Tag: Contest

Stitches Recap – Part One

I have a stack of packages waiting to get mailed out today.  It’s the prizes from my Finish-a-Long Contest.  The third and final winner, Heidi from Duluth, won a skein of Misti Alpaca DK donated by Barb at Fabric Works.  I really love Misti Alpaca.  I’ve made several hats out of it and just finished a pair of mittens.  I’m always amazed by the yardage that comes out of one of those skeins.  For some reason it seems to be the skein that never ends.  You knit and you knit and you knit, but the ball never seems to get any smaller.  For instance, I finished the mittens and still have a good portion of the ball left.  Definitely enough to do an ear-warmer or maybe even a hat.  It’s not that I don’t have a pretty good grasp on the math; there’s 208 yds in the skein and I probably used about 100 on my mittens.  It’s just that it feels like so much!  If I needed to, I could weigh the skein to double check just how much I have, and double check the weight against how much I’d need for a simple hat pattern.  But really, where’s the adventure in that?

To get back on track, Congratulations to Heidi, Diane and Lisa for winning prizes.  Congratulations to everyone who took part, we all won by freeing up some brain power that those UFO’s (unfinished objects) were hanging onto.

I’m going to do a recap of Stitches Midwest, bit by bit.  Let me just say that every knitter needs to go to something like this at least once.  The camaraderie of knitters is wonderful.  The classes are amazing.  And it’s just plain fun to talk yarn all day (not to mention shop for it all day!).  I took 2 classes while I was there, Bohus Stickning and Stashology 201.  Both were fantastic classes taught by wonderful instructors.

I searched the market long and hard for the skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Sock to finish up my husband’s socks.  I wasn’t able to find the colorway Olivia, but I did find a contrasting color to use.  I also found Lily Chin walking through the conference center.  I didn’t realize who she was, but admired the wonderful dress she was wearing.

A little while later I saw her signing books at one of the booths.  I ended up buying the book and complimenting her on her dress.  She offered to pose for a picture with me and with the scarves she had knitted for the book.  She also pointed out that I really needed to feel the darker of the two scarves, because it was cashmere.  I feel a little star struck over the whole thing!  Lily Chin is definitely a Knitting Rock Star.

Frustration

I’m a little frustrated with the blogging software right now.  I’m sure it’s the learning curve and that I’ll figure it out soon.  However, if someone knows WordPress and would like to help me figure out how to get my Blogroll to show on the left hand side or to have my Ravelry Progress bars show up, I’d appreciate it.

I’m about to head out to Stitches Midwest, but before I go I want to announce some winners.  I have three winners from the Finish-a-long Contest.  The first winner is getting a skein of Yarni sock yarn.  It’s beautifully soft yarn dyed in St. Paul, MN.  I only know of one store that carries this yarn, and that’s the Yarnery on Grand
Ave.  This skein goes to Diane, for finishing 12 projects over the course of the contest.

The next winner is getting this book, The Queensland Collection Book: Jane Ellison #3.  Sorry for the crummy picture, for some reason I took the photo with my phone instead of the camera.  Rookie mistake.  This is donated by Barb at Fabric Works.  Thanks Barb!!

The book is going to Lisa for having finished the oldest project.  Lisa, send me your address and I’ll get this out to you when I get back from Stitches.

There is one more prize, but you’ll have to wait until next week for that.  If you haven’t emailed me a list of what you finished, there’s still time.  You have until Monday.  I forgot my list of contest participants back at the office.  The prize is pretty yarn donated by Fabric Works.  Also coming next week will be some finished object pictures.  I finished one in time to be counted in the contest and one I just finished last night.

It’s the Simple Things

It’s not too late to enter The Contest.  It officially starts today, but it runs until August 13th so you have plenty of time to get a few projects finished up.  I don’t believe that knitting should have hard and fast rules; let’s have fun and get some Unfinished Projects (UFO’s) done.  It doesn’t matter if you have 1 project to get done or 100 (I hope you don’t have 100), everyone is welcome to join in.  I am still also looking for another donation or 2 of yarn or related items for prizes.  I think it would be great to see some homemade stitch markers or something like that. 

I’m always amazed to see how little time it takes to finish these old projects.  Sometimes I was just a day or so away from finishing and I don’t really know why I ever stopped. 

 

This was not an UFO, but a quick little knit that I powered through to give to my little sister for her birthday.  It’s a Simple Things scarf from Rainy Day Goods. 

Yarn:  Pagewood Farms Alyeska Hand-dyed Sock Yarn; 360 yards (329 meters); 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon.  The colorway is Fushia Fizz – very appropriate. 

Needles:  Size US 4, 24" circular. 

Modifications:  None.  It’s an easy brainless knit.  You increase on the knit rows, purl on the backside and just keep doing that until the very end.  I would have liked to have blocked this a little more strenuously, but I was at the cabin and was limited to the materials at hand.  i.e. I didn’t have pins. 

I already have my yarn picked out for a second Simple Things.  Maybe even a third, although I’m kind of leaning towards a Brandywine Shawl instead. 

A Contest

It’s a Finish-a-Long!

Gather up all of your unfinished projects and let’s get them done together.  I want to be able to free up some of my needles.  And let’s face it, I want to be able to free up some of the mental capacity that’s stuck keeping track of ALL of my unfinished projects.  My goal is to get this done by the time Sitches Midwest rolls around.  That’s right, I’m going to Stitches!! 

So here’s what we’re going to do:

  1. Gather up all of your projects and figure out what’s reasonable to get done in the next month or so.  I think you’ll be surprised at how little there is left to do on some projects.  There’s no reason this has to be only knitting.  If you have sewing projects that need to get done or spinning that’s be languishing on the bobbins, by all means those count too. 
  2. Send me an email (jposkozim at duluthnews dot com) saying that you want in on this contest and what you will be completing.  OR leave a comment on the blog with your name (user name is fine) and what you will be completing. 
  3. Tell me when you are done. 
  4. Contest starts July 6 and runs until August 13.  All projects must be finished by the 13th to be counted as a prize winner. 

The best part?  We will have prizes!!  I am donating a skein from my stash for the oldest unfinished object that gets completed by August 13th.  Barb from Fabric Works is donating something yarny for the person that gets the most projects completed.  I’d love to give out another skein or 2 for participants in the contest.  If anyone else would like to donate a prize, please email me at the above address and we’ll add you to the list of sponsors.