Category Archives: Contest!

get me to knit and you win something!

Seriously. This is a contest. Spread the word!  We are leaving to go on vacation this week. I will be spending about 24 hours in a car total plus a week at the beach. I think I need to knit something. Yes. Me knitting something.  I think maybe it’s time to knit a garment? I actually still have the yarn to knit Poppy. I know right? Pathetic. I can’t even remember the last time I knit something. I think it was this hat back in January!  I need to be really inspired. We’re talking like, get my rear in gear and make me want to run to Village Wools to buy some yarn. I actually really like Shobhana’s Kimberly….but what else is super cool out there?

So….if you are the person to inspire me to knit something on this trip you will win a $50.00 certificate to the shop! Maybe I’ll do a few other smaller prizes too. You have to link me to the pattern in order to qualify. You have TWO DAYS! This contest ends on Thursday morning at 8:00am so I have time to go get what I need. Please please show me some cool stuff! And…..GO!

Also, there will be no shipping from JULY 17th-26th!!! If you buy anything during that time it will ship on the 27th. And check these new colors from Namaste. If you want to pre-order anything let me know.

It’s like pulling a Band-Aid off right? + a Contest!!

You know, when you haven’t posted on your blog in forever and you finally just have to do it really fast so it won’t hurt too much? Yeah, sorry about that.  I’ve been so busy that even my neighbors who are very good friends of ours told me she was happy to see me the other day because she hadn’t seen me in so long. And they live across the street! Things are great. Just unbelievably busy. It’s ll good stuff though. I’ve been doing a lot of photography shoots and am really loving that. Here’s one of my favs from a recent shoot of the twins who are now 9 months old.

It just takes a lot of time to shoot/process/etc. I have three pretty big jobs over the past few weeks and have even more stuff coming up on the horizon. Super seekrit stuff that I can’t talk about though. But at some point you will all be able to see what it’s all about. And look! I got a makeover!

Isn’t it super fabulous? What else has been going on? I’ve been busy stocking the shop. The new Namaste Zuma is the cutest bag I’ve seen a long time. I’ve already restocked them once.  See the post below for links. Everything else is stocked in the shop too. With less than a month until Christmas and Hanukkah I won’t have much time to restock again so get things while I have them!

Knitting? What’s that? I can’t believe that even with the cooler weather I haven’t been knitting. I guess I’m just so tired after working 12+ hours every day I just want to veg out and watch stupid TV. However, I always like to see what everyone is working on or if there are some super cool new patterns out there I have yet to see.  It seems like I do this contest yearly to see if something will call out to me and inspire me to break out my needles.  So let’s have a little contest!! Please spread the word too. Show me what you are knitting. I want links to pictures and/or patterns. Or, you can just leave links showing me a cool pattern you want to knit. I will keep this up until December 4th and will pick two people to win these brand new fabulous books with the random number generator.

and

So inspire me and win a book. It’s that easy. It’s always fun to get a whole bunch of ideas in one spot so make sure and tell people to come play.

I hope that you and yours had a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it). I’m all confused as to what day it is. I just realized it’s only Saturday morning. So have a good weekend too! I can’t wait to see what everyone has up their sleeves.

ETA - Bloglines is out of control and it stresses me out to not be able to catch up with everyone. I’m clicking refresh. Please let me know if there’s something I’ve missed that you’ve written about. (whether you think you’re on my Bloglines or not!!) I love to hear how everyone is so tell me about you too. m’kay?

It’s Friday!

Thank you to those who left comments over the past few days. I loved checking out all of the cool swag links you left. A few of the things you left are things that are actually already on their way to me!  The 3 winners of the Harmony needles are:

Sarah R.

Cindy

Stacey

Congratulations to you three! Please email me your addresses so I can get these to you. Then just do me a favor and spread the word if you like them.

In other news, I’ve been completely swamped this week working on my new photography website. I’ve been doing this photography professionally now for almost a year and just haven’t gotten my rear in gear to get my website up. Cynthia designed my logo a long time ago (which I LOVE!) but then I just got stuck when it came to all of the details of everything else that was needed to get the whole site up. It’s still not 100% but it’s close enough to be able to share with you. If you live locally and know anyone who might want to hire me, I would love for you to share this link.  So, check it out.

