Hi, everyone! Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. I would like to start by of course, announcing last week's winner who is Heather from Knit One, Spin Two. Congratulations! You are going to love the Malabrigo Twist. Please drop me a line at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com with your mailing address. Also, we hope that you will be able to send over a picture of you and the yarn once it arrives so we may post it on the blog.




Last week I mentioned that I would have a guest designer for all of you to meet this week. Her name is Melynda (that's her in the cute red hat and cowl in the snow) and she runs a fabulous blog called French Press Knits. You can also check her out on Ravelry as FrenchPressKnits. If you have not had a chance to visit her blog or see her great patterns, you NEED to do that right now. I would say that Melynda is best known for her adorable self-titled French Press Felted Slippers. I think everyone and their mother are making these right now! Melynda so very graciously accepted my request to do a fun little interview with her by email. Without further ado, here are the 10 questions (part knitting, part fun) that I asked Melynda to answer for us:

1) Since you are French Press Knits, I think that we first and foremost need to know: How do you take your coffee?
Usually decaf- lots of cream, a little sugar. Oh, and of course it must pour out of a french press!

2) Why do you knit?
I love it. I could leave it at that, but I won't :). I have always enjoyed creating things, having a tangible product for my work. I love the satisfaction I get when I can stand back at the end of the day and say "I made that!". I enjoy any type of creating. In high school, I did a lot of sewing. Into college and beyond, I loved home improvement. In the past few years, the knitting bug has bit me quite hard, and every day I grow more and more passionate about knitting. I love the fact that there is always something more to learn- it's never too difficult, maybe just a little time consuming. I get no "I made that!" satisfaction from my job, knitting fills that void in my life.

3) Do you have any hidden talents or super powers? These could of course be hidden knitting talents or super powers.
I have never lost a limbo contest. I have a shirt that dons the nickname "Malimbo"

4) If your house was on fire and you could grab only 3 things before leaving, what would they be?
This is always such a difficult question. First would have to be the Bible I have had since Middle School. It is beat up and never leaves the house anymore, but in this case, it would.
I guess next would be my laptop. It's just practical (plus all my patterns and design ideas are stored on my computer... I should really get to backing that up!)
Last...let me look around real quick...ok, I'm back! Can I just pretend I have ultra long arms and can save my whole yarn stash? I feel like I may regret that answer, like people are going to remind me of something more important, but everyone needs one selfish grab!

5) Name one thing you miss about being a kid.
Just one, huh? Every summer my family would go camping in Ludington, Michigan right before school started. My cousins would all be there, along with aunts, uncles, extended cousins, and grandparents on both sides of my family. Most of the campers were people we knew and we could get anywhere we wanted to go on our bikes. Much time was spent exploring the sand dunes, hiking, and swimming in Lake Michigan. We had the freedom of adults with none of the responsibility- what more could you ask for?

6) What's your worst knitting disaster?
I've had many, and they were all from felting. When I was coming up with the French Press Felted Slipper pattern, I did a few prototypes before I even started getting the slippers to what I envisioned in my head. The worst part about felting mistakes: you can't reuse the yarn!

7) Do you believe in ghosts?
I believe there is evil...not sure about ghosts themselves

8) If you could live and knit anywhere in the world, where would you knit and live?
I'm living just where I want to live- surrounded by family. At this point a couple of my sisters have moved away, and if I could move them back here with me, I would choose to do that instead!

If I could just take a vacation to knit somewhere (which sounds pretty nice about now), it would be to Switzerland. My husband and I went a couple years ago on a trip through Europe and got to meet some of his relatives. They live in the Ticino region of Switzerland (right on the border of Italy) and it was charming. I did not knit last time I was there, it would be fun to go back to enjoy the scenery and the knitting!

9) What is your current knitting fantasy?
To have more time to knit and design... that's it!

10) And last but not least, if you were to be drinking a cocktail while reading my blog, what would it be?
Can it be a glass of red wine instead? Merlot, please!




