Woolpets - you know those adorable felting kits that we have carried for quite some time?  Have you made one yet? They are so fun and Laurie’s designs and instructions make it pretty foolproof.  Today, you get a chance to know her better. (And I get a chance to show you my favorite-ever-photo that has been submitted for a limelight interview. Here is Laurie, relaxing with her sheep Hazel. What a comfortable pillow that must be!) I think I first heard about Laurie from my friend Georgia (Yarn Pirate). I asked Laurie if she could make up a few Loopy sheep for me to buy, and then we started talking about making it into a kit. We went from one kit to her full line of kits and have loved them ever since. (Note - a re-stock of more Woolpets will be here later in the week!)
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Loopy: Hi Laurie!  We love having your wonderful felting kits here.  How long have you been felting and do you remember the first thing you made?
Laurie: Hi Loopy! I’ve been needle felting for about 6 years now.  Before that, I tried wet-felting but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I think the first thing I made was a sheep from a kit by Kelly Riley. After that, I was hooked for good!

Loopy: I think it’s easy to get hooked on felting because the results are so rewarding. What made you get into making felted animals to sell, and then kitting them?
Laurie: Before I sold my felted animals, I had been giving them away as gifts for friends and family.  More and more people began asking for them, and I found myself pretty busy.  The main reason why I thought about kitting them is due to the unique nature of the craft of needle felting. Since it is a new craft, not many people are familiar with how to use the wool and needle to make a little critter. I figured if people had step-by-step photo instructions to follow, it would make learning the technique easier.  Also, I myself buy kits all the time, so I enjoy learning via a kit. My husband is a photographer and has a little graphic design experience,  so creating the step-by-step photo instructions and putting them in a booklet is all his talent. He’s the man behind the wool!

Loopy: The instructions and photos are what make your kits so do-able for everyone, so kudos to your husband, Kevin for his part in this. Do you have a favorite animal or figure that you have done?
Laurie: I like making sheep the most. Every time I make one, I feel a silent gesture of gratitude to sheep everywhere from which this material came. And, I love ‘decorating’ their woolly bodies with curly wool locks. And, because their bodies are not very defined, they are easy to make. Some animals take a little more concentration and patience, like a lion. I enjoy the challenge, but it’s also nice to enjoy the process itself.

Loopy: How do you come up with new ideas for kits?
Laurie: Some ideas for kits come from illustrations in children’s books. Tasha Tudor is one of my favorite artists. She has a style of illustration that I find very appealing.  Whenever I go to the library or a book store, I browse the children’s section looking for inspiration. I also like to visit an Asian bookstore in Seattle that carries  great Japanese craft books which are full of photos with unique craft techniques and ideas.

Loopy: That must be one reason I like your kits so much. I love Tasha Tudor’s illustrations, too. Is this a full-time job for you?
Laurie: Yes - it has been for the last year and a half. I had a Waldorf-inspired home daycare for 6 years before Woolpets became full-time. Part of Waldorf education is working with natural materials, so my interest in needle felting began in a teacher training workshop. Needle-felted puppets are used in the Waldorf kindergarten for puppet plays and story-telling.  I enjoyed making animals so much that I took it to the next level of making them to sell as art. Woolpets has also been my husbands full-time job for a little over a year now.  Here is a photo from my workshop, where I put kits together. I do my artwork in the main room of my house. (Second photo). It has a nice big window that lets in natural light.

Loopy: It’s fun to see your shelves of roving. It must be like a painter’s palette in there. Are you also a knitter?  If so, how long have you been knitting and what do you like to make the most?
Laurie: I’ve been a knitter for about 10 years. I don’t seem to have the patience (or interest) in knitting clothing. Mostly what I make are little animals. Imagine that!

Loopy: For any other artisans out there, do you have any advice in starting up a business and marketing yourself? And any mistakes that you made along the way that you want to share?
Laurie: I think we (hubby and I) have the advantage of introducing something relatively new, so that has helped a ton as far as starting out a craft-related business. I do believe in shameless self-promotion, and do whatever it takes to get your product out there, within reason, of course.  And I think that having patience can go a long way. I’m sure I have missed a step here and there but I can’t think of any worth noting. Knock on wood!

