Knitting in pink

Today is my 200th post... We have winners!

Please congratulate Jen C and Kristen (Jen C appears to be blogless), they got today's date right! Since there were 2 right answers I decided to create another prize so that I could reward both. So Jen C and Kristen, if you still read this blog and do so before you receive my email, please send me your mailing addy so I can send you your prizes! (my email address is in the left sidebar)

One of you will win the Vesper Astro and the other will win the Yarn Pirate Calamity. Congratulations to both of you!

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On today's Etsy Friday I will show you my latest purchases.

I ordered this cute little card for my Monkey Sock Swap pal from The Paper Crown. I thought the monkeys swinging in the branches were just adorable. You can't really tell in the picture but I had them write "To my Monkey Sock Swap Pal!" in the front. You can see it better here. I also received these 2 cute little pins and a flower sticker.



I also ordered a set of lettered stitch markers from Hide and Sheep in preparation of getting the book "New Pathways for Sock Knitting" by Cat Bordhi.



The stitch markers were safely packaged in the little tin. Now I guess I just have to buy the book and I'll be ready to go! : )

I made another purchase (non-etsy) that I'd like to share with you. A few weeks ago I found this blog: Good Natured Ribbing where multiple bloggers post. One of them, Beth just opened an online store with her husband, Knitzi. They currently sell 2 products: Knitzis and bags. If you knit your socks on double pointed needles, or use them for anything else, you really gotta check Knitzi out. They came up with a very pretty way of traveling with your sock in progress. Since I don't use dpns I went and bought one of their bags!



It's the perfect size for sock in progress and I've been enjoying using it already. If you hadn't heard from them yet I'd definitely go check them out!

Yesterday, something incredible happened. I didn't know it was possible, having never witnessed it myself (well, maybe once, a long, long time ago). For you to believe it too I'm going to have to show you the proofs.

Proof #1

Proof #2



Proof #3



This incredible event is called "Casting on for socks #2 right after binding off sock #1". It is such a rare event that it got a very complicated name. The creator of the word didn't think it would be used very often. But I have been witness to this amazing event and I still live to tell the tale. I don't dare hope to ever see this happen again, but maybe you will...

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Is anyone reading this blog from New York City? This weekend I'll be headed there for a few days. DH has a 4-day conference to attend and I'm tagging along. I'll have 4 days by myself to be a tourist and do a yarn crawl. If you're from there I'd love to get together with you, so let me know!

Quick update on my sock knitting:

One Monkey leg done
One Serpentine foot done

Time for some heel knitting now!

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ETA: Contest over! Thanks for participating. I'll let everyone know who the winner is when I post my 200th blog entry.

Contest

Time for a new contest!

Coming up soon will be my 200th post and my 1000th comment. I'm not going to tell you how many comments I have as of now but I will let you know that this is my 191nth post. So here is what you have to guess:

1. On what day am I going to post my 200th post?
2. Will I get my 1000th comment on that post? If not, please say if it will be before or after.

The person who gets both answers right or who has the closest answer to question 1 and still gets question 2 right will win a skein of Vespers in self-striping Astro, which you can see here on the right of the picture.

Please answer in the comments of this post. You have until September 5 to enter your guesses. Thanks for participating!

Contest

Back in March I participated in a contest over at SweetPea's blog. The winners could win some yarn from Rohrspatz & Wollmeise. I had been drooling over their sock yarn for quite a while so I participated of course. I ended up being a winner and won one set of mini skeins from Wollmeise. That's a sampler of all the colors that they produce. That is over 40 different colors.

I received them yesterday. And let's just say that I was quite impressed. Look at all those colors! Aren't they just beautiful all together like that? I had fun taking pictures this morning and created this mosaic.



I also put them in a set for your enjoyment. You can also see different pictures on SweetPea's blog in her March archives.

I don't know yet what I'll be doing with it but I'm thinking something along the lines of a log cabin squares blanket or something like that.

