Loomylicious Tidbits

Multiple Sclerosis Fund Raiser

Last year, my wife recruited me to bike 100 miles and raise funds to fight multiple sclerosis, it was a great event and I felt a great sense of accomplishment from my own personal record of biking 100 miles but most of all, I felt even better because I was able to help people whom are suffering from Multiple Sclerosis.

What is Multiple Sclerosis? We find out from the MS website, the following:

"Multiple sclerosis (or MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), which is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild, such as numbness in the limbs, or severe, such as paralysis or loss of vision. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another. Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by the disease.

MS is Thought to be an Autoimmune Disease

The body’s own defense system attacks myelin, the fatty substance that surrounds and protects the nerve fibers in the central nervous system. The nerve fibers themselves can also be damaged. The damaged myelin forms scar tissue (sclerosis), which gives the disease its name. When any part of the myelin sheath or nerve fiber is damaged or destroyed, nerve impulses traveling to and from the brain and spinal cord are distorted or interrupted, producing the variety of symptoms that can occur.

Most people with MS learn to cope with the disease and continue to lead satisfying, productive lives."

Many of our blog readers are loom knitters or future loom knitters. Imagine being unable to hold your loom because of numbness in your hands. Knitting looms are very easy to use but if you are affected by MS, it could be a difficult, if not impossible task to accomplish.

I want to help find a cure, provide those who are currently suffering, or those who are just barely finding out that they have MS, with a solution for their suffering. The MS society provides help to individuals suffering from MS, as well as their families.

My goal is modest, I would like to raise at least $250 towards this worthy cause. Help me raise this funds. I promise to ride 100 miles alongside my wife this June 27, all you need to do is help me raise a little bit of funds to help someone in need.

As a reward for your donation, here is an extra perk: for every $1 you donate, you get 1% off a future purchase at DALOOMS,  up to 50% OFF (50% OFF is the cap). After your donation, email me and I will immediately send you your coupon via email.

To donate, please visit my MS page. Together we can make an impact and help those in need.

Contest Winner

Well the Holidays are over and things are not quite as crazy so I have found the time to post the winner of the name the loom contest.  The winner will be receiving the loom they named as a prize and the runner up will be receiving a gift certificate to DA.

Drum roll..............................................

Winner: "EvenKnit Wonderloom" submitted by Brenda GA.

Runner Up: "Bob-N-Weave Sock Loom" submitted by Carrie Lynn and son

We felt both of these names were awesome and correctly described the loom.  We especially like the EvenKnit name because that is exactly what you will be getting with this loom.  Way to go Brenda!  If the winners could please email us with their info we will get them their prizes coming along.

This loom will become available around the first part of March.  We want to make sure you have good instructions to go with the loom and some video's showing you how to use it.  Because of other large projects at the moment this will take us until March to complete.

Thanks to all of you who participated.

Sam Phelps and the rest of the DA Team

Happy Holidays...and Holiday Schedule

We are so grateful for all the blessings we have received this past year. 2008 has been a great year for our family--we were able to spend some time with Grandma who came to visit from NY. Our children grew and learn new and exciting sports--like riding a ripstick. But most importantly, we were all healthy and whatever troubles came our way, we faced them together. We want to thank you, our friends and customers for your loyalty and for your friendships. We are grateful you choose us to become the provider for your knitting looms. We know there are many choices out there and we are grateful that you give us and our looms a chance.

We would like to wish you a wonderful Holiday Season!

Holiday Schedule
We will be closed starting Friday, December 19th, at 5pm MST. We will reopen January, 5th, 2009.

Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Decor Accents Team

Name the Loom Contest

Ready for another contest? We are enjoying giving away looms so much that I am thinking that a monthly give-away is going to be part of our blog. What do you think?

We are in need of your help. We need names for naming our next loom baby. She/he is beautiful and needs a name to go by on this earth. Her qualities are these: smooth, silky, provides the user with perfect, uniform stitches, she adjusts to provide you with small size tubes and large size tubes, she has pegs to knit off from and pins to hold to a uniform stitch. Please help us give our new DA Loom baby a name?

EDIT: Contest will run til November January 1st. 1 entry per contestant-you can write your name here or on your blog.

