Garnfiti

Amazon Rank

2009-04-12T17:39:00.002-04:00

I'm participating in the Smart Bitches googlebomb.

Amazon Rank

Amazon Rank

Amazon Rank

Amazon Rank

Amazon Rank

Amazon Rank

Amazon Rank

#amazonfail

#amazonfail

#amazonfail

#amazonfail

Thoughts

2009-02-19T11:59:00.003-05:00

My sister is getting an MRI today. She has swollen optic nerves and a blurry spot in one eye and they think it might have something to do with her brain. I really know little about it... the younger brother called and we talked and he mentioned it and then my sister got on and told me about it. But, her eventual comment bears some explaining.

My sister and I when we go out together have a strange thing happen to us. She's 15, I'm 21. I'm regularly mistaken as younger than her, with me as the younger one and her as the older. One lady thought she was 16 and me 13. Another thought she was in college and I was the one in highschool. A third time a museum curator scolded her for baiting her younger sister, when we asked how old the lady thought we were, she was thought to be 19 and me 14.

I'm not necessarily upset about this, (okay, I am but I also think it will be cool when I'm old and I'm mistaken for younger). Last night though I was reminded of why she's mistaken as the older one.

We were talking, and she mentioned on the swim team that another girl she swims with had similar problems and she ended up having calcium deposits in her eyes. And I asked, "Do you think it's because of swimming?"

Her: "No, it's a coincidence that we had similar environmental factors." (What 15 year old talks like that?)

______________________

I've been feeling rather sad lately... I think mostly because its nearly that time of month, and normally I get rather weepy around that time. I hate it, because I'm sad and there's no reason why and I feel listless and don't want to get out of bed and have very little energy.

It will go for two or three days, and I'll be withdrawn and antisocial and generally try not to take everyone down around with me. And then just as suddenly, I'll snap out of it and I'll be my overly happy cheerful silly self.

But it just bothers me when I'm in the sad mode because I know I'm sad, I know the reason why, but it still feels to me like I'll always feel sad like this, that it will never end, and that the world just hates me. Its so irrational.

______________________

Other random notes:

My sculpture is going well. I've made the wings. It really does look better without a head.

My last yarn I tried spinning was in this beautiful color, and I'm so excited about it. I spun it real thin, and I love how it came out (Navajo plied) except that the yarn kept loosing so much of the twist it broke while I was plying it. Especially toward the end. Does that mean I'm not giving it enough twist, or is there another problem?

Spinners, your help would be appreciated.

excuse the mess

2009-02-12T14:09:00.000-05:00

I was messing around with the template, as I am wont to do, and things are a little... messy right now. I'll have things back to normal a bit later.

Busy Times

2009-02-12T12:46:00.004-05:00

I've been working on a sculpture in my advance Sculpture class lately. It's a figure, and it has wings and a tail. I'm really struggling with it, both because I've never, ever done anything with the human body, and my understanding of how the human body fills space is rather warped (both because of my own self-image and because in some ways I really don't pay attention to it).

Anyway, the other day I was in a meeting with my professor and I told him that I was so frustrated with the head and arms because I couldn't make them make sense with the rest of the sculpture. I wanted to chop them off.

And he said, "Let's do it then."

In short order he was cutting through metal and I was clutching on to the sculpture for dear life both to hold it up and because taking off the arms and the head seemed so... drastic.

And it was.

But you know what? The sculpture looks better now.

I've been thinking about making changes, and how sometimes it is the shaving away of a little bit of plaster that makes the difference. Those little shavings, when they add up, make the sculpture look a lot better. But each of those shavings is rather easy to do, because it's not that hard to change back.

Sometimes though, you need to make big changes in order for something to make sense. And it can be scary and make you feel vulnerable.

But its worth it when the end result looks better, is better.

It makes more sense.

---------------------------

In other news, I've been crafting a bunch but have been reluctant to take pictures of things. I'll have to soon though, because they are soon going to be given as gifts, and then I won't have any pictures.

I'm going to try to get back into the swing of writing something on the blog every now and then. I was silent for a while, and I'm not going to appologize for it- because this is my space.

It was necessary and now I'm back.

Okay

2008-12-21T16:57:00.002-05:00

So this is really cute and you should click on it!