Spinning

I spun up the Dragon Fibers I received last week and plied it this morning. I waited until this morning because I was waiting to receive this:



My father-in-law made this for me. The lazy kate I received with my wheel didn't work very well and I thought that this kind of kate would work better. My FIL likes to do woodscrafting so I asked him to make one for me. And he finished it last night! Actually, he didn't consider it finished but I convinced him to let me take it so I could try it out... I don't think it's going back to his house!

He also helped make a bigger niddy noddy:



2 x 1/2 inch plastic t-connectors, 4 feet of slightly smaller diameter dowels and some masking tape...
I haven't tried it yet but I'm pretty sure it should work just fine. This niddy noddy should make 72" skeins.

So you want to see the spinning right?



I still have a little bit on one bobbin and about 20 grams left to spin, then we'll know how much I got out of that 4oz of BFL roving. I'm really quite please with my first experience spinning up painted roving and I'm glad I've got much more in the stash!

Contest

The winner of the contest is Lisa G. One of the name she suggest was Willow as in Wollapping Willow. I think that it is a reference to the tree at Hogwarts in Harry Potter? Correct me if I'm wrong... Anyways, I liked the name Willow by itself, no reference to anything. It just struck me from the first time I read it, like it fit or something. Jess told me that once I found the name I would know it... I think she was right! I still thought about it for a while though but in the end I still came back to Willow.

Thank you Lisa G for this name, I probably would never have found it without you. I want to thank everyone else that participated by suggesting so many great names... I'll definitely keep your suggestions for my next wheel!!!! I hope DH doesn't read this... I'll be putting a package together for Lisa soon!

Meet Willow the Wheel:

Socks



This is a pair of socks I started on Saturday after finishing my Hourglass. I wanted something quick I could knit while waiting for my Sockamania pattern. The pattern came on Tuesday... but I want to finish these first! The yarn I am using is Twisted DK in the color Wing. They will count as my Socktopia socks for May under the theme "Yikes! Stripes". Except mine will be: "Yikes! My Stripes don't match!". The pattern for Sockamania is very pretty, and I can't wait to get started on it and I have just the right yarn...

Flowers

I bought these flowers at the grocery store last night. I love how these two bright colors go so well together.



Roving



Some pretty rovings I bought from yarn4brains. She just opened an etsy shop last week. I just loved the Aqua and the Brown together and look forward to spinning it.

Sockapalooza

I got my pal's name and I think I will enjoy knitting some socks for her! I haven't been contacted by my pal yet, though. So if you're out there, I'd love to hear from you!


ETA:
Ravelry

Everyone is talking about Ravelry... I joined about 2 weeks ago I think and it's really awesome! I've got 2 invites if someone wants in! ETA: All gone, sorry

I know I said I would give you the winning name today, but I haven't had time to think about it quite yet. Instead I will give you all the names that have been suggested to me. I received over 60 name suggestions, which I have separated into a few categories.

Women's names:
Julianna
Cassandra
Helga/Zelda
Daphne
Stella
Matilda/Mattie
Leandra
Elisabeth
Rose
Lily
Portia
Emily
Franka
Delilah
Penelope/Penny
Louie
Linnea
Vicki
Charlotte
St Elizabeth/ E
Elsebeth
Eudora/Ewedora
Isobel
Isadora/Izzie
Fran
Clotho/Clothilde
Bessie

Names inspired from books or stories:
Morgaine – Mists of Avalon
Thérèse – Tale of Two Cities
Rumpelstiltskin
Arwen – Lord of the Rings
Aurora – Sleeping Beauty
Rapunzel/RapZ
Trixie – Trixie Belden Books
Willa – Willa Cather

Names inspired by movies, arts or music:
Miss Daisy – Driving Miss Daisy
Mary – Proud Mary song by CCR
Janie – Janie Fricke country singer
Frida Fricke – Frida Kalo
Molly – Molly Ringwald from Pretty in Pink or Andie character's name
Beyonce
Samson – Song by Regina Spektor

Irish inspired names:
Aran
Clover
Shamrock

Quirky, wildly imaginative names or that just didn't fit in another category:
Ms Spinster
Pinkerton
Spinny McSpinnerson
Arachne
Spinderella
Professor Fricke
Lamb Chop
Sister
Salem
Willow
Yarn Spawn
Sweet Pea
Ewe-La
Cyclopticon
Zirha- Hopi for "she who spins"
Spanky

I hope you won't disagree too much with the way I have categorized those names and that you will enjoy reading them all! I will try to give you the winner within the next couple of days. Thank you for all who participated, it was great fun reading all your suggestions.

