Derecho Archives - The Loopy Ewe Blog

Madelinetosh, Zauberball, Trekking, Blue Q, and Fabric!

by Sheri BergerSeptember 30, 2013July 8, 201511 Comments

Monday Fun for you! We just added in:

Madelinetosh Merino Light – in 80+ colors! This single-ply fingering weight base has been especially popular for shawls, sweaters, scarves and cowls. The yarn is 100% superwash merino and comes with 420 yards in the skein. I like using this for multi-color shawl combinations, like the Pamuya and Whippoorwill shawls that I made, or the Faberge that our customer Cricket made and has on display in our shop. It would also be pretty in a Color Affection or the Derecho. Of course it’s gorgeous for single-color shawls as well. I just seem to have an especially fun time picking out color combos! (Shown here in Baltic.)

Schoppel Wolle Zauberball – This slow color-shifting yarn is so pretty when used for socks, shawls, hats, mitts, and gloves. We have it re-stocked in the Sock weight and DK weight. (Shown here in Zauberball 100 in #1505.)

Trekking – lots of this workhorse sock yarn in XXL and the Trekking Tweeds. This is the yarn you want to use for gift socks, if you know the person you’re giving them to is going to toss them in the washer and dryer. Plus, the colors are beautiful!

Blue Q Bags – If you like Owls, Kittens, Fox, Reading, and numerous other activities, you’ll love the new designs we’ve just added in the Blue Q line! We’ve also re-stocked your other favorites. These are really great bags for projects and accessories, as well as gift bags for special gifts.

Fabric – Did you notice that we added Fabric to our website last week? We are so excited! The Quilting Elves have been busy making beautiful samples for the shop, and we have been sending out fabric orders as they arrive. We have multiple lines of contemporary fabrics, batiks, Civil War reproductions, and more from Moda, Riley Blake, Adornit (shown here, left), Birch (shown here, right), and Timeless Treasures, with more in the works.

In addition to regular yardage (1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and full yards), we also offer all of our fabrics in Fat Quarter cuts. You’ll see a link for ordering Fat Quarters on each individual fabric product page, under the photo. We also have multiple pattern companies, and the sewing notions have started to arrive as well. And you’ll love our photos. We’ve taken the time to photo all of the fabric ourselves (instead of using stock photos from the fabric companies) and we think it makes a difference. You know you can click on photos on our website to make them all bigger, right? 🙂 If you like to quilt or sew, pop over and check out the ever-expanding Loopy Ewe Fabric Shop! Of course all of our regular rewards apply to your fabric purchases as well.

Have fun shopping and we’ll get your orders out asap!

Sheri whofinisheda22-years-in-the-makingquiltthisweekend.
Talkaboutyourunfinishedprojects,FPS…..

Inspiration Focus: Derecho

by Sheri BergerNovember 28, 2012March 5, 201316 Comments

We headed cross-country back to St. Louis for Thanksgiving weekend last week. The 13 hour car drive across Colorado, Kansas and Missouri certainly brings lots of knitting time! Consequently, I was able to (finally) finish my Derecho. This is the second one I have done. I did the first one in the smaller size (see it here), and chose to do this one in the larger size. The small size stops before the last two long strips on the bottom left and right edge, so you can see how the size compares. There is a lot of knitting in the larger size. I made this one out of Shalimar Breathless in Sea Glass, Neptune and Buttermilk. You need a light, medium and dark color for this pattern. For this larger size, I used 1 1/2 skeins of the darkest color, 1 skein each of the other two. Despite being a bit tired of all that knitting by the end, I did make the border a bit larger. I did 10 rows (including pickup and bindoff) instead of the 3 that it called for. I like that the border is twice the width of the regular stripes.

I wanted to share some of the beautiful Derecho Shawls (by designer Laura Aylor) that inspired me to make the two that I made this summer and fall. Thanks to all of you who chose this design for one of your Camp Loopy projects this summer.