Thank you Melynda for doing this interview for us. It has been fun chatting and getting to know you a little better. In honor of Melynda being our guest designer on the blog, I will be giving away THREE of her French Press Felted Slipper patterns (that's them above) to THREE lucky winners. Also, TWO of the lucky winners will receive 2 skeins each of Patons Classic Wool (see pic below). I picked out two really pretty colors for the TWO lucky winners: one is a beautiful amethyst purple color and the other is a deep olive green color.

This week my mother has donated the yarn for the blog giveaway. Thank you, mom! She has bribed her way out of being the giveaway model by donating this lovely yarn!! Since, she talked and bought her way out of modeling the yarn for you, I had to find another willing participant, and I found Lexi. Meet Lexi, my brother's girlfriend. Isn't she cute?! She was a sweetheart to step in last minute for my mom yesterday when I was photographing the yarn.




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. I wanted to add a little more to this line and say that if you have a friend or relative that has a US mailing address, that will work. I will send it to them and then they can forward it on to you. See house rules for further details.

2) Post a comment on this blog post by the end of Sunday, 3/7/2010, letting us know if you have knitted or are planning to knit these fabulous French Press Felted Slippers. Do you already own this pattern? Or, is this your first time seeing it? If it's your first time seeing this pattern, what do you think? Let's have fun talking about French Press Knits!

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

I wanted to post on the blog today for a few reasons:

1) I want to send lots of internet hugs out to all of my followers this week! You really did a wonderful job spreading the word and I've seen a lot of new faces in the comments. Thank you, thank you, thank you...

2) It's Friday, and I wanted to say Happy Friday to everyone! Hope everyone has had a good week. I have a guest designer scheduled for the new giveaway on Monday and a fun little interview I did with her to post. She's hip, fun, sweet, and has super cute patterns! I'm excited that she'll be featured next week along with a special giveaway for all ya'all.

3) I've been busy getting designers and scheduling the next giveaways, so I haven't had much time to knit. I had mentioned awhile ago that I was knitting the Victorian T-Shirt for my sister's new baby that's due at the end of April, and I'm still knitting the same little sweater! However, I did get a chance to knit up a quick striped hat for a designer that needed test knitters this past week. The pattern is called Oliver and it should be up on Ravelry shortly, I believe. My hat turned out really great, if I do say so myself, but I didn't do a gauge swatch (I know, I know...) so the hat fits Jasmine now and not Marc. That's alright though, because Marc (who is color blind) thought the gray stripes were pink! The funniest part of all of this is that the gray that I used in this striped hat is the left overs from the gray Claudia hat he got for Christmas and was wearing in the second giveaway pics I posted. So, does he think he's wearing an all pink hat when he wears his Claudia?! Here's a pic of Jasmine wearing the Oliver beanie for all of you to see:



Also, I finally got around to photographing the Dorset Buttons I made awhile back. I got some really cute pictures of those as well and I wanted to share one of them with you, because the colors remind me of Spring time. If you have not seen this pattern/tutorial before, I'd highly recommend it. It is not knit or crocheted, but I think it's easy enough to make and really compliments knitted and crocheted garments. The supplies are cheap and easy to get, and the buttons are super cute and light weight when finished. Alright, I'm done blabbing about how much I like these little guys and here's the pic:



Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

-Ve

The winner of last week's Cascade Eco Alpaca is Jess who posted on the 17th saying, "I have yet to knit a garment!" Well, the Eco Alpaca's not enough to knit a garment, but it sure is soft! Jess, please get a hold of me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com with your mailing address, and remember we would love a picture of the yarn in your possession once it arrives safely at your home.

Well, well, well.... we are onto our 4th giveaway already! Wow! That's flown by! I hope everyone is enjoying the blog so far. I have a lot of great stuff coming up. I have 3 guest designers that have graciously accepted my request of doing an interview with them, while hosting one of their items/patterns as a giveaway. You're gonna love the Q's and A's. They're fun, relevant, and it'll kind of let us into the secret lives of designers. Just kidding!

