Today we’re celebrating our Ninth Loopy-versary! We can hardly believe that it has been nine years. In August of 2006 we put the website online with a handful of yarn companies represented, and crossed our fingers and said a prayer that it would work.
It sure has been fun to share yarn, fabric, projects, ideas and inspiration with you over the past nine years. YOU ALL are our favorite part of The Loopy Ewe and we love being with you on this adventure. We look forward to many more years of sharing beautiful yarn, fabrics and ideas with you. There are always new things to see, do and share!
For today’s Monday Yarn Update, we have two new Loopy things to share, in celebration of our Loopy-versary.
1. Loopy’s Paintbox Sets – We know you love our Loopy Cake Sets, because we have a hard time keeping them in stock! We took the summer off from winding Loopy Cake Sets in order to focus on Loopy’s Paintbox Sets (available just for our anniversary, while supplies last). These sets come with 9 mini-balls of yarn. Each ball is approx. 50 yards (1/4 of a skein from our Loopy Solid Series yarn), so they are smaller than the balls you get in Loopy Cakes.
We have two different patterns that were designed with these sets in mind, and we’ll email you a copy of both patterns with purchase. The sets come in Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer colors. Shown below: Loopy’s Paintbox Scarf out of 1 1/2 sets of Autumn (shown as scarf, or kitchener the short ends to make an infinity cowl as shown in the last photo). You can also make the Paintbox Scarf/Cowl out of one set – I was just needing to hit the 600 yard mark for my July Camp project, so made it wider! And our SoundWave scarf by Debbie O’Neill, shown below in Winter and Summer colors. Each SoundWave scarf uses one set of Loopy’s Paintbox.
2. Loopy Pattern by Susan B. Anderson – Susan is the best toy-designer we know, and we’ve been working with her for a long time to design a special Loopy toy, just for you! We think it’s her cutest design ever (although we may be a little biased) and we’re excited to share it with you. We have the patterns available for sale now, and we will have kits available soon. The pattern takes one skein each of red and tan and 2 skeins of white in our Loopy Solids Series. We have been waiting on an order of white for oh-so-long, but expect it within the next couple of weeks. Please email us (support@theloopyewe.com) if you’d like us to save you a set of these three skeins to make Loopy. ($48 for just the yarn, or $53 for yarn plus pattern. The pattern is also available on its own.) We are all planning our own little Loopy knitting for the fall. We hope you have fun with him, too!
Loopy-versary Contest: We’re giving away NINE $25 Loopy Ewe Gift Certificates to celebrate our NINE years of being Loopy. (Well, some of us have been loopy a little longer than that, but we don’t count that part.) Leave a comment below and tell us what is the first project you remember knitting, crocheting, quilting or sewing, and we’ll draw the winners next week. The first thing I remember knitting was an ugly yellow sweater when I was in grade school or junior high. I just knit on the front and the back – I don’t remember sleeves, although I think it was supposed to have them ….
Sheri whostillhastroublemakingitallthewaythroughawholesweater
In late elementary school, I knitted a purse and lined it. I still have it in a box in the basement. In 7th grade Home Ec. class we learned to sew a jumper. My 2nd project in class was a lined velvet vest with buttonholes. My mom thought I was crazy but it came out great!
Ooo! Happy Anniversary! It’s been awesome growing in my crafting as your store has grown. I’ve only been knitting about ten years. The first project (that was more than a garter scarf) was a baby blanket I saw on a magazine cover in the grocery store. I could *see* the pattern of knits and purls. It wasn’t a mystery. And I said, “I can do that”. So I bought the magazine…and I did.
My grandma taught me to knit when I was six. My first project was a pair of yellow slippers. I pulled the stitches so tight it’s a wonder the needles survived. I still have them, a great reminder of my grandma’s patience and love.
I learned to knit while on vacation with family and friends on an island in Canada with no electricity. I was about nine years old. My project was a mohair hat. I got serious about knitting ten years later which was 44 years ago! I love knitting more everyday!
A red sweater for a doll. I was about 8. My mother, a knitter, taught me. Oddly, she knit continental and I still throw my yarn.
Ironically, I found the red sweater she knit for my father that the yarn came from!
It was a denim colored scarf, from yarn purchased at Marks and Spencers in London in the fall of 2001. I bought the needles there too – no notion of how the two would work together – just a pair of needles and yarn that looked nice. A friend taught me how to knit while I was in London for Study Abroad during college. She taught me how to cast on, knit and cast off. There were a lot of basic scarves for those first few years. It’s crazy to think how far I’ve come since then.