Martha’s Derecho made with Madelinetosh Sock in Wash, Forestry and Mineral:

MK’s Derecho made with Madelinetosh Sock in Antler, Iris and Tart:

Beth’s Derecho made with Swan’s Island Organic Fingering in Blue, Iron Oxide and Forest Floor:

Glenna’s Derecho made with Madelinetosh Merino Light in Dusk, Mare and Sequoia:

Malia’s Derecho made with the Loopy Ewe Solid Series in Black, Slate and Malachite:

Kristi’s Derecho made with the Loopy Ewe Solid Series in Navy, Lilac and Orchid:

Jump on in to the Derecho pattern. All you need is a light, a medium, and a dark (fingering weight, 400 yards or so of each color, unless you’re doing the large size and then you’ll need more of the dark color). Or try one of Laura’s other beautiful patterns – Faberge, All the Shades of Truth, Enamored, Oak Park, Serra, and more. I think the Oak Park scarf will be one of my next projects. It looks fun to knit up! Plus, I like projects that involve more than one color. Do you?

Sheri offtocontemplatecolorsintheaisles

Weaving Through My Gift List

by Sheri BergerNovember 21, 2012March 5, 201313 Comments

Ok, not really. I’ve only made these two for Christmas gifts. But maybe I’ll have time to make more before the 25th of December rolls around. I’m still enjoying the process of weaving. Here’s one I made in Wollmeise Wasseratz.

And another one in Wollmeise Zenzi.

It’s really a fun way to use up multi-colored sock yarn that you might not feel like knitting into socks. Did I mention that I went through my stash last week? I have a lot of sock yarn that is going to be something other than socks. I used to buy so many single skeins.

Since tomorrow is our Thanksgiving Holiday, I have my knitting projects all planned out for this week and weekend. I’m finishing my second Derecho (finally, FPS. Tell me again why I decided to knit this a second time? And to make this second one the never-ending-big-size?), hoping to finish my Cabled Rib Wrap (although it’s so luscious to knit that I don’t mind it taking a long time), and hoping to start a Nuvem (with Wollmeise Lace, or Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace, which would be gorgeous). All of those things are pretty mindless knits, which makes them perfect for working on when you have family and friends around for the holiday weekend. What is your favorite mindless knit for times such as these?

Sheri maybeIoughttohaveonechallengingprojectready,justincase

Under Careful Eyes

by Sheri BergerNovember 2, 2012April 30, 201318 Comments

This is Gracie’s favorite thing to do when she’s not napping. She watches the visiting neighbor cats who seem to like our deck to hang out on. She has (mostly) stopped hissing and YOWLING at them through the window, but she keeps a very close eye on them. She particularly dislikes Mocha:

But she doesn’t like his house-mate James, either. (I use the term house-mate loosely, because I don’t think their owner seems particularly concerned about letting them inside the house at night and when it gets cold. Maybe that will change when it snows or gets really cold.)

And here is a sequence of photos where she welcomes the other deck visitor, Al, to our back door. Please note the middle “action” photo. You might imagine the lovely welcoming sounds she made in that photo, to go along with her paw motions. Fortunately, Al doesn’t seem at all intimidated. (Click on photos to make bigger.)

My friend Claudia pointed out last week that all three of the visiting cats seem healthy and well cared for (despite their being out in all kinds of weather) and clearly Gracie doesn’t want any of them inside (although many of you have told me your own stories about adopting outside cats such as these), so we’re just going to continue to enjoy them on the deck. Well …. some of us will be enjoying them. Gracie, not so much.

Today’s recipe is one that I had on my Girls Weekend a couple of weeks ago. I came home and made it for my family that next week, and they all gave it up a thumbs up. I hope you enjoy it, too!

Apple Turnovers

2 apples (I used Granny Smith)
2 packages Crescent Rolls
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz. Mountain Dew
Cinnamon

Cut the apples into 8 wedges each. Unroll the Crescent rolls and sprinkle with cinnamon. Take one roll and wrap it around one apple slice, pinching the sides together so that no apple shows through. Repeat with the rest of the rolls and apple slices.

Melt the butter and add the sugar and vanilla extract, stirring until dissolved.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Add the pastry-covered wedges in two lines, lengthwise, in the pan. Sprinkle with more cinnamon. Pour the butter mixture over the top of the apples. Pour the Mountain Dew along the sides of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream. Easy and delicious!

What will you be knitting on this weekend? I am warping a new scarf and will try to finish up my Derecho #2. I’ll share my results with you next week on the blog. That helps to keep me accountable.

Sheri myderechocolorsaremorespringythanwintery.Ohwell.