I also wanted to mention that, yes, I have seen the comments and read everyone of them. No, I can't mail my brother; unfortunately, he still needs to finish high-school. I know, he looks more mature - in a good way. Also, thank you for the compliments of how handsome my husband is. That definitely made his week!! He kept grinning like a school boy. And lastly, I've heard your requests to model the yarn myself, and I promise I'm working upto that. I really hate my picture taken, but I will get over it - just for all of you, soon. Now, you have something to look forward to. Hahaha!

This week my handsome father is modeling the yarn. I asked him to model the yarn for me on Friday and he kept frowning at me and I thought, "This ain't happening!" But, would you believe, he came back on Saturday morning - clean shaven and dressed up, ready for his photo shoot. We had a beautiful day here, which was great and he was really good at modeling the yarn. Hope everyone likes the pictures!!

This week's featured yarn is the NEW Malabrigo Twist. I have 2 skeins of it to giveaway, again! I just love Malabrigo Worsted and I have heard so many wonderful things about this new yarn called Twist. This yarn is 100% baby merino wool and boy is it soft!! There's approximately 150 yds per skein and it's colorway 616 Plena. If you have not seen this color in person, you will love it when you do! It's this beautiful combination of rich royal blues and purples with dark navy blue running into light blue and turquoises that turn into this really muted straw yellow brown. It's a little hard to describe to say the least and the pictures don't do it justice, but none the less, there it is.

This week I've decided to do the giveaway a little differently. I'm posting a little early, hehehe, tricky me! Also, I'm extending the comment time until Sunday at midnight. That way folks can actually comment and enter the giveaways up through the end of the week. On with the show...

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. I wanted to add a little more to this line and say that if you have a friend or relative that has a US mailing address, that will work. I will send it to them and then they can forward it on to you. See house rules for further details.

2) Post a comment on this blog post by the end of Sunday, 2/28/2010, telling us who you have invited to the blog. I would like to grow this community a little further and in order to do that, I need your help. I know your saying to yourself, but if I invite a friend... it'll be less of a chance to win. True; however, if this blog can continue to grow, I can host bigger and more winner giveaways (for instance 2 or 3 winners a week instead of just 1). Make sense? So, I would like you to invite one very nice knitting friend of yours to the blog and then comment who you invited (i.e. Hi, Ve! I just got together with my nice knitting friend this week for coffee. Her name is Pavla and I invited her to your blog on Tuesday.) You get the idea! Now, I'm going to trust that you invite a real friend, because your imaginary one won't work. Sorry. Just give your friend the domain name yarnonthehouse.com and let's see what happens! Hopefully, your friends like the blog as much as you do and we can double in size this week. That would be fun!

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

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

Sincerely,

Ve

Stacey (StacieKnitsIt on Ravelry) has followed in the same blog tradition and sent over an adorable picture of her and her new Malabrigo (from the 2nd giveaway) to share with the YOTH followers. And, what a great picture indeed! Who wouldn't want Malabrigo to hang around their neck all day long?!

Here's what Stacey had to say:

"I wound the yarn into cakes already. Next, I plan to work on a UFO sweater and see if it is worth saving, but I am tempted to knit up the Malabrigo soon into the 5th Avenue Infinity Cowl. I've been thinking about what to knit this yarn into and I'm pretty sure that is what this will become.

I'll think of you while knitting with the yarn and wearing it."

Ahhhhhh, how sweet! I'm really happy that you like your yarn, Stacey, and we want to see the cowl once it's done too. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend everyone. I'm off to go random.org the winner for the Eco Alpaca, get the photos I took of the model and yarn for tomorrow's giveaway ready, and head out to a coffee shop with some close girlfriends of mine that I am teaching how to knit (I've finally talked them into it - now let's just see how many of them will actually get hooked).

