FO Friday -- Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Oh guys, I'm so sorry.  I totally fell off the face of the earth this month, and I apologize.  I did have some pretty good reasons, though...

Right before Stitches West, we found out that I was pregnant.  Right after I got back, we had an ultrasound that showed things were probably okay.  A week later, we had another that showed things were probably not okay.  A few days after that, Mr. Right had an accident at work that landed him in the hospital with a severed Achilles tendon. He had surgery to repair it, and is home and recovering.  While all this was happening, we found out that things were definitely not okay with the pregnancy.  Last week, we had a miscarriage.  It's okay.  Without going into too much detail, we got some encouraging news and we're hopeful.  We're both okay, just really trying to climb out of the last month's stuff. 

Anyway, when last we spoke, I was holding a contest to share part of my Stitches bounty, two skeins of gorgeous Alpenglow yarn. 

Thanks so much for all the comments and entries!  Man, I love having giveaways.  I especially like typing the numbers into the Random Number Generator.  Here's what it kicked out this time...

A quick perusal of the comments reveals that comment #11 was left by Cathy at Cat's Tale, all the way in Melbourne, Australia!  Big congratulations to you, Cathy!  I'll be mailing it this weekend, though there's really no telling how long the trip from Colorado to Australia will take.  I'm curious to see!

Anyway, things are beginning to return to normal around here, so you can expect to see me popping up more regularly again.  With knitting, even!  The mind boggles.  Until then, have a lovely weekend and go check out FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday for lots more yarniness.

FO Friday -- Free Yarn Edition

Okay, so I'm kinda cheating.  I don't actually have an FO to share with you all today, but (But!) I don't think you'll mind...

So, Stitches West was awesome this year (as always), and my trip to California was a blast.  I got to hang out with some of my favorite people, shop at my favorite grocery store, and eat my favorite tacos.  It doesn't get much better than that.

On Thursday night, we got our times muddled for the market preview, and showed up about an hour before it closed.  Despite a brief panic attack, we were able to get nearly all of our shopping done before the market closed.  Apparently, we're just very efficient. 

On Saturday, we took a class called "Switch to Continental".  The instructor was quite a character and there was quite a lot of eye-rolling going on, but by the time we left, I could purl in continental style.  I'm hoping to switch back and forth between Continental and English between projects for the sake of good ergonomics.  Plus which, it just looks kinda cool.

You know what's crazy?  I completely forgot to pull my camera from my bag at any point while we were at Stitches.  Sorry about that.  I did remember to take pictures of our field trip to the San Francisco Zoo, though! 

 

Oh, and the other thing I remembered to do while I was there was to buy some gorgeous yarn for y'all:

This is Alpenglow Yarn Sockerino in the English Lavender colorway.  It's just a tiny bit more muted than it looks in this picture, and it is awesome!  It's made in the US from 100% organic merino, and you all should consider yourselves very lucky that I have such epic self control that I didn't squirrel it away for myself when I got home.  If you'd like it to go home with *you*, just leave a comment on this entry between now and let's say 8pm (US Mountain Time) on March 14.  I'll use the trusty ol' random number generator and announce the winner in next week's FO Friday post.  Fair enough?  Oh, and leave a way for me to contact you in case you're the Winner!  

While you're waiting for my big announcement, go check out all the awesome entries over at FO Friday and Fiber Arts Friday.  Then go have a fantastic weekend!

Work In Progress Wednesday v.134

Hey guys!  I made it back from my California vacation/Stitches West trip just fine last week.  I had an amazing time as usual, and have been busy, busy, busy since I got home.  I didn't forget about you though, you'll have to come back on Friday for a trip recap and so you can enter to win the pretty, pretty yarn I bought for you.  It'll be worth the click, I promise.

For now, you'll have to settle for getting up to speed on the projects I've been working on lately.  I think I mentioned it, but a few weeks ago I brought my Peerie Flooers Mittens out of deep hibernation and started working on them again.  I love, love, love these, but I've learned something about myself:  I hate doing 2-handed colorwork on dpns.  It's ridiculously slow going for me, and also awkward and fiddly.  If I'm ever going to make all the fabulous colorwork mittens in my queue, I'm going to have to brush up on my magic looping.  Maybe that will be easier?

Anyway, mitten #1 is chugging along (No, really.  It is.) rather nicely...

I have high hopes to finish it this week, but we'll see if they materialize.

