried to teach me when I was young, but I never got the hang of it-I guess I just wasn’t interested back then. I wish she was still alive to see me knitting up a storm-she would be so proud and happy. I knit in her memory-so in reality she is part of my inspiration.
Thanks for all the fun yarn, the weekly groupie newsletters, these special Anniversary sales and all you do to help me keep knitting-you too are an inspiration to me! I so enjoy browsing The Loopy Ewe site, love all the colors, and knitting bags and accesories that help make my knitting safe and tucked away “stylishly” (is that a word?lol) Keep on unpacking those boxes and posting those fun e-letters!!!!!
Joyfully Knitting,
Laura in Pennsylvania
Clifford J. Coffin has had the most significant influence on my knitting. His endowment to the local library ensures the library can buy all sorts of knitting books. I always check the new book shelf for his little gifts. Thank you, Mr. Coffin!
My biggest influence was Debbie Stoller and her Stitch n Bitch books. She fed the fire when I was just starting out and looking for fun projects to do. I still love her books and her whole approach to knitting. 🙂
I get lots of pattern ideas from Ravelry. Usually I fall in love with some yummy yarn and then go surfing to find a pattern. I love the Loopy website, especially the home page with the small photos of all the yarn and other goodies.
Susie
I’m the craft crazy person in the family. I see it, I do it. And I can figure out how to do things from books, though it may take a bit of studying and pondering to get the picture. I love to collect books on a subject that I’m currently into, and I’ve been into knitting for a while, so I have a pretty good inspirational library. Knitting is where I can feel adventurous.
And then, there’s The Internet!! I thought I’d never be knitting socks because I couldn’t get a handle on those pesky dbl pt needles. Then I found knitting on 2 circulars and toe-up construction, and I was knitting socks! Thank you, Wendy Johnson. I found Wendy’s blog and got into new knitting territory. I wanted to knit lace, and eventually put on my big girl panties and picked a project. The inspiration came from looking at all the lovely shawls people were knitting and talking about online. Now, I can knit lace! I love learning as I go — so the more I do, the better I can understand the next level.
Isn’t the Internet a great place?
A friend at work has been the biggest influence. I had knit sweaters for 45 years. But 5 years ago she helped me to realize that I could ‘branch out’. Now there’s always a pair of socks on the needles – hats, scarves and shawls too! It seems like there’s always something new!
My mother and grandmother taught me to knit dishcloths about six years ago. I would never have even though of knitting if they hadn’t come to visit. Now I don’t know what I’d do without it.
My biggest influence was Wendy’s sock patterns that I can knit and Sheri’s blogs here and TLE ravelry groups! Thanks for all the beautiful patterns and yarn from you both.
Various Ravelry groups are my biggest inspiration, since I don’t know many knitters in my day-to-day life.
Mmm, this is hard. I don’t know how to answer. I’ve knit since 9th grade, I think, but always followed patterns. I still follow patterns, but often add my own twist in yarn used. I’m still evolving into a more thinking knitter. I’ve only designed a few things, and it takes a lot of time and reworking.
I’d have to say Elizabeth Zimmermann, for making me think, and then blogs and Ravelry for continuing the process.
My mom, bless her heart! She is an inspiration in so many ways.
I have always been self motivated to learn new things in my knitting. I have only recently found all the wonder sites (like Ravelry) to help me. I taught myself all I know from books.
Debi
My mom was my biggest influence for knitting. She and I picked projects and shopped for yarn together. We’d sit and chat as we’d both knit on our projects. I miss her so much, but I’m ever so glad we had the time together.
I mostly make up my own patterns and am a designer IRL, but I’m also clearly influenced by the knitblogging community and ravelry as well.
the internet has influenced my knitting. sounds weird, but i can only afford so many books and the library doesn’t have the same resources.
Blogs, posts, web sites and utube have influenced my knitting so much. I don’t think i could be doing what i’m doing now ( I’M KNITTING SOCKS!) if it wasn’t for the amazing resources out there on the internet. i’m a visual learner, pictures in books don’t make any sense to me. I’ve gone onto utube many times to learn how to do a new stitch. Often what i had thought would be way too complicated turned out so easy.
I’m 46 and still learning. I hope to keep learning until the day i die.
Thank you everyone who share your ideas, inspirations, creations and images online.
A person who has most influenced my knitting………………..
What has most influenced my knitting is the discovery of non-acrylic yarn. Publications like Interweave Knits and authors like Ann Budd, Nancie Wiseman, Elizabeth Zimmerman and Nancy Bush – opened up the fiber resource door for me and inspired me to explore techniques and fibers.