Here is where I would love some feedback. Will you answer the poll below and let me know what you think about music on a website like this? I have an option to just have the music there and let people click it if they want to. Maybe that’s the best of both worlds? Then it’s up to you?! Help! I changed it to where it doesn’t load the music automatically but you can click on it if you want. For some reason I don’t think that’s working right though. But still let me know what you think. To music or not!?!?! I truly want feedback on this!

Finally, I just restocked all of the Namaste Bags and ALL GoKnit Pouches too. I now have the Laguna, Malibu & Newport back in the Peacock color which was sold out. In November I will have the new Zuma bag too. It looks like such a cool bag I can’t wait to get it in! Have you seen it? There was a vote on Ravelry for what the new color should be and they just announced that eggplant is the winner! As we get closer I will probably take pre-orders on this hot little number. I should get them in by the end of November. I am so buying one of these! Hello! It’s purple!

Okay my friends. Have a great weekend. I am just hoping this Excedrin starts to work STAT. I hate waking up with a headache!

Contest Time!

Nikon D300 - 70-200mm lens - sunrise this morning

I think I might try and play a game on Tuesdays called - Have you Seen This - Tuesdays. One of the ways I find cool swag for the shop is through YOU. Yep. I have people who email me cool links to things they have seen that I don’t carry in the shop and most times I buy them! I love when people do that. Epecially when no one else really has it yet in their stores. You also know how much I love showing you the coolest stuff out there in knitting/crochet land!  For the first day of Have you Seen This, I am going to give away three pairs of the new Harmony Needles. Have you seen them? They are super pretty. I love pretty, so I love these needles! I I will give you until Thursday night to leave me comments linking me to cool stuff you’ve seen online that I don’t carry in the shop. Then I will randomly pick three people to win these needles. So show me some cool stuff! And even if YOU have cool stuff of your own to share maybe I will feature it on the blog next Tuesday.

Have you seen this? My good friend Jennifer Lippman-Bruno, the inventor of the GoKnit Bag Pouchesselling her patterns put up a brand new website . She has been a designer for a long time and has some really beautiful patterns. Her husband finally got the new website going this week and you should definitely check it out and spread the word because I think she’s really talented.

Have you seen this new book that just came out - Zakka Sewing? I saw it when I met with Melanie back in July and thought it was such a sweet book. Here is a gallery of some of the projects.  It made me immediately think of a number of my crafty friends out there who love to sew. Leslie? This is the book I was telling you about! And for a limited time you can download that cute little squirrel pattern. Check it out.

Have you seen this group on flickr - how I knit, purl, crochet or spin! It’s fun to see how differently everyone does their crafts. They also were featured on Craft.

Have you seen Jessalu’s new Etsy shop? I’m hoping to get a little bag soon and will share it with you when I do!

That’s probably good for today. I’ll save more for next week. I can’t wait to see what you have to share with me. So come on…..show me cool swag! I will announce the contest winners on Friday.

Red Scarf Contest & Eye Candy for Norma

 BUMP!

You still have time to eneter the contest! Come on people!!!

It’s that time again y’all. If you have yet to see, it’s Red Scarf Project time again.  This beautiful yarn was specially dyed for my girl Norma so she can knit a pretty scarf for the project. I figure if I don’t have time to knit a scarf, at least I can dye some yarn and give it to someone who will! If you don’t know about this amazing project go to the Orphan Foundation of America and read about it. I shall wait. I mean hello! In the first year, we took in 3,500 scarves. The following year, that number swelled to over 15,000. Isn’t that amazing!? I would like to hold a little contest for a skein of sock yarn AND a gift certificate to my shop for $25.00 to the winner.

The contest is actually pretty dang easy. For this contest I just want you to spread the word. You don’t even have to knit anything to win. I would love it, if everyone who read this knit a scarf but for now I’m happy with you just telling everyone about this. So here’s the contest. You need to blog or post something on Ravelry telling/reminding everyone about the Red Scarf Project. Heck, tell them to come enter too by spreading the word even MORE!  Link them up with the proper links so they know the exact deadlines. Give them the address so they know where to send their scarves to. Then come back here and show me that you’ve done this. Then you are entered into the contest! It’s as easy as that. Then go knit a red scarf and mail it in. :P

I will hold this contest until Monday at 6:00pm MST. Then comments will be closed. You will only be entered if you show me where you wrote about this. It could even be a picture on flickr with the information. Somehow you need to be able to reach other people wherever it is that you post the informaiton. These are the important things everyone needs to know straight from Norma’s blog:

Scarves for the Red Scarf Project will be accepted from September 1-October 31st this year. 

