The grand prize winner of the cosymakes 2 skeins of their choice and Mixed Knits e-book is:

One Sheep

The two runners up who will each receive 2 PDF patterns of their choice are:

Rachelle & Christine Lima

Congratulations! Please contact me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com to collect your prizes.


Tomorrow will mark my blog's ONE year giveaway anniversary! February 1st, 2010, was the start of the joyful journey of giveaways that has lead me here. I can't believe it's been a year! I'm so happy to have you as my followers and I'm very excited about what this next year of giveaways will bring.

During the last few months, I've been contemplating and dwelling over what I would like to do and where I would like to take this blog in 2011, and I've come up with a few changes:

1) My biggest decision and change is that I will start doing bi-weekly giveaways instead of giveaways that are featured every Monday. Now before you start yelling and throwing things at me, listen to my reasoning and then be kind... one of my biggest reasons for deciding to change my giveaway schedule is because I would like more time to find truly good and unique giveaways to offer you in the future. Weekly giveaways end up rotating so quickly that our sponsors are only able to donate so much product for such short exposure (which makes sense) and I want to bring you better and bigger giveaways in 2011!

The second reason is that I've noticed over the last 52 giveaways, I've had 10 or so unclaimed prizes! I would like to extend the giveaway lengths to allow winners to claim their prizes for a longer period of time and to allow more followers an opportunity to enter the giveaways with the extended timeframe.

And lastly, I've set some personal knitting and blogging goals for myself this year and doing bi-weekly giveaways will allow me more time to accomplish some or all of those goals.

2) With the above mentioned change to bi-weekly giveaways, the time to claim your prizes is now being extended to 4 weeks instead of 2. Hopefully, this will help the winners get their information over to me and we won't have as many forfeited prizes this year.

3) The other change I'm hoping to accomplish is the look of my blog! My hubby is going to start changing things on the site and so I hope that you enjoy the new look, which will be occuring over the next couple of weeks.

With all that being said, I bet your thinking what happened to the forfeited prizes from the last 52 giveaways! Right?! Well, back several months ago during one of my recorded podcasts I announced that unclaimed prizes will be chosen at random to give to either a public Follower of the blog or YOTH Ravelry group member. Well, I plan to stick to my word, and this leads me to this week's giveaway prize...




ONE LUCKY public Follower and ONE LUCKY Ravelry YOTH group member will each receive an assortment of yarn from this past year's unclaimed prizes! That's right! If you're not a public Follower or Ravelry YOTH group member, be sure to jump on board now to participate in this giveaway's destashing of forfeited prizes.

All these lonely skeins need nice homes!




And, last but NOT least, I would like to ask for a blogiversary gift from you, my followers:

Tell all the knitters that you know about YarnOnTheHouse.com! Share your favorite giveaway site with your friends. The more followers that we have, the better the prizes we'll get!

And, to all of you Twitter YOTH followers... be sure to Tweet, "Happy Blogiversary @yarnonthehouse!"

Thank you so much for all of your support and cheers to another fantastic year of giveaways!!

I'll randomly pick the winners from the public Followers and Ravelry YOTH group members in two weeks and post the results on the blog along with the new giveaway, so be sure to check back. (Feel free to leave a comment if you would like. I would love to hear from you, but this giveaway's comments will not constitute an entry into this drawing.) Good luck everyone.

Sincerly,

Ve

We're having a happy knit-for-yourself KAL over in the YOTH Rav group. The free pattern we voted for was the 198 yds of Heaven shawl. It was such a quick knit in worsted weight that I'm done with mine already! I wanted to share my shawl with ya'll here and hopefully entice you to hop over to our KAL and do a little selfish knitting for yourselves!








Hugs and stitches!

-Ve

The winner of the Yarnia custom house blend cone is:

Andy who said, "Wow! That is So Cool! I've never heard of Yarnia before."

Congratulations! Please contact me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com to collect your prize.

Now that the holidays are over, I've been busy dreaming of what beautiful knits I can make for MYSELF! I love gifting hand knits, don't get me wrong, but this year I've decided to knit more for moi. We'll see how long that lasts... so far so good though. I have my first selfish FO to share with you, but before I do that I want to introduce you to this week's sponsor, cosymakes. Meet Cosy...