In other news, I started a Hermione's Everyday Sock to knit up on the plane and during down time on vacation.  I absolutely love the yarn, but it's a little bit fuzzy so the stitch definition isn't great.  I think I'm okay with it though.  It's such a pretty color, and sooo soft.

And yep.  This is me practicing my magic looping.  So far so good, but I'd be farther along on the sock if I had any clue how to work a heel on two needles.  I think I've got some youtube time in my near future.  It can't be that hard, right?

That's what's going on around these parts this Wednesday.  I'm still working on the Austin Hoodie, but haven't made any progress to speak of lately so you'll see it again when it's bigger.  Until then, go check out all the lovely projects on the needles and hooks over at WIPW.  See you Friday!

Work in Progress Wednesday v.98

Welcome to Crazytown, folks!  Here, it's WIPW, and I'm planning a lightspeed wedding, knitting more than I really should and hosting a giveaway(!) all at the same time!

Let's knock this out one thing at a time, shall we?  I'm still knitting Nympheas.  I still love it, but I'm ready to be done.  Unfortunately, the scarf is not.  Still growing, though...

And still made of super gorgeous yarn.  Not much to complain about here, for sure.

In other news (this is where the crazy comes in), everyone's been asking if I'm knitting for the wedding.  I keep saying, "Not really.  I don't have a ton of time.  I'm finishing Mr. Right's wedding socks, but that's about it."  After the 3rd or 4th time giving this little speech, I started to feel kind of sad.  And so.

There was thinking.  And since we're having our reception in Mr. Right's back yard, there was also yard work.  Then this:

Look!  An apple tree!  Right next to the gate where everyone will come into the party.  Wouldn't it be cute with something hanging on it?  What could I hang?

Hmm...

I had some lovely red yarn left over from my Hedgerow Socks...

and 2 skeins of Koigu that had planned to be a pair of Hedera Socks and were sacrificed without a backward glance since they were exactly the right shade of blue.

Wedding colors!  Must be fate.  They came together like so:

Puffs!  I am hereby declaring that I will make mumbledy dozen red and blue hexipuffs to hang on the apple tree for our wedding reception.  Afterward, I will lovingly stitch them into the blanket, and we'll have a little bit of our wedding in the quilt.  How sappy and sentimental and awesome and crazy is that?

I've made 2 so far (Yeah.  I know).  It turns out that working the heart chart into the puff sort of pulls it out of the usual hex shape, but I'm trying not to worry too much about that.  It doesn't look terrible, right?

Anyway, I think I can work 8 or 10 of them into my beekeeper's quilt, and maybe I'll organize some sort of puff swap with the rest.  Cross y'er fingers for me!

Speaking of wedding (lucky for you guys I'm having a short engagement and you only have to put up with this nonsense for another 2 months or so)...

Last week, I noted the following details that were in process:

Invitations:  Done!  SO Fun!

Cake:  Decided!  Yay!

Cake Topper:  Done!  Amazing!  See?

(This one's not ours, this awesome artist is making one just for us, with red and blue, of course)

Guest Book:  Decided!  Yay!

Then there was this little pile of stuff that I had NO IDEA how to proceed with:

Flowers:  Done! Being gifted to us by the woman who's sort of been my surrogate mom.  She has A Plan.  And excellent taste. I'm SUCH a lucky girl.

Photography:  Done!  Being gifted to us by the same surrogate mom who's enlisted her former professional photographer son to come out and take pictures of our wedding.  Did I mention LUCKY?

Music:  Still in process, but fingers crossed.  (as an aside:  Total # of songs suggested in last week's comments:  0.  Ah well.)

Finally, I'm also hooking up this week to Yarn Along, because I'm reading an actual book (shocking!).  And it's not just any book...

The Infinite Tides was released yesterday.  It was written by my very old and very awesome friend, Christian Kiefer.  I've known Chris since 7th grade, and he's totally hit it out of the park with his first novel.  According to Publisher's Weekly.  And Kirkus Reviews.  And Booklist.

I'm so happy and excited for my friend that I bought 2 copies of his book.  I'm keeping one of them for ever and ever.  And I'm giving the other one away (to you?)!  To enter, just leave a comment on this entry.  The giveaway is open until 8pm Colorado time, next Tuesday, June 26.  I'll happily ship anywhere in the whole wide world.  Easy peasy!  If you win, and you love the book, I hope you'll give it a little mention on your blog. 

S'all for me this week!  Must. Knit. Puffs!!!

