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
The biggest influence on my knitting today is my new grandson (my 1st grandchild… just born last Thursday!). I have renewed my interest in knitting which I learned from my mom when I was a preteen… many years ago. I have knitted socks, a couple of hats, a bonnet, a pair of pants, a shirt and want to do a double knitted sweater. I have always wanted to figure out double knitting and now I have the motivation.
My mom was my first influence – I began knitting at 6 or 7 when I was in the Brownies. When I was in high school she had a yarn shop, so I was spoiled with all the wonderful imported yarns at my fingertips, there was no stopping me and I’ve always had something on the needles ever since.
Definitely the ability to browse thousands of projects on Ravelry. I’ve got a nursing baby, so I find myself with a lot of ‘couch time’ and I almost always spend that time clicking around on Ravelry and daydreaming about the things I could knit.
Ravelry, and in particular, Sock Knitters Anonymous. I love seeing everyone’s projects and great yarns! So inspiring!
My grandmother. She taught me the basic knit/purl and I busily knit nothings next to her as she made glorious Norwegian sweaters. Many years later I picked it up again to learn for real. ANd what do you know…the muscle memory was there. As was the memory of her sitting next to me, knitting for real.
I guess I would have to say Ravelry itself has had the biggest influence on me. I had only been knitting for about 7 months when I found Ravelry in 2007. Being able to poke around everyone’s projects and read tons of posts has been absolutely inspiring!!!
Ravelry has had a huge impact on me, as have my knitting friends and many of the wonderful knit blogs out there.
My Grandmother is my greatest influence through my mother, the other day while visiting her she commented on how I knit just like her. We all are throwers of our yarn 😛 I love looking through her old knitting magazines and handouts and finding her notes on different patterns. Ravelry is also a big influence because you can see how the yarn you have or covet knits up into different projects. It is great for visual people like me.
I think that I would have to credit Elizabeth Zimmerman, with her advice to people who knit tightly ( I was one them such an uptight knitter): relax and loosen up! I did, and knitting is so much less stressful, and my fingers aren’t so sore, and I can knit for a lot longer.
My first knitting influence was Elizabeth Zimmerman. I learned so much about construction and design from her writing. The next was Yarn Harlot and then, of course, Wendy Johnson for socks.
Thanks so much for this contest! TLE Rocks!
I always remember my Grandma knitting. She was and is my greatest influence.
My Nana was the knitter when I was younger, but my mother did crochet. They are both talented woman. I have a beautiful knitted blanket from my Nana, and a gorgeous chocheted shawl from Mom. I can remember my mother crocheting a large blanket for my dad when I was younger. I think they both influenced my knitting, as they were always doing some sort of craft when I was younger. Today the greatest compliment to me is that I hold my knitting needles just like my Nana…..I don’t remember how to hold them I just do – must be instincts and genetics! 🙂
Since I taught myself to knit and crochet as a child some 40+ years ago I have had so many people influence and inspire my knitting, but I would have to say that Lucy Neatby’s DVD’s did it for me. I have not yet had the pleasure of attending a class or workshop with Lucy in person, but I will.
I’m another one of those self taught knitters..started when i was in high school, then i put it all away for years to raise a family, work 2 jobs, etc… i was too busy and too stressed out- then i found this fabulous site one day-so i hafta say my biggest infulence has to be Ravelry..and all my friends whom ive never met but i feel like ive know forever…anything i need to know i can find there any questions i have can be answered- The fabulous Yarn Harlot who has inspired myself and others with her fearless knitting and entertaining ways…Jenny from Baresheepyarns who had inspired me to try dyeing my own yarn even tho shes never realized it.. And my partners in crime Sandy K. and Julie S. thank you
What was initially the Rowan International group but turned into the Rowan Inter forum on Ravelry. So supportive and kind and enabling…And told me about the Loopy Ewe, I might add!
I would have to say the single biggest influence would be the internet. Being able to find an instrucitonal video for a certain stitch or a group to ask a question to is very empowering. Ravelry is awesome, and specifically your groupies. What a great group of people.
I think I have to say my friend Cheri from C2knits. I go to her with all my questions, she ALWAYS has an answer and is a beautiful designer.
