Category Archives: Contests

Contests, Randonymity

In which I show off some yarn and goodies

36 Comments

KnittyMama is having a contest to celebrate moving her blog and that everyone in her family has birthdays over the next few weeks. Leave a comment with a birthday story or just wish the KnittyFamily happy birthday by midnight CDT, April 15, and you could win DPN rolls or yarn!

Ages and ages ago, KnitNZu sent me a little thank you package with a cute little bag she made (very handy for carrying knitting miscellania), as well as some black and purple cotton yarn and an amusing card. Thank you, KnitNZu!

“That card is so right. Big kitty and I will have to get that Dealing with Difficult Owners book.” -M

Blogless Jan decided I needed some cheering up and she sure knows how to manage that!

“Mayhem! Bring back Feathers McGraw!” -me

*mumble* -M

Please note that no penguins were hurt in the previous escapade – Feathers McGraw was rescued before coming to harm. Jan also sent some lovely pictures of her cat Merry, a gluten-free brownie mix (yum!), and a very cute little sheep purse. Thank you, Jan – you definitely brought a smile to my face!

I’ve also picked up some yarn recently… (I’n sure Marina’s saying “I knew it!”) Hmm, maybe this isn’t the best picture of my acquisitions…

“Stand back, May. This is work for an experienced yarn sniffer.” -C

“Whatever, big kitty.” -M

I guess this picture is a little better… From the top left, a skein of Seacoast Merino Sock, Coal and Fire, from Yarn4Socks. May’s head is mostly obstructing a lovely skein of purple superwash bluefaced leicester from Maeve at Knitting Musings (Maeve has a much better picture, with no feline obstructions – Cricket must be slacking off!). On the bottom, Regia Crazy Colors in Passion and Regia Nation Colors in Fun Nation (both from Yarn4Socks). (Yes, yes, I know I’ve already knit a pair of socks from Fun Nation. What can I say? I’m a sucker for those wide stripes…)

“Ha – I can sniff yarn just as well as the big kitty. In fact, I’m sure I do it with more panache and definitely with more tail!” -M

Contests

Contests! Contests! Get your contests here!

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Stickchicky is giving away a copy of The Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting (and maybe some other goodies, too). Leave a comment before 11 pm EDT on March 22 and you could win.

Limedragon is celebrating her blogiversary. Leave a comment by midnight CDT, March 23, and you could win a skein of Socks That Rock.

Shirley is celebrating her blogiversary. Leave her a comment or send her an email stating that you’re entering the contest and how you found her blog, and you could win some Finnish chocolate.

Kat moved her blog – leave a comment at Super Guppy (formerly For My Next Project…) by March 27 and you could win a fibery prize.

Domesticat is attempting to revive the lost art of writing letters. If you miss receiving letters in the mail and think you could write two letters in the next month, let her know before March 30.

Jennie is organizing a mix cd swap, possibly with yarn involved. Let her know if you’re interested in participating. Y’all know that I am so in, right?

Good grief, that’s a lot going on, isn’t it?! I was going to actually post something, but I think I’ll save it for Thursday or Friday now.

Oh, and I’m told that Chaos and May are taking a blog vacation day. Sorry.

Contests

And the winners are…

34 Comments

Meg is having a “name that band” contest – based on the clues presented here and here, see if you can guess the name of the band and win a yarny prize. The contest deadline has been extended to midnight CDT on 3/23.

Amy is having a Buffy the Vampire Slayer related contest for her blogiversary celebration. Check out the details and leave a comment by Saturday, March 24, to have a chance to win Victorian Knitting Today, Addi lace knitting needles, and Buffy goodies.

Thanks to everyone who left a story for my contest – I never imagined that I would get to read so many wonderful tales! I’m definitely thinking that I need to include more personal history moments on my blog – and I hope to read more on yours. Without further ado, as selected by the random number generator, here are the five winners:

Oh, yes, Chaos would like a word with some of you.

“I can’t believe some of you thought I would actually eat that kitten! She’s all furry – ewwwww! And I’m not sure how I would attach the can opener to her, since she’s really wiggly. I am so disappointed in you.” -C

Contests, Randonymity

“I waver from the dead to the half dead.”