Anything can be a euphemism said with the right inflection

2008-12-08T15:28:00.005-05:00

"I've been on your sofa studying World Literature." ~Pink Hair

"Oh yeah? Well I've been on your sofa studying the human geonome and all it's permutations... including the finished product." ~Muppet

"I'm growing 12 zygones right now"
*horrified look from Muppet*

Finals going on right now, so posting is obviously down, though the crafting 'aint. Look for some massive posts and pictures once finals get done.

To my boyfriend (bf)* last night:

2008-12-06T14:16:00.006-05:00

Me: The cat needs to die.
BF: Why?
Me: It's good character development. And it's a plot device.
BF: Okay.

[A bit later]
Me: What's it like to run over a small animal?
BF: You've never run over something?
me: No. Maybe that means I'm a good driver.
BF: Maybe that means you're a Yankee.

[even later]
Me: What do bones look like when they're sticking out of a body? I assume they only look white when they're bleached dry.
BF: They look like bad teeth.
Me: ?
BF: You know, yellowy.
Me: Ah.

[later]
Me: The cat still needs to die.
BF: She's pulling into the driveway. I don't think it's plausible that the cat gets run over when she's pulling into the driveway.
me: Then how can it die?
BF: Poison?
Me: *Mutters* Wouldn't that get into her milk and kill the kittens? The kittens need to live.

[five minutes later]
BF: I know! The cat has rabies and she has to kill it with a machete!
Me: Would she have that in her garage?
BF: Maybe it could be an axe.

*giggles* Maybe I'm the only one that finds these snippets of conversation amusing.

In other news, I knit two socks out of Noro yarn, and they came out looking completely different. So I'm having to knit two more socks, hoping I'll come out with near matches. Not that I'm complaining.

It's getting into finals, and I'm really busy, hence the lack of writing. There's lots of things I could tell you about... like the not-quite-masks I'm making for sculpture class, but I don't have the time right now.

BTW, if anyone out there has scraps of novelty yarn they don't want to use, I'd love to have them sent to me. I could really use them.

I'm running a fever, and my joints ache.

*My boyfriend, is also known as Southern Gentleman (SG) on previous blogs, and perhaps previous blog posts. I waver between the two nicknames for him. He's really sweet and I'm terribly in love with him. He has a slight (or more than slight) bias against Yankees (he's mostly joking) but makes an exception for me. And you want an example of how great he his? He winds center-pull balls of yarn for me.

Gonna be gone

2008-11-25T21:49:00.001-05:00

Gonna be gone until Sunday- going to visit the boyfriend's parent's family farm. Fun will come!

I was going to do a post with pictures, but I'm too tired.

2008-11-18T22:55:00.001-05:00

Why am I too tired? Well yesterday I was working on my sculpture and gating it until around seven forty five. I raced over to the union to get dinner, and managed to grab some milk, apples and hot chocolate/vanilla latte/coffee, because I was cold and thought I could use the pick me up.

I don’t normally like coffee drinks, but it was good, and it went well with the eggs I made in my room.

Anyway, around eleven I was freezing. The heater has been blowing hot air, and after wavering between warm weather and chilly weather, the temperature plunged on Saturday night, and hasn’t revered yet. As a result, I’m freezing in my room. After talking with Laura and making sure I wasn’t the only one imagining it, I went to the union to warm up (with the fire and everything it’s quite toasty) and get something hot to drink. Well, I thought that the drink I had earlier was pretty good, and it didn’t seem to effect me that much, so I decided to do it again, but make it a large and add a bit more coffee to it, because the coffee was hotter than the hot chocolate. I wanted something that would stay warm when I went back to my room.

Well, after adding cinnamon and nutmeg, it was quite tasty, and I brought it back to my room to drink as I worked. I nursed it for the next hour, and it stayed quite warm.

Needless to say, somewhere around there the caffeine from the two drinks caught up with me, and I didn't get to sleep for a long long time after that.

Today we did the investing process, where we pour plaster around our wax to make a mold. The wax will be burned out in the kiln, which will leave the mold behind. Then, next Tuesday we'll pour molten metal (bronze specifically) into the mold.

