Blogmas Day 3

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 3 🎄🎄🎄

I haven’t bought any Christmas cards this year. I plan to email most of my friends instead. But I couldn’t resist making a few cards. I think I’ll need to change the needle on my sewing machine after sewing these! I’m pleased with how they turned out; nice and simple. I hope that they’ll be appreciated! xxx

Blogmas Day 2

 🎄🎄🎄 Day 2 🎄🎄🎄

You probably know just how much I love stripy sock yarn. So when I spotted that Liz, who is The Yarn Badger, was planning a Christmassy skein for Advent, I just couldn’t resist! The colourway is called ‘Christmas Lights’ and came as two 50g skeins plus a 20g mini for contrast heels and toes. Also included was a Christmas teabag, a couple of candy canes and some cute stitch markers. It’s all wound and sat in my festive Snoopy project bag from Gilly Makes ready for casting on this afternoon. xxx

Blogmas Day 1

🎄🎄🎄 Day 1 🎄🎄🎄

I received a lovely Advent calendar card from one of my followers. I hadn’t got round to getting myself a traditional Advent this year (there may well be a yarn one or two 😳) so this was a lovely surprise when it arrived last week! Thank you Julie! xxx

Knit & Crochet Project Planner - a review and a giveaway

I received a copy of the Knit & Crochet Project Planner from Search Press and I am really excited about it! My friends would probably tell you that I am a very organised person, and I would say that is pretty much true. Except, that is, to when it comes to my knitting and crochet! I have eleventy billion projects on the go, project bags stuffed inside bigger bags and in boxes, and LOTS and LOTS of notebooks and pieces of paper. I sometimes have to spend ages trying to work out where I am in a pattern, and what exactly did I mean by those scribbled notes when I was trying out ideas for a new design. I am definitely not a monogamous knitter, preferring to dip in and out of projects at a whim, despite having proved to myself that I am so much more productive if I stick to one project at a time. The cover boldly claims: 'Everything you need to dream, plan and organize 12 projects!' I couldn't wait to delve into it!

The planner is divided into five sections: My Year, Project Planning, Tracking Logs, My Contacts and Reference. For me, the most useful sections are My Year, which allows you to list events and set tasks for each month, Project Planning which is absolutely brilliant and packed with plenty of space to plan, design if you wish, swatch and just generally keep all your project notes in one place, and the Reference section which has helpful reminders, stitch and chart abbreviations, needle sizes and everything you might possibly need to look up whilst working on a project. Each project is colour-coded, so it's easy to find a particular project from the page edges. I cannot wait to start using it to plan my projects for 2021.

It would make a brilliant present for any knitter or crocheter that you know, or why not gift it to yourself to set yourself up for an organised year of crafty goodness. 

Knit & Crochet Project Planner by Sophie Scardaci and is published by C&T Publishing and is available from Search Press now.

ISBN: 978-1-64403-099-8

RRP: £16.99

The lovely people at Search Press have very kindly offered me a copy to give away on my blog. If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning, please leave me a comment, telling me what is going to be the first project on your needles or hook in 2021. I will leave the giveaway open until midnight (GMT) on Monday 7th December and I'll pick a winner by random number generator. Please make sure that I have a way to contact you (leave an Instagram or Ravelry ID or some other way that I can recognise who you are!) I will then get in touch with you and pass your address onto Search Press so that they can send you your planner. I'm really sorry, but this giveaway is for folk living in the UK only. If I don't hear from the winner within a week, then I'll randomly select another winner. Good luck one and all! xxx

 

Taking a closer look at the Fibre 4 Fibres Twelve Days of Christmas Boxes

This Sunday (November 29th) and the following Sunday (December 6th), there is a chance to win one of twelve 'Twelve Days of Christmas' boxes, as shown in my previous post here. I wanted you to understand that the contents of each box will be slightly different and explain how. 