Sincerely,

Ve

My husband and I were invited on a trip to Vic (as they say here, or at least as my hubby says it) by some close friends of ours. There ended up being a total of 3 couples plus a 9 month old baby. One of our friends was celebrating his birthday and we were all liking the idea of getting away for Valentine's Day. I had 3 goals while I was in Vic:

1) To enjoy a little alone time as a couple with my husband (Jasmine spend the weekend with the grandmas - her choice!)

2) Find Jasmine a sweet little gift for Valentine's to bring back for her (ended up finding a great shampoo bar that smelled like Jasmine, of course, a conditioner to match, and some sparkly lotion bars - now I have sparkles all over my house, which means all over me as well. Who thought of that one?!)

3) Find a yarn store!!!

We had one full day (Sunday) to walk around town and enjoy the shops and city. I decided not to be a good girl and I didn't look up any addresses of yarn stores that I could walk to in town and just went on a whim. Everyone in my group knew my 3 goals and one of my friends turns to me and says, "Hey, there's a button sign on the side of that building down the alley. I bet they sell sewing stuff. Maybe they'll have buttons and possibly yarn." What do ya know? They had buttons, yarn, ribbon, books, magazines, and other needlework stuff. And to top it all off, it was the cutest little store I'd ever seen. It wasn't the biggest, but it had that charm.

Here's some pics I took of the store for all of your enjoyment:

I just spent a little time putting together a little overview of what folks have been suggesting thus far (up through Lisa's comment today). Hands down the February Lady Sweater takes the cake! However, here are the results for the rest of items that were suggested.

In general these items or design aspects were mentioned:

MULTIPLE VOTES (the number at the beginning is the number of votes):
4 - Scarves (mostly skinny or lacy was suggested)
3 - Ribbed sweaters
2 - Fingerless gloves
2 - V-neck
2 - Fitted
2 - Hats
2 - Cardigans
2 - Shawls
2 - Shrugs
2 - Cables

SINGLE VOTES:
Babydoll style
Boxy
Three quarter sleeves
Chunky wraps
Dresses
Raglan style
Knee/thigh high socks
Cowls
Socks
Empire waist
Longer length sweaters
Toques


Patterns:

MULTIPLE VOTES:
February Lady Sweater
Incredible Custom-fit Raglan
Hourglass Sweater

SINGLE VOTES:
Cleaves
Seafoam Vest
Asana
Liesl
Sexy Vesty
Twisted Stitch Sweater
Owls
Drops 114-9 Jacket
Textured Tunic with Side Buttons
Crossover Knit Top
Margaret
Wicked
Mary Swanson Cardi-Vest
Gaia
Garter Yoke Cardigan
Intolerable Cruelty Skirt
Pleated Wrap
Top-Down Raglan Cardigan
Margot
Central Park Hoodie
Shalom Cardigan
Ishbel
Pioneer
Simple Bobble Headband
Slinky Ribs
Opulent Raglan
Rhytidome
Flower Tied Cardigan
Tomato


Designers/Books:

Chic Knits
Stitch Diva
Knit and Tonic
Hanne Falkenberg
Custom Knits book

First things first, congratulations to StaceyKnitsIt!! You are the winner of last week's giveaway! There are two wonderful skeins of Malabrigo Worsted sitting happily at my house waiting to be sent your way. And, now that the bar has been set by our first winner, we would all like to see a picture of the yarn in your possession once it arrives.

This week's giveaway is two skeins of beautiful Cascade Eco Alpaca in a really nice, classic medium gray color (#1517). I know that I just finished last week's giveaway and that was gray tones, but I just couldn't resist getting this yarn. The yarn is amazingly, unbelievably soft! And, the gray is a perfect shade of gray. The yarn is a 100% undyed baby alpaca! The comments on Ravelry say that this yarn's like buttuh, and I would have to agree!

Also, this week modeling the yarn for you is my handsome younger brother. Didn't he do an excellent job? What a good sport! I don't think he was all that excited about the modeling process (kept telling me that he was uncomfortable), but the pics turned out great. So, I'm glad he suffered through it for me.

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. See house rules for further details.

