Haiku

Fingering weight yarn,
One hundred grams for a pair.
Can't stop knitting socks.

While I admit, I do love talking about crafts, today's haiku was for a reason. Why? Oh...Lion Brand is having a haiku contest.

Are you less weirded-out by me now? No? Oh well...I tried.

We have a winner!

The Impromptu Contest is over and today I headed over to random.org and found my winner.

I may end up addicted to running contests, because every time someone replied I thought 'hmm...I really like their answer...I wonder what I'd give them if they win.' and I had to wait (just like the rest of you) to find out who it would be. All this anticipation prompted me to pick a runner-up...so there will be TWO winners and two prizes.

So YOU don't have to wait any longer (since I intended to post this morning but I was exhausted), the winner of this contest is:

Tommye

Tommye is relatively new to my crafting circle but I love her etsy store, which has stitching accessories and recently, stitch markers for knitters :D. She also has a nice blog located here that you might want to check out.

As for my runner-up, random.org chose:

Pixie13

Tommye and Pixie13, I'll email you later this evening (I'm running out the door in a moment) to get your addresses to ship your goodies. Once they gets their prizes, I'll upload pics of what I'm sending. :D

Thanks to all my entrants, and I'll probably be running another contest soon.

If you want to know which colors I ended up choosing...I chose the lighter green and the brighter gold. I think they'll look good together and you guys can see what I've been up to once I get that started and upload pictures of other things (not related) that I've finished.

Impromptu Contest.

I'm having an impromptu contest out of boredom. You do my work for me, and you get a chance to win random craft supplies. It won't be much...it's not The Most Awesome Contest of the Year...but it'll be free and straight from my stash.

The reason I'm not LISTING what's in said prize package is because I (and my readers) do so many types of crafts that it's hard to put together a fun prize that everyone would want. However...if you want to know what could be in it, remember that I do ridiculous amounts of embroidery. I knit and crochet. I quilt and sew. I spin yarn and felt (wet and dry felting). I dabble in lace and other random nonsense, and my bead collection is getting out of control for no good reason. I also hoard books and have a couple extra copies of certain things. It's not that it HAS to go (though some of it probably should)...it's just that I need your opinion and I'm willing to bribe you to get it.

Are we on the same page here? Good. Now here's what you have to do to enter.

I am in the middle of designing two biscornu (cross stitch) patterns with a Christmas theme, and I want to use the same colors with both of them. Problem is, my supplier (Valdani) sent me more colors than I can use in the collection, and the colors are so awesome that I can't pick a favorite. I'm counting on readers to pick a favorite for me. There are only two choices, so it's not that difficult. It's just that I'm completely undecided so I'm bribing you to help. *shakes mystery box* IT COULD BE ANYTHING!

Here are your choices:


One


Two

The only difference between set one and set two is that 2 of the balls in the front row are different (the gold and the green). Do you see why this is hard? I have to decide which gold and green go the best with all the other colors.

YOUR MISSION (if you choose to accept it):

Pick a favorite between options one and two.

Comment with:
Your favorite.
The type of crafts you normally do or enjoy (I have to know what to send you if you win!)
A way to contact you if you win (email address, blogger name, etc) and your name so if you DO win, I'm not telling everyone that Kleptosaurus39284 won my contest.

Do that and you get one entry into the Impromptu Contest.

If you link on your blog or other site, comment here with the link (I will verify) and you get one more entry into the contest.

Not too grueling, is it? Now the fine print.

Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Winner will be chosen by using the random # generator at random.org.
Maximum of 2 entries per person.
This is an international contest, so readers in other countries CAN enter.
The winner will be posted on this blog (check back!) on Saturday and contacted via email. If, for some reason, the winner cannot be notified by email then I will only post the winner here. The winner has 1 week (until Oct. 10th) to contact me to give me shipping information for their prize. If I am not contacted within that week, I will select another winner again using the random number generator.
Prize is chosen at my discretion and may contain materials, tools, completed bits or pieces, or any combination of the above.
Blog owner is not responsible if products you make with prize materials do not match but you use them together anyway and end up featured on the Homemade Hilarity blog.

This blog post will self-destruct in...wait...no it won't. Good luck!

Sweepstakes, anyone?

Fabric.com is still running their "Sew" Much Fun Sweepstakes with some really awesome prizes. If you want to enter, go for it while there's still time.

Busy, and loving it.

I really do love being busy, as long as it's a productive kind of busy.

Atop a bunch of other things, here are some of the productive things I've finished in the past couple of days.