I never won anything in my whole life. Until I started participating in knitting blog contests. And then I started winning, here and there and once in a while. It is a great fun and I've been extremely lucky. Now it is time I gave back and let someone else win something!

So whoever gets the 500th comment can pick one of these out of my stash:

You can see close ups here and here with short description.

I apologize in advance to the non-sock knitters out there. Sock yarn is the only thing I have plenty of! : )

Also, if you know anything about Tampa, Florida or the area, now is the time to comment about it!

Thanks and good luck!

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ETA: The 500th comment has just been posted! Kris with a K is the lucky winner! Go and congratulate her on her blog! Thank you everyone for participating, it was a lot of fun seeing how fast people start commenting when there is sock yarn to be won! Have a great weekend!

Last week I won a contest over at The YoYo Knits. The contest was about why I loved being a girl, and her fiancé got to pick the comment he liked the best.
I wrote this: "I love that as a girl I can wear all sorts of pretty clothing, dresses, skirts, cute jewelery and cute sandals but that at the same time I can wield a screwdriver and build IKEA furniture too!" Yeah, I'm a big IKEA fan!

So I got my package today...

A skein of Lisa Souza Sock! in Pacific, 2 skeins of Patagonia Nature Cotton in a very pretty pink color and last but not least a bottle of "Le Vernis" by Chanel in color Noir Ceramic. Apparently is the new super hip color for spring and everybody is going crazy trying to get a bottle!

The color of the Lisa Souza sock yarn isn't quite coming out right, it's brighter and totally the colors I like right now. I'm thinking it would make a great shawl if don't make socks with it.

The Nature Cotton is really cool, but I could use some suggestions as to what to make with it. There are 210 yds of it altogether. Let me know what you think!

All in all, thank you Alyson for this contest and this wonderful package!

More sock Pr0n...



On the top you see a skein of yarn handpainted by White Willow that I bought on Etsy. The color is called Alice's Garden. I troll the knitting section of Etsy a lot and I usually restrain myself a lot. But when I saw that color I had to have it. And it is even more beautiful in real life. She even sent me a little sample of Eucalan and a cute little sachet of lavender.

The skein at the bottom is Sunshine Yarn in Mocha. I think I bought it off of someone destashing. I loved the brown color with the little streaks of lavender. I think it will make great lace socks.

About a month ago I participated in a contest over on yarnpirate's blog. The questions were about a new online store selling her yarn. 3 weeks later, I got an email from Georgia saying that 2 other people and myself had won on her contest! I chose not to post about it then but to wait until I got my prize in the mail. The package arrived yesterday, and I am quite the lucky girl!

From left to right: a set of US 3 dpns, a lovely skein of Yarn Pirate merino/tencel in color Sadie, Toblerone (one of my favorite chocolates), 2 samples of Soak, a small holiday candle and some hand cream.

Here's a close-up on the yarn:



I wound up the yarn right after getting it and tried it on US 1s, it was way too loose. I guess I'm going to have to knit it on 0s, but my one needle is already in use, so I'll have to wait! (Note to self: buy myself another size 0 40" needle) I love the color of the yarn and it will look lovely with the stitch pattern I have in mind.

Thank you again Georgia!

Erin!

So I printed all the comments this morning, wrote down a big number next to each comment in the order that they arrived, went to Random.org and asked for a number between 1 and 35 (which was the number of comments that I got!). And out came the number 2... Which was Erin's number.

So Congratulations to Erin, she's the lucky owner of some beautiful Fleece Artist! Go and congratulate her on her blog!

I want to thank all that participated in my contest. It was a lot of fun finding out about your blogs and adding some on my bloglines... More to read now!