Loopy: Tell us  about how your book came about? It’s wonderful! (Here’s the link, for anyone interested.)
Laurie: Thank you for the compliment! An editor from Creative Publishing contacted me and asked me if I’d like to write a book, and would my husband be interested in doing the photography for the book.  I think she saw my website and that drew her interest.  It was a lot of work to write the book, but Creative Publishing and our editors there were wonderful to work with!

Loopy: I hope there are more books in the future for you. Tell us about your family.
Laurie: My husband and I have been married for 7 years and we have many four-legged ‘children’. (Two-legged if you include the chickens!) We have four sheep, two dogs, 7 chickens, a cat and a bunny named Bert (who thinks he’s a chicken.) We have extended family close by and owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to them for all of their hours volunteering for Woolpets! My mom and dad help us put kits together about one day a week.

Loopy: It’s great to have a business where your family can be involved. (And it’s great to have family that is willing to be involved!) Anything else you’d like to add?
Laurie: I would love to thank everyone out there who has supported our business.  It’s due in large part to their support that we’ve been able to succeed. And thank you, too, Sheri for carrying our kits in your wonderful shop! The Loopy Ewe was actually one of our first wholesale accounts. Thanks for helping Woolpets grow.
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Sheri whohasseveralcuteWoolpetsdecoratingheroffice
Theymakemesmile

Here it is January 2nd and my first project of the year is already done - woohoo! (Well - I started it Christmas Day and finished it last night. I’m totally counting it as a 2009 project. Might as well start the year off positively, right?) This is a new indie dyer line that we’ll have sometime this month. I met the Dye Dreams gals in November at Stitches East (in fact this was one of the yarns in this mystery lineup post) and they do beautiful work. Wonderful semi-solids and yarn bases. They had this particular pattern knit up and on display in their booth. Why is it that when you see a pattern knit up in person it’s so much more interesting than seeing a great photograph of it? I bought this skein of yarn and came home and put the mitts on my “to knit soon” list. It was a fun and quick pattern to knit up. (Notice the second mitt. I had to include that in the picture just so you know I did the second one, too.  My Transition Glove is still waiting for a mate.  And this mitt still needs a mate, too. I love both of those patterns and mitts. There is no reason they are still single.  Maybe I’ll be better about this in 2009.) What is your first project for 2009?

Today’s recipe was one that I made for brunch on Christmas Morning.  It passed all taste testers, so I thought I’d pass it on to you. (I think it’s the Feta Cheese that makes it so good.)

Sausage and Egg Strata

4 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 lbs. sausage, browned and drained
8 slices of bread, cubed
2 1/4 cups milk
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. salt
1/4 lb. cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 lb feta cheese, crumbled

In a 9 x 13 casserole, layer ingredients as follows: bread cubes, cheese, beaten eggs with milk, sausage, and soup. Bake in 350 degree oven for 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day before needed - just cover and refrigerate, then bake as directed). Serves 8.

College Guy and Girl will be heading back up to Indiana this weekend. It has been a lovely 3 weeks, having them home and I’ve gotten spoiled by it.  :-(  (I’m pretty sure they’re plenty ready to head back to their independent lives up there. Go figure.) I’ll have to spend some serious time knitting in solace. Perhaps a French Vanilla Latte or two would also help.

Sheri theLimelightwillbebackinplaceonMondaywithWoolpetsfeatured!

Eat more vegetables and completely avoid Lima Beans and Creamed Corn. (I already have the last part down. Just need to work on the first part.)

Frog the UFO’s that I don’t like and stop feeling guilty about it. Life is too short to spend time knitting something you don’t completely love. (Photo: Top scarf: Finished, Second Scarf: about to be frogged, Third Scarf: already frogged, Fourth Scarf: Finished, Fifth Scarf: still like, need to finish, Sixth Scarf: Finished.)

Start enjoying exercise instead of looking at it as an evil necessity. I’m sure that’s possible. Somehow.

