Happy Blog Anniversary, Steph! (A Give-away...for the Knitters)

Stephanie Pearl McPhee -- The Yarn Harlot

One of my Very Favourite People  celebrated a Blog Anniversary yesterday -- 11 years since she "cast on" in "Fibre Space" (with apologies to arlee)...

In the above photo, she's knitting on the ribbing of a sock I made for my daughter's friend P -- a Christmas 2014 commission.  The location?  The Hilton Doubletree Edmonton (formerly the Mayfield Inn).  The event? "Comedy Night" -- the Friday night opener of the "Stix in the City" weekend event back in October 2014, sponsored by River City Yarns.  

It was a "bucket list" moment for me...and one in a million  several thousand for Steph, I'm sure.  (grin)

But without that first connection...

• I'd have missed all the glorious books about knitting and knitters;
• I'd never have laughed so long and so well;
• I'd not found someone who so deeply understands what it is to be
• Canadian; and (simultaneously)
• A knitter... 

Happy Blog Anniversary, Steph -- and many more!

P.S. Thanks to Joe and 'The Girls' for enabling you to enable us all these years... ;-)

P.P.S. What would a knitting blog anniversary be without some YARN?

I have three (count 'em) lace weight yarn prizes to give away on a random basis:

• One skein of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace - 100% Baby Alpaca - 800 m..847 yards in colour #21 (Lavender Blue);

• One skein of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace - 100% Baby Alpaca - 800 m..847 yards in colour #03 (green mix); 

• And two skeins of Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight yarn:
• One 440 yards in CA07 - pearl grey; and
• One 440 yards in C740 - green mix.

So...If you are a knitter -- or you know a knitter that would like to have any one of these three lacy prizes...Please post a comment on the blog saying so, sometime between NOW (i.e. Saturday, January 24, 2015 at almost noon Mountain Standard Time) and midnight wherever you are on Saturday, January 31, 2015.  Three winners will be chosen by a random number drawing process when I get up on Sunday, February 1.

Happy knitting!

Four for Four

A week ago, Gentle Readers, I invited you to comment on your 'Special Place' wherein you can "simplify experience and bring forth what you are and what you  might be", to quote Joseph Campbell.  I had two books and two magazines to share with the first four respondents.

It's four for four!  elle identified her blog as her 'Special Place';  for Jenny, it's in a plane -- a place that took her by surprise.  Wil's place is her studio and Judy's, out in nature, be it near water or in the mountains but always, she adds, where it's quiet.  Ah.... she'd love it here in my wee hamlet!

And so...if these ladies will e-mail me their mailing addresses, I will send off their treats this week.  To heighten the mystery, I'm not going to reveal to whom which book will go...you'll just have to wait till your parcel arrives!

NOTE: please send the information to me either by Facebook private message or to margblankATxplornetDOTca.  :-)

Happy Sunday!

Sunrise, Mirror, Alberta, Canada - September 2011

Eleven

"You must have a room, or a certain hour of the day or so where you do not know what was in the morning paper.  A place where you can simplify experience and bring forth what you are, and what you might be.  At first you may find nothing's happening.  But if you have a sacred place and use it, take advantage of it, something will happen." -- Joseph Campbell (emphasis mine)

For eleven years -- as of yesterday -- my blog has been a bit of that sort of place for me.  This latest anniversary passed quite without fanfare, as I was busy in the sewdio, and will be so again this day, after this post, hunkering down in the - 30 C weather once more, and likely on into tomorrow.  It's not supposed to warm up significantly, weather-wise, till Thursday.  Snow is in the forecast between now and then.  Preparing to enter the Lacombe Show again in April, I will be busy and thus fairly oblivious to what's in the morning news.

That said, the weather and the anniversary require a bit of heart-warming, don't you think?  I mentioned some time back that I would have a give-away for this less-than-auspicious occasion, and the time has come!

I have two artful books and two gently-viewed magazines to share with you, my Gentle Readers.  Very simply, they will go to the first four people who comment on this blog, telling me a wee bit about their Special Place where they "...can simplify experience and bring forth what [they] are, and what [they] might be."   No pressure!  (grin)

These are the publications:



1. Layered, Tattered & Stitched: A Fabric Art Workshop by Ruth Rae (North Light Books, 2009);
2. Where Women Create: Quilters by Jo Packham (Quarry Books, 2013);
3. "Where Women Create" (the magazine) - May-July 2013 issue; and
4. "Where Women Create" (the magazine) - Aug-October 2013 issue.



I'll ease up the "comment moderation" requirements to make it easier on you, and check for the winners by the end of the day (for me, that's about 9 p.m. Mountain Standard Time) on Saturday, February 15.