Links and such from the videos:

- cosymakes site

- cosymakes Etsy shop

- Cosy's spinning fiber

- Mixed Knits e-book

- Mixed Knits e-book on Rav

- Knit One, Embellish Too book

- Knitting for Dummies book

- Flathead Lake in Montana

- Evening in Missoula tea (hope this is the right one!)


Thank you, Cosy for visiting us and being our lovely sponsor this week! I stumbled across Cosy's Etsy shop while browsing for new yarns a couple months back, and I couldn't resist picking up a skein of her snapdragon light fingering yarn. It's a 100% wool and 700 yards! I also love that Cosy uses greener shades dyes, which are more friendly to our Mother Earth. Check out the beautiful Spring Leaves stole I knit up for MYSELF!












By the way, this is a free pattern! You can check out my Rav project notes here.

Cosy is generously sponsoring this week's giveaway. ONE lucky follower has the chance to win a copy of the Mixed Knits e-book and 2 skeins of hand dyed yarn from her Etsy shop (this does not include handspun yarn and fiber). Also, TWO runners up will each receive 2 individual PDF patterns of their choice. Check out Cosy's fabulous patterns here!


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


1. Read over the rules if you have not done so already.

2. Leave a comment on this blog post by the end of Sunday, 1/30/11. What's your knitting plans for this year? Are you going to knit more for yourselves or more for your dear ones?


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

The lucky winner of the Dipped Infinity Cowl from Sunshine Yarns is:

Nadine

Congratulations! Please contact me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com to collect your prize.

This past Saturday I got the chance to take a short trip out of town to Portland, Oregon. I love visiting Portland and this time around I got the chance to visit a really unique yarn store called Yarnia. The reason Yarnia is different than other LYS's that you or I might be used to is because at this yarn store you get to pick and custom blend your own yarn. Yes, you heard me correctly! I think it's easier for you to just watch this neat demo video that Yarnia has put together than have me try to explain how it works:





Honestly, how cool is that?! Lindsey, the owner and lady behind Yarnia, was kind enough to let me visit her store, do a picture tour, and she's also our lovely sponsor this week (we'll get to that shortly). Take a look at all the fun pics of my visit first!

Welcome to Yarnia!



The first thing that strikes you when you walk in is all the beautiful array of colors on cones that speckle the room.



Each section is separated by fiber.



You can't help but make a beeline to the cashmere!



In the center of the room, Lindsey has all the wonderful house blends.



These blends are some the most popular "colorways" and yarn combos.



I just love all the little teeny-tiny swatches that show you what the blends look like knitted up.



They look like itty-bitty blankets for li'l dollies or something.



So cute! Not to mention the blends are all really beautiful.



You can check out the house pre-blended colorways here online in the Yarnia web store and you have to check out the brand new Custom Yarn Creator.



A few of the bestsellers:



After you pick out the different yarns that you would like to blend, Lindsey puts the cones on this shelf.



Then all the yarns are strung towards the unique Yarnia machine (that's Lindsey!)...



...and wound up onto one cone. That's a solid lace weight yarn that's being wound up for me!



Hope you enjoyed the picture tour! If you're ever in the Portland area, you have to go visit...



Check out the beautiful yarn I picked up while I was at Yarnia.



I can't wait to cast on with these beauties!



From left to right: custom semi solid fingering weight blend of 2 strands wool and 1 strand alpaca in gray tones, custom solid lace weight blend of 2 strands of wool in olive green, and a fingering weight house blend of bamboo, cotton, and wool named Bandon.




Thank you so much, Lindsey, for being our guest and sponsor! Yarnia has donated a cone of a house blend fingering weight yarn in a color called Gaspe.

Isn't it gorgeous?! It's a blend of 69% bamboo, 29% wool, and 2% nylon.



The winner will also receive a darling little pin that says, "make cones not war," and two 10% off coupons.




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


1. Read over the rules if you have not done so already.

2. Leave a comment on this blog post by the end of Sunday, 1/23/11. Have you heard about Yarnia or ever visited the shop before? Or, is this your first time hearing about this unique DIY yarn heaven?


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

The two winners of the Traveling Woman Collection and a skein of Plucky Knitter Primo are:

Phyllis & knitwork

Congratulations! Please contact me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com to collect your prizes.

