Anniversary party results, in which the knitter says 'why not?'

So, before I announce winners I want to thank everyone for entering and for all you kind comments.  I have been really enjoying reading about your favorite kind of knitting.  It's been a long weird week and this has been a fun thing for me.  Thank you for indulging my curiosity!

Second, thank you for your kind wishes on the broken yarn winder.  My foot is fine, the broken winder mainly hurt my pride... which will no doubt recover in time hehe.

Before I announce winners, I want to let folks know that I will be mailing off packages after the hurricane passes through.  My local post office has flooded in the past, so I want to make sure all threat of that has passed before I trust your goodies to their hands.  Local weather is saying Monday should be clear, so if it doesn't flood I'll be making the local post office happy Monday morning.

Anyway, back to what I intended to write about.  So, this week as interesting entry followed interesting entry, I started to feel sad that I only had 4 prizes for so many great entries.  Without really thinking about it, I started gathering a little box of nifties.  You know, little things that make knitting easier.  Just in case, sort of thing.

And as I was gathering, I had the thought that I probably had more of the paintbox yarn hanging around because I had knit a bunch of faux fair-isle bags for teacher retirements last year.  So I hunted that out, and with it found some more mochi plus set aside for projects that had already been finished.  Huh, and in my stash there was a little big more of the saucy....  an idea began to take form.

My little pile grew and grew as I gleaned through my stash looking for things that might match.

So, looking at this pile of fibery loot I thought "HUH.  Why the heck not?"

See, in my first give-away ever I had a small amount of entries and was able to give everyone a prize.  I know I won't be able to do that every time, but for this first Anniversary.... Everybody Wins!

The original 4 projects have more elaborate goodies because I planned them out way in advance, but I hope that the little goodies in the rest of the prize packs will make everyone's knitting life easier and more fun.

With the help of shorty and a magic mug (my super big coffee cup), folks have been matched up as follows:

Beki, you were the first name to be pulled, and get the original saucy yarn with the dangerous curves market bag pattern.  This is a fast project to knit, and it contains enough yarn to make a large and a small bag.  Plus, it will survive playing with your kids (my bags are still kicking strong 2 years after I made them)!

Renee Anne who shares a blogversary with me (Happy 2nd Anniversary!!!) wins the original Ionic Compass faux fair isle hat kit.  I'm hoping to introduce you to a whole new knitting addiction :)

Girlieknitwit wins the Climbing Leaves Smoke Ring project pack with the alpaca and the kid mohair yarns.  I'm sending both neutrals & greens, both are soooo textural-ly pleasing!

Rusty M.  wins the Serious Scarf One plus the Elann yarn pack in glorious moody blue.  I hope you get a kick out of the pattern!

Congrats to our first 4, the winners of the original giveaway goodie packs :)

Next up, Little Man chose the following 4 winners:

Graywolfie, you win a Dangerous Curves market bag kit.  The most basic of lace is just including yarn overs, so you definitely have your toes in the water already!  I hope that you enjoy exercising your lace skills.  :)

Pinkundine, you win an Ionic Compass tam set with a skein of Kureyon in color 188 and a skein of paintbox in color 06.  One is summer greens against a darkening sky, one is spring garden colors in full bloom.  I hope you enjoy dipping your toes in colorwork waters!

Kitten With a Whiplash!  You get a copy of the Climbing Leaves pattern plus some sexy Ultra Alpaca to knit it up.  Mmmmm, I <3 alpaca and hope you enjoy working with it!

Danielle, you win a Serious Scarf One pack containing Fishermans Wool in neutrals to make it up.  I really hope you enjoy working with it, the men in my life are in a standoff as to who gets the last one I knit up!

Yay, congrats to you guys, I hope you enjoy your projects!!

And finally, our last group of winners.

GailGodwin, you win an Ionic Compass kit with paintbox in color 01 and paintbox 11 which are subtle greys and purples and all colors of blue respectively.  Two of my favorite colorways!

Knittingdancer, you win a Climbing Leaves cowl pack and some gorgeous autumn colored worsted yarns to make it up in.  This is a toe in the lace-waters, and I hope that the project gives you enough joy and confidence to enjoy other lace projects too!

Madeline, you also win a copy of the Climbing Leaves cowl pack.  You are getting a lovely coral kid-mohair and a lovely deep red to go with it to make the Smoke Ring version.  I hope you enjoy the project, and that it tempts you to even more lace :)

So thank you.  Thank you all.  This last year has been indescribable.  I am terrible about replying to comments (mainly because I'm still a bit shy), but I read them all and treasure every one.  When I'm having a terrible day, I know that my friends in knitting are there and it takes the sting out of whatever craziness is going on.  So thank you again.  For enriching my knitting, for enriching my life.

Happy Knitting!

Happy Anniversary!

First off, I want to thank all of you for your kind words and support.  Once again, I am stunned at the open hearts and minds of the knitting community.  Thank you, with all my heart.

Now, last year on this date I started this blog.  I didn't know what it would become or the things that would happen in the last year.  I didn't know how many wonderful people I would meet through the blog, or how much life would change.

So welcome to our paper anniversary!

In celebration of every step of the way so far, I'm giving away some full projects.  I've got patterns, I've got yarns, and I've got some secret goodies to go with them!

Without further ado, here are the details.
First up is a weekend project.  Something you can finish in a weekend, and that will be useful.  I use this myself all the time, and I knit them up for friends as well.

Dangerous Curves Market Bag!

This is a good project for a beginning knitters.  It uses slipped stitches, knitting back and forth, picking up stitches, knitting in the round, and the most basic of lace.  It's designed to allow you to carry back your goodies without breaking your long breads and it is washable to boot.

The yarn to make this is in blue rather than red, and I'm including enough to make a 2nd smaller bag.  Here are the skeins in question:

blue cottons, cable construction

Our small project is something a little different.  Colorwork.  Shown below as a tam

And here on my model (bribed with hot chocolate) shown as the slouchy version.

This is a small project that uses faux-fair isle techniques.  The yarn for the giveaway includes enough to knit both hats.

Next up, our medium project.  This is a smoke ring, a loose lace cowl knit using 2 strands of lace-weight yarn to make up a heavier weight.  First, my increasingly antsy model wearing it:

And now the yarns

This project actually has 3 different sizes/patterns in it and the winner has a choice of greens or the neutrals shown on little man above.

And finally, the large project.  I'm going to send the winner of this project a fully written out version of the serious scarf pattern.  A copy of this pattern will be offered for free on the original page within the next week, but in .pdf format instead of just the recipe instructions.  I'm hoping to encourage more masculine lace!

And to create your scarf (or lap blanket, etc), I have 10 skeins of Elann's peruvian highland bulky

In a gorgeous almost-navy color.

I know my modeled shots of the other items are not fabulous, but I will be putting up better ones soon.  I have a date with a friend who has agreed to model.  I won't have to chase her around the house begging, "please just let me take the picture."  I know, very novel!

Giveaway details!  To enter, simply leave a comment telling me what your favorite kind of knitting is.  Is it fair-isle?  Is it lace?  Is it cables?  Inquiring minds want to know.  Please include some contact information so I can contact you to get you your goodies.  This will be open until August 26 at 11PM Eastern.  Winners will be announced on the 27th.

Thank all of you for your support and encouragement!  You've made this last year a delight, and I hope to harass you with posts for many many years to come.

Happy Anniversary!