Spend more time keeping up with friends and spend less time working.

Buy several more knitting bags. (I already have this one down, too.  You need to be sure to throw in some resolutions which guarantee success from the get go.)

Stop staring at the yarns that are on my desk “to be knit next” and just get to them. The colors are gorgeous, the yarn is soft, and I’m anxious to see how they knit up.

Clean out the back room in the basement. There. I said it.

Worry less and pray more.

Plan next year’s Christmas knitting list early. And then do something about it in a timely manner. FPS.

Do things to bug my two kids as often as possible. (Hee - just wanted to see if they were reading the blog today….)

Continue practicing Random Acts of Kindness all year long instead of just thinking about it in December.

Happy New Year to all of you! We have lots of fun things planned for The Loopy Ewe in 2009, and we look forward to sharing them with you as the year progresses. Thanks for making 2008 such a wonderful year.  You all are the best!

Sheri haveyouthoughtaboutyour2009resolutionsyet?

Good News: We’re back! The Elves and I all had a great long weekend with our families, and are back pulling and packing orders for you today.
Bad News: Some of you might have to wait another day for your order to ship.  There were a lot of orders to print out today, but we’re whipping through them as quickly as possible and got a lot out already. We know you want your yarn!

Good News: Time off means knitting accomplished and movies watched. I finished this Chevron Scarf that has been “in process” for quite awhile now.  It’s out of Fiesta Boomerang Madrid and Plum Pudding. (Pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.) I finished it so that I could start yet another one.  The new one is out of Cloud 9 and Clematis.  So far, so good.
Bad News: Another scarf. FPS.

Bad News: The Post Office.  I could leave it at that but …. I won’t.
1)  Still waiting on a pallet of shipping boxes ordered almost a month ago. And two more orders of boxes since then.
2) “No one knows anything.  We can’t get any answers about this either, Ma’am, but I’m sorry you don’t have your boxes yet.”
3) This box that arrived today.  You don’t even want to know what’s in there.  It was one of several from this dyer and two were damaged.  grumble …. post office …. grumble
Good News: The people at our local post office are very nice.  They sent a carrier out with as many extra cases of shipping boxes as they had in stock. They know that knitters are waiting.

Bad News: UPS. They can drive through the parking lot 3 times before noon, but still can’t deliver our boxes to us until 5:30 at night, for some reason. What’s up with that?
Good News: They always bring a lot, and it’s always fun to open everything they bring us.

Good News: The winner from last week’s RAK contest (randomly drawn) is: Alice from NC.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the month of December! We had 633 RAKs reported in, but many of those comments contained more than one RAK.  That’s a whole lot of thoughtfulness going on.
Bad News: Our weekly RAK contests are over for another year, but maybe we’ll do a monthly one from time to time.

Good News: I’m having fun mixing up the order of bad and good news in this post.
Bad News: I need to stop writing and get back to packing orders. (Or maybe that’s good news?)

Sheri whoisapparentlyalittlegrumpyfromdealingwithshippingservicepeopletoday
Gotanygoodnews/badnewstoshare?

Today is our last reporting day for our annual December Random Acts of Kindness contests. I’m a little sad about that!  I have so enjoyed reading about all of the ways that you have found to bless other people this season.  It always makes me think that I need to be more aware of doing these kinds of things throughout the entire year and not just for one month in December. (Kind of like I always say I’m going to start my Christmas knitting a whole lot earlier “next time”.  The best of intentions.) Thank you to everyone who participated this month and for being willing to share your good deeds. I know it’s a whole lot easier to do them than to write them up, but you have inspired many others with your tales of kindness - which is a RAK in itself.  Leave your comments today about the RAK that you did this past week, and I’ll use the Random Number Generator to pick the last prize winner on Monday’s blog.

I took some photos of recently finished projects for you, now that the gifts have been opened. You’ll see that my scarf-addiction was well reflected in the gifts I knit up this year.  I did start fingerless mitts yesterday, but I will admit to taking 2 colors of Fiesta Boomerang home this week to start a new Chevron Scarf, too. (Pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts.)  I asked Knitting Daughter if I should start the Chevron or the fingerless mitts and she said the mitts because “you need to finish that other Chevron scarf you were doing before you start another one.”  I must work on Knitting ADD with that girl.  (Wait - or maybe she needs to work on KADD with me.)

