giveaway #16

The two winners of the Scout's Swag giveaway are:

jhartwig who said, "It's a tie between snow bunny and turquoise snow bunny! I'm so predictable!"

&

Kathleen that wrote, "I love Convergence! Awesome colors."

Alright, the first one of you that can get a hold of me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com with your shipping info gets first choice on color (either Eureka delux or Illini).

Over the last several months since I began this blog and started this big adventure, I have had the opportunity to meet so many talented knitters, designers, yarn shop owners, and indie dyers. I'm amazed every week at the support and friendliness that I have received for this blog. With that being said, this week I have a wonderful sponsor to announce. Her name is Sandra Singh and she is the owner of SandraSingh.com. Sandra has been in the biz for 5 years now and recently came out with her own exclusive yarn line. She's here visiting us this week with an interview and a little look into the life of a yarn shop owner and the inspiration behind her new yarn line.



The stunning shawl that Sandra is wearing in her picture is the Desert Rose shawl that is only available at Sandra's shop.

1. Sandra, please start by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

First, thank you for this opportunity to work with you and for hosting this giveaway on your wonderful blog.

I'm Sandra Singh, the Sandra behind the fiber arts website, Sandrasingh.com, I sell luxury yarns & designer patterns as well as the tools to make knitters & crocheters' fiber arts dreams become realities. May 2010 is my website's 5 year anniversary, though wood is the traditional 5 year gift, I'm celebrating with merino wool!

These past 5 years have been very busy, in 2009 I worked with four of the industry's top knitwear designers to create an Exclusive Pattern collection for my website. This year I've introduced an exclusive line of yarn, 4 yarn weights in 100% merino wool, Sandrasingh.com Yarn!

If you'd like to keep track of all my events & sales join my Ravelry group, Sandrasingh.com, follow my blog, I Twitter as Sandrasinghcom and friend me on Facebook Sandra Singh.

2. What inspired you to start your own online yarn store?

Knitters did, literally, knitters. Before opening my website I sold stuff on eBay, my first eBay sale was my car. You name it, I probably sold it. Occasionally I would come across bags of yarn and I'd organize them by color or brand and list them on eBay. The customers I had were terrific. They asked specific questions, placed serious bids and paid instantly after the auction was won. I loved these people! So I began searching for a wholesale line, found Cherry Tree Hill yarn and I've never looked back!

3. You have recently released your very own yarn line, Sandra Singh Yarn. Can you tell us about that process and inspiration?

Since the day I started my website I thought...wouldn't it be fun to have my own yarn line? I worked with a few independent hand dyers and dabbled in having them hand paint colors exclusive to my website. Even Amy Hendrix of Madelinetosh dreamed up a few exclusive colors for me. Finally, Angela of the Serendipitous Ewe dreamed up some very lovely colors for me in her Fate Fingering yarn and these are available on my site.

One day a fiber fanatic friend of mine mentioned a lovely yarn out of Uruguay and that it's as soft and beautiful to work with as Malabrigo, also out of Uruguay. So I gave it a try and one thing quickly led to another and Sandrasingh.com Yarn was instantly born. My new collection features a 1 Ply Merino Worsted, 3 Ply Merino Worsted, Lace and Superwash Fingering and I'm very happy with all four yarns and the positive response has been overwhelming.

4. How did you come up with the fun names for your colors?

Great question, I'm glad to hear you like them. I had no idea how difficult it was going to be to name colors! Of course I see yarn names all day long which you may think may make it easier, but it doesn't! I decided I wanted my colors' names to reflect the actual colors of the yarn while at the same time being pretty, not just some cool sounding name that really didn't tell you a thing about the color. So I pulled names from nature like "Cool Mountain Stream," which evokes forest green with blue and names that made me think of the changing seasons, "September, October, November" which reminds me of burnt colored falling leaves. Once I got going it turned out to be a lot fun and I even got my family and friends involved.