The investing process (which is part of the lost wax casting method) was messy, dirty work. We all had jobs, and mine was measuring out plaster which means I got plaster powder everywhere (including my nose… I was the one measuring out plaster in our whole process, so I was inhaling lots of dust… probably not a good thing) and got crazy dirty and my skin is really dried out and my hair is a crazy tangled mess I don’t want to deal with.

It was so much fun. We mixed silicone sand with plaster and water (equal parts of each) and then poured them into the containers we had built around or wax sculptures and the gating attached. We made the containers out of felt paper and chickenwire. It was a lot of work, left me feeling vaguely exhausted.

Thus, I don't want to go to the effort of taking pictures of my current crafting, nor any of the other interesting things I got on my camera, despite knowing that craft blogs are more interesting when they have pictures in them.

Least of all, they are for me.

I don't know quite what to say

2008-11-17T23:17:00.003-05:00

I haven't been writing lately, and I'm trying to resist the urge to apologize for it. This is, after all, my space, and I shouldn't feel guilty for writing or not writing.

But, I've gotten several e-mails from different people, and it was very heartening. There isn't really anything wrong with me other than a vague sense of loneliness that's been with me lately. I had a friend visiting for just under two weeks, and she was staying in my single at college with me. It was nice to have a room mate again... I've been missing that. Anyway, I was busy with her being here, and then she left on Friday. Meanwhile, another one of my good friends flunked out of school (for various personal reasons) and her parents withdrew her (her parents are not the most sympathetic of people and were not very supportive of the fact that she's been going through a lot of stuff). So in a week two of my friends dropped out of my social life.

Now, normally that wouldn't be that big of deal, but in addition most of my friends that are my year are crazy busy with applying to grad school and other stuff, and my friends that are a year younger than me (including my boyfriend) are all studying abroad.

So I've been just a tad bit lonely.

The end result is I've been trying to expand my social circle, with interesting results. Still, while I am getting to know some facinating and interesting underclassmen, it doesn't make up for the fact that most of my close friends are going through their own crisis.

So... yeah.

In other news, not much happening on the crafting scale. I've spun up three new yarns, and I'm working on another sculpture for my class. We're casting in Bronze! (more on that later) I'm planning on incorporating crochet into the end product. (surprise, surprise)

It's going to ROCK.

Wednesday Contest Shoutout

2008-11-05T14:43:00.008-05:00

Weblog Wannabe is having a comments contest for the month of November in honor of NaNoWriMo. It takes a bit of work (10 comments during the month) but you get five prints... so not bad at all!

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!! (sorry, she created that line, and I like her excitement so I'm leaving it here)

Down Abbie's Road is having a contest for an old Victorian doll reproduction. She's quite beautiful.

The Sarah Winchester of Fiber Arts is having a comments contest that correlates with her being drawn into the fiber world. It only gets worse.

Theknittyvritti is having a voting contest for the favorite finished project she's done this year. Go over and vote!

Winner of the Last Week of the October Contest

2008-11-02T15:41:00.003-05:00

Congrats, Cristi-Lael, you've won the last week of the contest! You'll be getting some yarn in other goodies in the mail as soon as you get in touch with me. My profile has my e-mail address, or my Ravelry ID is jecrowley. PM me your address!

In other news, my Friday was harrowing, with me: biking to the voting station in NC (quite a distance), waiting in line while trying to finish a paper due at five, finding out that they couldn't take my form of ID for some technicality I didn't register (mostly because I was having difficulty holding myself together until I could get to a bathroom to cry), biking back to campus, getting the necessary paperwork, desperately finding a computer so I could e-mail the essay to my professor, biking back, and finally FINALLY voting.

To top it all off, on the way back an SUV's driver hit the gas instead of the break, and launched himself over an embankment and retaining wall not even a yard in front of me. I do not kid. If I'd been a half second further along in my bikeride, I'm fairly certain that I would not be here typing this. More than likely, my head would have been swiped off (the helment doesn't really protect against an SUV) and my body squished flat, impaled by my crumpled bike.

My life just doesn't stay boring for long.

In better news, I'm alive, I got fiber in the mail and have more on the way, I have a bunch of RAK packages and MY FIRST ETSY sale to send off tomorrow, and the begining of the Mix Makers Swap is starting off without a hitch.