I apologize for being late this week; however, the prize arrived a day late and I really wanted to share a picture of the beautiful yarn being offered, but I promise, it was all worth the wait! Meet our wonderful and generous sponsor this week: Sunshine Yarns. Dani is the cool owner and artist behind this line of yarn and she did a fun written interview for us. Take a look...




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

Hello, and thanks so much for having me! Let's see ---- my name is Dani and I just bought a house with my husband Scott in Boulder, CO. I grew up in Colorado, so its good to be back! We have two kitties, Soma and Kali who are like our little kids. I'm a very outdoorsy person --- I hike, bike, run, swim and have recently started doing triathalons. I also love food and have become obsessed with our garden and eating what we grow. I love to read, love to go to happy hour and am dying to start sewing. I'm a pretty laid back person and try to take each day at a time. Sunshine Yarns fits really well into who I am as a person. Its often hard to balance the business and my own life, especially since we have grown so much the past couple of years. But, it keep me on my feet! You can see what we are up to at our website here: http://www.sunshineyarns.com; or see our "not too up to date" blog here: http://www.sunshineyarns.com/blog. We also have a wonderful and very active Ravelry group called Sunshine Yarnies --- come check it out!.

2. You offer some amazing hand dyed yarns. Where does your inspiration come from?

I am so inspired by the world around me. I grew up in the mountains of Colorado and from an early age, was out hiking, skiing, canoing, camping. I think this has always made me appreciate nature. I love to look at yarn and see an ocean, a sky, a rainforest. I also love to travel --- many of my colorways come from recent journeys both close to home and from around the world.

3. What got you started in dyeing yarns?

Let's see, well, while working as an Environmental Scientist in Boston, I started knitting alot more frequently and also started perusing knitting blogs. I saw the Kool-Aid craze sweep across the blogs and wanted to give it a try. I was quickly hooked and started Sunshine Yarns not long after that (this was Fall 2005). Starting a business wasn't something I really set out to do, it kind of just happened. Its been a learning experience for me, but I am thrilled with how things turned out. I think sometimes its better when you kind of fall into something you love to do!

4. I know that your yarns and colors are probably like children to you, but what's you current favorite colorway and/or yarn base that you offer?

My favorite colors have always been blues and greens, but recently I've been addicted to oranges and yellows. I don't think I can give you one colorway, but a few of my current favorites are Peacock, Saffron and Wanderer. I love, love Sportweight yarns --- so my current favorite base is the Merino Sport (or Luxury Sport).

5. What will be next for you? Do you have new colorways in the works that you can share with us?

Well, our next BIG thing is that we are going to Stitches West in February! Its our very first public appearance. I'm so excited, but there is also alot to get ready for! After that, we plan on having some new base yarns this year, and will hopefully continue to offer up our fun yarn kits and clubs. I'm always dyeing up new colorways, so its always good to check out our Tuesday store updates. This week's is 1-11-11 at 11am MST. How cool is that?!

6. Why do you knit?

I've always loved arts and crafts. I used to watch my amazing grandmother knit and sew, paint and bead. I love to knit because it is creating --- its relaxing, its fun, and its a great excuse to get together with knitting friends :)

7. When did you learn to knit and who taught you?

I am a self-taught knitter --- decided one day that I just had to knit and went to Michaels for some cheap yarn and needles (let's see, this is the Fall of 2003). After looking up some internet tutorials, I sat down to cast on a scarf. It turned out to be a blanket for our cats, because I had no idea how many stitches to cast on. I think I had at least 100 in bulky yarn. We laugh now, because I had the nerve to just keep on knitting, rather than frog and start over!

8. If you were to knit and live anywhere in the world, where would you knit and live?

I've traveled alot over the years, but New Zealand felt the most like home to me; plus there is sheep galore. To be honest though, I'm perfectly happy on our 2 acres here in Colorado :)

9. What's been your worst knitting or in your case, yarn dyeing disaster?

Hmm, I've actually never had anything too horrible happen! I guess I would say the worst disaster was last year, when we had a sudden wind storm, and I was moving all the drying roving inside. I tripped and fell over a pot and cracked a few ribs and partially dislocated my shoulder. Yep, seriously.

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

A rum and tonic with lots of lime of course!