Feather and Fan Scarf (pattern from Wendy’s website) out of Wollmeise Poison Nr. 5 Sock Yarn. (Did you know that Poison Nr. 5 is the most wish-listed item out of everything that we carry at The Loopy Ewe? That’s your trivia for the day.) This scarf went to College Girl because her favorite color is purple.

Noro Striping Scarf out of Noro Silk Garden Worsted. I was tempted to do one after Stephanie found herself doing multiples of them. (And you know me - always up for a new scarf addiction.) I used 2 skeins of 2 different colors.  You knit one row down and back with one color, and then the next down/back row with the next color, carrying them all up the side, slick as a whistle.  Easy 1 x 1 knit/purl rib the whole way. I did 39 stitches on size 9 needles. I’m ready to do another one of these. (Does that surprise anyone?)

Cashmere scarf that was frogged 5 times because I was trying to find “the right” pattern. I ended up doing the simple 1 x 1 rib in hopes that it was plain enough to entice a certain Web/College Guy to wear it.  The 1 x 1 rib makes for a very thick, warm scarf. I know it looks like an eggplant color (and actually, that would be a nice scarf color) but it’s very chocolate brown (called Brawny Brown). Not a hint of purple in it at all.

Collar Wrap from handspun (in a pattern that I bought from someone at Midwest Fiber.  She doesn’t have a website or I’d steer you there.  It’s basically a chevron pattern with 4 rows of plain garter stitch thrown in after every set of chevrons.) This is my mother-in-law, who came down to spend the holidays with us.  I also made a Chevron Scarf out of Noro Silk Garden Worsted for my mom, but forgot to get a picture of her in it! Here’s a picture of it, though. It was one of the earlier gifts I finished.

Spiralucious Cowl in an amended pattern (because someone didn’t read the directions and interpreted “move 1 stitch left/right” in a slightly different manner.  But I still love it.) Knit double-stranded out of Dream in Color’s Starry Black Parade.  I wish you could see the silver sparkles better - it’s so fun! (More Starry scheduled to arrive in January.)

This week’s Sneak Up just Snuck Up!  Today you’ll find: Yarn Pirate’s Alpaca/Merino, Lorna’s Laces Roadside Gerry (that’s the Annie Modesitt special colorway - we have it in Sport, Sock and Roving), Dream in Color Classy in their new semi-solid/solid colorways, Hand Maiden Casbah, Spirit Trail Fiberworks, Gypsy Knits DK (I’m thinking this would also make a gorgeous Chevron - it’s so soft and beautiful), Noro Silk Garden Worsted, and Tuscan Grove - a new indie dyer. (Well - sort of new.  Remember Cider Moon? Of course you do.  We all loved Cider Moon!  The Cider Moon Girls are now doing their own thing. You can find Jacki selling her beautiful batts on her etsy site here, and Gail has joined with her sister-in-law Laura to form Tuscan Grove.  We’re thrilled to have those beautiful color combos and their special yarn back here at The Loopy Ewe.)

That’s it for today. We have a full day-off schedule of knitting and digging in to the many DVD’s that found their way under our tree.  Then it’s over to my parents house to celebrate my dad’s birthday tonight. (Happy Birthday, Dad!)

Sheri ifthegiftknittingisdone,whyismy”tobeknit”liststillsolong?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us here at The Loopy Ewe. We hope this week holds a lot of knitting time for you (and some new gifts from The Loopy Ewe under your tree).  We’re off for a couple of days now, but I will blog on Friday so that we can do our last RAK contest, and to show you some of the things I have recently finished knitting. (The sweaters on the Little Loopies came from JoAnn’s Fabrics, and the sweater on the Big Guy came from some other store. Susan keeps picking up sweaters to dress up the Loopies that live here at Loopy Central…)

Sheri wishingyouthePeaceoftheSeason