5. What's next for SandraSingh.com?

"What's next," you think like I do! What's next is going to be patterns for my yarn! I have two very talented knitwear artists, Renee Leverington of "Goddess Knits" and Michelle Miller aka the "Fickleknitter" who are designing with the new yarn as I answer this question. Michelle is working on a single skein cowl project with the 1 Ply Merino Worsted and Renee is working with the Lace and Superwash Fingering. I'm hoping they'll be ready by the Fall, but you can't rush talent!

6. Who taught you to knit?

My mom, who is very talented in the hand arts she crochets, sews, quilts and does embroidery & macramé, she taught me when I was about 7. I gathered all her scrap yarn to knit a super long scarf reminiscent of a Dr. Who scarf, but that wasn't my source of inspiration. I had no sense of color and mixed a rust with a variegated purple and some green. It ended up being worn by our family dog, Sugar! But after this scarf I didn't knit again for many, many years. I started my business in 2005 and began taking knitting classes at my LYS Hill Country Weavers in Austin, TX. I've been hooked ever since and still take classes to this very day.

7. Why do you knit?

I'm so intrigued by not just making my own garment, but actually creating the fabric for it as I create the garment.

8. What is currently on your needles?

I have to admit when I started knitting I only tackled one project at a time and swore I would finish each project before I started a new one. And I stuck with this promise for a few years. But now...WIP include Gardiner Yarn Work's Birch in Cherry Tree Hill's North Country Cotton and Fuzzy Mable's Leaf Stole in my Sandrasingh.com Yarn Superwash Fingering.

9. What's your worst knitting disaster?

Clapotis hands down, I was knitting along on it very pleased until I reached nearly the end where you begin to drop a stitch twice in the same row. I even managed the first few times to drop stitches at both ends. But than I put the project down for awhile, which is a knitter's folly, upon picking it up some time later I completely forgot to drop the second stitch! I even said to some one in my knitting group..."it doesn't seem like I'm doing this right, but it looks right." Needless to say I hated it upon completion and ended up giving it away!

10. And last but not least, if you were to be drinking a cocktail while reading my blog, what would it be?

This is Texas baby, I'd be sipping a margarita on the rocks with salt and a slice of lime!


Thanks, Sandra for answering the interview and joining us on the blog this week. You are a girl after my own heart! I love margaritas on the rocks! Especially in the warm summer weather.

SandraSingh.com has generously donated 4 skeins of yarn for this week's giveaway. FOUR lucky winners will have the chance to win a skein of either the 1 Ply Merino Worsted or a skein of the 3 Ply Merino Worsted. Here are the beautiful colors:





color: Light Orange with Gray and Straw






color: Bollywood Leading Lady

I am totally in love with this fun Bollywood Leading Lady color! Both of these yarn bases are amazing and I have to say that the 1 Ply is definitely comparable to Malabrigo Worsted. It has the same lovely twist and sheen, but I think Sandra's hand dyed colorways are absolutely unique and worth checking out.

I would like you to do the following if you would like to be entered into this week's giveaway:

1) Have an address in the US to ship the yarn to. If you have a friend or relative that has a US mailing address who is willing to be your shipping sponsor, that will work as well. I will send it to them and they can then forward it on to you.

2) Post a comment on this blog post by the end of Sunday, 5/23/2010, telling us which SandraSingh.com yarn base and colorway is your favorite, and why? I've had a chance to see the 3 Ply, 1 Ply, and I ordered myself some Superwash Fingering which I'll share with you later this week. I would have to say that it's really hard to choose a favorite, but I think for me it's the 1 Ply Merino Worsted because I love worsted weight and the rustic look off a single ply. I'm really diggin' the Bollywood Leading Lady color, but I think I would like to see the Bollywood Leading Man now. ;)

3) Please post only one comment to give everyone a fair chance.

Again, I'll randomly pick the winners on Sunday and post the results on Monday along with the new giveaway, so be sure to check back. Good luck everyone.

Sincerely,

Ve