27 Comments

Update: Let’s try this again – apparently I managed to set this post as Private earlier. Whoops… Sorry! See the next paragraph……..

That quote from Atmosphere’s song “Smart Went Crazy” sums up how I still feel after the time change. Why is this so hard?! Actually, until I just looked up the lyrics, I’d always thought it was “I wake up from the dead to the half dead,” which I thought was absolutely perfect. Ah well.

Vicki Knitorious is having a contest to celebrate her blogiversary. Guess how many posts and comments she will have when she sits down to post on the first day of spring, and you could win a copy of Cables Untangled. Leave your guess through March 18.

Stephania’s giving away the socks she knitted for Sock Madness! If you have size 7 feet (about 8.5 inches long), leave a comment by noon CDT, March 16, and you could have some brand new spiffy socks.

Michelle is having a contest to name the cute sheep figurine she got. If the name you suggest by March 31 is picked, you could win fibery goodies.

Keana is having a blogversary contest! Leave a comment by 5 pm March 16 and you could win some Rowan or some of her own hand dyed sock yarn.

My apologies to the folks subscribed to my atom feed – the plugin that I’m using to keep the contest reminder up at the top of my blog seems to ping Bloglines every few hours, making it look like that post has been edited. Definitely time to ask the plugin creator about that…

Thanks for all the feedback on my RPM socks – I kept going with the STR and am about 2″ into the cuff.

Other than that, I got nothin’ today. Brain is a sleepy blank… I think Chaos has the right idea. Do you think my boss would notice if I followed his lead and took a little catnap under my desk?

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -C

Contests, Knitting, Project Spectrum, Reading

Tired Tuesday

22 Comments

Teyani is having a contest to celebrate her new blog home! Leave a comment by midnight PST on 3/15 and you could win two skeins of Sock Hop yarn.

KnitNZu is having a contest – her 250th commenter will win two skeins of fingering weight Claudia’s Handpainted.

And remember – I’m having a contest! Leave your comments at the contest post by 5 pm CDT, March 19. And if you haven’t stopped by and read the comments – what are you waiting for? They’re brilliant! I hope everyone is having as much fun leaving comments as I am reading them.

Reading Update
Death of a Butterfly by Margaret Maron. I love the Sigrid Harald books, but they’re older and hard to find at my library or used bookstores…
Murder with Peacocks and No Nest for the Wicket by Donna Andrews. More Meg Langslow mysteries! I realized while reading Murder with Peacocks (the very first Meg mystery) how rare it is that I laugh out loud while reading. In Murder with Peacocks, Meg is home for the summer, doing all the grunt work for the three weddings (!!!) in which she is the maid of honor. No Nest for the Wicket (the most recent book) features an eXtreme croquet match…
24 Declassified: Veto Power and 24 Declassified: Cat’s Claw by John Whitman. Hee hee – really, not a lot to say about these. I guess they’re a guilty little not-so-secret pleasure. 😉

Knitting Update
I finally knit my little blanket for HollYarns and Cyrano’s Creature Comforts Drive over the weekend. (You have plenty of time – the deadline is June 2.) I’ve been meaning to and meaning to… and then I realized that my yarn was perfect for the current Project Spectrum color theme. Yup. That was all it took to get me knitting… Anyway! This is about 24″x24″ – I cast on 65 or 66 stitches of doubled Encore worsted on a US13 needle and knit until I had a square. This fortunately coincided pretty closely with running out of yarn. 🙂

*streeeeeeeeeetch* -M

I wish I’d taken the following picture at a higher resolution, so that you could see how long May’s little kitty eyelashes are. Awwww….

“What?! This isn’t staying here for moi?! Hmph. How can everything always be mine if this isn’t?” -M

Contests

The SoC “But since I wasn’t blogging then…” contest

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One thing about blogging – it allows us to document and share all sorts of ephemera that would otherwise slip away unnoticed by anyone else. Sometimes that might be for the best, but usually, it’s those fleeting glimpses into your lives that really help me feel close to all of you. Hopefully that isn’t just me! 😉

Allow me to present the Stumbling Over Chaos “But since I wasn’t blogging then…” contest. Think of something that happened before you started blogging, something that, had you been blogging, you would have shared with us. Describe that event in a comment to this post before 5 pm CDT (ack!), Monday, March 19. (If you don’t blog, this contest will be particularly easy!)

