Dreary Day and Fourth Quarter Challenge

photo-8It’s a dreary day here. It has been raining for two days (which is so unusual for us). The skies are cloudy and gray. The date reminds us of sobering events that took place 12 years ago. And things are just all around blah. I wonder what impact the date September 11 will have, 50 or 100 years from now. We still remember it all so clearly. Will they, in the future? I hope so.

We were going to announce the Fourth Quarter Challenge next week, but we decided to move it up to this week, as we all needed a little more color and cheer today. So if you’re up for this next Challenge, hop in and join us. You have from now until 12/15 to get it done and upload the photo. (We are stopping mid-month in order to get the bonus reward points in your account and updated before the end of the year. But you still have 3 full months to knit.) Here are the details:

The Project: pick a worsted weight or bulky weight project to knit or crochet.

The Yardage: minimum of 250 yards in a single project  (Not a set of something that adds up to 250 yards.)

The Dates: you can start knitting as soon as you have your yarn, but you must be finished with a complete picture uploaded by 12/15.

The First Benefit: we are offering a 20% discount on the yarn for this project. The discount is good between 9/11 and 9/18 on one project’s worth of yarn (worsted weight or bulky weight). Please double check your yardage and order enough in one order, as we’re only able to apply the discount that one time. You will need to leave us an order note telling us which yarn you will be using for the Challenge, so we can apply the discount correctly when your order comes through. If you’re going for free shipping in the U.S., check the math and make sure that when we apply the discount on our end, it won’t take you below the free shipping amount ($75). If you go below that amount, the website will automatically add the shipping charge back in to your order.

The Second Benefit: if you 1) order the yarn for this project from us on 9/11 or later and 2) if you finish and upload a picture of the fully completed project by 12/15, we will add a second set of points to your Loopy account for the yarn used in your project. So if you spend $20 on yarn for the project, you’ll get the first 20 points when your order ships out, and the second 20 points added to your account if the project is finished and photo uploaded in time!

The Photos: when you take a picture of your finished project, we need to see the whole project in the photo in order to approve it. (That’s how we can tell that the whole thing is finished.) This means your project will need to be off the needles, with ends woven in, and any blocking done that you find necessary. It should be ready to wear!

More Info: you can also use stash yarn, as long as it’s a line that we currently carry. You won’t be eligible for a discount or the double rewards points, but you’ll still be eligible for the Reader’s Choice Award, as well as the drawing that we do with all participant photos, for Loopy Gift Certificates.

Need some pattern suggestions? Here are a few patterns to check out: Gaptastic Cowl, Saroyan Shawl, Big Herringbone Cowl, Black Cherry Lambic (scarf or wrap size), Jules Sweater, Archer Hat, Shalom Cardigan, Topiary Wrap, Pine Forest Baby Blanket, February Fitted Pullover, Autumn Blush, Just Enough Ruffles Scarf, Pull Me Over Sweater, Palindrome Scarf, Great Wall Infinity Scarf, Talia Vest, Arroyo Shawl, Wombat Shaltuch Shawl, Through the Woods Hood, or the Heather Hoodie Vest.

Worsted Bulky Aisle at The Loopy EweNeed some yarn suggestions? (Wishing you could just walk down our looong aisle of Worsted/Bulky yarns in person? If you click on the photo to make it bigger, you’ll at least feel like you’re standing there, contemplating all of that yarn.) Worsted: Blue Sky Worsted Hand Dyes, Cascade 220 or 220 Superwash, Dream in Color Classy, Lorna’s Laces HaymarketLorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, Madelinetosh Vintage, Malabrigo Worsted, Spud and Chloe SweaterStonehedge Fiber Mill Shepherd’s Wool, Swan’s Island Worsted, The Fibre Co. Canopy Worsted, Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino Worsted, and Universal Cotton Supreme. Bulky: Malabrigo Mecha, Malabrigo Rasta (technically a Super Bulky, but we’ll count it for this challenge), Shalimar Missy Bulky, Spud and Chloe Outer, and The Fibre Co. Tundra,

Remember – leave us an order note, figure yardage carefully, figure cost carefully, get your photo submitted to our Fourth Quarter Challenge Photo Gallery by 12/15, and have fun with this. We’ll look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Sheri whoiscontemplatingsomethingthickandwarmwithatouchofalpaca

Inspiration

We always love it when people bring their finished projects into the shop. (Well, mostly we love it. Usually I then get a bad case of, “Oh, I need to knit that!” and then find myself perusing yarn choices later in the day. But I guess that’s my own problem…) Here are a few that we’ve seen lately. Thanks to all of you for sharing!

Christie’s Whippoorwill (done in Dream in Color Smooshy in Blue Sage and Gothic Rose):

Pattie’s Little Iris (done in Madelinetosh Sock):

Sunday’s beautiful red shawl with beads (done for her sister in law, and I didn’t write down the pattern! Edit – it’s Gwendolyn. Thanks, Katrina!):

Roberta’s Summer Flies Shawl (done in Cascade’s Ultra Pima DK):

Jason’s latest creation – a jellyfish (which Herman got to borrow for the duration of Knit Night):

And one more photo to share with you. Christienne’s clever husband ordered some fun cotton yarn and supplies from us, to make her a special bouquet to celebrate their 2nd Anniversary (the cotton anniversary). How cute is this?

