I won!

Twisted (my soon-to-be-favorite LYS in Portland - I spent a fortune at their Sock Summit booth) liked my entry in their "fiber animal haiku" contest:

Fresh, newborn lamb bleats
Wobbly knees and flapping tail
Future is all wool

Lucky me, I won Cat Bordhi's innovative new book, Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters.
Hmm... I seem to do pretty well in these little challenges - I should get cracking on that acupuncture book. And maybe I should include little knitting poems between discussions of Yin and Yang...

And the winners are...!

This whole process has been very educational. I realized that my epic pattern stash was no longer exactly what I needed. I'd outgrown a lot of the ideas, and my tastes changed away from some others... I was a lot pickier about grabbing patterns this go 'round. I still managed to collect about 100 (here's a hint: When you like a design, seek out everything that author has generated!) but they are all things I really want to make. No more "maybe sortas." I even cleaned out my Ravelry queue and reduced it by about 40%. It's still astronomical. :)

I finally faced the fact that I'm a slow knitter, and a busy girl (I'm supposed to be writing a book on top of running my business and working full time), so I have to prioritize. Right now I'm slaving away on a pair of kilt hose for Matt (my own design!), but after that and some obligatory Xmas knitting I'm starting on Spanish Armada. Well, the center of it. Things are going to twist south from there. Stand by for details. :)

Without further ado... Purple (who gave me the gift of a Mermaid knockoff) and Ikkinlala (who suggested Pamina) are the winners! I've emailed you - just let me know your yarn choices and your addresses. :) I'm sorry I couldn't award prizes to everyone who entered. You were all so wonderful and generous! Thanks again, so SO much! I WILL be rewarding you with two free patterns, coming soon...

Pattern Stash Contest / Giveaway

UPDATE: PEOPLE! Please leave me a way to contact you! About 50% of you have given me wonderful patterns but no way to say thanks!

SECOND UPDATE: At the end of the contest I'll be publishing a free pattern of my own - my third one. Keep spreading the love! :)

Before The Crash, I had a truly massive pattern collection. For 9 years I have been snatching up every free pattern that even mildly intrigued me, and paid for a few more (Oh Rogue, I can’t believe I never got to you!). I had hundreds (probably thousands, actually) of them carefully categorized and tagged so I could find just the perfect thing for a given yarn, giftee, or garment need. The irony here is that I almost never follow patterns… but they are oh-so-useful for inspiration to produce my own creations!

Now that comforting safety net is gone. Thanks to Jess & Casey I still have Ravelry’s pattern search (I'm Needlegrrl there, too), but it’s not set up the same way, and … well… it’s not the same.

Here’s where you come in. Help me rebuild my stash! Send me your favorite essential / must make / most unique / “best kept secret” pattern. Please note: I am NOT asking anyone to break copyrights. I’m only looking for free stuff or notes you’ve written, please. Patterns worthy of being purchased for stash can be nominated as well, but remember that I’m a notorious cheapskate. You may email a PDF or Word doc directly to me (laughinglagomorph at gmail), or post a link. I’ll pick one winner on merit (the one that makes me say “woo!” out loud) and one by random number generator.

Hints:

1) I’m not generally into the basic beginner patterns. I like complex lace & cables & weird challenges. That said, sometimes a good simple recipe is awesome. They’re so easy to pervert. :)
2) Crochet edgings are fine, but beyond that, please stick to knitting.
3) Socks, mittens, hats, shawls, sweaters, toys… it’s all good.
4) Garments appropriate to a curvy stumpy girl are helpful. I’m 4’10” and fat. I’m losing weight, but I’ll never gain height, and even at my ideal size I’m very hourglassy. So no long skinny coats, k? And not so much with the super-bulky yarn.
5) Garments appropriate to a tall, athletic Scotsman with excellent legs are also appreciated.

Winners will get something tasty from my stash! The Merit Prize chooses first, then the Random winner. If you hate all of these glorious options I can spin you something or go stash diving again. But what's not to like? Claudia Hand Painted (the purple mash-up), Panda Silk DK in Berry Smoothie, Fortissima Socka in a wonderful olive green, and C*EYE*BER Fiber in Glacier. This last one was Swag from the Alaskan Sea Socks cruise in 2008.

Contest ends Nov 30th!

This is so exciting - both of my haikus were selected for the Spin-Off 2010 calendar! I'll be featured in August and November.