Thank you, Dani, so much for visiting us! Sunshine Yarns is offering one of the coolest giveaways, the Dipped Infinity Kit. I'll let Dani tell you all about it:

"Dipped infinity Kits create an amazing scarf or scarf knit in the round --- it is joined, so its like a huge cowl. The pattern that comes with the kit is by Laura Chau. You always knit two colors together, so you get a really beautiful fabric, with the colors blending into one another. To find out more information, take a peek on Ravelry to see all the beautiful finished knits! You can view all the color sets we offer on Ravelry, or in our Sold Out section on the website, www.sunshineyarns.com. You can simply type in "infinity" and what we offer pops up. We offer color sets such as: Secret Garden, Be Natural, Find Me A River, Shoots and Leaves to name a few! If you are interested in ordering, please email me!"

Check out some of these amazing knitted scarves:

Kit color: Secret Garden



Kit color: Find Me a River



And, here is the lovely kit in the Autumn kit colorway Dani has sent over for one lucky follower to win:




Isn't that just cool?! I told you it was worth the wait.


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


1. Read over the rules if you have not done so already.

2. Leave a comment on this blog post by the end of Sunday, 1/16/11. Just imagine... it's a cold winter evening with snowflakes falling outside and you are sitting in the most comfortable chair by a cozy warm fire. What are you knitting?


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

Unfortunately, this week's giveaway is a going to be a day late. Blame the mail man! Only kidding. I love my mail man! (Wouldn't want any bad karma for saying that he did it!) Check back late tomorrow to see the new lovely giveaway. It's gonna be a real humdinger!

Sincerely,

Ve, your faithful blog-meister!

The two winners of the Twisted Woolly Toppers e-book are:

Suzanne & Jenifer

The two winners of a pattern of their choice (Castiel, Limpetiole, or Anca's Beret) are:

Melissa & Susan

Congratulations! Please contact me at yarnonthehouse@gmail.com to collect your prize.

Onto the good stuff... I'm absolutely in love with this week's giveaway! Not only do we have a super talented, smart, funny, lovely, darling guest, Liz Abinante, who is famous on Ravelry for her Traveling Woman shawl, but we also have a fantastic and equally talented indie dyer as our yarn sponsor this week, The Plucky Knitter. Sarah who is the lady behind The Plucky Knitter hand dyes stunning skeins of yarn and her yarn literally sells out in minutes when she posts her dyed treasures up in her Etsy shop. If you have not heard about these gals, what yarn skein have you been living under?!

I had the opportunity to chat with Liz about her new Traveling Woman Collection and do a l'il interview with her on Skype recently. Check it out!






Links and such from the videos:

- Liz's blog

- Liz's patterns

- Traveling Woman shawl pattern

- Liz's Traveling Woman knit in Plucky Knitter yarn!

- Traveling Woman Collection on Ravelry or for pre-order on Liz's site.

- Little Red Bicycle

- A Verb for Keeping Warm

- Vivian Hoodie by Ysolda

- Liz's Gothic Rose Yoke disaster!


Thank you so much for visiting us, Liz! It was a treat to have you here on YOTH!

This past October I had a chance to knit the original Traveling Woman shawl pattern (which is still remaining a free pattern, by the way). It is the shawl that I decided to knit for my mom's 50th birthday present, and I made it special by adding Swarovski crystal beads to the pattern while knitting it. My mom truly loves her shawl and Jasmine modeled it in the snow for me to show off this week!










If you would like to know more about my bead placement and see my pattern notes, see my Ravelry project here.


Liz and The Plucky Knitter have put together a ridiculously good giveaway this week for you:

TWO followers have the opportunity to win a PDF copy of the new Traveling Woman Collection e-book and one of the below Plucky Knitter Primo fingering weight yarn skeins (light blue-gray = An Early Light & pink-purple = Wee Bit Sassy).







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


1. Read over the rules if you have not done so already.

2. Leave a comment on this blog post by the end of Sunday, 1/9/11. Liz wants to know: If you could live in a knitted house made of any yarn (time and cost are not a factor), what yarn would it be and why?

Liz's answer, "I would live in a house made of Berroco Lumina in Space Odyssey for no reason other than I want to live in a shiny silver house. I've never actually knit with this yarn, and I'm sure it's impractical and feels odd, but it's so shiny! I would love to live in a space house. I would have bobbles for door knobs and ornate lace windows. It would be the most gaudy house on the block and the envy of knitters everywhere. Obviously."


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