And don’t forget, gift cards and notes attached to the scarves are very much appreciated.  You might also want to make a little donation to the Red Scarf Fund.  All those wonderful former foster kids, like the ones I met this summer, will thank you. Check out this link to the OFA website for all pertinent info about the scarves. Mail your completed scarves to:

Orphan Foundation of America
The Red Scarf Project
21351 Gentry Drive
Sterling, VA 20166

Make sense? You tell everyone you know about this project. Then show me that you did that. It’s as easy as posting a comment with a link to your post.  et voila! You are entered into the contest. Even if you already posted about it you can still enter. Just show me where.  I will then use the Random Number Generator to pick a winner. Who knows….depending on how I feel I might pick more than one winner. I have lots of pretty yarn I could give away. We’ll see how well you do!

On your mark? Get set…….GO!!!!

Eye Candy Friday & a Contest

when we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard;

I am sure we should - so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again~ Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

These were flowers that T. bought me for our 18th anniversary this week. We didn’t have a wedding so we celebrate the first night we started dating because we had already known each other for so long. I met T. when I was 6. Crazy huh? Sept. 18th we will have been married for 15 years. Aren’t I too young to have been married for that long? *sigh*

“None of us are free until ALL of us are free!”  Please go over to Bev’s blog where she is having a contest with some gorgeous PippiKneeSocks yarn.

Also, a big Happy Birthday to my girl Carole! Now you are as old as me for a few months. That means as old as dirt! Hope you have a good birthday. xoxo

Lots Going On!!

I promise to get the calendars up as soon as Cynthia gets them to me. It should be soon. Scout’s honor! I have been busier than normal if you can believe that and even fit a trip to San Francisco to teach a dye class at the Knit-One-One studio where I was able to meet some of my online knitty friends I’ve known for years! A few of the people in the class got some great shots. I haven’t processed any of mine except for this one where I met Tammy/PuNk rAwK pUrL:

If you want to read up about the class and check out some of the pictures you can go to WonderMike’s Flickr stream, Marisol’s blog, Racquel’s blog, Nell’s Blog or…..who else has some pictures? Let me know and I will add them here! It was such a great time and I loved being able to meet everyone. I normally have around 6 people in a class so having 12 was somewhat of a new thing for me BUT having WonderMike made it totally doable. I seriously worship Mike. (and Stephen who wasn’t able to be there for day two)Hopefully some of my students will come and comment and let you know what they thought. I also really hope to get around and teach this class in a number of different places over the next few years so feel free to get some serious requests in to me!

After the first day of class I recorded a Y knit podcast with Mike & Stephen that will be up in about a month I think. They have 2 others to edit before mine. (although I think they should just skip those and do mine don’t you?!?!?) That was really fun. I’ve known Stephen ever since I went on Knitty Gritty and this was the first time we’ve actually met in person. It really was the highlight of my trip to be able to finally give him a big hug. There are pictures of all of the trouble we got into in that link to Mike’s Flickr stream. Lots of fun was had. So keep an eye out for that podcast. It’s the first one I’ve done in person and the first one I’ve done with a nice frosty tasty adult beverage. :) And trust me, you will really want to listen to the podcast because I announce some HUGE!EXCITING! news that I am only going to announce on their podcast. HUGE people….so you just have to be patient.

If you would like to get in on a $50.00 gift certificate to my shop head on over to the new Crochet & Knit Giveaways website! All you have to do is surf around Scout’s Swag and let her know what you think I might be missing in the shop that you would like me to carry. Then she will pick a random name after July 15th and voila! A winner is chosen. Definitely check her website out!

I’ve just restocked the GoKnit Pouches. I even have a new royal blue color that is SO pretty.  I should be getting new Namaste Bags this week too. I can’t keep those in stock! I used one of the Newport Bags on my trip this weekend and absolutely loved it and got tons of compliments on it. It even holds all of my camera gear in it. The Knitter’s Rules have been restocked too. I just added three new PickUpSticks patterns. Check out the Snuglets patters for Babies & Kids and Adults and the Ripple Purse.
I almost forgot. I have an actual finished object! I need to take a picture of it and show you. I started knitting it on the way to Italy and finished it on the way back from San Francisco. I know….it’s amazing! Kirsten, you know what it is.

Shoot! Gotta get the kiddos off to camp. I’m hitting enter and will be back soon with July Calendars and knitting pictures!