*** Project Bag ***

Ann from Busy Pottering has made bags using three different fabrics - two vintage Laura Ashley prints and a Scandi-style print. There will be one of these in the box

*** Yarn skein ***

I have raided my stash and pulled out twelve different skeins of indie-dyed yarn. They come from a variety of dyers but are all lovely and colourful.

*** 10g mini skeins ***

I have wound 144 10g minis of indie-dyed yarn. There is no commercial yarn such as Opal and Regia included. You will receive a selection of balls, all individually packaged and numbered, ready to open!

*** Stitch Markers ***

Sarah from Fripperies & Bibelots created a special limited edition of Ring0's called 'Josiekitten's Jingles'. There are two each of the large, regular and small stitchmarkers and a jingle bell progress keeper. They come in a little tin and are super-cute. I wish I could keep a set for me!

*** Crafter's Balm and yet more yarn! ***

Laura from Crafter's Balm and Bumbling Yarns has donated not only a tin of her wonderful hand balm but she also dyed up two 20g skeins of yarn in a festive red and green and a cool icy blue.

*** Other treats ***

Katriona from Brocha Melts has donated some soy wax scented melts in an assortment of festive scents, Julie from Tilly Flop has donated a sachet of Soak for each box and Kate from Lana Bou has donated a goody bag containing a postcard, badge and stitch marker.

*** Some edible treats ***

Finally, there are hot chocolate shots from Gnaw Chocolate (in a variety of flavours), Vive bars from Eat Vive (again in a variety of flavours), some Yorkshire Tea teabags and a bar of Lindor chocolate. Yum yum yum!

I hope that you agree with me that these boxes are a really treat and that you'll enter the raffle to win. I'll repost the information on how to enter from my previous blog post for you.

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win one of SIX Twelve Days of Christmas boxes for a minimum donation of £2! (There will be another SIX boxes available to win next weekend too.) Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 29th November, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your details with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Let's see how much we can raise this weekend! Last week was truly amazing as we passed £8,500 so £9000 is the next big milestone. I have to pinch myself sometimes that you've helped me to raise so much money. Thank you! xxx

Fibre 4 Fibres Giveaway preview 35

I am quite giddy with excitement to share this week's prizes in my Fibre 4 Fibres raffle. They have been planned for quite a long time now and finally this week, the last element of the prize arrived in the post (having taken a scenic route to get here!) and everything is good to go! I had the idea of creating a Twelve Days of Christmas  box as a little treat for someone. Lots of the indie dyers are doing them these days, but the amount of work that goes into them means that they can be pretty pricey and hard to justify spending that amount of money on yourself. My idea grew and it has become not just ONE 'Twelve Days of Christmas' box, but TWELVE! I've had some amazing donations from some incredibly kind and generous people, so thank you very much. The boxes are all slightly different (I'll explain how in a separate blog post), but let me show you the kind of thing you could win if you choose to buy a virtual raffle ticket or two (or three or five or ten! There's no limit!) 

The prize includes a festive project bag in one of three fabrics which have been made and donated by my friend Ann who is BusyPottering over on Instagram. She rummaged through her fabric stash and picked out a couple of vintage Laura Ashley prints and a Scandi-style print. You will also receive a skein of indie-dyed yarn from my stash. There are lots of different dyers there but all are colourful! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I have been busy winding lots of little balls of yarn - 144 of them to be precise! They all come from yarn leftover from my own projects and are all from indie-dyers (no commercial sock yarn like Opal or Regia) - think Crafthouse Magic, Ducky Darlings, Lay Family Yarn, Norah George Yarn, The Yarn Tart, Truly Hooked, Hedgerow Yarns, Burrow and Soar, Pixie Yarns ... the list of wonderful indie dyers is endless! Each one weighs approximately 10g so  plenty there for a nice scrappy project. They have been wraapped individually and numbered so there's one to open on each of the twelve days of Christmas. Sarah from Fripperies & Bibelots has created a very special limited edition tin of ring0s stitchmarkers called 'Josiekitten's Jingles' and they are fabulous! Laura from Crafter's Balm and Bumbling Yarns has donated a tin of her wonderful crafter's balm and has also dyed two special mini skeins for each box. Julie from Tilly Flop has donated a sachet of Soak for each winner too. These come in various scents. There is also a little bag of treats from Lana Bou containing a postcard, badge and stitchmarker. Katriona, from Brocha Melts, has donated some festive hand poured soy wax melts in a variety of festive scents. To complete the box, there are some edible treats. Gnaw Chocolate (a local business) has donated a hot chocolate shot for each box (I bought some to try out in the name of customer research and they are rather yummy!), Eat Vive donated a box of vegan protein bars (they are my favourite snack bar and let's just say that I'm a good customer of theirs!) so there's one in each box, my favourite brand of tea, Yorkshire Tea, donated some tea bags so you can enjoy a cuppa while you're crafting away, and I've added in a bar of Lindor chocolate just because it wouldn't be Christmas without some chocolate, would it?! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has made these boxes happen!

