Category Archives: Contests

Contests, Randonymity

Thursday is for thank yous

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Don’t forget about the Biteberry Yarn contest, which runs until 6 pm CDT, Friday, July 20!

Eliza’s printing some small sock pattern books on an old-fashioned flatbed press (sounds very cool). She’ll give a copy away to a random commenter – you have until August 1 to leave your comments.

Time for thank yous! The random number generator loved me recently – through its graces, I received some Azul body butter (lemon), which is one of the products available at Kristi’s new store. (How does she have time with those busy twins??) I’ve actually been using the body butter as hand lotion and while it didn’t feel quite like what I’ve been using (duh, it’s body “butter,” not lotion), it’s done great things for my chronically dry hands. Thanks, Kristi! Think I’ll be ordering some more – maybe the “chocolate mousse” scent…

The random number generator also selected me to win some yarn in Jewel’s recent contest – I picked those two lovely skeins of Regia Bamboo. Thank you, Jewel!

I got that great (partially obscured) card of Charlie for supporting Debby’s husband Chris in the Get Your Guts in Gear bike ride to raise money for Crohn’s and colitis research. (Charlie the kitty has inflammatory bowel disease, too.)

“It looks like a kitty, but it doesn’t smell, taste, sound, or feel like a kitty. I give up. What is it?” -Mayhem

I received mix cds from Van and from E, plus a great insulated sheepy water bottle carrier from E! Thanks, Van and E!

“More of these wee unsheep. Hmph.” -Mayhem

“I see what you mean about the unsheep, May. Hey, I bet you could fit in this bag.” *hee hee* -Chaos

“Hmm, big kitty, I am not sure you have my best interests at heart…” -Mayhem

KnitNana sent me these adorable personalized black kitty stitchmarkers from Wee Ones. I love them! You should really go check out Wee Ones – she has more cats, penguins, sheep, dogs… Thank you so much, KnitNana! (She also sent some homegrown… catnip… but that’s a post for another day.) (The photos are most excellent.)

No, you don’t get caption commentary from black cat stitchmarkers!

Remember last week when I mentioned getting a little distracted over at etsy? I picked up two black cat-themed pouches and a black cat key fob from bagladiesinpa, and she threw in a matching black cat hair fastener for being a return customer! Awww…

“Big kitty, you better get over here! There are an awful lot of black kitties… Should we be worried?” -Mayhem

“I think it’ll be ok, May… unless you steal that hair fastener. Bet that’ll get Mom shrieking at us again.” -Chaos

“But it’s so cute! I can’t help myself!” -Mayhem

Alongs, Contests, Randonymity, Reading

A contest of dubious value (along with some perfectly fine contests, a swap, and more!)

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Running a bit late today, aren’t I? I wrote my post Monday evening as per usual, but when I got to work this morning (where I proof and publish), our building didn’t have any power. After two hours, we were sent home – something about 20 transformers being down. Glad to be home in the air conditioning, because it’s going to be a hot and sticky day in the Twin Cities.

Anyway! At the end of May, I dyed a lot of yarn, most of which was destined to be gifted to various knitbloggers during my vacation. However, one very pretty skein of sock yarn (the blue and black skein in the previous link) was unable to fulfill that destiny due to an extremely unfortunate accident. (Well, I saw it as an accident. For Mayhem, it was an intent.) When that blue and black yarn was hanging in the bathroom drying, I heard a mysterious soft “thwoomp” from the bathroom. By the time I realized I should probably investigate that sound, it was too late – May had pulled down the yarn and her sharp teeth were snickity-snicking through a number of the strands, turning the skein from “Blueberry” to “Biteberry.”

“Enough with the accusations. Would I do something like that?! Look at how sweet and cute I am!” -Mayhem

This yarn needs a very special home. If you think you can provide that home and not mind dealing with the additional 12 or so ends that Mayhem created, please send an email to my contest line before 6 pm CDT Friday, July 20. (Hey, I said it was a somewhat dubious contest!) (Additional yarn vital stats – the base yarn in Kraemer Jeannie, a superwash wool and nylon blend. Prior to biting, there were around 470 yards.)

On to some less dubious contests – the Heathen Housewife is giving away a copy of Victorian Lace Today and a skein of laceweight yarn. Leave her a comment with your email address before 8 pm CDT, July 20.

Ruth is having a contest – in her comments, leave a link to your first and 100th blog posts, or if you don’t have a blog, to the blog post that really got you into reading blogs. Contest closes midnight MDT, July 20, and the prize will be yarn and “baubles.”