Eye Candy Friday & A HUGE Thank You

I’ll try not to get too mushy but my eye candy today is this shot I posted

yesterday up on Flickr that has a lot to do with what I want to say.

So many people and their furry friends donated to help cover Phoebe’s vet bills it just warms my heart. I love this community so much it’s crazy. These blogs are so much more than just journals and our knitting ia so much more than just a craft because it brings us all together. I mean look at what we can do when we work together? Isn’t it amazing? I truly thank each and every one of you for donating to this cause. It didn’t even matter if you only donated $5.00 because it really is all about the thought that counts. Keep an eye on Mel’s blog for updates. He told me yesterday that Phoebe had her pelvic fracture set and she was doing great. Now that sure made me happy.

I used the random number generator to pick a person who donated to the cause and the winner is AllyB! You have won a $30.00 gift certificate to Scout’ Swag. You can buy some swag or have a skein of yarn dyed for you. Just check out the gallery and let me know if that’s what you want. I will send that to you right now! Congratulations!

Thank you all again so much for helping out. You all just rock. I know that Mel and Phoebe and Phoebe’s family thank you and your furry ones too. Have a great weekend!


From Mel’s comment below. Do we completely kick butt or what???!!

Phoebe’s mom actually called overnight to talk to me and let me know how much everyone’s support meant to them. They’re hoping to get her home tomorrow, and I will be posting an update. I need to see where numbers are this morning, but totals are handily over $5000 at this point, mostly in donations of $25 or less. I am totally blown away.

Phoebe Update & New Calendars

I want to thank everyone so far who has donated money to Phoebe. Look at her. Is she not the cutest girly???

Go to Mel’s blog to read the latest on sweet Phoebe and her family. And again, in the event that any donations were to exceed Phoebe’s expenses, they would remain in the pet assistance fund for the next case to come along. My contest goes until Friday so keep them coming if you want to try and win some swag.

Here are the calendars for January! As always Cynthia and I love to know which one/s you like so let us know. I guess we didn’t get our act together to make a real calendar. There’s always next year! Just click the image to get the size to download to use as a wallpaper.

happy hizKNITS!

some days I wonder

the remains of the day

We were asked to do one with the calendar on the other side for a Mac so here you go!

To My Pet Lover Friends….

Do you guys know how much you rock? Go read the update on Phoebe on Mel’s blog!!!

I know it’s just a few days after Christmas and all of the craziness of the Holiday season, but if you love animals and want to help a friend of mine out, I would appreciate a bit of your time. Probably a lot of you know Mel, if not, you should. (maybe you saw him at Rhinebeck??) I was originally introduced to him by Norma when the Wonder-dog (aka the moron) Gus ate some rib bones. Mel lives in Maine with his partner David where he is a Veterinarian. He just posted about a dog named Phoebe that was hit by a snowmobile while being walked by his owner last Friday night and he is collecting donations to help pay for the vet bills. Phoebe was seriously injured when hit by a snowmobiler who was illegally on their property and will need extensive treatment. Mel himself has already written off over $700.00 of the bill of his own fees for this family in order to help out Phoebe. And listen, I’m not trying to make anyone feel badly if they can’t or don’t want to donate towards this cause. I know how amazing my knitting/crochet friends are when it comes time to help a person out in need. I’m just putting it out there to my fellow pet lovers if you want to donate a few dollars towards this cause. On two different occasions Mel helped me with Gus when he was sick and I would simply like to show him my thanks. Mel is such an amazing person and want to show him how much I appreciate him. From Mel’s blog:

To that end, I’ve created the donation button below if anyone would like to help out. This simply goes into my Paypal account and I will, in turn, transfer funds to the pet assistance fund here at the clinic, since we don’t currently have any mechanism for direct donation set up aside from people coming in and making one. In the event that any donations were to exceed Phoebe’s expenses, they would remain in the pet assistance fund for the next case to come along. There is no tax write-off for this, no particular reward other than helping out a family and dog in need, but I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. And I will thank you for it.

How about you leave me a comment if you donate and I will randomly select one person to win a little swag from the shop? I know how much y’all like swaggy goodness and a little bribery never hurt anyone right? So to those that have a few extra dollars and would like to help out, I thank you in advance. I will leave this up until Friday and for Friday’s Eye Candy I will announce the winner. Thank you!! Happy New Year too!