I learned to knit as an adult in 2000. My very first project was a cabled afghan out of Encore worsted. I still have it and we still use it during our ohio winters.
8)
I remember knitting mittens and embroidering snowflakes on the back when I was in high school in the late 70’s.
The first “project” I remember knitting was a sock. I only made one because it turned out to small and had a heel on the side! In spite of this sad experience, I love knitting and I knit almost daily. Including socks!
My Dad taught me to knit when I was about 5 yo….but he didn’t know how to bind off. So the very first thing I knit (and reknit and reknit and reknit and reknit) was a long ‘swatch’ of green. (I’d knit to the end of the skein, we’d rip it out together, he’d cast on a different # of stitches…and off I’d go again.) 60+ years later….I still don’t mind swatching, and I still don’t mind ripping out!
The first project I remember knitting is slippers. My Grandma taught me. It was basically a garter stitch square that I then sewed into a triangle. Everybody got them that Christmas.
I knit a pink and grey sweater just out of high school. Of course, I knew nothing about gauge (or yarn substitution), and I was teaching myself to knit. The end product did look like a sweater, but it would only fit someone with tiny arms and a large torso. Who like cropped tops.=)
My first knitting project was a ribbed scarf in a gorgeous red silk/merino blend. The yarn was far too wonderful for my skill set at the time — my rib channels merged and separated continuously throughout the piece. The scarf was a bust, but by the end I was hooked on knitting!
I taught myself to crochet when I found out I was pregnant with my son. I wanted to make him a blanket, and was finally sucessful in learning how to crochet.
The first thing I knitted was a dishcloth. Then another, and another. You get the point! I got good enough to make other things though. Happy nine loopy years!
Congratulations on nine years! I wish you many more. The first project that I knit was a dish cloth
Learning Crochet and Tatting from Muba Macon my great-grandma the summer I was 11!
I made a granny square afghan with her to match my bedroom! I still have it!!
Janet Nelson
I made a raglan pullover. The neck bind off was so tight I had to put a zipper in the back raglan seam. I could be a design feature now, but this was the 60’s!!
Happy Annversary! I love getting emails every Monday. Wish I could visit more often.
I learned to crochet as a child and remember making pot holders, blankets and of course Barbie dresses and doll house accessories. Three years ago I taught myself to knit. I started with a scarf. I’m still doing scarves but now they are heavily cabled masterpieces.
The first thing I remember crocheting was a blanket when I was a kid. Didn’t star knitting until I was an adult and my first knitted project was a sweater for my newborn daughter to wear her first Christmas. It was too big and she ended up wearing it the next Christmas! That’s when I learned about gauge swatches!
My first project was a pastel pink garter stitch scarf that, of course, had squiggly ‘shaping’ making it look a bit more snake-like than scarf-like!
My grandma taught my brother and I (ages 6 and 4) to crochet chains. We’d crochet whole skeins of chains. We’d run and show her and she’d say, “Wonderful!” Then she’d pull it apart and have us do it again. We loved it! (Endless busy work – she was a genius!)
The first project i remember making working on was a triple strand (acrylic!) Blanket on size 17 needles. My mom still has the blanket on her bed, love her!
I knit a sweater as my first real project. A bulky wool sweater with cables and honestly, it was lovely. I used Wool-ease in a lovely mushroom colour, found the perfect carved drawer decorations at a hardware store and drilled holes in them for buttons, stained and sealed them, changed the button holes to loops and wore the hell out of the sweater until I lost way too much weight to wear it and no one else in town wanted it. I can’t remember if I sent it to my Mum or to Goodwill but wow, I loved that sweater.
Thank you Sheri for 9 AMAZING years. I am so happy to have shared my sock knitting journey with you and your elves!
Got to visit your shop when in Boulder for a wedding. Came away with some great yarns. Fell in love with the cable while teaching myself to knit from a $.25 book from the five & dime. I was about 12 then. Did a swatch which ended up larger at the top as I became comfortable with the cable. It ended up being just right to turn into a bathing suit for my sister’s Barbie. The next project I remember was a sweater with big polka dots (red, yellow & orange). Have been addicted ever since.
It was a purple fun fur type scarf with lots of
accidental yarn overs and extra stitches. I was
about 15 years old.
I remember sewing some doll clothes with my grandmother’s help as a young child. My first “solo” sewing was a quilt for my nephew when I was teen- and by solo I mean with a good bit of help from my Mom!
