Puffin the magic blanket.

I'm willing to bet that most everyone of my generation cannot hear the word "puff" without breaking into this chorus: "Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea...and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called honah lee..."

(If I put this song into your head and it doesn't leave for the entire day, I apologize.)

When I double-checked my memory of the lyrics with Wikipedia, I discovered two interesting facts. One, at some point the lyrics were changed to be more gender-neutral, from "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys" to "...not so girls and boys." And two, the common misperception that the lyrics contained veiled references to smoking marijauna ("puffin," "Paper" and "draggin'") were just an urban legend.

What in the world does this have to do with yarn? We have carried the yarn "Puffin" for several years now, and it has become a huge Loops fan favorite. It is truly like no other yarn, made of supersoft strips of fleece that knit up into an incredible squishable smooshable fabric. I love this stuff. And every single time I look at the label, I mentally break into a chorus of "Puff the Magic Dragon." Sometimes, I actually sing it out loud a little bit.


And joy of joys, we just got a new shipment of Puffin, with some awesome new colors. (You'll have to come to Loops to see the very latest).

One of our most popular shop models is the Peek-a-boo Puffin Blanket, a free pattern here on the Crystal Palace website. It only takes 5 balls of Puffin.


There's also the Garter Ridge Blanket which takes 7 balls. Both are great beginner projects, and work up extra-fast in the bulky Puffin.


And while you're at the Crystal Palace site, spend a little time perusing their enormous library of free patterns, especially these for Mini Mochi and Mochi Plus, two of the hottest sellers for the company. Both yarns are lofty and completely washable wool in amazing slow color changes.

- Shelley
shop online at loopsknitting.com