giveaway #98

The three winners of the Fable Yarns giveaway are:

Rae Lynne, KnitOnePugTwo, & Holly Isaac

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

As we near closer to the holiday season and the beginning of the shopping, cooking, cleaning, preparing, decorating, gift wrapping, celebrating mayhem, we should try and stop to be thankful admist all the activity. I'd like to stop today and just let you know what I'm most thankful for: my loving family and friends, our employment during rough times when I know there are families out there struggling to make ends meet, for our health and well-being, and sometimes most importantly, my love of knitting that keeps me sane and fulfilled during moments of hardship and joy. I'm lucky to be surrounded by all the wonderful people in my life, and I wish you and your family much love and joy during this season as well.

With Thanksgiving coming up this week here in the states, I'd like to share with you a wonderful indie hand dyer of beautiful yarns that I got to meet recently, Storied Yarns, and one of her gorgeous shawl patterns that I had the pleasure of knitting. I love talking about lace and shawls! It's one of my most favorite things to knit, and this shawl was no exception. Meet Mrs. Pontellier (the shawl)!

Jessica Cook, the owner of Storied Yarns and designer of Mrs. Pontellier, contacted me this past summer and asked if I would like to knit and review her lovely shawl pattern and do a giveaway. As soon as I clicked the link to the Rav pattern page, I knew this shawl was going to be a fantastic knit! I'll let my pictures of my finished shawl do some of the talking here as well:










Pattern: Mrs. Pontellier
Designer: Jessica Cook
Yarn: Storied Yarns Tencel Sock
Colorway: The Unicorn
My Rav project page here
Modeled by: Jasmine
The pattern has an ethereal feel to it with it's circular shaping, simple sweet lines, and delicate yet striking lace edging. Jessica says that her pattern was inspired by the main character in Kate Chopin’s novella, “The Awakening.” I unfortunately have not had the chance of reading that book, but I love how Jessica's yarns and patterns are all inspired by novels and stories. I'm sure it all makes it so much cooler if you have read the book!

I received the yarn, Storied Yarns Tencel Sock, shortly before my trip to Mexico and it became my steady companion during my vacationing. It went to the poolside with me, had an afternoon espresso in the breeze of the hotel lanai with me daily, and an occassional glass of wine or beer in the evenings while visiting with friends new and old. The pattern is very well written, easy to follow and was engaging enough to keep my attention during an exciting trip. Plus, the yarn made of 50% merino and 50% tencel was the perfect fiber blend for the hot weather. I couldn't have picked a better project if I had tried! It's funny how things seem to work out sometimes.

The color I chose for my shawl from Jessica's beautiful selection was The Unicorn. It's a very pretty pale shade of a gray blue that has soft areas of a lavendar pink color throughout. The colors are beautifully blended and just sparkle on the fiber. Jessica has a Facebook page that she updates regularly with all of her colorways that she offers. So, if there is a color that catches your fancy, you can place a custom order with her here, or any of her current in stock sock yarns would work for the Mrs. Pontellier shawl, if you were interested in making one for yourself. Full disclosure: the pattern requires 410 yards and some of the smaller yardage sock skeins may only allow 3 repeats of the lace edging instead of the written 4, or you could do some stash busting and find something at home to knit with.

Jessica has sent over another gorgeous skein of her Tencel Sock in a magical color called The Enchanted Forest for a lucky follower to win along with a PDF copy of the Mrs. Pontellier shawl pattern:



Also, if you knit any of Jessica's patterns or use any of her yarns between now and December 31 you can win a prize (or two) in her Ravelry group.


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, 12/2/12. What are you thankful for this season? Take a moment to list a few of the things that make your life wonderful!


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