The Loopy Ewe Blog

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Category: Loopy Monthly Mixer

Loopy Academy Catchup (and New Loopy Fall Challenge Preview…)

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Happy September! For the first time in four years, we aren’t headed back to knitting school (Loopy Academy) this month (but we do have another challenge starting on Tuesday – see below!) We finished four years of Loopy Academy Yarn Challenges in May, and congratulations to all who graduated. That was a wonderful accomplishment and we loved being along with you for the rid.

Loopy Academy is something that will always be available for you to participate in.

We designed the program to encourage you to learn new things and strengthen your knitting (or sewing) skills, We know there are new knitters and sewists coming along all the time, so the challenges are all still available. We will continue to award prizes for finishing, as long as you meet the requirements. You can find out about Loopy Academy challenges here.

You can catch up on any semester. Just remember, supplies need to be purchased from The Loopy Ewe September 1, 2018 or later, with completed project photos uploaded to our photo galleries by December 31, 2018.

Since we started Loopy Academy Fabric a year after Loopy Academy Yarn, 2018-2019 is the Senior Year for quilters and sewists, and the challenges for Fall Semester Senior Year are listed below.

Loopy Academy Fabric, Senior Year, Fall Semester

  1. Bag or project with multiple zippers. (1 yard+ required)
  2. Paper pieced project. (2 yards+ required)
  3. Project with diagonal blocks. (3 yards+ required)

As with all semesters, required fabric amounts need to be purchased from The Loopy Ewe September 1st, 2018 or later, projects need to be completed and photos uploaded to our Loopy Photo Galleries by December 31, 2018. In order for your semester to count as complete, all three projects need to be finished during this timeline. (If you get waylaid, you’re always welcome to start the semester and all three projects over in the spring with new supplies.) For more details, check this blog post:  Loopy Academy Info

You can see photos of completed Loopy Academy projects in our Loopy Photo Galleries. It was so fun to see you all try new things and complete so many projects!

We do have a new Loopy Fall Challenge starting up this month!

We’ll be debuting that via the blog and newsletter on Tuesday, September 3.  Here’s a sneak peek at the new logo. Any guesses as to what our new theme is? Get ready to get some things done and have FUN!

Have a great rest of your weekend, and we’ll be back on Tuesday with the Loopy Fall Challenge news!

Sheri and The Loopy Ewe Crew

P.S. Our new Loopy Fall Challenge involves knitters and crocheters. Not doing Loopy Fabric Academy? We are bringing back our Monthly Fabric Mixers for our quilters and sewists! The September Fabric Monthly Mixer Challenge is to make a wall hanging, table topper, mug mat or quilt that has a fall theme. This can mean fall colors, fall topics, or fall pattern/fabric names. You can use any fabric that we carry at Loopy (and a little bit of your other stash fabrics, too). Upload a finished photo by October 1 so we can see what you came up with. We’ll share some of them on our Instagram page with #loopykudos!

New Wave, Buttons and Magpie (And Mixer Challenge)

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Happy Fourth of July week! (Even if you aren’t in the U.S. and celebrating a holiday, I can still wish you a happy fourth of July, right? And a happy fifth of July. And a happy sixth of July.) 🙂

We have an indie re-stock, a new cool yarn, and buttons for you today!

Magpie Fibers – we’ve re-stocked our Swanky Sock and Swanky DK. What we love about this yarn is …. well, everything. The colors, the squishy base, knitting with it, wearing it, and admiring it. You will love working with it and of course Dami’s dyeing is spectacular. Pattern ideas: Something Gradient This Way Comes, Quindici, Starting Point, Embrace the Detours, Meet Me at the Corner, and 3 Color Cashmere Shawl.


Cascade 220 Wave – Remember the awesome Heritage Wave that kind of looks like handspun and has beautiful colors swirled together? You all keep buying it and we keep getting it, but it has frequently been on backorder with the company because it is so popular. Well, they have come out with it in a worsted weight and we are so happy about that! We ordered it in all of the colors, although we’re still waiting on more bags of each color. But in the meantime, you can snap up what we have! You’ll love using it for scarves, hats, gloves and cowls, but also sweaters and shawls. The colors are just fun to work with. Pattern ideas: Brickless, Classic Mittens, No Purl Ribbed Scarf, The Favorite Knit Slouchy, Worsted Boxy, and Purl Ridge Scarf.


Cascade 220 Superwash – New colors! It’s never fun when Cascade discontinues a color (which they do from time to time), but it’s always fun when new colors come out! Look for: Violet Indigo, Pine Grove, Blue Turquoise, Deep Teal, Vibrant Green, Dull Gold, and Gold Fusion in this batch. Pattern ideas: Chevron Baby Blanket, Seaman’s Cap, Stitch Block Cowl, Entrechat, Belle Ruffle Gloves, and Babette Blanket.


Buttons – We ordered a bunch of buttons at Quilt Market and they have arrived. (If you shop with us in-store, we also have a new button display opposite the bead display – come see it!) We always try to order a variety of sizes, styles and colors for all of your button needs. You’ll also find buttons here and here.


Knitter’s Pride – All of the needles and interchangeables have been re-stocked.

July Monthly Mixer Challenge!

Are you a Beach Person or a Mountain Person? Where would you choose to go if you had a free vacation to one or the other? Make a project that reflects moutains or beach!

Our last Yarn Update included: Our Blue Moon June Exclusive (Colorado Columbine), Canon Hand Dyes Mini Skein Kits, JulieSpins Euro Sock, and Cascade Heritage Silk Peruvian Tones (new base and dye-style).

We are closed in-store tomorrow for the Fourth of July holiday, but will be back in on Wednesday to get all of your orders shipped right out!

