The Wronicles of RedScot

Shawls, Shawls Everywhere...

2012-01-22T02:01:00.000+01:00

...And Not A One To Wear.

Well, okay, a slight exaggeration. But only a slight one. Only because there might be sock content, too. And I can't wear those either. Damn you Christmas. You make me give my preshusses away!

Although 'tis true you've already seen a couple of my efforts - the LazyKaty I made for my Mum aka Amethyst and Old Copper, and the PaintedElly aka Malachite and Moss I made for my little sister, but there is more.

I know. I admit to the addiction. Now that I can look back and see my madness.

Preshuss no. 3: Sapphire and Sky. Another Birgit Freyer design, this one is SilkyGarden and was made for one of my oldest friends who was in need of some hugs, so I made her a hug in shawl form for her Christmas.

zitron 'filigran' laceweight yarn in colourway 14 1605 -

a pretty yarn that slowly goes from a pale to a navy blue and back again

Preshuss no. 4: Lavender and Quartz. Another LazyKaty, because really, it's ridiculously easy and not very time-consuming to make up this little gem. This one, although I do say otherwise in the title of this post, is currently adorning my neckage area. Hell, it's cold, and there it was, just lying on the table waiting to be put to good use. Yes, yes, it does have another eventual destination, but for the time being I'm quite happy to let it warm my cold shoulders.

lang yarns 'jawoll magic degradé' in colourway 86.0046 (greys and purples)

Preshuss no.5: The Sock! A Twist For Sis socks, to be precise. Another of my own 'Twist of Citrus' pattern - easy to make and absolutely perfect for fast colour-change or self-striping sock yarn. Mmm-mmm!

lang yarns 'jawoll magic degradé' in colourway 85.0025 (blues)

But now it's time to concentrate on some preshusses for myself... oh... wait. No, now I'm in the middle of a long scarf for my best buddy, and I'm working on a pair of socks for another friend. But the good news is that I have several boozy and costume sock ideas fermenting in my brain... There should be a good mix of cool and even more cool this year, I'm a-thinking.

Watch this space...

Red's January SALE

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000+01:00

Yes indeed! For the first 2 weeks of January, you can get 25% off the price of ALL REDSCOT SOCK PATTERNS! Oh yes! Buy one or buy 'em all - you'll get 25% off the total price!

Don't say I'm not good to you!

Click HERE to go to the pattern page on Ravelry! (You don't need to be a member to access the page or buy the patterns!)

Sale starts 1st January 00:01, ends 14th January 23.59
all times GMT

Notes On A Scandal - Shawl Edition

2011-12-26T00:41:00.000+01:00

'painted elly' by birgit freyer

I know. Another asymmetric shawl. The LazyKaty I made for my Mum has tapped an unfathomable fount of shawl-lust. A fount that SHOULD NOT EXIST. Especially after the shawlicide of my first attempt. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Truthfully, I kind of got a little excited after finishing that first shawl and decided I was going to make a shawl/scarf for my sister's Christmas. She has chosen the colour yarn without knowing what it's for. I suspect she thinks it’s for socks, because that’s what I do! I knit socks. (And to be fair, when I was first learning to knit, scarves were all I made, but that passed once I discovered the joy that is socks. I think my sister has received at least four scarves in differing levels of competence from me so far, so I doubt she'd be expecting another version.)

Anyway. The chosen colourway of Noro Kureyon Sock (236) is making me salivate. It’s the only ball I could find of this colour, and I'm slightly kicking myself that I promised it away. Never mind, I’m sure it’ll look gorgeous. (And if it doesn't, well, what is knitted can be un-knitted and made into socks. possibly for me! Heh!)

Wish me luck…

Notes:

1 I’ve added a stitch marker before the first k2tog - the placement stays the same throughout the pattern (so far) and it means I don’t have to count the number of knit stitches to the edging stitches. WIN!

2 I still hate purling. If I didn’t dislike the appearance of garter stitch so much, I’d be knitting both sides like there’s no tomorrow!