Stitches West Giveaway -- Winner! Winner! Winner!

Happy Saturday, y'all!

The deadline for the Madeline Tosh giveaway passed this morning, and we have a winnah!  The trusty random number generator from random.org coughed this up:

Comment #29 was left by the lovely Sarah at On Being A Knitwit!  Yay, Sarah!  As soon as Sarah sends me her contact information, I'll be dropping this in the mail to her:

Big thanks everyone else for stopping by and entering.  I was a little shocked at how many folks dropped their name into the hat for this giveaway -- Way more than in my first and second giveaways combined.  Rest assured, there will be another one at some point this year.  They're too much fun not to do on a regular basis. 

Happy weekend, you guys!

FO Friday -- Epic Cuteness Edition

This FO Friday/Fiber Arts Friday brings us to the last of the super secret swap gifts that were sent off to the UK, presumably by carrier pigeon judging by the amount of time they took to reach their destination...

Anyway, I had been DYING for an excuse to knit one of Ysolda's Mousies for ages.  They're so stinking cute!  And since my swap partner not only shared her household with, but also seemed pretty smitten by an actual house cat, I figured this was my shot.

And so I started knitting heavy fingering weight yarn on size 0 dpns, which instantly seemed like a bad idea.  But the cuteness made me persevere.  And so I did.  This is what popped out:

Squee!  Sue me, I like the bum picture the best.  Since he was intended for a cat, I stuffed him with catnip stashed in nylon, and a bit of toy stuffing, too.  His front side is also cute...

But, I had some major difficulties with the french knots for his eyes.  The first came off instantly looking exactly as pictured in the instructions.  The second did not, and did not, and did not.  So his left eye was a tiny bit wonky.  I loved him anyway.

And it's rumored that the cat was pretty pleased, as well.  So, mission accomplished! 

Oh, and one more thing:  In case you missed it -- Enter a comment on this post (ETA:  That's a link to the contest post -- Just want to make sure folks aren't posting comments on this FO Friday post to be entered -- Sorry for the confusion!!)  to win a skein of Madeline Tosh yarn!  But do it fast, the contest closes at 8 am MST on Saturday (yep, that's tomorrow).

Work in Progress Wednesday v.83

Howdy, peeps!  It was springtime in Colorado today, sunshine-y and warm and lovely.  But by the time you read this it will be cold and snowing, as Wednesday's high temperature is supposed to be just less than half of Tuesday's.  Ah well, I guess that's what makes it Spring, right?

Speaking of Spring, I've been trying in vain to get Narragansett moving along fast enough so that I'll actually be able to wear it this year.  So far, it's not looking that good...

I've just finished the raglan increases (this is a top down pattern), and am about to separate for the sleeves.  Maybe another inch or so, I think.  I'm also about 3/4 of the way through the first skein of yarn, so I think we'll be good on that front.

The modified eyelets aren't really that eyelet-y, but I don't think I mind too much.  I do love the cable that runs along the raglan, though.

That's it on the knitting front this week.  Hopefully, things will look much more exciting by next week.  And, I'm tentatively planning on tinking the stupid mittens this week too, and trying once again to get some forward progress rolling.  No promises, though!  There's a new pair of socks calling my name, and the promise of no tinking baggage and new yarn is a pretty powerful draw.  You'll just have to check back next week to see which way things went.

Finally, in case you missed the post on Monday, I'm giving away a skein of Madeline Tosh Merino Light this week, and you have until Saturday morning to enter.  Go check it out!  And then go visit all the other WIPW folks and see what they're up to this week.  Knowing them, it's probably something exciting.

Stitches West 2012 -- and a giveaway!

Well, that was fun!  But first, a bit of back story...  About a thousand years ago, when I lived in northern Caifornia, and our company was publishing a knitting book for kids, my friend BB and I learned to knit  by testing instructions for it.  Excited about our new-found hobby, we went to a knitting show that had rolled into town called Stitches West.  Talk about sensory overload!  I remember looking around with my mouth hanging open and whispering to BB, "What's she doing???" She was knitting a sock.  On dpns.  Ha!  We walked around for a bit, bought a bit of stuff that I never used and left. 

Flash forward 10 or so years and we're both pretty obsessed knitters, only now she lives in New Hampshire, and I live in Colorado, and we both knit a whole lotta socks.  Since Stitches fell on my birthday this year, I suggested we meet out there, see all our old friends and do Stitches v.2.  Remarkably, she agreed! 