If you’re interested in dyeing and swapping sock yarn, there’s a hand-dyed sock yarn swap on swap-bot. Deadline to sign up is August 10 and deadline to send is September 30.

Reading Update
Love Bites by Lynsay Sands. Um, I can’t believe I actually read this. Paranormal romance at its most trashy and poorly written. You have been warned!
Thunderbird Falls and Coyote Dreams by C.E. Murphy. I enjoyed books two and three of the Walker Papers (about neophyte urban shaman and police officer Joanne Walker) as much as I did the first. Hopefully Ms. Murphy is busily writing, because I want to find out what happens next! (For those who are reading this series, there’s sort of a book 1.5 between Urban Shaman and Thunderbird Falls – the novella “Banshee Cries,” which can be found in Winter Moon.)
Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke. The latest Hannah Swensen mystery is par for the course – kind of simplistic and contrived… but I keep reading them, maybe because they’re set in a fictitious Minnesota town.

Randonymity
Curious about what I got up to over the weekend? Miss T and Deb have documented the event very well! Thanks, Miss T!

The Guardian has an interesting article about splogs (spam blogs that steal content to generate ad dollars).

Some time ago, KnitNana sent me a postcard that reminded her of Chaos.

What do you think? Can you see a resemblance?

“Pooey on you, Mom. I am so much more handsome than that poser!” -Chaos

Contests, See the Sights

Oh yeah, I’m not finished with that vacation stuff, am I?

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Vacation, I forget what part it is
I abruptly left off my vacation narrative after some pictures of cute alpacas in the tents at the Estes Park Wool Market.

Well, ok, maybe one more picture from the animal tents. Tub o’ goat, anyone?

After we were all tuckered out from the wool market, we headed to a local landmark for a drink.

Everyone survived – woo-hoo! 😉 I didn’t realize that the hotel was founded by the inventor of this car:

After that drink, we all had dinner at Claire’s and then hung out at the cabin, knitting and chatting into the evening. Sunday morning, it was time to pack up and go our separate ways. (I can’t believe I didn’t get a single picture of the whole cabin crew! Ack.) I headed over to Kind Coffee

to caffeinate,

blog, and read. I highly recommend this coffee shop if you’re in Estes Park!

I wandered around Estes Park for a bit, then headed down the mountains to see Kristi.

“I obviously have time for a nap or three before Mom finishes her vacation narrative…. zzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

Alongs, Contests, Knitting

Sock maniac

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Just a Knit Wit is heading off to college next month (after a few years away) and is a bit nervous about the whole thing. Leave her a comment with a funny college story and you could win a very cool prize package. Comments must be received by July 20.

The Cat’s Mum is celebrating her 200th post and upcoming blogiversary – leave her a comment telling her what you’re obsessive about and you could win something “noice.” Comments must be left by midnight, Australian Eastern Standard Time, August 4.

Sockamania is open for new members! Update 7/13/07: Membership is now closed. Anni’s adding members slowly to make sure she can keep up with the admin. She says she’ll open it up again in the future.

I’ve been a member for three months and I’m extremely impressed by the patterns Anni’s creating for us. Shall we review?

The May sock – I didn’t get very far, but the pattern is lovely and I will finish the socks.

The June sock – I finished and I love the pattern. I’ll definitely knit this pattern again.

The July sock – I’m off to a good start! This is also my Tour de France Knitalong project. I did modify the pattern a bit – its 68 stitches weren’t going to fit me, so I added three stitches to each of the plain knit columns (for a total of 80 stitches). The plain knit columns looked really boring when they were twice as wide, so I added some right and left twists to liven things up. The yarn is Sundara Lenten Rose, a Petals Club selection from earlier this year, which appeared briefly as an RPM sock.

The little gold row markers I’m using are omega row markers from Entrelac’s store. Oh, and Spindlecat has kitty magnets in stock… And… Whoops, spent $31.50. Darn it. Etsy is dangerous!

Yesterday Janna commented that May seemed to have a literary bent, what with the stationery and the diary. You could say that…

“This blue book looks to be especially tasty, but I’ll wait until Mom’s not looking before I check…” -Mayhem

Contests, Reading, Tunes

“The kitchen table is not a kitty superhighway!”

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For some mysterious reason, my comments aren’t being mailed to me in a timely fashion today. I will reply to them as they show up, but don’t worry if you don’t hear back from me as quickly as usual!