3 Damn, but I want this green-coloured Noro for myself. WHY IS IT SO RARE, DAMMIT?

4 I’m replacing the skp with a k2tog tbl because it looks less baggy than my typical skp.

5 I’m going down a needle size to 5mm. I have suspicions this may be a good idea, length-of-wool-wise.

6 I HAVE to learn to knit backwards. Oo - nice video by the Knit Witch HERE! And another for continental (which helped me more, I must say) HERE.

7 Why Noro? WHY????? Orange. ORANGE? Just wrong. Wrong, I say.

:: rings bell ::

Row 79 and all is weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell (apart from that damn orange. Yuck.)

:: rings bell ::

8 I’ve realised that although this feels like it’s going slower than the LazyKaty, it’s not really - it’s just that the edging on one side is already being incorporated into the shawl. :: phew ::

9 I should never invoke the wrath of the Shawl Gods by stating things are going well. I now need to learn how to pick up lace stitches.

10 I’ve added stitch markers to show the 11 repeated sections in the edging. It’s that or forever counting, and I’m doing rather shabbily at that so far…

11 Yeah, the name keeps changing. I’m nothing if not whimsical. And mathematically challenged. I should maybe keep a note, because I'm probably going to name it something Autumn-themed to justify that rusty orange that infiltrated an otherwise beautiful set of colours… ‘Two Plus Two Equals Three’; ‘Oops, It Just Fell On The Needles’, ‘Autumnal Equinox’… But seeing the colours, I’m reminded more of malachite and moss. Oh. Well. That'll do!

12 ETA D’oh. After frogging (oops - did that come as a surprise? Details further on at note 14/15…) I’ve realised (now that I’m back on track) that the stitch markers idea was great, but as a guideline only - their placement is not a rigid thing in the actual pattern contruction…

Things I Have Learned - follow the damn pattern.

13 I have to add that the colours are nearly as garish in real life. My flash is not conducive to a realistic, well, anything really.

14 I'm so crap. I’ve spent the entire day on 3 rows, making mistakes, counting, re-counting, jiggling about. I am so frustrated. ENTIRELY my fault. It seems this *easy* pattern is not easy enough for me. :(

15 Kill me. Kill me now. I’m going to have to frog this baby. Way too many mistakes from which to recover.

16 I need a moment…

17 Maybe I can frog a little and pick up before the edging starts… … … … … WOOHOO! 1 day of ‘knitting’ lost, but I think I may have salvaged it.

18 Well, I am almost certainly going to run out of yarn before I reach the end of the shawl, so going to have to search for some contingency yarn!

19 I’ve reached the first of the individual edging points, so I’m going to have to figure out what the crochet method *really* asks for to connect one point to the next. Ulp... oh. Actually - it’s a simple chain and slip for 8 stitches or so. My crochet is baggy as hell, but it gets the job done! (Poke the hook through the yo, pull through, then pull through st on hook. Make another stitch on hook, then poke the hook through the next yo and lather, rinse, repeat…! Please note extensive use of technical terms.)

20 WOOHOO! Finished with 4 metres of yarn left! FOUR METRES! Fabulous! Contingency yarn is not needed after all, which is grand, because I haven't found any yet!

21 Now the interesting part - blocking, and the never-ending questions of 'will it stay all nice and lacy, or will it ping back into a pretty-coloured tangle of nothingness...'?

22 There is nothing more sublime than taking out the blocking pins and the work staying blocked! No ping-back for this baby! WOOHOO!

23 And finally, the really fun part - taking photos of the finished item!

malachite and moss - for my sister

Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire...

2011-11-25T13:13:00.001+01:00

Jack Frost slurping at my Irish Coffee...

I don't know about you, but I sometimes feel that barmen are a little furtive when making an Irish Coffee... whether it's to make sure no-one sees their super-secret method of making it, or to make sure no-one sees their panic in trying to make sure the coffee and cream stay separated, who's to tell? What I can say is that I am a fan of their end product! I'm also a fan of the 'Baby Guinness' which in fact has nothing to do with Guinness at all, but is in fact a portion of coffee liqueur poured in to a shot glass then topped with a layer of Irish cream liqueur! I happily class that as an Irish Coffee, too!

