The Loopy Ewe Blog

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Tag: Thanksgiving

Inspiration Focus: Derecho

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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

Fibernymph, Woolen Mill Street, Offhand Designs and More!

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We have plenty of beautiful things that just went up on the website for you tonight. Time to spoil yourself with something new, right? We added in:

Wooden Sock Blockers – they’re back! Since leaving St. Louis (where my husband had the machine to make these), we’ve had to find a new person to make them and a new person to finish them. We still have them cut in St. Louis, and now Elf Michael is doing the finish work. (Luckily, he is also a woodworker, in addition to being a top-notch Loopy Elf!) We’ll be able to continue to put stock up regularly now that we have this all worked out. I know that some of you have been waiting a long time for them to come back.

Fibernymph Dye Works – Lisa sent us her famous self-striping line this time, and each one is more beautiful than the next. Since striping yarns are so labor-intensive, we can only get them in rotation with her other awesome lines, but we will carry them as often as we can get them. Self-striping yarns look particularly great in socks, cowls, hats, mittens and gloves. (Shown here in Home for Christmas.)

Twentyseven27 Soap – the Christmas scents are back, as well as my all time favorite (Almond Poppyseed). Look for: Cinnamon Sugar, Chocolate Peppermint, Jasmine Rose, Cherry Almond, and Bergamont Tea Tree. It would be cute to make mittens or gloves for someone, and then tuck in this hand-made soap as well.

Woolen Mill Street – Christina has sent a gorgeous batch of her 100% Superwash fingering weight. You’ll see some tribute colors to some of your favorite TV shows and movies in there, which is double fun! These colors would be beautiful for socks, but also in shawls (multi-color shawls like Lintilla, Hitchiker, and 22.5 degrees), two color shawls where you pick a multi for one part and a solid for another (like Pamuya) and how about the cute Hitchhands pattern for mittens and Hitchhat for your head? (Shown here in Jack O’Neill).

Soak – We have new Travel Kits that contain 8 mini packets of Soak. Each packet will do 2 washes, so it’s a great way to take along soap for your handknits. (Or include one packet with each handknit you gift to someone). We also have the new Soak Handmaid – a 3 oz. bottle of their luxurious hand creme, perfect for popping in your purse or knitting bag.

Offhand Designs – A new batch of beautifully made knitting bags. We have them in the Scottie, the Marcella, and the Zhivago. It has been awhile since we’ve had this line and we had such fun unpacking the boxes and oohing and aahing over the pretty fabrics and great styles. (Shown here in the Marcella style with the Saratoga fabric).

ChiaoGoo – a re-stock on all of our ChiaoGoo needles.

Ruffled Neckwrap Pattern – for those of you who emailed about where to get this cute cowl after I blogged and linked to it last week, we now have the pattern available. This is a great pattern for a quick and easy worsted weight cowl (out of Malabrigo Worsted, Spud and Chloe Sweater, Madelinetosh Pashmina Worsted, Dream in Color Classy, etc.)

A big HAPPY THANKSGIVING to those of you in the U.S.! We hope you have a wonderful week with familiy and friends. When we think about what we’re thankful for, all of YOU are always at the top of our list (inside the U.S and out!). We never forget that we’re dependent on you for this business, and we are always happy to have you here.

We do have special Holiday Hours this week – the brick and mortar shop (and phones) will be closed Wednesday and Thursday for our Thanksgiving holiday. We’ll be open in-store and packing up orders on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. I also have two new woven scarves to share with you on Wednesday’s blog, and a great muffin recipe for you on Friday’s blog.

Sheri wholikesturkeysandwichesmorethanhotturkeyonThanksgiving.
Anyoneelsefeellikethat?

Back From the Lake

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Today is a No Mail Monday (Happy Columbus Day here in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving in Canada!). That means we’re closed at the shop today and that is a nice way to start back to work, after being on vacation for several days last week and through the weekend. I’m putting in a short day here at Loopy and then heading home to unpack and do laundry.

I had a great Girls Trip last week – thanks for your well wishes! We rented a house on Smith Lake (near Birmingham, AL) and had the best time catching up and relaxing. There are 12 of us, and it’s hard to get all 12 there each year, but it’s always fun with the people who are able to attend. We all met as scrapbooking consultants back in the 90’s and have had many fun weekends and trips together over the years. It was so fun to get away and spend time with them last week.

Here is part of the group, hanging out on the deck:

The house we rented was beautiful, and right on the lake.

Here’s the view from the deck:

We spent time chatting on the deck, as well as inside the house:

On one of the days, we went into Birmingham for shopping and checked out the Botanical Garden, too.

Now I’m back into Loopy mode, ready for a fun week! We don’t have a Monday Update tonight, but we’ve been collecting shipments of new things for next week’s update. Check in on Wednesday’s blog where I’ll be doing a contest to win a free skein of yarn from a brand new indie dyer line that we’re adding in. 🙂

Sheri prettysureadietisinorderthisweek.
NocaloriescountedduringGirlsTrips.