Right now I need to go to dance pratice.

Until later!

Thursday Blog Review

2008-10-30T13:52:00.000-04:00

Today's craft blog review is for Crochet by Faye, and if you don't know about her, you should. She's a crochet designer, and her blog is wonderful because it gives glimpses into the design process. For someone who doesn't like to follow directions (who? me?) and often comes up with their own patterns, her blog is an invaluable resource.

She does beautiful lace designs that you just want to sink your teeth into right away. Her writing style is friendly, and the website reflects her work: simple clean lines and appealing colors.

She posts lots of pictures, and does a variety of posts. The only wish I had was that she post more regularly, but I'd much rather quality over quantity. Still, she does manage to keep me coming back, so she must be doing something right.

I'm running my first swap!

2008-10-29T22:02:00.005-04:00

Quite exciting, I'm running my first swap over at Ravelry, called Mix Makers. The focus is on created CD mixes and sending yarn to each other. We're trying to keep the cost fairly cheep, and put the emphasis on made gifts instead of spending a lot of money. There's still time to sign up... until Saturday, so if you're interested, you should come on by.

I'm anticipating this being a lot of fun. I've been in a few swaps that haven't been fiber related, and I participated in Secret Pal12 and am planning on being in Secret Pal 13, but I wanted to do something my way. I hoping it goes well, and I'm looking forward to having people stop by from the Swap (hi y'all if you're already out there!)

In other news, I updated my WIP's, and as you can see on my left sidebar, I have quite a few more going. I actually have to add one more, I'm doing an Alchemy thing on Etsy, where I'm making a squirrel for someone who wants one and in return I get some banners made for my Etsy store. I love bartering. To me it seems like I'm saving money... always a good thing.

Although, I've bought more fiber than I probably should have from Etsy and Ebay in the last few days... I'm afriad I've been feeling a bit down and lonely at college, and my normal two reactions are to eat and to craft. Since I'm trying to get my eating under control, I'm afraid that my crafting, and urge to buy yarn and fiber, has increased. I should really work on that.

What else can I tell you? Oh! Do you remember my post about my Firefly shawl? (I do have to say, for someone who has problems taking pictures {especially pictures of my wholemade yarn- why do they never come out FOCUSED?!?} that's a really good picture of the shawl) I'm working on making it a pattern you can purchase on Etsy and Ravelry. It should be lots of fun if I get it to work. Playing around with crochet graphing software and writing out instructions at least keeps me occupied. *grins*

Have you ever been in any swaps? Would you like to be in one or do they have no interest for you?

Wednesday Contest Shoutout!

2008-10-29T13:58:00.004-04:00

Knit it Up is having an amazing contest. There's so many prizes I can't name them all, and you should definitely go over there. *drools* I really really want those prizes.

Baa Baa Blacksheep is having a contest involving the election. I'm willing to promote anything that encourages people to vote or increase interest in the election, so go take a look!

Midwest Knit Girl is having a contest where you try and guess how many posts she has done to late.

Jen La is having a caption contest. After having a bad day she needs something to pick her up.

My contest is going on until the 31st! Just leave a comment on any of my posts or put a link on your blog that goes back to me. The Drawing will be announced Friday as close to midnight as I can get, which means probably sometime on saturday.

Spinning Picspam!

2008-10-28T00:59:00.004-04:00

I've been doing a lot lately, but I haven't been blogging about much of it. However, I'm too lazy and it's too late to be writing a big long post, so I'm going to do a picpost.

This is all the stuff I've been spinning in the last while. The biggest picture has a bit of a story to it. So I've been spinning up a whole bunch of yarn just because I've been stressed and it's a good way to decompress, and I've managed to spin up the last of my fiber on Thursday.

So I was rather dissapointed about it, but I thought it was a good thing because I DO have quite a bit of work to do. Anyway, I'm participating in FatCatKnits fiberclub, and I was disappointed how my last yarn spun up (not the fault of the dying, which was beautiful, but because I didn't think out how I was going to approach the yarn, and just dove right in)... not the way I imagined. Anyway, someone suggests that the next time I encounter a dye lot like that I navajo ply it.

I say, isn't that the same as making three ply yarn?