I don’t think there is any one influence. The web overall is big of course. I hardly ever see something in a magizine that I love, but once I’ve heard or read about a pattern from other places and seen it knit up in other colors I often take a second look.
I’d have to say the yarns are my biggest influence and motivation. I’m always seeing something new I want to try out. I love having color in my hands.
Ravelry has been the biggest influence on my knitting. I’ve learned so much about technique and new yarns and expanded out of my sweater mode which is all I had ever knit to now knit socks, lace shawls, and getting ready to try mittens.
I think the biggest influence on my knitting was my grandma. She taught me to knit at an early age and even though I didn’t pick it up again until a few years ago, I still remember seeing her sit and knit and I think of her often as I knit. My mother has even given to me one of my grandma’s knitting bags and also one of her wicker baskets to hold my yarn in! They are truly treasures to me 🙂
I think my biggest knitting influence has been my mother-in-law. She insisted that I *could* learn the purl stitch even if everyone else said I’d never learn to knit because I couldn’t do it right-handed (I’m a lefty). She helped me with gauge, encouraged me when I’d get frustrated, and gave me some great beginner resources to help me out when she wasn’t around. The time she spent with me was especially good for our new relationship (I haven’t been married 2 years yet) as I was nervous as all get out around her in the beginning. And now I even knit socks! 😀
I would have to think Cookie A and Wendy were the ones that have challanged me to push myself to learn so many new techniques. The fabulous patterns they (along with others) have created have inspired me to push myself to learn neww things in order to create the patterns. I love that my daughter is now starting to knit as well as my sister, and I hope now we can contnue to pass knitting down thru our family!
My biggest knitting influence has been the knitting blog world. I learned the knit stitch as a kid but the teacher moved away before I could go further and I let it go after that. I picked it back up through the videos on http://www.knittinghelp.com but learned tricks, the places to look for inspiration, shortcuts, the best shops, and all that through knitting blogs and Ravelry. It has been really wonderful to ‘meet’ you all through the knit blog web.
For the last 10 years, or so, I’ve used a general sock pattern/formula to create my “bread and butter” socks. (Knitting these socks is my relaxed no-thinking knitting I do on planes, in lines, during long meetings, and while kids are out to recess.) My sock pattern/formula is one adapted from the 4th grade sock project all students at Waldorf School knit. So I guess the biggest influence (by sheer volume of knitted projects) would have to be the Waldorf Schools.
VREDE en VREUGDE Linda Shields
My mom is probably my biggest influence. She’s gifted in all things fiber (spooky, let me tell you). Her enthusiasm is what gets me going. We have so much fun exploring, crafting, brainstorming. She also loves to pass on her love of fiber to anyone that shows interest. I doubt I’ve ever bother trying knitting if it wasn’t for her.
I am influenced by the weather, my mood, gifts that need to be made, materials on hand, Ravelry, blogs, books… did I leave anything out? LOL
Right now I am on a kick of making mini pot-holders. I’m working with cotton and DPN’s and am knitting happily despite the humidity and the fact that at this point in the summer I feel like I have Mush Brain… I will soon begin a baby blanket for a baby shower in Oct. And I feel a pair of socks calling out to me in self patterning yarn… I can hear them calling…. must be because it’s nice and cool out this morning… like fall.
I love knitting, and I love that I can have many projects around that fulfill my need at any given time.
Happy Anniversary!!!
Ravelry, without a doubt. As a newbie knitter, I have had a great of fun looking at patterns and learning about yarn. The resources on Ravelry are just exceptional. If I ask a question about a circular cast on, someone will immediately direct me to a video of Emily Ocker’s cast on. Ravelry has made me more fearless about my knitting. Who knew I could knit lace?
Although my great grandmother was german, my granma swedish and my mum scots none of them had any interest at all in knitting! My mum did teach me, as I grew up in the 50s where the long shadow of austerity from the war years still stretched. She taught me to knit as she taught me to sew, so that I could (quite literally) make do and mend. I had misshapen needles and fawn scratchy wool- and have no memory of achievement or enjoyment at all. Funnily enough fawn/beige is a colour i”ve always avoided from the time that I had any choice in the matter…….