Inspired by warm cabled jerseys, roaring pub fireplaces on a frosty evening, and a snifter of Irish whiskey, this is a cream-liqueur-cuff-down, heel-flapped sock, with a coffee-bean cable leg, cosy enough to stave off the harshest of Winter chills!

Unlike the traditional bottom-up method of making an Irish Coffee, we start at the top with an Irish cream liqueur cabled cuff:

The cuff* is actually knit flat from a provisional cast-on, then the edges are grafted together (I used kitchener stitch) after the stitches for the ribbing section are picked up along the edge. It sounds complicated, but it isn't at all, and makes for a very cool-looking (or should that be 'warm-looking') cuff.

Then follows the toasty coffee-bean cable leg... Truly delicious - I love how this yarn* pools in a way to create different flavour beans!

And talking of beans - they come in a righ variety of colours! Check out the Wikipedia page on Coffee roasting for some fabulous examples from greens and yellows to almost black! Plus the coffee berry itself is a delicious pinky-red colour!

The heel-flap is actually a simple 'double' Eye of Partridge with the main and contrasting colours alternating every 2 rows. I affectionately call this my Curdled Heel-Flap, because it looks like my attempts at making Irish Coffees for myself. (I can never get them to layer like the professionals - they either mix for plain a boozy coffee, or separate completely, looking not unlike the example below!) You could, however, claim that the heel-flap represents the sugar grains you need to add to keep the layers separate!

The foot continues the with Coffee-Bean cable, then moves on to a plain toe. A deliciously warm way to keep your tootsies cosy this Winter!

You can buy this warm and boozy sock pattern for $4.00 (€3.00, £2.58, A$4.12, ¥310) by clicking on this link:

and you can find the Ravelry pattern page HERE.

Go on! You know you want to! ;-)

*BBKnits Prima Superwash Merino Nylon in colourway 'Innocence'

**Zitron Trekking XXL colourway 420

If You Like Piña Coladas...

2011-11-03T14:30:00.000+01:00

...then you'll love my new pattern: The imaginatively named (wait for it) Piña Colada Socks!

piña colada socks by yours truly

You can't have a sock theme of cocktails without including the infamous Piña Colada! Starting with a liberal splash of rum, add generous quantities of pineapple juice and cream of coconut, then you *must* finish with the most famous drinks garnish of all: the cocktail umbrella!

The Piña Colada sock is a cocktail-umbrella-cuffed, heel-flapped, pineapple-legged sock, with a toe that continues the pineapple design! Worked from the top down, this sock is almost good enough to slurp through a bendy straw!

I found this yarn (Zitron 'Trekking XXL' in Peaches and Cream) in my local wool shop last Summer and knew immediately that this pattern was going to be the result (give or take a few false starts and lots of tweaks).

I wanted to create a pseudo-pineapple pattern that echoed the wonderful thick rind of the fruit - somewhat rhombus shaped, but with shading in each half of the diamond to give more depth. The result was a really lovely texture, which was still quite stretchy, given that there are a lot of twisted stitches involved!

The heel-flap uses the wonderful Eye of Partridge. I was tempted to try an continue the larger diamond leg pattern in the heel-flap, but in the end the E-of-P was just the ticket, as it has its own diamond pattern already built in - a shoe-in!

For a final flourish, I had to add something fabulous and bright. And kitschy. The cocktail umbrella ticked all those boxes, so I went back to the drawing board and added the Cocktail Umbrella Cuff to the design. The first one I made used a coordinating colour (Beyond Basic Knits 'Superwash Sock' in Love Struck - the same lovely yarn I used for the Strawberry Mojito socks), but the second went off in a slightly more garish route, (BBKnits 'Superwash Sock' in Color me Happy - the same yarn I used for my Gin and Tonic socks) but I thought bright and gaudy clash was appropriate, as I can safely say that I've never seen an understated cocktail umbrella in my life!

With such a cool cuff, I had to finish the sock with a wee bit of flair, too, so I continued the pineapple pattern down to the toe - I do like seeing a pattern worked the entire length of the sock, I must admit!