So last weekend, we met out on the coast and got to see all our old coworkers, and eat our way across the bay area.  It was bliss.  On Thursday night, we headed for the Market Preview, where folks who're signed up for at least one class get exclusive admission to the market vendors before the doors are opened to the public.  We were not alone (but we are in this pic, see if you can spot my red Angostura!)


(photo from the Stitches West Flickr set)

While we were there, we stopped by the Cascade Yarns booth, and since we were both wearing sweaters knit with Cascade, they took our picture and it popped up on their Facebook page today.  Too funny!

 We did some serious damage at all the zillions of vendors, and still made it out in time for a late dinner.  The market preview by itself is worth the price of a class, IMHO.  It was so nice to shop without having to fight big crowds! 

On Friday morning, we showed up bright and early for a class taught by Cookie A, which was also pretty awesome.  We learned all about reading cable charts intuitively, without having to consult the symbol key all the tine.  It was very cool, and Cookie was a fabulous teacher. 

A little more shopping after class, then we spent the rest of the weekend catching up with old friends and squishing our new yarn.  It was, all in all, a fabulous vacation.

Wanna see what I got?  I hope so, because you're gonna have to wade through all of it to get to the giveaway at the end of the post!

First up was 5 skeins of Malabrigo Merino Worsted in the blue graphite colorway.  It's such a pretty dark blue gray, a bit more navy than in this picture.

I found this at the Carolina Homespun booth, where they went waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of their way for me and then gave me a screaming deal on all of it. 

And other than that, the yarn shopping was pretty much all Madtosh all the time for me.  Since I'm pretty much a cheapskate when I buy yarn, and since it was my birthday, I gave myself an unlimited yarn budget for the weekend.  Throwing caution to the wind resulted in this:

It's Tosh Vintage in Mica, which I bought to knit Skelf. 

And also this: 

Tosh sock in Calligraphy.  I bought a skein of this stuff at Loopy Ewe last month, and then decided I really needed enough to make an Austin Hoodie out of it.  That, my friends is a LOT of teensy stitches in a sweater, but I think it will be worth it.

Finally, I got another screaming deal:

2 skeins of Mini Mochi in colorway #307.  Catchy name, no?  Anyway, I love the first Mini Mochi socks I knit, so I decided another pair would be a good idea, especially for half price.

I had to break up all that yarn buying with some books, just for the sake of variety, and so came home with these:

We were even able to get our books signed by Alana Dakos, who was incredibly nice.  I'm dying to knit at least 3 of these sweaters, and all of the patterns are pretty awesome.

And this, because we all know about how much I <3 Ysolda...

I even got an awesome knitting-y birthday present while I was out there.  BB made me the prettiest project bag...

It's even lined!

That's all I bought for me this trip (not too bad since I wasn't on a budget!), but I had to buy a skein for you guys to share a little of the Stitches love!  Here it is:

That's right, more Madeline Tosh.  This is Tosh Merino Light, a fingering weight, in the Dahlia colorway, and here's what you have to do to make it yours:  Leave a comment on this post before 8 am MST on Saturday, March 10.  Easy peasy.  I'll ship it anywhere you are if you're the winner. 

Okay, one more thing:  When I got home, I got to open my birthday present from Mr. Right.  A new camera!  Which takes pretty pictures, including some of the birthday cake he baked me all by himself:

And a gratuitous shot of last night's epic sunset.  Pretty spectacular birthday, all in all!

FO Friday -- Scrub a Dub Edition

Wow, it's been aaaaaaages since I got to take part in an FO Friday!  And now that Tink is opening all of her swap gifts, I have a little bit of a back up of FOs to Friday about.  Which is pretty awesome if you ask me.

This week...  Wash cloths!  One of the gifts I stuck in the box was spa-related:  a bar of pomegranate scented soap from a local soap maker (soapsmith?), and 2 knitted wash cloths.  I've had my eye on the Summer in Asheville pattern for ages, so I decided to dive in with a skein of Knit Picks Dishie in the pomegranate (total coincidence, honest) colorway.  I didn't look at the pattern much before diving in, becaue hey... it's a wash cloth.  Right?  Yeah, not so much.

It's also a 2-sided lace pattern which required a lot more concentration than I bargained for.  So we had a few false starts.  But in the end, we had a pretty, purple-y (much more wine-colored than this washed out picture) wash cloth, so yay.

