It was so great to read all the entries for the contest this week!
The thing I love most about holding a contest, apart from the fun of giving stuff away, is that it brings people out of the woodwork. Commenting on blogs takes time. Trust me, I know! I try and do it a lot but have you seen my blogroll over there in the sidebar? Keeping up with reading and commenting is hard!
But we all appreciate comments when they come in. That great mix of long time readers, who become a community is occassionally punctuated by comments from readers never before heard from and that’s a thrill! It’s all part of the conversation.
So there were 89 entries in my contest and I chose three winners. One very local. One a little bit local and one very far away. That wasn’t deliberate. It’s just how the numbers came up.
First up we have
Lea of Knitting Sprouts! She’s very local. About two suburbs away so there’ll be no postage required on that one!
Next we have
Dianne of California Girl in Oz – she lives a couple of hours up the road and Dianne has on occasion worked as yarn mule for me on her trips back to the States. I’m only too happy to be giving something back!
Finally, when this name came up, I was extra happy!
It’s Jodi from The Drunch. Do you know the Drunch? No? You should. Jodi and I go way back – she’s mother to four boys under four, including a set of triplets and I’ve been reading Jodi since the days when her boys were much, much smaller and life was really challenging. Now she’s got her new site, and it’s fantastic because Jodi is really funny, really smart and shares in a really accessible way what life is like with a den of four little boys. Jodi also talks about her other loves like writing with occasional dips into stuff ranging from the serious (like marriage) to the lighter side, like make up. I love it!
I’ve been meaning to put the spotlight on her for a while and now I have the chance. Jodi also took up knitting late last year and watching her discover just why knitting is SO GOOD is great fun. She’s recently launched into knitting socks and I’m incredibly impressed at how fast she’s trying new stuff!
So winners, I don’t know what I’m sending you yet. Be patient while I think a little bit about each of you and what I think you’d like. I might take a little while because I really want to get it right.
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Now about the cashmere in the title. Want to see it? This is it.
This was given to me last year by RoseRed. It’s 2300yds of pure cashmere from Colormart. All through December, I was longing to cast it on once the Christmas knitting was over. It was going to be the Shetland Tea Shawl from A Gathering of Lace and it might well be, but not yet.
Over the break I spent two agonising hours one morning trying to cast the damn thing on. I hate the circular beginning of a shawl. I tried several different techniques but one after another failed because I might as well have been knitting with ten thumbs. Between that and the Anemoi mittens I mentioned in the last post, it’s not a good time for me at the moment, knitting wise. Something is a bit amiss. Maybe it’s just the heat. It’s been 38C (or 100F) today. Who can think of much with temperatures like that?
I guess we all have bad knitting periods. It’s not like I’m not knitting anything. I have a gift on the go for my sister but it’s the tricky stuff that’s eluding me right now. I’ll just have to be patient.
Bells