This little beauty of a pattern can be yours for the excellently small price of $3.50 (or, and here we go with the current rates of exchange: €2.53 or £2.21 or ₪12.77 or ￥270 or A$3.43.) A bargain in any currency!

(You can click HERE for the Ravelry pattern page for more details and buying options - and you don't have to be a member of Ravelry to look at, or indeed buy, any of my patterns!)

(Please excuse the massive differences in lighting/colours on the photos - my camera dislikes certain times of day/low level lighting.)

Tales Of The Unexpected Shawl

2011-10-30T23:30:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time there lived a ball of wool. A very prettily-coloured ball of wool called Noro S188 Kureyon Sock. (Her parents wanted a boy.)

say hello, noro

Noro lived in a big bag full of her friends, and some acrylic*.

One day she was ~~trolling through~~ browsing through some threads on our favourite website and stumbled onto a pattern** that stole her breath away. For two reasons. The first being good: a combination of a swirl of colours and wonderful form. The second being bad: because it was a shawl.

A SHAWL.

Now, it is well known to all the Yarn that bides in the Bag that the Hands That Make were averse to the knitting of anything Lace. ANYTHING lace. Except lacy socks. But then, all the Yarn that bides in the Bag knew that the Hands That Make were a bit weird when it came to making socks, so tended to look the other way when double-pointed needles came in to play.

After 'accidentally' leaving the browser open on the pattern page, Noro waited with ~~bated breath~~ Japanese zen-like patience to see whether the Hands That Make would fall as wildly in love with the pattern as she had. And thanks to her cleverness the plan worked, and within hours of the pattern being displayed she was introduced to some fine Taiwanese ~~wood~~ bamboo circular needles and they got ~~busy~~ to work.

making sweet, sweet lo stocking stitch

And more work.

still making sweet, sweet stocking stitch

Until the pattern said to stop with the sweet, sweet stocking stitch and start to add some holes. Noro and her Taiwanese friend decided to play it cool and just add a few little yarn overs to give the Hands That Make a gentle transition to the scary lace.

the gentle art of making holes in knitting

But it wasn't gentle enough and all the Yarn that bides in the Bag felt waves of panic start to emanate from the Hands That Make and sent their swiftest messenger (some delicious purple Malabrigo - used to running fast to get away from hordes of screaming fans) to find some stitch markers before it was too late.

stitch markered for your pleasure

And once joined with the stitch markers, Noro and her bendy Taiwanese companion continued on their journey to eyelet heaven. But, as in all tales of epic epicness, our heroine lost her dear friend to a change in the pattern just as they were beginning to see an end to their Herculean adventure. Seeing the pattern change from a distance too far to be able to prevent it, a shining knight of metal hookiness rode forth to rescue the damsel in distress from her devastation, and between them they began to weave an end to the tale worthy of the saga gone before. Or something.

noro and the hooker

After many hours toil of monumental proportions Noro and the knight were able to look back on their hard work and see the surprisingly beautiful fruit of their ~~loins~~ travails. Noro named it 'shawlette' and saw that it was good.

stretched and pinned for glory

Small, but good.

daylight deliciousness

*They tended to rub each other up the wrong way.

**'LazyKaty' by Birgit Freyer.

ASC

2011-09-01T23:41:00.001+02:00

aka Actual Singing Content.

basilique sainte marie-madeleine de vézelay

Or choral content to be precise.

But don't anyone ever tell you it's easier than solo work. Because it's not. Nope. Nuh-uh. Not in a million years. You need an extra kind of confidence. It's not enough to know you can sing the music by yourself, you need to know that you can sing it with other people, be able to blend with other voices, not be put off by the others in your section, or be so scared that you're not pulling your weight, or are sounding crap, that you end up forgetting how your technique works. You almost need to be arrogant about it all. It intrigues and confounds me!

But what better music to be intrigued and confounded by than the wonders that are the Requiem, and Mass in c minor, by WA Mozart, with Arsys Bourgogne, and the Camerata Salzburg. Om nom nom! (I auditioned last year - my first as mezzo/alto, so I was doubly pleased to take part!)