Amanda of bookwormknits is looking for recommendations for good tv series to get from NetFlix. Leave her a comment by July 14 and you could win some yarn and goodies.

Carole is having a contest – guess how many ounces of fiber she’ll spin during the Tour de Fleece and you could win a fibery prize. Leave a comment with your guess by July 29.

Thank you all so much for your well wishes. Probably I will be having surgery, but I’ll know more after I actually meet with the doctor in a few weeks. At this point, surgery sounds like a very good thing to me. But! We’ll worry more about that later. Onward.

Reading Update
Unscrewed by Lois Greiman. Definitely worth the $0.69+tax from the thrift store, but I don’t know that I’ll bother reading any of the other books in this series about an LA waitress turned therapist. Heck, this book spent so much time covering what was in the previous books that I don’t feel the need to actually read them.
About Face: A Bill Damen Mystery by James Calder. I didn’t enjoy this book nearly as much as Knockout Mouse (which I read last week). Knockout Mouse seemed to balance the mystery and Damen’s personal life much better than did About Face, which focused much more on the case.
Spanish Dagger by Susan Wittig Albert. The latest China Bayles mystery was an enjoyable read. China owns an herb and tea shop in small town Texas and just can’t seem to avoid solving mysteries.
Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy. What can I say – I’m a sucker for well-written urban fantasy. This book features Joanne Walker, who, besides being a mechanic and an unwilling cop, discovers that she’s also a shaman coming into her power.

Belated Thanks
Yikes, I’ve been meaning to post thank yous for a while, but I didn’t realize how long it had been… Apologies! At the end of May, I won a contest over at Moonfrog and Becky sent me a lovely skein of purple Cherry Tree Hill (this picture does not do justice to its lush purpleness), a cute keychain sock blocker, some coffee, and a really neat card that you can’t see behind May’s noggin. Thanks, Becky!

“I wonder if this is grape?” -Mayhem

Elspeth and I share a powerful love of music and we regularly exchange mix cds. Elspeth sent me a very cute sheep pencil bag and notebook, along with a cat mix and a Project Spectrum black/red/metallic mix. (With a more recent bird mix, she included some great yarn-themed stationery, tragically not pictured here.) Thank you, Elspeth! May was quite taken with the pencil bag.

“It has a me-sized sheep on it!” -Mayhem

“What do sheep taste like?” -Mayhem

“It isn’t a very lively sheep, is it? Do you think I squished it?” -Mayhem

Contests, Knitting, Reading

Gasp! Some actual knitting content…

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Today Diane celebrates her first blogiversary with a contest! Leave her a comment with the best compliment you’ve ever received to participate. Comments must be left by July 13, nood EDT.

Reading Update
Murder of a Botoxed Blonde by Denise Swanson. Yet another Scumble River mystery, featuring school psychologist and police consultant Skye Denison. Loved this quote from the book: “Chocolate is the catnip of the female world.”
Moon Called and Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. Werewolves and vampires and fae, oh my! Well-written and set in the Tri-Cities area of Washington, this is definitely a series I’ll keep reading. The main character is VW mechanic Mercy Thompson, who is a “walker” (she can turn into a coyote, but isn’t controlled by the moon). You really have to ignore the covers on these books – they feature an extremely tattooed Mercy, wearing revealing clothing. However, as far as I can tell from the books, Mercy has one tattoo (a pawprint on her stomach) and she spent about 2/3 of the first book in a t-shirt with a cocoa stain on the front…
Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty Goes To Washington, and Kitty Takes a Holiday by Carrie Vaughn. I picked these up on vacation in part because they were used and were by a Coloradan (it’s common for my souvenirs to be by local authors). I’m glad I did, because they were good – I’m already looking forward to the next one (out later this year). They feature werewolf talk radio host Kitty Norville, and the first and third books are set in Colorado.

Knitting Update
I finished my June Sockamania socks last night! (We got the pattern late, so we have until Saturday to finish June’s socks.) Since I didn’t finish May’s socks, I was especially pleased to have these done.

The yarn is Kraemer Jeannie that I dyed this spring. I like the color (very Project Spectrum), but I hated the yarn. Not only does it feel too soft and loosely twisted to wear well (even if it does have nylon in it), it was also extremely splitty – especially with my Inoxes. Turbos would’ve been perfect – too bad Addi doesn’t make a 2.25mm Turbo… Anyway!