As I discovered, it is not. I watch a few videos on youtube, the most notable being This one:

Anyway, I'm DYING to try it... but I don't have any fiber!

Until, I remember that FatCatKnits (bless her heart) sends out little "treats" along with the main roving, and I pull that out of my button box (have I mentioned that I've been buying a lot of metal buttons lately? It's for one of my sculptures, but I'll talk about that later.) and I got at it. The Result was what is in the big picture... my first Navajo Ply.

It's amazing, I'm in love.

(ironically, uploading all the photos took about as much time as creating a real entry would have)

Addendum: Heads up, if you like any of the handspun, head over to my Etsy shop, where you can buy it. I'm still getting all the yarn up there. If you mention in the comments that you came to my Etsy Store through my blog, I'll throw in an extra surprise!

Wonderful support

2008-10-25T17:11:00.002-04:00

Hey all, thank you so much for your well wishes and prayers. This last week I've been in a sort of daze, going through the motions and nothing more. My grandmother did get out of the hospital and is doing much better, though there were some rough patches while that was going on. Thankfully, things are better now.

Perhaps because of my emotional turmoil, and stress, but I've been doing a lot of spinning lately. The result is some very nice yarn, but even better, I was able to achieve some emotional blankness that was very welcome. I've also done quite a bit of crochet and knitting... I have a lot of updates for both my Etsy store and Ravelry.

Which brings me to another thing. I did not manage to post once at all this week, which is grossly unfair to those of you who have been reading. starrypurplehaze, I have not managed to send out your yarn, though I did get your address, and I have a proposal to make.

I'd like to make the second to the last week and this upcoming week count for one big, last prize. I would post more, and there would be double to the amount of yarn to send off. People who have commented in the last week, your comments would count towards this last drawing (if that makes sense).

I think this is only fair, because I didn't give people much of a chance to comment. Hopefully y'all agree with me, because that's what I'm going to do.

Look forward to some more posts this week!

Second week winner

2008-10-19T03:08:00.004-04:00

So I did the drawing from the second week, and starrypurplehaze, you are the winner! The yarn to the right is your prize. E-mail me with your address and I'll have this in the mail to you in two shakes of a lamb's tail!

I intended to do a post about the other contests on Wednesday and a review of a blog on Thursday or Friday, but neither of those things happened for a variety of reasons, the largest being that my grandmother went to the hospital and I was in contact with my family and not thinking about the blog.

Also, I'm missing my boyfriend and my financial aid for my college has went wonky. However, things will work out.

In an entirely random vein, are any of you familar with Etsy? I'm trying to start up a store there, and I'd love some advice on how to get traffic so people are viewing your store. Any of you out there more expierienced than I can give me some hints? I would appreciate it!

Remember, Remember: The third week of my contest is still going on! Writing a comment will get you entries. Mentioning my contest in your blog will get you TWO entries. You can comment as much as you want, so keep them coming!

My Grandma has been in the hospital

2008-10-18T15:28:00.002-04:00

So naturally, that takes priority over blogging. I'll draw the winner for this last week this weekend, and show you the third week's yarn.

Just not now.

I'm kinda embarassed

2008-10-15T12:06:00.002-04:00

So as I posted on Thursday, I went home for the weekend (plus Monday and Tuesday). I was really excited because not only was I going to see my family, but also my boyfriend, and two of my best friends. It was a wonderful, fun filled break.

In preparation for the break, I prepared some posts that were scheduled to be posted while I was away. One of these was Friday's post, which was supposed to announce who had won the first week's contest, as well as show off the next week's contest yarn. However, I scheduled to post my draft, and not the finished project.

So I'll announce it here, and then I'm going back to change Friday's post. Bronwyn, you won the first week of Handspun contest! Congrats! E-mail me (it's on my profile) with your address and I'll get it packaged up to you and sent off!

Later today I'll edit this post with Wednesday's contest shutout, but for now I need to edit the other post and head to class.

The second week of my contest is going on! Writing a comment will get you an entry. Mentioning the contest in your blog will get you TWO entries, just make sure that in your comment you link back to your blog. Thirdly, if you make a halloween-themed object during this month, leave a link on the comments and you get TWO entires. You can comment as much as you want (if you spam my blog, that will get you disqualified), you can make as many halloween themed stuff as you want.