That’s a guy who knows the phrase “Happy Wife, Happy Life!”. 🙂

Sheri luckytobemarriedtosomeonewhoalsoknowsthatphrase!

Shalimar, Dream in Color, Kauni, and More

This week in particular, it seems like we are surrounded by awesome colors in the Monday Update. I told Inventory Elf Roberta to just bar me from the back room where all the new stuff is. It’s safer that way. We just added in:

Dream in Color – A special one-time Merino/Alpaca sock blend that is 1) soft and yummy, 2) warm, and 3) gorgeous. You get 420 yards in this merino/alpaca/nylon blend, and it’s perfect for socks or one-skein shawls. (Shown here in the Sprinkler colorway.)

Dream in Color – Another special one-time offering in 4 oz. Silk/Merino laceweight. They had leftover skeins of the March Dream Club silk/merino lace and offered it to us. We snapped that right up!  We have it dyed up in pastels (great for summer shawls) and deeper colors (great for fall and winter shawls). We also have permission to offer you a copy of the popular Vostok Shawl pattern with purchase, so leave us an order note if you’d like us to email you the copy. It’s the pattern that went with the March Dream Club yarn, so some of you already have it. With 1100 yards in this skein, you have a lot of pattern options. (Shown here in the Passion colorway.)

Shalimar Yarns – I’ve often coveted the many beautiful colors of this yarn (especially their fun Newsprint colorway), but when I picked up a skein of their Breathless yarn, I knew we had to have it here. This fingering weight yarn comes 420 yds. to the skein and is 75% Superwash Merino, 15% Cashmere, and 15% Silk. It would be awesome for socks, but I think even nicer for shawls and scarves so you can keep it up close and around your neck and shoulders. (Shown here in Byzantine.)

Kauni – We have a big re-stock on the solids and the multi-colors, just in time to jump into a Wingspan, or a Hitchhiker, or a Citron. The multi-color skeins are sold by weight – anywhere from 120-180 gr. per ball. As always, we re-weigh the skeins and sell them at their actual weight. Some of the skeins seem to come in under the actual weight shown on the label and we don’t want you to be shorted. I did notice that some of the labels now say “150 gr. +/- 10 gr. and that seems like a big difference, don’t you think? We’ll keep weighing them for you. (Shown here in the EZ colorway.)

Spud and Chloe – Re-stocks in all Fine, Sweater and Outer colors. Someone came in the shop last week to get yarn for a Delancey Cardigan. Wouldn’t this look great in Spud & Chloe Sweater?

Blue Sky Alpacas – Re-stocks in Worsted Hand Dyes, Alpaca Silk and Skinny Cotton.

ChiaoGoo Needles – we added in circulars in the 16″ length.

Mill Hill Beads – re-stocked. This would be a great time to get a skein of the new DC Alpaca or DC Lace special bases and some beads to go with it.

We’re looking forward to sending out lots of color to you tomorrow!

Sheri stillpluggingawayonSothiabutonthelastsectionoftheruffle

Questions on Stripes and Weaving in Ends

There were a few questions about my striping sock from Wednesday’s post, that I wanted to answer. Kathy said, “Where are the yellow combos?” And Sarah, also a fan of yellow, agreed. They’re right – I missed yellows! I pulled a couple of yellows to photo for you. What do you think? Lemon, Ice and Colonial Blue on the left, Iron, Celery and Butter on the right (Kathy’s combo, which I loved).

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DSC00308Striping was the next question.

Molly said, “Your stripes look perfectly straight … care to share your jogless stripe in the round method?” Well first of all, I showed you the prettiest side. Of course. But the way I do a “fairly jogless” stripe (emphasis on the fairly), is that when I’m switching to a new color, I knit the first stitch on that new-color row with both the old AND the new color. So if I’m going from dark brown to blue, the first stitch on the first blue row is knit with brown and blue held together. Then on the next time around, (the second row) I knit those two stitches together to turn it back into one stitch. Here’s a photo of a section by the toe where I did brown to blue to tan to blue to brown. It works pretty well.

Diane asked, “Do you carry your colors down the sock inside somewhere or do you go through weaving in all those ends when they are complete?” and Dr. Jackie asked the same thing, a few comments later.

For this sock, I carried the yarn inside the sock (catching it every 4 rows) and I don’t like how it looks. On the next one, I’m going to carry the yarn in the small sections (blue to tan to blue) but weave in the rest each time. Actually, I learned a quick way to weave in ends from a Lucy Neatby class I took a couple of years ago.

1.Hold the tail of the old color off to the left and your working yarn (new color) as normal. (In the case of the photos below – I’m weaving in a tail from my short-row toe.) You’ll be knitting the working yarn – the one attached to the ball –  as normal, but positioning your right needle over and under the tail you’re weaving in, as you knit down the row.

2. On the first stitch, duck your right needle under the tail and catch the working yarn to make your stitch as normal. (See photo, below.) The yarn going off to the left is my tail that I’m weaving in. The yarn going straight up is my working yarn (attached to the ball).

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3. On the next stitch of the row, pop your right needle over the tail and catch the working yarn to make your stitch as normal. (See right photo, below.)

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4. Repeat #2 & 3 a few more times and then pull the tail slightly to tighten it up a bit. Cut off an extra tail.

Does anyone else have jogless stripes or weaving tips to share?

Sheri thisblueisthetoeofmyNorwegianRosesocks!