Sheri

Camp Has Started! (And a CONTEST!)

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Camp Loopy has officially begun! Are you camping along with us this summer? It’s not too late to start. We get orders out FAST, so pop over to read about our June assignment (adult campers and kids campers) and then click over to The Loopy Ewe to pick out your supplies. We’ll get them right out.

I am making the Tilted Texture shawl with a skein (or two) of Wollmeise. I love texture in a project, and this one looked like it wouldn’t get boring to knit. (Thankful for all of the Loopy Groupies on our Ravelry board who shared pattern ideas for June. This one came directly from all of them!) You know you can click at the top of any Ravelry thread and see all patterns mentioned in that thread, right? So handy.

Because it’s the start of Camp and because it’s the weekend and because it was time for a contest – we have one for you. I borrowed this idea from Loopy Office Manager Lynn, who used it as a contest on her Lularoe page. Reading the answers made me laugh, so I hope it does the same to you!  To enter the contest, just leave the name of the pattern you are making for camp. BUT – wherever there is a vowel in the title, replace it with “oodle”. Not doing Camp this year? You can still enter the contest. Just leave your own name with “oodle” in place of the vowels. Are you up for the tongue twisting challege?

So my name ends up being Shoodleroodle Boodlergoodler and the pattern I’m making for Camp would be called Toodleltoodled Toodlextoodleroodle.  

We’ll be drawing for one of our fun new canvas bags (I’m partial to the rabbit in the wheelbarrow), and you can pick which one you want if you’re the winner!

We also have another photo challenge for you. Our last challenge was to post your dinosaur with your Camp yarn with the hasthtag #camploopy2017, and Toe789 on Instagram won that challenge! The new challenge is to show a picture of your project this week as you get it started, with the hashtag #junecamploopy2017. You can share the photos on your Instagram or Facebook pages, or our Facebook page.* Just be sure to add the hashtag, because that’s how we find you to enter you in the random drawing. The winner will get 100 extra Loopy Reward Store bonus points!

June Monthly Mixers! Each month we issue a project challenge for yarn and fabric, just for fun. This month, it’s about making things for summer. The yarn challenge is to make a shawl or scarf for summer. The fabric challenge is to make a tablecloth or placemats for summer. We can’t wait to see your projects!

Sheri shoodleroodleboodlergoodler aka Camp Loopy Camper

*(Legalese – contest not associated or endorsed by, sponsored by, administered by or associated with Instagram or Facebook. By entering you are confirming that you are 13+ years of age, release Instagram and Facebook of responsibility, and agree to their terms of use.)

Frosted Lilacs (Should Be a Colorway)

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Well we had about 6″ of snow this weekend. It was beautiful, but it covered all of our blooming lilacs. Isn’t this a sad photo? I’ve decided that we need to have a yarn dyed up and called Frosted Lilacs. (Or is that just too sad??) The good news is that by the next day the snow was all gone, the sun was out, and most of the lilacs survived. So the sad photo has a happy ending after all. Crazy Colorado weather.

Just a reminder that we have Project Planners for Joji Locatelli’s new Mystery Shawl Knit A Long that is starting up in 12 days! Here is the blog post we did showing the colors we picked out, along with links to the Planners. Or for quick links: SP One, SP Five, MKAL 1, MKAL 2, MKAL 3, MKAL 4, MKAL 5, MKAL 6, MKAL 7, MKAL 8, MKAL 9, and MKAL 10. First clue comes out May 12th.

Remember – you can make your own Project Planners in your account too. It’s a feature we added to our website back in 2014 and it has been really popular! If you’ve never used the Project Planners, here is a blog post showing you how easy it is. Once you are happy with the colors of yarn or fabric that are on your Planner (or on one of our Planners that we’ve shared with you), you can click the Shopping List view in the right column, and then click add to cart. How easy is that? Of course you can delete anything from your cart if you decide to change a color or two, too.

This week, we’ve re-stocked and added in new colors of:

Cascade 220 – One of our workhorse worsted weight yarns, great for sweaters and other warm garments. Be sure to wash those sweaters by hand, as this yarn is also great for felting!


Cascade 220 Superwash – This one is also a worsted weight yarn, but the superwash part means you can toss it in the washer and dryer. Popular for kids clothes, blankets, and other easy-care items.


Cascade Heritage Sock Handpainted – New colors of this fingering weight yarn with the great price! Great for socks, but also pretty for shawls and scarves and cowls, too.


Cascade Ultra Pima – The weather is warming up and it’s time to start working on your summer sweaters and tops. This beautiful pima cotton yarn is a DK weight, has a slight sheen to it, and can be machine washed and dried.


Stonehedge Fiber Mill’s Shepherd’s Wool Worsted – This beautiful worsted line is always popular for sweaters, warm shawls, and vests. It’s another one that is also great for felting, so handwash your sweaters if you don’t want that!


We’ve also re-stocked the wooden sock blockers and our favorite totes – the Hinza Totes!


Our last Yarn Update included: Fresh from the Cauldron SW Graduated, Fresh from the Cauldron Schoodic Sock, Fresh from the Cauldron Freyr Sock, Into the Whirled Polwarth Combed Top, New Loopy Cakes sets, New Loopy Legends Colorways, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, and JulieSpins Stella.

For those of you participating in our Monthly Mixers – this month we want you to make a project using a yarn or fabric line that has flowers in the colorway or collection name, or uses bright flower colors in the yarn or fabric. Because April Showers brings May Flowers!

Have fun shopping through the new things, and we’ll get your orders our quickly. (Remember – 99% of orders placed by 2 pm Mountain Time ship the same day!)

Sheri and The Loopy Ewe Crew