I learned to knit in junior high school and we had to knit a square. And another square. And another! It was just practice to learn and to get gauge. I don’t remember knitting again until I had my first child and knitted him a sweater; it turned out pretty good!
The first thing I remember knitting were these slippers that are knitted flat and laced up I still have the pattern and that has to be over 45 years ago. One year I made the resolution to knit every day even if it was only a few stitches, I enjoyed it so much I make the same resolution every year. I love knitting and crocheting my husband says it keeps me out trouble, but that’s not true you should see my yarn stach.
I knitted a denim blue colored vest in 7th grade for my first knitted project!
omigosh!!! my first project is SUPER unexciting. one summer, some friends at a beach house were trying to knit, and i was all, “no way!” the next trip, i thought i’d give it a whirl, cussing all the while….i remember using auracania sock yarn to knit a garter stitch scarf. you can imagine how fun that was :O lol……
my first knitted project was a sweater as well. It was an awful bright green acrylic. When done it could stand on its own-but it fit! I think i only wore it once. I tried to fix a mistake and ripped back a few rows. I twisted my stitches in the process resulting in a twisted row right at the bust line, eeek!
The first thing I made was an ivory seed stitch scarf. I was a very fashion-conscious teen and long scarves were very big when I started. By the time I finished knitting all 9 or 10 yards of it, long scarves were out. I think I wore it once just because my mom had bought the yarn for me and then I think it went in the Goodwill bag.
The first thing I remember knitting was a tube on a knitting spool. That led me to the adventure of trying to dress Barbie’s tomboy younger sister in knitwear. At the time, I was 5 and my older sister was 8. We learned at her Brownie Scout meeting.
A dear friend taught me to crochet in college, and I immediately decided to crochet a scarf (in a jewel tone variegated, acrylic yarn). I had not mastered how to keep track of my stitches in a way to have nice smooth edges, so I decided to crochet the scarf lengthwise. I thought I had invented long rows. I had no idea…
my first knitting project was a barbie skirt. I didn’t know how to bind off, so the top was basically a drawstring through the live stitches.
I made a classic cabled aran pullover in the late 60s using incredibly ugly turquoise yarn. (It may have been RH…) I made much of the sweater during a family camping trip, and I remember the variety store where we bought the yarn. I don’t remember wearing the sweater – once a process knitter, always a process knitter!
I learn to knit from a craft store knitting book when I was 10. The first thing I knit was supposed to be a scarf. But since I had no sense of tension, it was a wavy, acrylic mess. But it was also fun so I kept trying 🙂
My first project was a pair of slippers where you knit a square, then gather the toe and a bit of the seam across the instep and finally the seam at the heel. I was so proud of them! It was my first project but not my last! I have been knitting ever since, and much more in recent years with all the great yarn that is available. Thanks Loopy Ewe!
The first thing I ever crocheted was a scarf out of RHSS, all in double crochet. Fortunately, there is no longer any RHSS in my stash…
I didn’t begin to knit until I was in my middle thirties. The first thing I made was a cardigan sweater for a Cabbage Patch doll (forget the simple scarves etc.!). It turned out remarkably well!
I remember knitting the ubiquitous starter-garter scarf as my very first project, but the first project that stands out in my mind as an achievement was a color blocked drop shoulder baby sweater for my first niece. I must have been about 16 years old when I made it.
I learned to knit about 8 years ago and the first thing I knit was a pink basket weave scarf.
I remember knitting blankets with my grandma when I was a little girl, but as far as on my own it was a felted purse about 12 years ago.
I think my first several projects were unfinished! Things that I tried to knit or crochet while watching my mom work on a project of her own. I didn’t get serious until about 20 years later when I crocheted (and completed!) a sweater vest which I actually wore!
I took a private lesson at my LYS. Best teacher ever!! I wanted to knit socks right away. However she explained that I need to start simple since I didn’t even know what a knit or purl stitch was. I ended up making a baby blanket for my cousin’s baby. I learned knit, purl, increasing and decreasing. Now about 13 years later I am tri-yarnal. I knit, crochet and spin. Love every moment of it!
Happy Anniversary! If I remember correctly the first project I knitted was a hat. My grandmother taught me to knit a rectangle but I really didn’t get hooked until I was a grandmother.
My first knitting project that I actually finished was a Calorimetry.
The first thing I ever knit was a man’s cardigan sweater in tan and brown. A very old (to me at the time – I was 18) man taught me to knit and I’ve knitted that way ever since. Both that fiance and sweater are gone now but I’m having even more fun knitting now than ever before! Thanks for all the fun Loopy! Pat