A Recipe For Win

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

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!)