I got these pajamas done! They were a custom order. She fell in love with the Olivia the Pig fabric so her pajama bottoms and the cuffs on her pajama top are done in that fabric (flannel). The pants have red cuffs. She wanted pockets and a side-closing mandarin collar so I drafted the pattern and voila:



Contrasting pockets.



Embroidery on the collar was done by hand. So were the frog buttons.



Drawstring waist.

In other news, I got one of two kitchen towels done for a friend.



Modified a design from subversive cross stitch and put it in the colors she wanted. I had to dye the towels.

I'm feeling slightly accomplished today :)

In other news, feel like entering a contest for a book on knitting your own socks? Craftgossip is running another giveaway, this time for the book Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn. Go and enter!

What's this? Oh it's chicken scratch embroidery, which is beautiful, easy, and full of history. Read more in this brief article I wrote, with another picture.

Also, if you want a free sewing machine, you can enter to win one at the link below. How awesome is that?

Look what I found!

A new thread, and a new contest to win some of your very own! The thread is Lecien Cosmo embroidery floss from Japan and oh man, I can't wait to get my hands on some. She found a local distributor, so she's lucky, but you can order from them too :) Just follow the link from her blog.

Contest ends: 3-25-09 at 11pm PST. GOGO!

Is it the weekend yet?

I'm booking flights and juggling finances for an emergency trip, and I'll be gone a while (but still blogging), but I wanted to let you guys know about this contest I'm getting ready to enter.

It's for a free apron from the Hip Hostess. I visited their website through the post I linked. Their aprons and tea towels are divine. GO GO, and sign up!

Also, if you don't win but still want an apron, that link offers a coupon code valid through the end of April. Don't miss out!

Did you hear?

Lark books just notified me of a new contest to generate interest in their new book:

Head on over here, download the rules, and get started! You have until April 30th to be entered to win that and 9 other selections from Lark Books

Also, in case you were not aware, I'm now the Detroit Arts and Crafts Examiner for Examiner.com. If you'd be so kind, please check out my new article about National craft month at Jo-Ann's, which is running all this month. The article has a link to their new patterns for lots of different types of crafts.

Also, have you heard about people using fabric selvage now for crafts? *sigh* I want to try it. If anyone else has...link me a pic!

Oh wow!

I just won a contest over at CraftGossip for this book :D I can't wait to see it.

They're running another contest for a different book now. Why don't you head on over and sign up? Maybe you could win too!

March is Mending Month!

This obviously needed mending, no? My rabbits got ahold of my comforter goodness-knows-when and I've been meaning to fix the underside they chewed, but never got around to it.

Now I'm glad I didn't, because I entered the Get Er Done Giveaway over here (contest is almost over) and it gave me just the kick in the buns I needed to finally do it. I don't know if I'll have time to get anything else done because I'm so busy (which is why I hadn't gotten it done in the first place) but boy am I relieved it's done now.

Want to see?



Lights had to be on there...it took a while to fix it since I was doing it all by hand.

That's Civil War Era Reproduction fabric my grandma gave me. I'll think of her every time I see it. Patches don't always have to match the original. Sometimes it's better if they don't!

New shipment!

What's this? My new shipment from Valdani! I'm testing colors for my upcoming kits because I want one of them to contain Valdani threads. Being a designer is awesome.

Oh that's right, I probably haven't blogged publicly about my kits.

They're educational kits for my favorite type of embroidery, with some of the best supplies available in the market so that people get a good understanding of what to look for when they're choosing their own supplies in the future. I've tried threads from all over the world and I've done some truly wonderful and awful things to them to make sure that I know which products to recommend to others. 2 of my 4 beginner kits are already being tested. I want the 3rd to have Valdani threads.

Would you like to know which products I've tried and how it turned out? I'm getting ready to write reviews and comparisons on some of my favorites...

But, to focus on what's important here...let's talk about you, my dear readers.



I hope you like purple, because that's what color I'm getting ready to do my new sampler design in. Of course, if you don't like purple, that's okay too...because you get to pick your own supplies.

The pattern will be available here, on my blog, for free. I may even run a contest with it. Anyone interested?

Contests!

If you're looking for some swag from or for crafters, there are contests on a couple places right now.

One, craftgossip is heralding their return with a huge giveaway. You could win one of over 440 prizes in their March Madness Giveaway so head on over and sign up.

Also, this month it's all about the buttons (which goes well with mending month, no?"

Crafster's current craft challenge is all about the buttons.

If you decide you like working with buttons, you might want some more ideas. You're in luck, too, because Craftstylish is having a March Book Giveaway.

Head on over and sign up. It's good to participate in the craft communities...I get some of the best ideas from community participation.

In other news, look what I did :) I finished one of these new frog buttons. It looks rather heart-shaped, to me.