2) Post a comment on this blog post by the end of Saturday, 2/20/10, telling us what your favorite flattering garment pattern is. Is there a sweater pattern that you have knit that takes 10 lbs off when you wear it? If so, we want to know about it!! A couple of followers suggested I ask this question and I think that it is a brilliant question to ask. Have fun!

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

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

My husband and I spent this past holiday weekend up in Victoria, BC with some of our friends. I apologize for not be able to post the new giveaway sooner. We had a wonderful time though, and I got to visit a yarn and button store while I was there. It was an adorable shop and I got to meet the owner and take some pictures of the place. I'll be posting those up later on this week sometime - that way you can see what I have been up to. Happy belated Valentine's Day to everyone and I'm off to bed to recuperate from my trip. It's nice to be home.

Sincerely,

Ve

Katie (aka fiberfrontlines), our very first giveaway winner from last week, has been oh-so very generous and sent over thee most adorable picture of herself and the squishalicious Cascade 220 that she won. Thank you, Katie for being my first winner and sending a picture of yourself and the yarn for the blog followers to see!!

REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY AND WOULD LIKE TO ENTER THE CURRENT GIVEAWAY, PLEASE COMMENT UNDER THE "MEET MARC AND YOUR MALABRIGO WORSTED" POST. ANY COMMENTS ON THIS POST WILL BE JUST FOR FUN!

TGIF everyone!!

-Ve

Just wanted to post a little sneak peak of some of the yarns that will be coming up for giveaways soon. Some of the yarn is for my own projects, but most of it is for the blog! See how many yarns you can name.

REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY AND WOULD LIKE TO ENTER THE CURRENT GIVEAWAY, PLEASE COMMENT UNDER THE "MEET MARC AND YOUR MALABRIGO WORSTED" POST. ANY COMMENTS ON THIS POST WILL BE JUST FOR FUN!

I figured I should take a little time and answer the same questions I'm having you answer, so here goes:

What's your name? = Veronika aka Ve (pronounced like me)

What are you currently knitting? = Oat Couture's Victorian T-shirt. I saw an itty bitty sample of this sweater knit up at my LYS and couldn't resist. One of my sisters is having her first baby and it's a girl!! I'm super stoked, because when I had my daughter, I did not know how to knit. I missed out on all the fun baby knits and I'm really taking a liking to knitting small clothing. It's much faster than adult sized!!

Who are you on Ravelry? = Veronika

What's your favorite yarn? = Right now it's Madelinetosh DK (formerly known as worsted). The colors are uh-mazing, the ply is wonderful, and it's squishalicious! Get ready darlings, because I already have some on order for a future giveway.

Your favorite color? = Black. I know, boring! I like dark, slimming clothing. 99% of the time I am in black or dark blue or dark brown or dark gray, etc. This results in cravings to knit in anything but black! Currently, I am drawn to pastels!! Probably from all the baby knits and patterns I've been looking at.

REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY AND WOULD LIKE TO ENTER THE CURRENT GIVEAWAY, PLEASE COMMENT UNDER THE "MEET MARC AND YOUR MALABRIGO WORSTED" POST. ANY COMMENTS ON THIS POST WILL BE JUST FOR FUN!

THE WINNER OF LAST WEEK'S CASCADE 220 IS.......fiberfrontlines who posted that she loves, loves, loves Cascade 220! Congratulations, Katie!

This week it's my wonderful husband modeling the yarn. Without him, this blog wouldn't be as beautiful as it is! He put together the whole thing and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Thank you, sweetie.

I have decided to continue in the theme of the most used yarns on Ravelry projects and I've chosen a beautiful new color, 622 SFO SKY, in Malabrigo Worsted for the 2nd giveaway. As of right now while I am writing this blog post, there are 40,282 projects on Ravelry using this yarn. As I mentioned before, this is one of my most favorite yarns to work with and the variegated grays of this color are amazing, in my opinion. Also, both skeins are the same dyelot number for you of course. What do ya think?!

