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November 29, 2006

A Dire Warning

A comment below prompts me to warn you all: Do Not Procrastinate! I can see the thinking behind wanting to wait and see the Cinderella winners before you enter for Snow White; but the closing date is just two weeks away. That doesn't give you a lot of time. (Thanks for bringing this up, Temperance.)

We are judging the entries right now, and as I've said before, some of them are really impressive. As it happens, in this competition a number of the best entries (most appealing designs and stories) were also the best presented — but it would be a mistake to think your entry has to be beautifully presented to be a winner. It really doesn't. There may be a link there, but I think it's more that the people who put the most thought into their entries also took the most care over the presentation. (As I've said before, this is not a drawing contest.) So don't think you can judge "what I'm looking for" by what happens to win this time; I want you to surprise me. Really.

Also, while of course we want to get the winners chosen and published as soon as possible, I can't guarantee that will happen in enough time for you to get your entries in — especially if you still want to customise your design to what you think I want!

(I've also been asked how many entries we had: around two dozen. I'm telling you this only because I figure that gives you pretty good odds, and hence may encourage you to try. However I won't reveal the number of entries in any of the coming months.)

November 26, 2006

So busy, busy, busy

The year may be drawing to a close, but things seem to be speeding up around here. A whole pile of boxes arrived this week, with everything from more 5mm Bella Blue needles to a couple of Jordana Paige bags in new colours, plus some cute stick pins/needlepoint stitch markers from Heidi Petach. We still need to photograph these so wait a couple of days to find them on the site. Plus, orders have been coming in thick and fast; [adopts singsong voice] I know what somebody's getting for Christmas! Quite a few somebodies in fact. This is fun.

Judging the Cinderella entries is also keeping us busy. It's so very hard to choose between some of them. We haven't had a lot of Snow White designs yet; I reckon that means a bigger chance for each entrant this month, doesn't it? So have a go. You know you want to.

I've also been greatly enjoying the fortnightly sessions at Cafe Crimson. Yesterday was a particular treat, I found the very talented Anna at Stash and she joined us. What a pleasure to meet a designer I so admire. I've set up a mailing list for the dozen or so people who've either come along or said they'd like to come along; anybody else who's thinking of pitching up some time, do leave a comment or email me (purlescence AT gmail DOT com) for details.

November 14, 2006

Wow.

Just... wow. It's (just about) the end of the first Storytellers challenge, and I have been just blown away by the quality of the entries. I mean that. I knew knitters were imaginative, talented folk, but honestly? I wasn't expecting this much creativity. I'm stunned.

Judging is going to be so much harder than I thought.

November 13, 2006

Oh goody, more crappy photos!

So last week my much-needed swift and ball winder arrived*, freeing me to tackle all those gorgeous skeins recently relocated from Stash (the shop) to stash (the hidden cavities around Chez Robynn). I also finally took delivery of more Gecko food (having stalled when I ran out of Kureyon). What do you think I'm working on? Reviving Gecko? The long-awaited Clapotis?

Or maybe long-awaited socks? I have the yarn.
socks.jpg
And I have — I can't tell you how this pleases me — my very own personalised sock pattern, all calculations done for my own fair feet** by a very lovely customer who's never even met me. I tell you, when I started this business, I wasn't expecting such perks. Thanks, Anne!

But maybe I should be finishing the Fair Isle cardi I've recently begun.***
cardi.jpg
I like to be faithful to what I start, you see.

On the other hand, I've also been given some little treats recently, by non-knitting friends.
gifts.jpg
I'm always so touched when unbelievers give me yarn. It's like they're saying, "I don't get it, but I know this is important to you." And they try to think like a knitter, to choose something cool from a bunch of stuff that really doesn't mean anything to them at all. It's so sweet.

Anyway. Cardigan? Gecko? Socks? Clap? Something fluffy?

Or, er, Christmas knitting.
tilli.jpg

Sorry Anne. I'm going over to the deadline side. This is actually quite new for me; I've recently knitted my first scarf, so in previous years only very privileged folk indeed were treated to knitted gifts. Those gifts being full-on sweaters and such, y'see. This year, I've decided to make scarves for as many people as possible,**** but being new to this, I'm not really sure how long that will take. Best to start now, then.

The Tilli Thomas, above, will be followed by something a bit wider and lacier out of this:
rita.jpg

And another little lacy stole thing out of this:
heidrun.jpg

And there must also be some good manly knitting for my dad and his partner, and some more lacy goodness for my mother (yarn previously shown), and so on, and so on.

And when that's all done, if I can face another scarf, I shall be rewarding myself with this.
me.jpg
For which I cannot be held responsible, because absolutely everybody in the shop was insisting that I had to have it, it's my colours. Who am I to argue with absolutely everybody?

____
* Ordered about a day before I heard about the pretty swifts at Posh Yarn, which would have saved me money and all... but I'm not bitter. Aside: why are all ball winders so damn ugly? I have resisted them for years because I just couldn't bear their plastic horror. But I caved, of necessity. I need me a tame carpenter to make a wooden one.
** Well... somewhat fair. Pale, anyway.
*** Readers who have been paying attention may note that I posted a picture of some cabling, with a note about planning a "beaded lace jacket" (no cabling), and now I'm talking about Fair Isle. So? Don't tell me you don't change your mind.
**** A decision that *might* have arisen entirely as an excuse to sample the various silky indulgences on offer at that Den of Budgetary Iniquity. I couldn't possibly say.