What? You want me to start? Ok. Back when the Chaos Kitty was a wee kitten (only about 8 pounds or so, instead of the strapping 16 pounds he is now), he started to climb my long summer weight bathrobe (made from a nice textured t-shirt material), which was hanging on the back of my bedroom door. It was winter or early spring, so I wasn’t wearing that bathrobe and didn’t pay any attention to it. After the weather started to warm up, I pulled the bathrobe from its hook to discover that it was now a swiss cheese style bathrobe! Apparently, when an 8-pound kitten repeatedly climbs stretchy, lightweight fabric, there are dire consequences for said fabric. My poor bathrobe suddenly wasn’t good for covering much of anything and I had to throw it away. Now, if I had been blogging back then, I would’ve thoroughly documented this (although I would’ve been dressed underneath the robe, sheesh), as I have documented other tales of Chaotic naughtiness, but since I wasn’t blogging then…

And since I wasn’t blogging back during the memorable summer that I went on over 30 coffee dates (oh, the magic of internet dating… heh), you’ll all just have to wonder what the blow by blow on that would’ve been like. A hint – I went on maybe two second dates and no third dates. The tagline for my blog? Not joking!

Anyway. Winners will be selected by random number and there will be an assortment of prizes. No non-knitters will be forced to take yarn, unless, of course, they’re interested in learning to knit.

A bag of Briggs & Little Atlantic in mulberry (10 skeins, 1350 yards total):

“The tags make excellent snacks!” -M

“But what I really want is to get into that bag!” -M

A skein of Sunshine Yarns sock yarn in Denim:

“This looks like a fun toy, too…” -M

A skein of Trekking XXL, color 144:

“…or this…” -M

A skein of Dicentra Designs superwash sock yarn in Kingsfoil:

“You are so mean, not letting me play with these, Mom!” -M

A copy of Knitting Rules!, autographed by the Yarn Harlot herself to “Friend of Chaos”:

“Stay away from this one, May, because it’s all about me.” -C

Contests, Knitting, Project Spectrum

Of Meilenweit and Mayhem

38 Comments

Aija is having a contest to celebrate her Space Invaders-themed socks appearing in the new knitty! Contribute a few lines to the Choka and you could win some really great stuff from etsy!

KnitWit Kelly is having a contest to help her find her knitting inspiration again – leave a comment by March 13 telling her why you knit, and you could win some yarn, music, and a bracelet!

Recently, I picked up some new Meilenweit Meeting because I thought it looked like a nice Project Spectrum color combination. Unfortunately, after I started knitting it, I realized I hated the colors. The blues slightly clash and there’s not enough grey or black to balance that (for me, at least). So I ripped out this fledgling sock Wednesday evening. (Hopefully none of you got too attached to it.)

“I can see an Addi!” -M

I turned to my stash and discovered some Meilenweit Fun that had plenty of blue and grey to qualify for Project Spectrum. I’m using Craftaholic’s Mata Hari socks pattern (not the charted pattern in that link – it’s explained in text a bit further down). I took these pictures right before ripping the sock back so I could knit another plain row or two between the lace rows so the socks will be a bit warmer and, well, less lacy.

“Maybe if I am very, very sneaky…” -M

“See how sneaky I am? Look out, Addi – you are mine!” -M

Contests, Knitting

This post not suitable for those sensitive to Addis in peril

48 Comments

Sorry for anyone who was worried that I didn’t post yesterday! I coughed most of Monday night, so when the alarm went off Tuesday morning, I called work, said I’d be in at noon, and went back to sleep. Much better!

Mim needs a name for her new camisole pattern – if your name is selected, you could win yarn, some soap, and one of Mim’s patterns!

Heather is helping to raise money for books for an impoverished South African school, which is the sister school to the Montessori school Heather’s daughter attends. If you pledge $20, Heather will send you a skein of her hand-dyed All Things Heather sock yarn. If you pledge $25, she will dye special yarn for you. But really, any amount will help. Deadline is March 19.

The polls are open in La’s DeFeet of Cuteness contest. So hard to decide! So many cute feet! Polls close March 9 at 5 pm PST.