Fibery update:
Matt's kilt hose are done and he loves them! I can't show them yet since I think I want to submit them to Knitty. But they are ultra-cool if I do say so myself.

I'm currently trying to finish not one but 2 new pairs of socks to wear for the Sock Summit. Good thing I have small feet!

Darn it, we're keeping her!

The heck with foster... She's hopped her way into my heart. And Matt's too. He's dubbed her Better Bun. Cute as that is, we need a real name for her. I like Abigail but he wants something different. Here are two more videos of her in action to assist you.
She's very active & curious, but laid-back. She's been great with the cats and even during the brief caged intro to Blackberry (other bunny). She uses her litterbox perfectly (thank you thank you thank you). She looks fake, as most Angoras do. The way her ears rotate and snap into position, particularly, makes us think of an animated remote-control rabbit (this led to the suggestion of Rachel, after the gyndroid in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, in which people keep robotic pets. It was made into the movie Blade Runner).

We have a sort of accidental "fruit salad" theme going with Blackberry, Peachy, and Fig. Our cars are named for Wallace & Gromit characters.

Right now she's horribly matted - her mouth was actually felted partially closed, which may explain why she's a bit underweight. After a few trimming attempts we've decided to take her to the vet for a thorough shaving & checkup (worms, teeth, etc).

The person who comes up with her name will get some delish yarn from my stash. I'll accommodate your tastes in fiber and color as best I can. You might even get some of my handspun. I'm working on a varigated gray angora/silk/merino blend from DragonFibers right now, which is quite appropriate! Non-knitters, I'll make something for you. :)

Yes, Matt said "She tasted my arm." They were little licky bunny kisses.

Contest Winners!

I had many creative entries, via email, blog comments, and in a Ravelery thread. You created many lovely stitches, dear readers, but only one is really right.

The Tsock Tsarina figured it out first... I give thee the Tsarina Brioche:

Cast on an odd number of sts.

R1 (WS): * p1, yf sl1yo; rep from *, end p1

R2: * k1, yf sl1yo; rep from *, end k1 (when you slip the stitch you also slip the yo that goes with it, so that in the next row you have the stitch and BOTH yos to pick up with the brp.)

R3: p1, yo, * brp1, yf sl1yo; rep from *, end last rep p1 instead of yf sl1yo
R4: k1, * k1, brk1; rep from *, end last rep k1 instead of brk1

yf sl1yo (yarn forward, slip 1 purlwise, yarnover) = bring the working yarn under the needle to the front of the work, slip the next stitch purlwise, then bring the yarn over the needle (and over the slipped stitch) to the back in position to work the following stitch; this slipped stitch/ yarnover is considered 1 stitch.

brk (brioche knit - also known as a bark) = knit the stitch (that was slipped in the row before) together with its yarnover.

brp (brioche purl - also known as a burp) = purl the stitch (that was slipped in the row before) together with its yarn over


Unfortunately I am not the brilliant Yarn Jedi that the Tsarina is (This is a woman, after all, that designs leafy socks), and kept screwing up the swatch. It wasn't until Nephele posted her simplified version that I was able to actually knit the #%*^@ thing.

Over uneven number of stitches:
Row 1: Purl
Row 2: Knit
Row 3: Purl
Row 4: *K1, Knit into stitch two rows down, repeat from * to last stitch, K1
Row 5: Purl
Row 6: K1, *k1, knit into stitch 1 row down, repeat from * to last 2 stitches, k2
Repeat rows 3 through 6 for pattern.

I'll be sending out my yarny gratitude to both. And now I have to make something with this... hmmm...

Reverse-engineering contest!

This is an Old Navy sweater that doesn't fit me, so I have to return it. But I love the stitch, which presents a great opportunity for a blog contest.

The first pic is the front, the second the back. Then come the front and back stretched.

The first person who can send me a pattern to duplicate this stitch will win a lovely package from me with some yummy knitty surprises. Please indicate if you would like fiber or yarn (or both). I must be able to follow the pattern - text or chart, I'm bicraftual - so please be precise! "Some sort of slip stitch" is not sufficient! :)

Good luck!

laughinglagomorph (at) gmail (dot) com

ETA: This is a multi-ply cotton blend. Many great tries so far, and we've spurred a great thread on Ravelry, but nobody's pegged it yet. I'll be away from the computer today but will check in tonight. Big thanks to everyone!