But enough of such inane twaddle - I know you really want to know about where we sang, not why, what, or how we sang! ('Cos really, after the initial - ooh pretty music, and ooh - cool orchestra, the rest is all hard work, sweat, and tears!)

Arriving at Vézelay in Burgundy in 36c heat at 9pm wasn't my idea of fun, I have to admit, but after making a tour of the village, fell in love. Not with the hills. No. (The small town is built on the summit of a hill. The rehearsal venue and the basilica was at the top, my hotel was at the bottom. Big hill. Much sweat.) But oh. Pretty. PRETTY!

Ruins.

Ancient buildings.

Picture-postcard views.

And then there was the Romanesque Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene.

Absolutely stuffed to the gunwhales (or, should I say up to the pillars) with fabulous stone carving...

feel free to click on the pictures for enlargments

The interior is lovely and light, with some nice stone striping on the arches.

And there was one example of stained glass. (I had taken many more of the same window, but only discovered once I had arrived home that the reason none really came out was because the lens was rather needing cleaned!)

An exhausting 10 days, but totally worth it to be able to marvel over a lovely and ancient small town, and take part in some fabulous music-making.

O' Flouer o' Scotland...

2011-08-10T18:41:00.000+02:00

Whin will we see yir likes agen?

oops - weeds

I'm just back from spending 3 weeks at home in Scotland, and instead of sitting on my behoochie creating digital farms on the internet (don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about!), I've been staging war against brambles, wild strawberries and other evil garden interlopers IN REAL LIFE! Yes indeed!

I swear to the Lord of the Undergrowth that it was an unfair fight, though. The garden itself has been left to its own devices for a few years while my Dad was unable to tend it, and some of it looks like it has never seen cultivation in its life, even though it was growing some very tidy bedding plants/shrubs/rows of veggies not 4 years ago. But thanks the the by-pass last year and a marvellous hip replacement, he's been back, hoe in hand, beating the living crap out of it.

fine scottish melons... as it were...

The vegetable plots are full of potatoes, peas, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, onions, beetroot, butternut squash, and spinach... The rose garden is flourishing and already on 3rd/4th flowering. The greenhouse is fit to bursting with already-ripening tomatoes, peppers, melons and other hot-house goodies! The raspberries, redcurrants and strawberries have already been and gone (nom) and the rhubarb is still happily churning out stalks of goodness in every direction it can.

I gave myself the task of ruining the lives of the wild brambles and strawberries that had seeded and laid runners around the place. I mean. Sheesh. You'd think the brambles, being thorny and catchy and owners of long, LONG roots and generally mean-minded buggers would be the worse of the two, but the wild strawberries had infiltrated the whole garden with their subversive underground runners (no doubt stroking their pet white cats at the same time) and were impossible to remove completely.

< insert evil laugh here >

They look so innocent with their teeny tiny fruit and angelic white blossoms, but that pretty face conceals a malevolence of unfathomable (almost) proportions: They were down the sides of the pathways, choking the aubretia (the aubretia fought back, though); surrounding and UNDER the foundations of the greenhouse; strangling the lilac tree; suffocating the miniature roses; congesting the borders with throttling runners. Generally staging an all-out garden coup, and winning.

So I armed myself with a garden fork, a hand fork, a trowel, a small spade and some totally unprepared muscles, and went to work.

I have to say I had a lovely time digging and annihilating! Very cathartic (after the initial muscle shock had died down) and it was a real pleasure to see turf (I didn't mention the overgrown grasses, did I?) and tangles of wildness turn into beds of dark, brown, earthy lusciousness, ready for planting!

pretty wildness

Yet somehow, there's something very beautiful about wild flowers in the garden... a splash of colour when the hardy perennials are still gearing up for their own shows... Just don't tell Dad I said so!

Goodbye, Mister Wobbles

2011-06-23T00:13:00.000+02:00

RIP Fluffy Monster

You were always a little scared of my long swishy skirts when I visited your Mummy, but you'd still manage a hello, even if it was from the safety of the hallway! (And egged-on by the promise of a treatie!)