So definitely not family, nor in fact friend or even a person. For me, and i suspect for many of my generation in the UK, the biggest influence on my knitting life has been Rowan yarns. Rowan almost single handedly rescued knitting from obscurity in the 1980s here. There were still yarn shops, selling either baby wool in 3 or 4 pastel colours, or big balls for knitting cheap sweaters. I say wool-but actually it was acrylic. What Rowan did was to take franchises in major department stores nationwide, and fill a prominent stand with colour, design, natural yarns and young textile graduates. You could sqoosh yarn, try it out, get help and advice-revolutionary in its day, and what we all expect as standard from a decent LYS now! It was stunning-and actually still is 30years on-as Rowan still lead the pack this side of the pond, and have a good reputation in the states too. I try and make 2 or 3 w/e workshops a year at their hq in yorkshire- and recommend international membership to any knitter.
I think that my Grandmother would have to be my biggest influence and supporter. When I was younger I was fascinated by the things that she was doing with sticks and string. I even tried my hardest to do it myself with my Grandmother guiding my every step. But I got bored and gave up but she didn’t pressure my to keep doing it. I was sitting at my computer 15 some odd years later and a knitting pattern ad popped up on a website I was looking at and it reminded me of that brief moment all those years before. I told myself I was just going to knit a dishcloth and I did and it was great so I taught myself from the internet and asking my Grandma questions on the phone. I have now been knitting for almost 2 years and loving it still.
The biggest influence on my knitting? Besides the “Mother of All’, Elizabeth Zimmermann, I would say it was Deb Robson, who edited Spin Off magazine for my formative spinning years. She is a knitter and spinner, too (and many thousands of other brilliant things). Her approach seems to be, and forgive me Deb if I misstate this, very much like Elizabeth’s daughter, Meg Swansen: Technique, technique, technique. Deb’s carefully thought-out and articulate descriptions of how the whole process works, from fiber to fabric, encouraged me to achieve that same level of expertise (which I haven’t, yet, but goals are good). The writers, thinkers, and designers she brought to Spin Off magazine and Interweave Press gave me the information and confidence to tackle anything. A durable singles yarn out of Merino? You bet – she and Rita Buchanan told us how. She brought us hand-painted fibers before they were available anywhere else (thanks to Sara Lamb and others). We could learn the ins and outs of preparation techniques to suit the fiber AND what we wanted for a finished product. My spinning, and therefore my knitting, have never been hit-or-miss, or just hoping for the best.
I apply that body of knowledge when I knit with commericals yarns, too, which I do often. It’s another pleasure, especially with the extraordinary quality yarns available to us now.
Thanks for everything,
Meg
OOps, sorry to take up more space. I should add a P.S. to the above comment: Deb Robson now has her own publishing company, Nomad Press, and she has brought us classics such as Knitting in the Old Way, Spinning in the Old Way, Arctic Lace (too brilliant!), and more. The knitting world would be poorer without these books.
M
My friends have had the greatest influence on my knitting, in that they got me knitting again in the first place. “The Girl from Auntie’s” Rogue sweater got me going on ables, and Anne Hanson’s patterns are my inspiration for laces. Chic Knits is my “go-to” site for cardigans and sweaters, as well as Interweave Knits/Knitting Daily.
My mother is my biggest knitting influence. She is the one who taught me the basics in knitting and crocheting. She also encouraged me to expand my knitting skills…. to venture out and try bigger projects, etc.
My daughters, especially my younger. I hadn’t touched knitting in over 15 years. When she came back from camp with some knitting, I joined her and we went yarn shopping. She stopped knitting soon after, but I have continued unabated since then. I try to knit things that I think she would like, and this has resulted in some challenges I wouldn’t have undertaken otherwise – like knitting the Featherlight Lingerie Dress by Marie Lynn Patrick (Lace Style by Budd & Allen). I’m not a fan of the Kidsilk Haze yarn, and ended up reknitting the skirt sides three times, before finally just steeking and cutting like regular fabric to get the fit and look she wanted. I learnt that knit fabric behaves much like any other, in some ways, and learnt that I could be the boss of my own knitting. I also knit her Lisa Daehlin’s Leg Cozies from the same book, and learnt how to incorporate thin elastic thread into the knitting to tighten the thigh ribbing to give some grip and stay-up power. She makes me feel courageous, and willing to take on things other than my standard fare of shawls, hats and mittens.