“Socks, socks, socks, socks. Ho hum.” -Mayhem

“Oh no! My toes are dirty! Please, no one look!” *mwmph* -Mayhem

Contests, Festing

In which I finally reach the Estes Park Wool Market

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Guess how many days it will rain at Nikki’s home in the UK during the Tour de France and you could win yarn, chocolate, or a copy of EZ’s Knitter’s Almanac. Submit your guesses by 11 pm GMT, July 7.

Sallee’s having a contest to celebrate three years of her Nana Sadie Rose handcrafted bag business and making her 500th bag! Send her an email before midnight EDT on Friday, July 6, guessing which of the pictured bags was #500 and you could win some fun prizes.

Really, you’re all so very patient with my meandering vacation tales! When last we visited this narrative, I was waiting for the rest of the cabin folk to arrive. Although the cabin we stayed in had some definite shortcomings (such as the touchiest toilet ever), it did have a fabulous view of Estes Park.

When the Ewetah Grrls (Margene, Blog Free Val the Hummingbird Whisperer, Karen, Cheryl) and Laura from Kansas arrived, we headed into Estes Park and got some dinner. Back at the cabin later, we knitted and chatted and laughed, but made an early night of it so we would be ready to face the festival in the morning. I shared a room and bed with Cheryl, who I must say is much more considerate than Chaos or Mayhem – she didn’t walk across me once during the night, nor did she drop furry mice on me and want to play fetch. Thanks, Cheryl! 😉 (Plus Cheryl got some great pictures of the cabin crew, which I apparently didn’t manage.)

On Saturday, we all headed to the festival, arriving when it opened. Some booths, such as Brooks Fiber Farm, were quickly packed.

Really, there is yarn in that booth. See?

Knitbloggers were everywhere! Imbrium, Mim, and Laura were kind enough to stop shopping and pose for me, although Imbrium and Laura might just have been scoping out their next purchases…

While I was in the Interlacements booth, I found myself behind this backpack and introduced myself to Jane.

Jane and I headed out to the blogger meetup at 11 am. Here are many knitbloggers listening to Margene as she invites us to join her for lunch.

Margene and Jane from the front – see those cute little sheep buttons they’re both wearing?

Kristi the Fiber Fool brought them for all of us! Thank you, Kristi! Here’s Kristi with her famous Queen of Diamond Socks:

The Knitty Professor herself, with the back of Black Sheep Lisa to the right.

Alas, I wish I had taken many more pictures of this event! I didn’t get a picture of Knittymama – how funny was it to meet up with someone who only lives a few miles away from me here in Minneapolis?

Anyway, after lunch Jane and I wandered around some of the animal barns. You’ve already seen some of those pictures, but here are a few more. I learned that alpacas are very stretchy.

This poor guy’s bandana read “I’m for sale!”

Whew! That sure seems like plenty for today. More on the rest of vacation later. 🙂

“I still haven’t forgiven you for that vacation business. You’d better not do that again.” -Chaos

Contests, Randonymity, Reading

Feline groovy

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Rachael’s cat Digit returned after being long given up for dead! However, he requires surgery and a lot of other medical care, and Rachael and Lala don’t have that kind of money right now. So Rachael decided to have a raffle – donors to be entered in a drawing for one of three sweaters that Rachael knitted – one of which is from a Philosopher’s Wool kit. However, since enough money to cover Digit’s care was donated in the first 24 hours (knitbloggers really do rock), Rachael’s going to donate extra monies to the Milo Foundation and the Best Friends Animal Society. So if you’d still like to participate in the raffle, you can – the drawing will be July 7.

Reading Update
Three Junes by Julia Glass. My 6th TBR Challenge book, finished on the last possible day of June. Whew! I highly recommend this National Book Award winner.
Knockout Mouse: A Bill Damen Silicone Valley Mystery by James Calder. Bill Damen is a documentary filmmaker in Silicone Valley working on a publicity film for a biotechnology firm after the dot.com bust. This is the first book out of three (so far?) and I have the other two on reserve at the library.
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris. The latest Sookie Stackhouse book continues is a speedy and enjoyable read. I definitely like Sookie better than Anita Blake these days…

A Few More Things…
I’m a bit shocked at the blogging backlog I’ve developed – I need to post lots of thank yous for some wonderful gifts I’ve received, plus I haven’t even made it to the Estes Wool Market in my vacation narrative! So of course, I shall do neither of these things today. Instead, a few more things I purchased on vacation…

“Mom, you’re really sure that Vanna’s retiring and I’m in the running?” -Mayhem

“Because I’m not sure how I’d look in an evening dress…” -Mayhem

“One black kitty, two black kitties, three black kitties… Why are there so many more white kitties than black kitties on your new PJs, Mom?!” -Mayhem

“Hmm, you have a point there, Mayhem. Mom?!” -Chaos

“Mom? I’m waiting.” -Chaos

Contests, Randonymity

And I thought I bruised my credit card before…

48 Comments

Check out the Summer Stash Swap (but hurry – you have to leave a sign-up comment by June 30!) – besides the swap and the blog, there will be prizes.