You brought your own brand of wobbly happiness to our lives, wee man, and you are going to be sorely missed.

mickey: the owner of my wee sis from 08/08 to 22/06/11

Sockalicious Summer Sale

2011-06-04T21:07:00.002+02:00

Don't say I'm not good to you!

From now until June the 30th, when you buy 2 or more patterns from my 6 'to-buy' lovelies, you will get an automatic 25% off the WHOLE TOTAL.

Oh yes!

(Excluding the Bloody Mary pattern, which is available in kit form from Holiday Yarns until the end of October, after which it will be possible to buy the yarn and pattern seperately...)
Yes indeed, go get your choosing shoes on, and get the patterns you're missing from your collection!

(click on the thumbnails, and you'll be whisked off to the individual pattern pages on Ravelry for further info.)

Click HERE to go straight to the pattern store!

Go on, you know you want to! :D

Update: I had this banner ad running in Ravelry (the one above) - you may have seen it if you've been on the threads in CPaAG or LSG, but sadly I've had to curtail impressions because of only a couple of sales and not enough to cover the ad, never mind make any profit. But keep an eye out on twitter and facebook, plus ravelry, for any new announcements!

Speakeasy

2011-05-10T16:11:00.000+02:00

arty-farty pseudo 1920 photo

Well, I have to admit that making this pattern, and knitting up the actual socks has been a LOT of fun, so it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you my new Prohibition Socks!

Neatly bringing together my two current themes of costume through the ages, and booze, these Prohibition Socks, with a gangster pinstripe trouser leg covering a crisp pair of spats (that give a nod towards a neat white hanky triangle shown from the upper jacket pocket) and shiny black oxford brogues, are worthy of Al Capone himself!

This is a cuff down, afterthought-heeled, seam-footed, be-buttoned sock inspired by 1920’s foot fashion, and the promise of bootleg liquor!

This gangster sock begins with a really cool pinstripe trouser-leg fold-over cuff that looks impressive but is really a very simple slip stitch, 2-round pattern,

which lie over a contrasting set of spats, that appear almost embossed with a triangle pattern that represents the corner of a handkerchief poking out of the suit's jacket breast pocket. The leg part includes some neat little nupps that pretend to be buttons.

The spats, which include the 'elastic strap' on the sole, continues over the shiny Oxford Brogue toe. (Although, technically, it's a Half-Oxford, but I reckoned it was all getting a little too wordy!)

The construction of this sock is a little different from the norm...

You start off in the round for the fold-down cuff and inner ribbing, then when you reach the place where you add the row of spare yarn for the afterthought heel, you then continue to work on two sides, on the flat, a little like working on two heel flaps, one for the sole, one for the instep upper.

Once you reach the length you need (I measured mine against another sock that had an afterthought heel/short-row heel, as it gives a good indication of the middle of the heel for measuring) you then join the two sides together using mattress stitch or backstitch - or something that gives you a nice flat seam. (I used backstitch - apologies for dodgy piccie - it's not the easiest thing on earth to photograph one-handed!)

After you have joined the sides together, it's a simple thing indeed to continue in the round with the Oxford toe, and onto the finished sock, via the completion of the afterthought heel.

These socks just make me smile!

And for only $4 (£2.45, €2.80) you can smile too, just by clicking on the buy now link below! It'll take you straight to the Ravelry buy page. (You don't need to be a member to buy patterns from Ravelry, or to look at the design pages!)

And talking of design pages - you can click HERE for the Prohibition Socks page for further info! But shhhhh - watch out for the feds!

A Recipe For Win

2011-04-14T18:06:00.003+02:00

What do you get when you add tomatoes, celery, a liberal splash of vodka and some yarn dyed specially for the project, all together?