Musings on the state of my Blogroll

2008-10-12T16:42:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I admit I read a lot. I'm an english major. I average about three books a week, either in literature, free reading, or some combination thereof. But that's not what I want to talk about today. What I want to talk about today is the amount of blogs I follow.

I used to use Technorati to keep track of my blogs, but that rapidly stopped working. The database couldn't keep track of the amount of blogs I read in one day. Literally, there would be days where I would sign in and the thing would just stop working on me because I read so many blogs. So, I switched over to Google Reader, and haven't looked back sense.

How many blogs, you ask, do I read? As of today? 139. Blogs. On an average day I read over 200 blog posts, and that peaks with about 300 blog posts on Mondays (the day when most of my weekly blogs post). The numbers dip down on the weekend... with Fridays typically having 170 posts, and Saturday and Sunday having 69 and 100 posts, respectively.

But surely you don't read all that material, you say. And I don't. There are posts that I completely skip, sometimes. I'd say I skip about 10% of the articles. Probably another 5% I read the first paragraph and move on. But the rest? I read them.

Of course, some of those blogs are photoblogs, and some of them are graphs and charts. I admit that.

But what I want to point out today is how many blogs of mine are craft, knitting, crochet and spinning blogs. Take a look:

I have seven spinning blogs I follow.

And FIFTY-TWO crochet and knit blogs I follow.

So I have two questions. The first, would you be interested in a post where I review these blogs, perhaps on a weekly basis? (and when I run out of my personal favorites, where are review other's blogs?)

And second, how many blogs do you follow? How many of them are craft related?

Remember: My contest is still going on! Writing a comment will get you entries. Mentioning my contest in your blog will get you TWO entries. You can comment as much as you want, so keep them coming!

Crochet Hooks

2008-10-11T23:41:00.001-04:00

Crochet was my very first fiber love. When I was seven, I had a babysitter, and older lady that would sit and crochet when i was doing my homework or playing when my parents were out. She was a wonderful lady, and while I don't remember her name she's left a lasting gift with me.

She taught me to Crochet. And the very first thing she taught me? The Granny Square. I wouldn't say it was instant love for me... in fact, I found Crochet very very frustrating. But I had a little orange plastic hook (which I kept until my sister sat on it and broke it nearly ten years later) and I struggled through splitting the yarn, doing things wrong, and I managed to learn crochet.

And then life moved on, the babysitter stopped coming because she moved, and I didn't pick up a hook very much. Until my family had to move. My girlfriend made me a blanket as a goodbye gift. It was pink and white and beautifully done. My competitive spirit was aroused. I wanted to be able to do something like that. And I started to crochet again.

I practiced, and practiced, made a lot of really bad doll clothes, got a lot of yarn for Christmas, developed a regular stitch, made whatever I wanted, and flatly refused to use a pattern book. If I wanted to make something, I looked at a picture. It hasn't been until now, at college that I've started following real patterns. As in, actually reading the directions.

But what is my point in all this? Well, if you look at the title, it's supposed to be about crochet hooks. And my point is, until recently, I had been carrying my hooks around in a glasses case. (Hey, it worked and it was compact!) But as part of my SP 12 Swap, Kathleen made me a beautiful crochet case holder, and I've been wanting to show it off. So I gathered up most of my crochet hooks, and made some startling discoveries.

I have far more crochet hooks than I imagined. I have a full set of steel crochet hooks. I have a D, E, 2 F's, a G, a G1/2 (I got it in Sweden, it's between a G and an H). I have 3 H's, 5 I's, 6 J's, 3 K's, an L, M, 2 N's, and a Q. (This does not count the ones that are currently in projects, which is (I think) a G, an O, and an H.)

I think that totals 39 hooks. Now, I'm not surprised, because I like to keep my hooks with my projects, and I"m quite fond of my size H's and J's... they're two of my favorite size hooks. Also, sometimes I get them as gifts, and the range between H and K seems to be the size people like to gift. Anything else seems either too small or too large.

So, what size hooks or needles do you prefer? Do you have a collection, or do you have one for each purpose, and switch them in and out? Let me know!

