A Tale of Tape Measure Whoa

This is my favorite tape measure.

It used to have a Fibersphere logo on the sticker, but that wore off a long time ago. The nice folks at Fibersphere gave these away the first year they were at Stitches West. It's got a metal tape measure in the top and a pen in the bottom, and it's lived in my purse for nearly 2 straight years now. That scrape along the pen barrel is from being run over by crazy conservatives in Nevada when we went to canvas for Obama. We managed to lose every other pen we came across, but that one stayed with me.

Last year at Stitches, I bought 2 more of these miraculous tape measures. I put them in my bag, I saw them in my apartment once, and then -POOF!- they disappeared. I'm sure they're in a place so safe, they're protected even from me.

This year, I completely forgot to hit the Fibersphere booth at Stitches and get more tape measure pens. Sigh.

*****

Shifting gears, I like to order from The Loopy Ewe. I usually order Lorna's Laces from them because they carry loooooots of colors and I'm getting pickier and pickier about my sock yarn these days. The socks I've made from Lorna's Laces haven't faded hardly at all and haven't felted even a little, and that's with a ton of wear. My Daffodil socks were my go-to pair in Mexico last year, and I wore them all over the cement floors with no problems. They are arguably my favorite socks, so they get tons of wear and I love them.

But anyway, back to The Loopy Ewe. They have this cute little system of sending small gifts with your first 5 orders and on the sixth, you become a Loopy Groupie with all the perks and benefits therein.

I have lately been annoyed by the slow-yet-steady disappearance of my DPN's, so I ordered a set each of 0 and 00 Hiya-Hiya's last week, then in a panic sent Sherri an email asking if she could add 2 of her carabiner tape measures to the order. Oh yes - carabiner tape measures.

Heck yes! I'm thrilled with these (and my DPN's). One will go in my knitting drawer for emergencies, one will attach itself to the handle of the pen mug next to my computer, and my pen tape measure can go back to living happily in my purse. And if you look again at the picture, you'll notice something that makes me extra-happy: the stopper. See how I'm not holding the tape measure out? FanTAStic! So useful.

And on top of that, I'd completely forgotten that it was my 6th Loopy Ewe order. I got a much larger package than I had anticipated today, and inside was this!

A tote with the Loopy sheep on the front, some Herhsy's kisses, a sock pattern, an adorable sheep calendar, and a skein of Enchanted Knoll sock yarn! I was, once again, thrilled. Not only do I have a fresh new set of DPN's AND extra tape measures, but I also have a spiffy new bag and (even more) sock yarn! The yardage totally counts toward my yearly intake, though. But that's ok; I'm working on the second sock of my Risata pair, and they're moving fairly quickly.

I think tonight I'll finish up those socks and watch Torchwood: Children of Earth on Netflix.

Oh, and did I mention that I have a 7-page paper due tonight? That I turned in at FOUR THIRTY this afternoon?!? HAH!