Julie’s having a blogiversary contest – leave her a comment with a name suggestion for her new bag pattern before midnight 6/30 and you could win some sock-related goodies!

Deb has some bonus pictures of Chaos and May!

Ok, due to overwhelming pressure (*cough*Marina*cough*), I shall not continue with my tale of reaching Estes (stay tuned for that next week). Instead, I present… the purchases.

From Estes, clockwise from May’s nose, a big ol’ hank of Interlacements rayon-linen in some very unChrislike colors (should be enough for a tank top – they print you a customized pattern right in the booth), a skein of variegated wool from Plain & Fancy Wool, a ball of amazingly soft black 5% cashmere/95% merino laceweight, two skeins of cormo/alpaca that I’m going to dye sometime when I am feeling very brave, two skeins of Brooks Farm Four Play (50% silk/50% wool) (they may become a contest prize someday!), two skeins of the Brooks Farm Acero sock yarn, and a pair of cute sheep socks. Whew!

“Is it safe?! That hank of yarn is bigger than me!” -Mayhem

Chaos was quite taken with the cormo/alpaca.

“Mmmm… smells sheepy and alpaca-y!” -Chaos

Some yarns from my yarn crawling with Kristi (who has great pictures of some of our adventures) – black Berroco Suede (half off!), Panda cotton, and Panda wool. (The Panda yarns make really yummy socks – stretchy, but nowhere near as thick as Fixation.)

“Hmm, where to start, where to start…” -Mayhem

A bit more yarn – top row (Opal) from My Sister Knits in Ft. Collins (Opal without a label is half off) and the bottom two skeins are Jojoland Melody Superwash from Colorful Yarns in Centennial.

“I think the pink suits me best, don’t you? Plus it looks especially tasty.” -Mayhem

I also stopped at the Brown Sheep outlet near Scottsbluff, Nebraska, during my travels. I bought a few pounds of Cotton Fleece and Serendipity Tweed, a few skeins of Wildfoote, and a bit of Lamb’s Pride.

“Yowza! The other stuff must’ve been the appetizers – this sure looks like a main course.” -Mayhem

I also have a small weakness for bags and picked up a few of those along the way… Hmm, just realized that the laptop sleeve I purchased at the Sierra Trading Post outlet in Wyoming isn’t in that picture – well, it’s brown with black trim and light purple corduroy lining. (Edit: The bag on the far left is a Kavu Reversible Bag in black/lilac, now on clearance!)

No cats were interested in the bags.

You might have noticed that I’m a bit of a reader – here are the books that I purchased over vacation at various locations, including the Boulder Bookstore, High Crimes Mystery Bookshop, and Anthology Book Company.

“Good grief! Aren’t there already enough books stacked up around this place?!” -Chaos

“No kidding, big kitty. Pretty soon, between the books and the yarn, there won’t be room for us.” -Mayhem

“Hmph.” -Chaos and Mayhem

Alongs, Contests, Knitting

Vacation knitting

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Have a special knitting friend who could really use some gorgeous sock blockers? Nominate her/him in the comments over at Leggy Creations before noon EDT, June 30, and he/she might receive a set of special friendship sock blockers.

Kristi’s got a new etsy store, where she’ll be selling handcrafted personal care products. Leave her a comment about your favorite scent before midnight EDT on July 4 and you could be randomly selected to win some of her concoctions.

You can join the Tour de France KAL anytime before the Tour officially starts on July 7 – and you don’t need to be a bicycling fiend to participate. 🙂

Knitting
Oh, I had grand plans for all the knitting I would get done over vacation! I took all sorts of things along toward that end. Ha! I did about 2″ on my first July Sockamania sock (left, below) and I started the Meilenweit Colortweed sock (right, below) at Michaele’s Stumbling Over Chris party. That’s it.

“Knitting needles! Oh, how I missed our special time together while you were gone, Mom.” -Mayhem

“See? See how much I missed you? I am hugging your foot!” -Mayhem

“Whatever, May. You’re such a goof.” -Chaos

“You take that back, big kitty! I am not a goof!” -Mayhem