The second week of my contest is going on! Writing a comment will get you an entry. Mentioning the contest in your blog will get you TWO entries, just make sure that in your comment you link back to your blog. Thirdly, if you make a halloween-themed object during this month, leave a link on the comments and you get TWO entires. You can comment as much as you want (if you spam my blog, that will get you disqualified), you can make as many halloween themed stuff as you want.

FIrst Week Contest Done, Second Week Starting!

2008-10-10T08:11:00.001-04:00

So the first week of the Month-long contest had a great start. I got lots of responses, and I got to see some really cool projects! (I'm planning, towards the end of the contest, to create a post where I feature all the different Halloween- themed projects).

I also got to meet a whole bunch of crafty- bloggers that I didn't know where out there. It was so nice meeting ya'll. I'm looking forward to getting to know you better as the weeks progress.

I wanted to give you a glimpse of this week's wonderful prize. Congrats Bronwyn, you've won yourself a skein of Gryffindor Yarn. Drop me an e-mail, and I'll get your yarn sent.

Now, as you're all (hopefully) aware, things only get better from here. We're entering into week two, and I have another handspun yarn to show off for you. Take a look! What do you think I should call it? It's bulky and it's got a wonderful squish to it, but I'm debating about a name. Suggestions are welcome. And also this week there will be a mysterious prize! I'll let you know what it is closer to the end of the week.

As for the contest, the rules don't change. Comments give you an entry. Showing me/everyone else your Halloween themed projects get you an entry, and posting about me on your blog gets an entry. Since it's another week, you can re-mention me in your blog if you want (I don't mind publicity). But your crafts only get you one entry- one entry per one craft. Sorry.

So tell me, what should I name this week's contest yarn?

I'm going home!

2008-10-09T08:35:00.001-04:00

I'm so excited! I'm flying home today where I'll get to see my family, my two best friends, and meet up with my boyfriend! It's going to be so much fun!

Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings about the traveling part of going home, seeing as how I have to fly. I actually really like flying- especially flying home for Christmas break. Normally, I've been going, going going during finals, and then I have to scramble to pack and get on the plane. Being on the plane is the first time I get to relax. When you're on a plane, you have no control. You get on, and it doesn't matter what you do, you have to trust that someone else is going to get you where you need to go. My mother finds this stressful, worrying about connections and if she'll have enough time to get from one place to the other. Me? I personally think I'll get where I'm going, eventually.

And, I find planes really good places to sleep. The white noise of the engines just puts me out like a light.

However, there's one thing I don't like about traveling, and that's having to decide what projects I'm going to take with me. I can't take my whole stash, it just doesn't work. So I wonder, what to take. And I'm bad at making decisions when it comes to crafting.

So how do you decide when your traveling what to take?

My contest is still going on! Writing a comment will get you an entry. Mentioning the contest in your blog will get you TWO entries, just make sure that in your comment you link back to your blog. Thirdly, if you make a Halloween-themed object during this month, leave a link on the comments and you get TWO entires. You can comment as much as you want (if you spam my blog, that will get you disqualified), you can make as many Halloween themed stuff as you want.

Wednesday Contest Shoutout

2008-10-08T12:02:00.000-04:00

I'm debating about making this a Wednesday feature, where I mention any of the contests I've come across the previous week. What do you think? Is it a good idea, or can you find the contests on your own, and you don't need me to mention them?

Well, until I get your responses, I'm going through with this week. Contests I've come across:

Knitting in the Bellybutton of California has a sock yarn contest for her 100th post. Tell her what you want to make next out of yarn, and/or mention her on your blog.

Beckyknitstoo is having a contest where you tell her about your favorite Halloween costume.

The Knit Witch is having a Halloween Ghost-story telling contest. Tell her about a ghost story of yours and post her contest on your blog.

And of course, My contest is still going on! Writing a comment will get you an entry. Mentioning the contest in your blog will get you TWO entries, just make sure that in your comment you link back to your blog. Thirdly, if you make a halloween-themed object during this month, leave a link on the comments and you get TWO entires. You can comment as much as you want (if you spam my blog, that will get you disqualified), you can make as many halloween themed stuff as you want.

So what do you think? Do you like the Wednesday Contest Post?