I finished my Jailbreak Jaywalkers. True, true, they aren’t quite finished in the pictures, but they’re finished now and waiting for a little bath.

“Those are some pretty crazy socks, Mom!” -M

The sock on the left was knit from the outside of the ball of Opal Zebra. The sock on the right was knit from the center. Who knows if that led to the dramatic difference in the cuffs between the two socks! These socks definitely grew on me as I was knitting them, especially when I discovered the dramatic changes adding a few stitches made – the feet were knit on 72 stitches and I increased to 84 for the cuffs.

“Let me just sneak in here and work my magic on this yarn…” -M
*sound of shooing off-camera*

“Hmph, if you’re going to shoo me away, I’ll go after the ball itself.” -M
*sound of shooing off-camera*

“Sheesh, Mom, you leave me no choice but to go after the needle!” *chomp* -M
*sound of shrieking off-camera*

Contests, Randonymity, Reading

*cough cough cough*

59 Comments

Eve is conducting a comic-reading study and is looking for participants. If you participate by March 31, you could win some yarn! You don’t have to be a knitter to participate – presumably no non-knitters would be forced to take yarn.

I can’t possibly be the only WordPress blogger getting crushed by comment spam, can I?! I swear, I must’ve had 3,000 spam comments in the past week. I have added the Worst Offenders plugin for Akismet to see if that helps make things more manageable – so far, so good. I know a lot of people use Bad Behavior, but when I tried it for a day or two, it blocked many legitimate commenters, so it has been banished. Other than Spam Karma or adding a verification word, do any of you have good tips for fighting comment spam?

Reading Update
Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos, We’ll Always Have Parrots, and Owls Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews. Three more Meg Lanslow mysteries, as our brave blacksmith takes on a Revolutionary War reenactment, a sci-fi convention, and a 30-family yard sale. These are fun, goofy, and well-written; I’m enjoying them!
Don’t Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Think chicklit meets 24. Can a stoic Green Beret and a woman who makes dog food commercials find true love?

Here are a few pictures of our parking lot from inside my car when I finally ventured out into the snowy world on Saturday. Our plowing company is so in trouble.

I have a cold again. Blech. Alas, I can’t take stuff like Airborne, which is not recommended for people who have autoimmune disorders, so I’m toughing it out. Chaos is very unhappy about my cold.

“Mom, you keep sneezing and coughing and you scare me and I have to run away and hide and then it looks like I’m a ‘fraidy cat! Hmph. You’re bad for my image.” -C

“Face it, big kitty, you are a ‘fraidy cat! It’s just coughing and sneezing. What’s the big deal?” -M

Alongs, Contests, Knitting, Project Spectrum

Snow is Project Spectrum, right?!

40 Comments

Margene is celebrating her third blogiversary! Leave her a comment revealing a little secret about yourself and you could win some fibery prizes on March 14.

Sundara is celebrating the first anniversary of Sundara Yarn. Guess how many skeins of yarn she’s dyed in the first year – submit your guesses by March 7 and you could win some very yummy yarn!

It’s very snowy here. That truck hadn’t been parked there more than 60 minutes yesterday when I took this picture. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the snow falling (use the truck as a backdrop). This morning? The cars look like snow banks. I’m working from home again today. 🙂

While I was looking out the window at the snow, I got this cute picture of Mayhem’s little kitty arms:

Awwww…

I started another pair of socks earlier this week, using some Opal Zebra. This yarn is boring me (why is it more interesting in the ball than when knit?!), but at least it fits the Project Spectrum theme (the white). The foot is plain, but I’m knitting the cuffs in the Jaywalker pattern.

“Dum-de-dum-de-dum… oh, look, some yarn on the floor again.” *yawn* -C

I joined FiberFlix. There are two films for March – you can watch Run Lola Run (my personal choice) and/or Logan’s Run. Fitting the theme of motion, I’m knitting the previously mentioned Jaywalkers and will also be starting some RPMs from my first Sundara Sock Club yarn, Lenten Rose (also a very Project Spectrum color – sort of a greyish plum).

“You put this yarn by me and you expect me to be good?! As if!” -M

“I mean, look at that tasty yarn cake!” -M

“Mmmm… yarn cake…” -M

I quickly rescued the yarn at that point!