Name the cute baby loom, she doesn't want to be known as prototype 4 :(

Wonder Sock Loom Winner!!!

Alright, so we have all been eager to know who the winner is for this grand loom. Overall we had 95 entries here on the blog post plus all the extra referral entries, in total, 257!!! We put them all in the number generator and we got....(drum roll)

And the winner is.....Julie.

Julie, drop us a note and we'll get this lovely loom out to you.

Julie wrote the following to us:

Except for a few holey, and old pairs, my socks have disappeared. I am bare-footed and dread the thought of going to visit my friends where I might have to take my shoes off at the door....Of course, I have great friends who would understand my dilemna. Yes, none of us, know how to darn and most of us don't give a darn. I have considered what might have happened to them...but the truth is I just don't know...

Possibilities:

1. My goat ate them. Yes, I really have a goat. I do find this unlikely as the goat is not allowed in the house and I generally don't bring my socks outside unless I am wearing them. Though he does do sneak attacks to the backside I have not known him to eat the clothes off of me.

2. The dog chewed them up. He is a puppy and that is what puppies do..again probably unlikely, but who knows what the children will grab and toss to the dog on a whim.

3. They were store bought, perhaps they just fell apart in the washer.

4. My daughter, who is now wearing the same size shoe has lost them in the jungle called her room. Sorry, I just can't go in there to look. So I may never know for sure, but alas I am almost completely sock-less. I do love to knit, though. My bright idea was to knit my own...which in my search to find patterns lead me here and to the realization that I also do not have a sock loom.

Yes, I would love to win the sock loom. I could then knit socks for my daughter, myself, and all my friends and family. I could not stand the thought of anyone else suffering the sock-less fate. I wouldn't let it happen. I'm just not that kind of girl.

Didn't get to win this time around? No worries, we will have another contest this month. This time is for ENTER A NAME FOR THE NEW LOOM! Read tomorrow's blog post to find out all the details.

Prototypes Galore...Part II.

Prototype 4: This one is a juicy one. Remember Prototype 4 above, well, it appears that it was a step into getting Prototype 4 done. Whenever I think I am done, he comes and brings me another one to play with. Now you don't have to wonder why I don't get any projects done...is because I spent my time knitting little swatches! I'll sacrifice myself and try out the loom....torture (LOL).

 

What is it? I have no idea. It looks like a Wonderloom, it has almost the same knit gauge/tension as the WonderSock loom, but it has pegs like the GAL Rake. Confused? I know, I am. But my job is to simply sit down and try them. So I sat down and tried it.

Yarn to test with: Lion Brand Sock Ease. Weight category 1.

Results: 7.5sts per inch, 11 rows.
Fabric Density: Not holey. Tight, not as tight as the 9sts per inch that the WonderSock Loom gets but still tight.
Test: Passed.

 

As to what do I call it. I have no idea. I can see that the pins help in maintaining an even U around the pins and therefore providing an even stitch consequently providing an even fabric. So I guess if you have issues with the stitches not coming out uniform this could be an option for you. (click the image below to see how to wrap the pegs). Mini-movie of me working with the loom.

So, what do you think I should call this Prototype 4?

I want to hear your thoughts about this loom. Would you be interested in such a thing? What would you call it? P4?!?

   

 

Wonder Sock Loom at Work: Video

Many of you will be getting your Wonder Sock Looms in the mail this week. Some of you probably already have it...lucky! I hope the tutorial below helps you get started knitting on your Wonder Sock Loom. I apologize before hand for the sound of my voice: I have a cold and a stuffy nose *yeah, on top of my New Yawker-Mexican accent*. Have fun looming with your new WonderSock Loom.

If you haven't purchased this loom yet, don't forget to enter code OCTSALE at checkout and you will receive 10% off the price of the loom (hey, it may mean a skein of yarn ;) ).

Prototypes Galore

Recently, my house has been flooded with prototypes. A loom with a swatch here, another loom over there, skeins of yarn here and more over there. I don't know where to keep them all. They are sticking out of drawers, they are sitting on my couch, and even on my bed. Someone help me!

 

Prototype 1: This one above, is a GAL Rake. Like the tiny pins? I do, they are nice and smooth. The combo of pins and our tiny pegs is perfect to provide a nice tight tension.