It has been a learning journey since the time ………………………
my Mom taught me how to make a crochet chain when I was 6 and from that point on I had to teach myself to crochet and knit because I never met anyone who dit this except in places like working colonial museeums…………………..
I am going to have to say that Ravelry has probably had the biggest impact on my knitting. I don’t have to be looking for anything in particular but may stumble upon a WIP that someone has posted a picture of or sometimes I just get curious to see what the hottest patterns are that day and the next thing I know my queue will have grown exponentially. I hadn’t even thought about doing lace knitting until I saw something about a mystery shawl along and kept telling myself ‘why not, it is only knits and purls, I can do that!’
My great-grandmother has influenced my knitting the most. Without her I probably wouldn’t even be knitting 🙂
That’s really hard to narrow down. I feel that I’ve been influenced by so many people. I taught myself to knit when I was 16, to crochet at 19, and it wasn’t back in style then yet. But I always saw these gorgeous, very high priced sweaters in stores and kept thinking, I could make that. Now, I’m inspired by so many magazines, designers and especially Ravelry. I love looking through the projects and getting inspired by a certain colorway, design, or yarn. It has really opened a whole new world of knitting/crocheting to me.
It’s difficult to pick the biggest influence, because at different times it has been different people, things, etc. But the biggest influences on me ahve been other people’s blogs, seeing different projects on Rav, and the dyers. I think dyers have a tremendous effect because it is their work that inspires the potential for what my knitting can become.
Without any doubt – my biggest knitting influence was Elizabeth Zimmerman. Having “knit in a vacuum” for decades – believing that I was the last knitter left on the planet, I found Elizabeth and Meg on Public Television. Her (their) “un-ventions” in knitting helped me to find the wonder and magic of taking 2 sticks and a string and creating something wonderful. Elizabeth and Meg taught me to experience knitting in a whote new way, and to become the master of my craft. I will be forever grateful to them for both inspiration and comfort!
Getting together with other young knitters inspires my needles! That, and all the great patterns and projects on Ravelry (although this does more for my inspiration than my productivity, because I spend hours looking at patterns instead of knitting).
My mother was my first inspiration. Just sitting there watching her knit effortlessly as I was a kid. But now my inspiration comes from the web. Places like Ravelry and Knitty give me ideas.
Lime and Violet have had the biggest influence on my purchasing of yarn (ENABLERS!) including purchases from the Loopy Ewe. 🙂 My mom has been the biggest influence on my actual knitting projects. She taught me how to knit and has been helping me ever since.
The biggest influence on my knitting is just what is going on around me. Right now I am big on baby knits because everyone I know is having a baby. 🙂
I taught myself to crochet at age 7 and enjoyed it for many years. I discovered I could knit at the ripe old age of 38 and haven’t put down the needles yet! I read everything I can get my hands on and will try just about any stitch. Right now I am addicted to socks! I love that they are extremely portable and look very stylish in my way cool knitting bag. People think that I am carrying around two purses and when they ask why I just tell them that all my money just won’t fit in one bag!
So, I would have to say that the biggest influence to me would have to be the fantastic advertising that is done to promote our wonderful and useful hobby – kudos!
Oh gosh, I was going to say I’m not exactly what my biggest knitting influences have been, but thinking it over that’s not true. I’m a huge blog and Ravelry haunter — I love seeing all the lovely things everyone makes! I don’t have any friends “in real life” who knit, so online communities are where I do most of my knitterly learning and socializing. I’m quite the online knitter junkie these days! So I’d say my biggest influence has been the internet and all the cool people who have discovered how fun it can be to jabber on about knitting online!
Ravelry is my #1 influence. I also love Ysolda’s and Norah’s style.
I think Wendy and the other bloggers(too many to name individually) have had the greatest influence because I see what they are producing and I want to try and keep up. I love seeing new patterns worked out and inventive color combinations. I especially love the fairisle projects. They stun me with their beauty and complexity but I’m too chicken to try it myself.
I love Aran cable knitting, Kaffe Fassett designs and Wendy’s socks.
My best friend Sara is the reason I took up knitting again. She joined the knitting club in high school and I thought it would be an awesome way to hang out with more people. Little did I know the world she opened to me!
My two best friends, Linda and Ann, Linda and I love the same yarns and patterns and Ann gives me my confidence that I can knit any pattern.
Reading the blogs (Yarn Harlot, Brooklyn Tweed, Mason Dixon Knitting, and several others) and Ravelry influence my knitting the most. I like seeing the finished projects and getting information about how the patterns work and modifications/tweaks that have been made to the patterns to make them fit better or make the construction easier.