Many of you have been writing in, anxiously asking when the results for the Knitting Daily Yarn Spree Giveaway would
be announced. We said the winners would be notified in mid-January, and
I believe that today, January 14th, is "mid" enough for me. So, we ran
our little random number generator on the thousands and thousands of
entries we received, and all this week, you will get a chance to meet
the winners and get a peek at their favorite local yarn shop where they
will be spending lots of time rolling in yarn and petting skeins trying
to decide what to buy with their shiny-new gift certificates.
Third Prize Winner: Gabriel!
I
am very pleased to introduce to you Gabriel, a 25-year-old knitter from
Dallas, Texas. Gabriel is a very, very happy dude right now,
because—drum roll, please—he has just won Third Prize in the Knitting
Daily Yarn Spree Giveaway!
Three cheers for Gabriel: *Hip hip hooray! (Repeat from * twice
more. Bind off loosely in pattern. Weave in ends and raise a glass in
the direction of Texas.)
I had the happy task of letting Gabriel know that he had won, and
what he wrote in response to my request for a little blurb about
himself utterly charmed me. With Gabriel's permission, I am reprinting
it here, verbatim, because there is just no way I could ever say it
better:
Hi Sandi!
OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! *does a limenviolet squeeeeeeeeeeeeee*
Well lets see, I've been a rabid knitter for the last three years
or so. I caught the bug when I had ended a relationship (nothing
serious but you know how boys/men can take up so much of your time) and
had lots of spare time on my hands! What to do....... A bout of
insomnia had me prowling the craft aisle of the empire of evil (starts
with a W) when I happened upon on a teach yourself to knit kit.
Purchased that, some yarn and the first thing I ever made was a sweater
for my now deceased dachsund, Boober. Ever since, I haven't stopped! As
for my prize, well, I think I'll definitely be buying myself a
sweater's worth of Manos del Uruguay, or maybe some Blue Sky Alpaca, or
maybe some tweedy business.........DECISIONS!!!! Thank you so much to
everyone at Interweave press and Knitting Daily!
Gabriel's Local Yarn Shop
The Shabby Sheep in Dallas, TX
Gabriel won a $100 gift certificate for a spree at his local yarn shop: The Shabby Sheep,
located in the historic State Thomas District of Uptown Dallas. They
offer a range of classes, and you can take the type of class that suits
your needs: technique-based, honing your skills on a specific
technique; project-based, learning all the skills necessary to complete
a specific project; series-based, where there are several related
classes all on a theme (Baby Knitting, for example)—you can take just
one or take them all. They also offer community events like PJs and Purls on Thursday nights. (Check their website for contact info and current calendar offerings.)
Our happiest congratulations to The Shabby Sheep and to Gabriel! We expect photos of Gabriel with his new stash enhancements, OK?
The Babette Blanket by Kathy Merrick
I used to be Managing Editor for Interweave Crochet magazine,
and one of my jobs was opening the boxes of newly-completed projects
for the magazine, fresh from the designer, ready to go to the
photoshoot. I will never forget opening the package that contained the
Babette Blanket: I gasped, and kept saying "Oh wow, oh WOW..." And I am
pretty sure that is what so many of you said when you opened the
magazine and saw those gorgeous photos: OH WOW! That issue has been
out-of-print for a while now, and we're delighted to finally be able to
offer the Babette for sale in the the Store.
Why not a separate Crocheting Daily newsletter and store?
A lot of folks ask this. Wellll...we had to start somewhere, and so we
started with knitting. We have plans for growing our crochet offerings
in the future, but we did not want the crocheters to have to wait to be
able to find their favorite projects easily, either in the free library
database or in the store. So: we're using the same database for
knitting and crochet, to give everyone easy accessibility, and we look
forward to the future when we can provide the crocheters with their
very own "home sweet home" in the Interweave webiverse.
Stay Tuned For More Prizes!
Wednesday, we'll meet the second prize $200 spree winner; and Friday, we'll meet the lucky person who won the top prize of a $300 yarn spree!
We had thousands of entries to this giveaway; after seeing all
the entries, I am touched by all the passion and enthusiasm the entries
represent. I felt a little sad that we could only give three prizes
away since so many of you shared your yarn spree fantasies with us—but
there will be other contests and giveaways on Knitting Daily, so there
be assured that will be more chances to win some nice goodies in the
weeks ahead.
Sandi Wiseheart is the editor of Knitting Daily.
What's on Sandi's needles? I cannot tell a lie. I made a big
boo-boo in the Gathered Pullover, and shall be calling Cap'n Frog in
for help. And I'm working on a new Secret Project for Knitting Daily!