Results: 5.5sts per inch with DK weight yarn. That is the same knit gauge as I get with the fine gauge line of looms.
Fabric Density: Nice and dense.
Test: Passed.

Prototype 2: Then he brought home another one, this one with the pegs farther apart and he wanted me to see what yarn will work best for this one. So I grabbed yarn and sat down to knit. Out of the loom came the most pretty fabric. My stitches were all nice and even and the worsted/aran weight worked wonderfully.

Results: 4.5sts per inch. I can see this one being best for WW and Chunkier yarns. Although Prototype 1 could work also for WW and heavier, I can see the pegs being so closed to each other being a little bit hard to handle, but there were other prototypes to try. I couldn't just close the doors on these two prototypes nor the next ones...not just yet.
Fabric Density: Tight. Dense. Nice.
Test: Passed

Prototype 3: Then I was brought home a little tiny monster, for this one I had to take out my tinnest yarn and try it out. So I grabbed some Patons Kroy, a locally available sock yarn.

Results 5.5sts per inch.
Fabric quality: Nice dense fabric. (white part in above picture)
Test: Passed.

Then I grabbed some thinner sock yarn, Lion Brand Sock-Ease, also available at the local craft stores. This one is a weight category of 1 so I gave it a go.

Results: 5sts per inch
Fabric quality: Not dense, holey. (yellow part in above picture)
Test: Failed!

Pom Pom Socks Pattern

The Pom Pom Socks pattern is ready, pick up your copy and start looming your very own pair. I used  the Wonder Sock Loom but you can use any other extra fine gauge loom that you have available, simply follow the heel instructions for your loom.

Don't know how to knit a sock heel? No problem! The heel is simply done on half of the sock stitches: for example, if your loom has 40 pegs, use 20 for the heel. The heel will be worked on these half of stitches and you will work short-rows to create an hour glass. On the first part of the heel, you will decrease down to 1/3 of the heel stitches and on the second part, you will increase to the original number of heel stitches.

View the videos on the Pinwheel Dishcloth to learn to how to do short-rows and the W&T (wrap and turn) to avoid holes.

Happy Looming!

Coming next week: video on using your Wonder Sock Loom

Wonder Sock Loom

Wonderful news my loomy friends, the Wonder Sock Loom is back and better than before! Lighter weight, beautiful as ever and smooth, just the quality that you expect from a DA loom.

I have been a little quite lately and for good reason, I have been testing some new products...lots of new products. Why? Well, it October is our Anniversary Month at DA Looms and usually we have something spectacular every year and like most of our customers know, we want to keep bringing you the best loomy stuff.

Anyways, a year or so ago Sam introduced the Wonder Sock Loom but he had a heck of a time producing it, at one point due to a mistake, he almost lost his thumb, but he is stubborn, it is one of the Phelps traits, and he persevered and kept searching for new tools and ways to make it possible to make this loom. He succeeded, he found new tooling and materials and the Wonder Sock Loom is back!

Meet the new and improved Wonder Sock Loom: lighter weight, same tight gauge as our sock looms, ei: 18sts and 20 rows=2 inches.

Come check it out at DA go to the New products box (right hand bottom corner) or go directly to the Wonder Sock Loom.

But wait, it is our Anniversary Month so we want you to celebrate with us: enter Coupon OCTSALE and receive 10% off on the purchase of this loom (coupon only applies to this loom). As always, your loom will come with a knitting tool (heavy duty, pointy tip) and instructions. Also, we will send the new Pom-Pom Socks pattern with your loom.

Stay tuned for more exciting happenings at DA!

CONTEST--cuz we all love contests :)

Would you like to win your very own Wonder Sock Loom: here is your chance!

Way # 1 to win it: Drop us a comment below and let us know why you think you deserve this loom. Example: Love looms, must collect them all! Be creative, make Sam smile, lol.

Way #2: Spread the news on your blog about this new Sock Loom and link it back to the DA site and you will be entered to win one Wonder Sock Loom! Come back and let me know that you posted about the new loom and I'll write your name down.

Way #3: (connected to #2): If someone else finds out about the loom from your blog and come to this blog and tell me that they saw it on your blog, you'll get one extra entry!

Winner will be announced Oct. 31st