I think the biggest influences on my knitting are the girls in the C2S2 group over on ravelry. I joined the group having knit 2 pairs of socks, and a million washcloths, thinking that I was just completely incapable of more. And they have since talked me into knitting my first shawl, and a handful of cowls, and I’ve started another shawl! (I may have a slight shawl addiction now) They constantly convince me that I am a capable knitter, and can make whatever I like. Plus, they are AWESOME friends.
I’m a mixed “bag.” I’m influenced by magazines, podcasts, Ravelry, blogs, fiber websites and other people. Thanks to Meghan on the Stitch It podcast I’m now experimenting with processing raw wool! I’m always hearing new things and looking them up further on the web. I love a fiber challenge and am continually trying new things!
Happy Anniversary, Loopy Ewe. My sock yarn stash is bigger because of you!
My biggest influence was my grand mother who taught me how to knit. I have been re-inspired by the Sticks and String podcast by David Reidy.
My biggest knitting influence would have to be my grandmother who taught be to knit (and also crochet, crewel, needlepoint, and embroider). If she were alive today, she would be thrilled to know that I actually learned how to spin and now knit with my very own handspun yarn.
The person who started me knitting was my friend Maria. She started a knitting circle at our congregation and we have all been inspiring each other to knit. We have knitted afghans for our congregation and we have done other charity knitting. I fell in love with knitting socks and have been knitting ever since. We meet each month and we have lots of fun while helping each other with our projects. We also take knitting trips together to yarn stores and fiber festivals.
I have to say my biggest influence is the SKA group on Ravelry. They always have new yarns and new patterns. I’m knitting socks and baby items about as fast as I can and there are always 5 or 6 things I WANT to start right now! LOL
I think I am self-inspired for socks – through books, magazines, and internet browsing. For sweaters and other things, it is often something I have seen done up at our LYS. I am less likely to “fall in love with” the other items if I haven’t actually seen the drape and/or how it looks in person. That being said, my first two sweaters were knit from patterns I chose without seeing a sample, so maybe there is no rhyme or reason. ; ) Karen
I am inspired by what I see other knitters making. Nothing beats looking at someone else’s project and thinking they picked the perfect yarn for that pattern. It makes you want to make it cause it is so beautiful!
My biggest influence would be my best friend Rosalie. She sat me down and taught me to knit after years of hearing me say I’d like to learn. Now she says she’s created an obsessed knitting monster! I also have to give Ravelry a lot of credit for inspiring me to expand and try new things.
My biggest influence to be a knitter was my mom. She knit large projects with acrylic yarn, but didn’t teach me since I’m left-handed. After she died, I got custody of her stash. I decided to take lessons so I could finish some of her unfinished projects. And I was hooked.
But it was watching my friends that made me want to knit socks.
I became a yarn snob on my own.
My friends and my daughter are my biggest influence in knitting. I love to go with my daughter to yarn shows and yarn shops. Where my other daughter lives in Geneva, Il. there is a nice yarn shop that I like to go to when I’m up there.
I’d say probably my biggest influences are probably Ravelry in general and my knitting group, which met on Ravelry.
My grandmother has had the biggest influence on my knitting. She taught me when I was 10, but I lost interest. When she died, I picked it up again as a tribute to her , as a way to keep her memory alive in the family, as no one else knit, and I still have a half-finished cotton washcloth on the needles that she never had the chance to finish. Ravelry and the Yarn harlot are great, but I would never have found them without my Grams – I just wish I had picked it up again before she left us so I could have had even more to share with her – but then I might have had to arm wrestle her over yarn 🙂 Man, I miss that woman.
EZ, Deb Stoller, Sally Melville…..the Harlot. My knit pals; The Knittin’ Kittens.
I’d have to say that Ravelry influences my knitting. I love to browse around, choose fun patterns and yarn, and read knitters’ comments about modifications.