I'm sure that you know the score by now, but I'll tell you how to enter anyway! You have a chance to win one of SIX Twelve Days of Christmas boxes for a minimum donation of £2! (There will be another SIX boxes available to win next weekend too.) Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 29th November, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your details with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Let's see how much we can raise this weekend! Last week was truly amazing as we passed £8,500 so £9000 is the next big milestone. I have to pinch myself sometimes that you've helped me to raise so much money. Thank you! xxx

Fibre 4 Fibres Giveaway preview 34

I am beyond excited to share this week's prizes with you. The prizes are definitely starting to get a bit festive and I have TWO amazing prizes to tell you about.

The first of this week's prizes includes a stunning DK Advent calendar from Beehive Yarns which has been donated by my friend Anji. The theme of this year's Advent is 'Festive Fairytales' and you can see some of the images that Beth has used as inspiration for her dyeing. The image with all the yarn shows last year's Advent (which of course had a different theme, so it's not a spoiler for this year's one!) and whoever wins it will be in for a real treat. To go with this, I've added a sweet little snowman notions case from ThreeBagsFull and a snowman stitch marker from Fripperies & Bibelots. Thank you so, so much Anji for your generous donation. 

The second of Sunday's prizes is equally festive! There's a Pony Advent calendar which is full of notions for knitters and crocheters, generouslyy donated by Groves Ltd. My lovely friend Gilly from Gilly Makes has sewn a sweet festive project bag especially for this prize. Search Press have donated a book of Christmas Crafts which is bursting with fun projects to make. There's a very Christmassy skein of yarn from Pixie Yarn and three Christmas stitch markers from Fripperies & Bibelots. Thank you everyone for your donations. 

I hope that you'll agree that these are two fabulous prizes up for grabs this weekend and they are waiting to be won by some very lucky people. You have a chance to win all these gorgeous prizes for a minimum donation of £2! All donations will be entered for both prizes and I will pick two winners using the random number generator from the list of all donations. (Just keep in mind that if you are entering from outside the UK, it's highly unlikely that the prize will arrive by December 1st, so you'll have to play catch up if you're a winner!) Are you tempted to try your luck? Here's everything you need to know. This giveaway will run this coming Sunday 22nd November, closing at 23:55. To enter, go to my JustGiving page here and buy your virtual raffle tickets by donating £2 or more. £2 gets you 2 tickets, £3 gets you 3 tickets, £5 gets you 5 tickets and so on. The more you donate, the greater your chance of winning. You will need to leave your Instagram or Ravelry name, or tick the box to share your details with me when you make your donation, so that I can contact you if you are the winner. This is really important as I have no way of knowing who you are otherwise. Each week, I still get donations where no name or email is left, so if that person's number comes up in the random number generator, I have no idea who it is! All your donations go the Myositis UK to help fund research into this incurable muscle disease, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support. Every single donation is important. Let's see how much we can raise this weekend! We are really close to raising £8000 now so it would be fabulous to see a big injection of cash this week. There must be well over £200 of prizes for two lucky people! Thank you for supporting my fundraising! xxx