You get GORGEOUSNESS INCARNATE! But of course!

bloody mary sock by yours truly
holidays yarns 'jennifer's flocksock sock yarn' in bloody mary mix

The marvellous Jennifer of Holiday Yarns, (or gwyniver of Ravelry fame, to give her her superhero appellation) has an eye for colour that's pretty special, and I was delighted (and kind of awestruck) to be approached to design a sock for her yarn, to make into a kit. Or, should I say, be given free reign to create something for her, after which she would dye the yarn. And boy, she made something gorgeous.

I, as usual, was a tad unspecific as to colouring - I said reds, but not oranges (not a fan), and a little Worcestershire sauce-brown. And it's there. All there - tomato reds and a splash of Lea and Perrins! The perfect Bloody Mary Mix colouration in yarn form!

As with all of Gwynivar's yarn, the stitches just pop! The cuff is crisp:

The tomato slices and celery stalks leap off the background:

The heel-flap keeps that lovely definition:

And the toe? Almost good enough to eat!

The Bloody Mary sock is a cuff-down, heel-flapped sock with a choice of two toe patterns giving a flowing pattern from top to bottom in any length. Both pattern and yarn are available together in kit form only for six months and you can order one from Holiday Yarns if you click HERE. (The pattern and yarn will be available for purchase separately from October 2011 onwards, when I'll add links etc to this page.)

You can find the Ravelry pattern page here, with further links to the kit.

Seriously - I am really chuffed with all of this! :)

Overwhelming Ossimness in Auction Form

2011-04-04T14:08:00.001+02:00

PHEW :: mops brow ::

The last two weeks have been spent organising an auction in the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group on Ravelry, with the proceeds to go towards aid for Japan, the recipient of a devastating earthquake and tsunami a few weeks ago, with aftershocks still continuing even as I type. (Yes, it was quite a late auction, considering, but being for-all-intents-and-purposes unemployed just now, I have no grasp of calendric points of interest, like actual dates and days of the week!)

The response was immense! Overwhelming, in fact, or just about! Donations poured in, all amazing in their own way, from home-baked scones, to hand-turned pens, to delicious skeins of yarn, to fabulous sets of patterns (guess what I donated?!), to custom knit socks, to decadent lots of body scrubs and smellies and bath gorgeousnesses, to hand-made quilts, to batts of fibre-y goodness, to bacon chocolate (I'm telling you - had I been in the possession of any money at all, this would have been MINE!!), to watercolour paintings, to amazing sets of precious needles, to knitting novels, to calligraphy services, to custom-knit shawls. AND BEYOND. OVER 75 auctions in all.

Truly, truly amazing! And what's more truly amazing is:

WE RAISED THE GRAND TOTAL OF $4,516.84!!!!!!

(Monies raised going to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, The International Red Cross, and The Search Dog Foundation.)

Many, many thanks go to the bidders, the donors, the time-givers, the time-keepers, the winners, the non-winners, the pompom wavers, the lurkers, the kamikaze last-minuters, and everyone else who looked in!

Especially to itgirl (whose help was invaluable), plus dizzybea, knittingfiddler, ktb38, Ericafillyjonk, knittybe, erqsome, Veriton, MonicaPDX, frenchiekisses, webgeckos, LtdEdition, casey2, whirlybird, Savitar, Drin, alwen, monkeypants, kultakutri, bigalice, Dyddgu, GravitySlave, madmoon, bemgelado, teabird, kermit, Roswitha, Hexenkind, beeca, boxkikker, thegeorg, gwynivar, historyweaver, troubleagain, loves2design, heatherfeather, auntietracy, hbd, Lissagail, InJuneau, stabbycat, markfifersmyhero, mitchy, lizajane, teabird, Goldbek, DianeS, Sockenanja, iamtheinfidel, fiberqat, HeatheroutsideBOS, arpelia, justnet, mpindstrup, Dragon, DonnaD, rwest81, KnittyBe, LunaTheFarmLady, Faaayth, Gigi, ZaftigWendy, pokito, Bettiegee, aminca, jdlashier, MidnightOwl, CorinnesKnits, aimers1212, JoeysHouse, rrevbbd and last but not least, zuzusunshine!!

(If I've missed you, it's due to lack of brain-function today, not because of any nefarious intentions!)