giveaway #88

The Grand Prize winner of the Coastal Knits Kids collection and yarn from Happy Knits is:

Nicole

The two Runners Up who will each receive a PDF copy of their pattern of choice from the Coastal Kids collection are:

marianne & Heather

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


I recently finished up a knitting project that I really loved, and I thought it would be a perfect fit to share here on the blog as a giveaway. You know that one of my favorite things to knit are shawls, but this shawl is different than any I've knit before. Usually it's intricate lace that gets my attention, but this shawl's allure comes from a really pretty slipped stitch texture. Meet the Elowen Shawl by Judy Marples. Isn't that sweet?! I loved the look of this shawl the moment I found it on Ravelry. I'm a sucker for striped shawls, but the slipped stitches in this pattern make the striping so fun and interesting!

Judy is a very talented designer. Her pattern writing style is thorough and concise. The Elowen Shawl comes with two varieties for the edging, and she's included both written and charted instructions for the textured portion, which is nice for those of you who fear THE chart! She did an awesome job with this pattern, and I plan on knitting many more of her designs in the future (maybe.... Calais Shawl which is a FREE pattern, or the Cornwall Beach/New Forest Shawl with all the mesh lace, oooooh, and I'm really loving the Yorkshire Shawl too!). Sooooo many patterns and not enough time to knit them all! Can you guess which edging I used before you look at the picture?




Pattern: Elowen Shawl
Designer: Judy Marples
Yarns: Becoming Art Agave fingering & Theia MCS fingering
Colorways: Cinnamon (semi-solid colorway) & Hearth (variegated)
My Rav project page here
Modeled by: My fence!

And, that's not all I want to share, because this whole project started as two yummy, yummy skeins of sock yarn in my stash! The yarn I used for my project is from a super fabulous indie dyer named Becoming Art. I chose to use two similarly colored skeins for a more muted striping outcome - I love the way it knit up! One of the skeins was semi-solid and the other was a more variegated version that had lots of the beautiful cinnamon coloring of the solid along with all the complimentary browns, pinks, and golden yellows. I even see specks of a dark rich green in there! Very beautiful! I met Lisa Sanchez, the owner of Becoming Art yarns, through Alana, one of our last giveaway's sponsors! As soon as I saw Lisa's artwork, I knew I had to get her on the blog. Check out some of Lisa's yarn and tell me that doesn't look like art to you! And, for those of you spinners out there, she has fiber too. Lisa was kind enough to answer a few questions for us in a written interview. Check it out...





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

Well, I am a Mother of 4 awesome little boys. My fantastic husband and I just had our 4th boy in March and I am thoroughly loving him to pieces. We are homeschoolers and love to travel whenever and wherever we can. I am very family oriented and spend a lot of time here with my kids, in the garden and trying my hand at urban homesteading. I am creative by nature so owning Becoming Art has been a really great experience for me. I tend to immerse myself in my work and I'm really thankful that I have the opportunity to be able to do that and be here with my boys.

2. I really love your yarns and fibers that you offer. The dye work is very unique and truly beautiful. What's your favorite yarn, fiber, or color that you offer?

Thank you! It's really hard for me to choose because I love them all. However, I think the yarn that is exceptionally great for dyeing, knitting and wearing would be the Agave mcn yarns. For spinning I am really fond of the Merino/Cashmere/Silk blend and my favorite colorway to dye would be anything from the new Alice In Wonderland Collection. I have a lot of different dyeing styles and this collection uses them all.

3. Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration for your colors and how you come with such stunning blends?

Inspiration is so tricky. You can't force it that's for sure. Sometimes random ideas pop into my head and other times I have to really think about it for a long while. Recently I took my favorite children's story Alice In Wonderland and used it as my inspiration for a collection. I had 2 or 3 ideas as starting points and then I used those to create even more complimenting colors.

Other times I will use photographs, memories, names, nature, seasons or songs. In particular I really love using songs because it leaves the door wide open for personal interpretation. I'm introverted by nature, so a lot of times if I am thinking about a certain person or thing a lot, I'll end up getting color ideas to go with it.

As far as the color blends or combinations I use, it has taken me a lot of practice but I am able to picture colors together in my mind and know which dyes to use pretty easily. I really enjoy new combinations so I experiment a lot. If an idea strikes me intensely I know it's probably going to work out.

4. For budding new yarnies out there, what's the one piece of advice you have?

Be original, be yourself.

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

For 2012, there will be lots of new colorways. I usually try to do 2 new collections per year, so I better get busy and get some summer colors lined up. As far as fiber and yarn goes, I normally introduce a few blends per year so I will have some new things coming. Most likely in spinning tops.

6. Why do you knit?

Wow, so many reasons. Mainly to fill the drive to be creative I guess is how I can explain it. I also love to give gifts, I love knitted goods, I love the colors and the textures. It's calming and creative at the same time and a great way to clothe my family.

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

My Mom taught me to crochet first when I was 12, I took that bit of crafty skill and then taught myself to knit in my early teens. I put it down for a while and then got really serious again around 23.

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

Ha ha, fun question. This is really hard! It's a toss up between Japan and the Oregon Coast. Oregon is perfect knitting weather, Japan is somewhere I've always wanted to visit.

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

Well I've had way more dyeing disasters so we'll go with one of those. I think when I dyed a huge batch (40 skeins maybe) of a color I was debuting for a show and I didn't realize until I got there that it was missing a color. I had to rename it and sell for a slight discount.

10. And last but not least, if you were enjoying a favorite drink while reading my blog, what would it be?

An icy cold Pale Ale.


Becoming Art yarns and Judy Marples have put together a lovely and generous giveaway for you this time: one Grand Prize winner will receive their choice of two skeins of beautiful Becoming Art yarns pictured below and a PDF copy of the Elowen Shawl pattern, and one Runner Up will receive the remaining skein of yarn not chosen by the Grand Prize"r".





Becoming Art is also offering a generous discount to YOTH followers: 25% off of anything currently in the shop. Just use coupon code YARN25 during checkout. Enjoy!


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, 6/17/12. Lisa wants to know, "What are your favorite summer colors?"


I'll randomly pick the winners in 2 weeks and post the results along with the new giveaway, so be sure to check back. Good luck everyone.

Sincerely,

Ve