I've been trying to think up how to make the comments for this giveaway more fun, and I haven't come up with much! However, I think the yarn is fun in and of itself! So, 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. See house rules for further details.

2) Post a comment on this blog post by the end of Saturday, 2/13/10, introducing yourself. Tell us a little about who you are. What's your name? What are you currently knitting? Who are you on Ravelry? What's your favorite yarn? Your favorite color? Let's have some fun getting to know each-other, while getting the chance to win some great yarn!

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

I will announce the winner of this giveaway next Monday again while introducing the 3rd giveaway. Check back soon. Good luck to all and thank you for visiting the blog!!

Sincerely,

Ve

THE POSTING FOR THE CASCADE 220 IS NOW CLOSED. Thank you to everyone that posted. It's been a lot of fun reading everyones' comments on why they love Cascade 220. I will be choosing a winner randomly today using a random number generator and posting the winner of the giveaway tomorrow along with announcing the new yarn giveaway. How exciting is that?! You will definitely like next week's yarn giveaway. It is one of my favorites to work with and I have 2 skeins of it to giveaway in a beautiful new colorway!

I also wanted to thank all of the international posters for entering. In the first giveaway blog post, I did not remind folks of the only US Shipping rule and I know that there were several international people who posted to participate in the giveaway; therefore, I have decided to cover the costs of any shipping (including internationally) for the first giveaway only! However, for future giveaways, I will be unable to ship internationally for the time being. It has been mentioned that I should allow international shipping, but have the winners cover the costs. I'm not comfortable doing that, so I have decided to ship within the US only at this time for all future giveaways.

Again, thank you for the wonderful response to the giveaway and the blog. Thank you for all the sweet compliments and I'll see everyone tomorrow!

Sincerely,

Ve

I promised a picture of the yarn, so here it is! The four skeins of Cascade 220 - modeled by my beautiful daughter this morning right before she headed off to school. I chose a pretty heather red from The Heathers 220 line in honor of Valentine's Day which is coming up. The details: Color No. 2426 and all four skeins are the same Dyelot No. 7876. Enjoy!

REMEMBER TO POST A COMMENT UNDER THE EARLIER POST TO BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN THESE 4 SKEINS.

I have decided that a good place to start is with Ravelry's top #1 used yarn. Drum roll please... Cascade Yarns 220 Wool! I will be giving away 4 skeins of Cascade 220. Ravelry has this yarn posted as of today's date and time as having 45,750 projects made/started out of this yarn. That's a lot of Cascade 220! Take a look at all the pretty colors! In honor of this yarn being in the #1 position for most projects on Ravelry, I think it's a perfect candidate for my first giveaway. In order to be entered into this giveaway, please comment on this post (by this Saturday, 2/6/10) letting me know what YOU love about Cascade 220, or if you haven't had the opportunity to knit with this yarn, just say Hi!

In the next few days I will be posting a picture of the color I have picked out for you. Then over the weekend I will randomly choose a winner using the True Random Number Generator at www.random.org, and announce the winner of this giveaway next Monday when I announce next week's FREE YARN. Good luck everyone and I hope that you enjoy my first gift to you!

Sincerely,

Ve

If you are a yarn store, fiber company, designer, indie yarn artist, or you just want to be featured on my blog, here are a few ways this can be accomplished:

1) Host a weekly yarn giveaway and I will feature you for the entire week. If you are a yarn store, fiber company, pattern designer, or say an independant Etsy seller, I can blog about your company for that whole week's giveaway. You can even pick your own theme on what you would like the followers and commenters to rate or talk about for that week.

2) Purchase some ad space. Simple as that. I can put up a pretty little banner link on the right hand side of my blog for your company and we can decide on a reasonable payout for the space. Say, X amount of free yarn for X amount of business brought to your site. Yes, you can buy me with yarn!

3) Donate. Help me keep this blog free! Of course, yarn donations are always welcome as well!

If any of these options interest you or maybe you have another offer that you would like to make me, please feel free to contact me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Veronika