Next up was Exfoliate!  A Dalek wash cloth, for all those Dr. Who fans out there.  I'd seen somewhere a reference Tink made to Dr. Who, so I figured it was a good bet.  Also, it looked easy.  Once again... not so much.  The pattern was easy enough, but all those stupid bobbles were enough to make my head spin.  Turns out they're not so fun to knit.  Who knew?

All in all, though, it turned out pretty well.  This one's also in Dishie, this time in the Flamingo colorway.  Just as an aside about the yarn... Awesome.  I'm not a fan of knitting with cotton, but this stuff is amazing.  It's really soft, the colors are great, and the price is comparable to the stuff you'd find at a big box craft store.  I'm glad I like it so much, because I accidentally ordered 5 skeins when I bought it.  Oops.

Pretty though, no?  I'm planning on knitting a small army of dish cloths for us, since the green Snoopy cloth sees tons of use in the kitchen. I'm sure I'll get right on that any minute now.  No, really.

In other news, and in case you missed it on Wednesday, there will be a Stitches West recap up at some point this weekend, complete with a few bad photos, a review of the epic pile-o-purchases (I had FUN!), and a giveaway of a skein of Madeline Tosh that I picked out just for you guys.  Because I love you.  So come back and enter, okay?   For now, go check out all the other FO fabulousness happening at Tami's blog today (ETA: and Fiber Arts Friday, too!).  There's tons of it!                                                                                                                                      

WIPW v.27 - and a Giveaway Winner!

First things first:  Thanks SO much to everyone who entered last Wednesday's pattern giveaway, and especially to everyone who wandered over to Eskimimi's blog to offer cheering thoughts and snag some amazing deals on patterns.  14 folks entered the giveaway for my extra Snowbaby Hat pattern, and here's what Random.org's number generator well... generated:

Lucky #7 is bbatting!  The Snowbaby Hat pattern has been zapped off to you this evening.  Enjoy!

And now for those pesky works in progress...  The Burbery Inspired Cowl is all done, save for grafting the ends together, so we'll save the pictures for Friday.  Suffice to say, this was a super quick knit, and I'm excited to wear it.

In other news, the cable lace vest situation isn't as dire as previously thought.  Phew!  Turns out I was supposed to measure from the side, not from the front (where there were loads of short rows put in), and the length isn't too far from where it should be.

I have to say, I'm not loving this pattern.  It has complicated instructions that look like this:

BO 5 sts at beg of nxt row, work 1 row even, then BO 5 at beg of next row. Then dec 1 st at armhole edge on every row 5 times, then every other row 3 times.  AT THE SAME TIME: dec 1 st at neck edge on nxt row, then every 6th row 3 times,then every 8th row once.

And that's just too much for my wee little head to track all at once.  So I've resorted to this:

High tech, no?  Writing it by hand helps me to process, but I can't quite see how I'm going to squeeze all of these 1 jillion rows into the next 4" of knitting.  There's also at least one  error in the pattern which left me confused for a while.  Bleh.  I'll pick it up again soon, as I'm determined to get it done.  I'm just worried it's not going to fit at all, but we'll see...

My other WIP this week is my stash.  I got all excited to post new pics to the 2011 Flash Your Stash thread on Ravelry, and so took a new stash picture:

I was dismayed to find that the current stash is actually smaller *gasp* than last year's...

How can that be?

But, if you look closely, you'll see that there's been quite a bit of turnover from one year to the next, which made me feel a little bit better.  This also made me feel a little bit better...

I had no choice, really.  The scrawny stash needed feeding!  And two skeins isn't all that much.  And I'm in LOVE with the colors.  And I'll be casting on new socks tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

And now, if you've made it through all of that babbling, go check out everyone else's WIPW entries for this week.  They're probably less wordy.

FO Friday - Thank Goodness Edition

I can't remember the last time I was so glad to see a Friday come along.  Yay for weekends!  I'm extra happy because I actually have something to share.  I put the finishing touches on the Chevalier Mittens last weekend, and not a moment too soon.  I sat on Mr. Right's porch on Saturday, working the decreases and soaking up the sun.  By Monday afternoon, it was snowing like crazy and the temperature had dropped below zero.

