Cleaning up/cleaning out, and a little contest

It's getting colder here and I've got the urge to finally go through my stash. We had to move it all out of the studio so some work could be done two winters ago. By the time the work was finished, it was just too nice to spend more time inside than necessary so I put off the organizing. And then I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, had surgery, buried my favorite brother, ran away for the holidays, had radiation therapy and viola! it was spring again.

In the process of organizing, I found some acrylic yarn leftover from projects or abandoned and forgotten. I don't have grandkids, the nieces/nephews are raising their own kids, the grandnieces/grandnephews are teenagers so there's no knitting of acrylic kids' things. I don't make afghans and don't know anyone who does. So I'm shipping a box (a BIG box!) of yarn to my SIL's SIL in Connecticut. I know Heidi will put the yarn to good use, she's just a whiz at crocheting the cutest stuff. Without a pattern! She's incredible and I know the yarn will have a happy home.

I also found some books that are duplicates. How did I forget I had these books and go forward with buying a second copy? I dunno. Maybe my library is too big or I'm suffering from the post-menopausal stupids. Either way, yinz reap the benefits. I'm going to think up several challenges or games and give a book as prize. We'll start with Compendium of Finishing Techniques, Naomi McEneely (Interweave Press, 2003), original price was $29.95, spiral bound. Apparently, folks think it's valuable as Amazon has used copies listed for $29.98 and new ones for <gasp> $116.40!! This isn't a duplicate copy but I thought I'd need it and so bought it. Turns out, I have all that information in other books I own so it's just taking up space on the bookshelf.

What do you need to do? I want more Likes on my Facebook page. I want to hit 200 Likes. Go to the page, click the Like button, and PM me with your name. On October 31, I'll put all the names in a hat and let one of the neighborhood Trick-or-Treaters pull a name on Halloween night. Once I get in touch via return PM and have your mailing addy, I'll ship the book to you for your enjoyment. No worries, I'm not building a mailing list from this (unless you WANT to be added to a mailing list, in which case just let me know).

Here's a quick pic of the cover and Contents page. My apologies if it's not large enough, but you should be able to click on the photo to enlarge it. Leave a comment if you think I need to elaborate on the contents and I'll be happy to type them out if necessary.

Is it spring yet? And a hat-naming contest!

We've had warmer weather this week, with lots of rain in midweek. But the temperatures seem to be steadily inching up and the spring bulbs are pushing their first bits through the soil, so I'm wondering if we can really really declare that it's spring?

Yesterday was a truly lovely day, even if it was a bit breezy. I'd been trying to set up a date to photograph some small pieces I've been working on with the intention of writing up patterns if I liked them. Our younger son's girlfriend, who is a fantastic lady BTW, volunteered to stand outside in the shadow of our trees and model for me. It was challenging, especially with the neckwarmers, because the breeze would come along just as the shutter clicked. Meaning that either the edge of the neckwarmer would lift up in an unnatural way or her hair would stand on end--some otherwise nice photos ended up in the trash because of this! Here's a few that I've managed to edit and touch up this morning.



Hat-Naming Contest:
As far as names for the patterns, sometimes they come easy and sometimes I need a dictionary/thesaurus to find something I like. This hat pattern has completely eluded me though, and I could use some help with an appropriate name. Keep in mind that other knitters and spinners will come up with differently colored yarn for this pattern so it can't be based solely on my color selection. I'll take suggestions via blog comments until the end of March (midnight EDT March 31). All names will be given consideration and I'll choose the one I feel best fits the pattern. The winner will receive a credit line on the finished pattern AND 20% off their purchase in my Etsy shop (not including items already in the Sale category). Here's the hat in question:




Thanks in advance for your help with this problem hat. Let the contest begin!