Needless to say, these mittens were pressed into service without even the thought of a blocking (which is why they're already a little fuzzy looking around the edges).  I haven't taken them off in days.  And they're super warm.  And soft.  And I love them.  Even though I noticed a boo boo on mitten #2 just as I was finishing the thumb.  I (very) briefly entertained the idea of frogging and fixing, decided my hands were cold and carried on.  I'm mostly okay with it, and super thankful to have had them.  Here's a better look at the details:



... on the non-wonky mitten, of course.  Just because I'm okay with it doesn't mean I want to show it off!  I'm really happy with them overall, and fully expect to knit another pair at some point.

Also, in case you missed it on Wednesday, I'm holding a Wee Giveaway between now and next Tuesday night.  Details are on the post, but the nitty gritty is this:  I have an extra copy of Eskimimi's Snowbaby Hat pattern that I'm giving away for the low price of leaving a comment on the appropriate entry, and then visiting Eskimimi's blog to check out her awesome pattern sale or offer some cheering thoughts.  Enter!  Win!

And then go check out all of the beautiful stuff folks are churning out over at FO Friday.  And then have a super happy weekend (phew! that's quite a to do list for you)!

WIPW v.26 - and a Wee Giveaway!

Brrrrrr.  It's cold.  Like really. really cold.  As in, the last time the thermometer crawled past 0 (that's "zero", folks) was some time on Monday afternoon.  This California girl is not accustomed to sub-zero temps, and not intending to become accustomed, thankyouverymuch.

All that to say I finished the Chevalier mittens last weekend!  So you don't get to see them until Friday.  And then we can all play "Spot The Boo Boo" because I didn't see it until I was binding off and my hands were too cold to frog back and fix it.  It's making me twitch a little bit, but I'm trying to live with it.  They are keeping my hands pretty warm in the midst of all this weather, so I guess I can't complain too much.

I made some good progress on the Cable Lace Vest this week, but Houston... We have a problem.

I reached the end of the bust increases and am ready to divide for the armholes now.  So I took a good hard look at the pattern.  I'm supposed to continue on until the length is 20".  Umm.  Right.  I'd say it's right around 24" right now.  Le sigh. 

What I really need to do is sit down and go over the numbers, check the gauge, make sure I'm measuring from the right place, and make a concrete plan for next steps.  What I did instead was cast on for the Burberry Inspired Cowl that's been sitting on my Ravelry favorites list for ages.  Did I mention it's cold here?

I have 2 skeins of grey alpaca yarn that I bought at the National Western Stock Show a couple of weekends ago that are SO soft.  And I had the right size needles (even if they are my mom's 20 year old plastic needles that have no point whatsoever at the tips).  And as I think I might've mentioned, it's COLD.  I think that totally justifies it.

So last night, I learned how to do a provisional cast on using this video.  Apparently, there are eleventy billion ways to do a provisional cast on, but this one seemed straightforward and worked even though I had to switch it around and do it left-handed.  Bonus.  So at lunch today, I cast on and worked the first handful of rows.  It seems like it'll take about as long to knit the cowl as it will to graft the stitches together when I'm finished.  And the fact that it's an incredibly simple pattern that I can knit while multi-tasking is attractive, too.  In short, I'm loving it.

And I must say, the color of the leftover mitten yarn that I used for the cast-on looks lovely with the grey cowl yarn.  Hmm....  Maybe a pair of striped fingerless mitts with leftovers?  I'll have to give that some thought.

Oh! And I almost forgot:  Yesterday, I stumbled across a giveaway sponsored by the lovely and talented Eskimimi from Eskimimi knits, the Blog Hub group on Ravelry.  She's giving away some gorgeous handspun yarn.  She's also having a bit of a rough go at the moment and is having a huge sale on all of her patterns.  I bought the whole lot for $10, which is a screaming deal.  And,

*****THIS IS THE FREE GIVEAWAY PART (in case you want to skip to the chase)*****

...Since I already purchased the Snowbaby Hat Pattern to knit for Mr. Right's mom for Christmas, I now have two of them.  So I'm giving one away.  Leave a comment on this post, and go visit Eskimimi's blog to see if there's anything that suits your fancy (no purchase required) between now and midnight Colorado time next Tuesday.  I'll randomly draw a winner who'll receive my extra Snowbaby Hat Pattern.  Easy peasy.  I'm happy to send the PDF anywhere, and if you'd rather have a hard copy, I'll even print it out and mail it off - also anywhere.

Once you've left your comment, head over and check out all of the other WIPW folks this week. There are a ton of cool projects to see!

Disclaimer:  This giveaway is sponsored by no one but me.  I didn't even ask Eskimimi's permission, though I might should've.  Hope she doesn't mind...