Congrats to Monica B! Her name was drawn out of the virtual hat to win the Peter Teal book. Monica - I’ve emailed you to get your snail mail address so you can get your prize.

Now I’m back to knitting and spinning my holiday weekend away….

I ended up with two copies of this book:

So I feel obliged to give away the second copy. All you need to do to enter is send email to:

contest AT persistentknitter DOT com

by Friday May 23rd, midnight Pacific time. I’ll draw the winner out using a random selection process.

About the book

This book covers a lot of information on preparing wool to spin using combs and all the prior and post processes involved (washing wool; combing, spinning. etc) It covers blending for color changes & how to spin worsted. It even has some pictures that are quite decent despite being only in black and white. I think this is an essential book for any spinner’s library.

For another contest; head over to http://martaschmarta.blogspot.com

Congrats go out to Debbie H of Aurora, CO who won the bag and sock yarn. Debbie - I’ve sent you email so you can give me your address to ship to.

So lacking a new photo to show you of any interesting knitting or spinning, I’ll answer a few questions from the comments.

Judy asked, So, inquiring minds want to know, who is the sweater for?
Amazingly enough, I have no idea. There is no baby in my future, I don’t really know of anyone who is having a baby right now; but I know eventually there will be a baby that needs a sweater.

Libby said: That sweater is totally adorable. Has hints of the Baby Surprise Jacket from EZ, yes?
I kind of agree with her, but this one has always looked like a sweater, and the Baby Surprise jacket from EZ doesn’t look like a sweater until you do a bit of magical seaming. I’ve never knit a baby surprise jacket either. I think it looks similar mostly in the shoulder area where it appears more square; because of the way the shaping is done to leave room for the arms/sleeves. Has anyone made both sweaters?

My baby-boy-blue tulip sweater is done except for the sleeves. Probably only an hour or so left in all. It’s a really quick knit; and is fun to do. The finishing is minimal (although all the attached i-cord can get a bit tedious) and I think it’s one I’d make again, probably with a different set of colors. Maybe I’ll even buy the kit at some point; but only if I actually have a baby in mind!

To celebrate the location of my new blog (and yay for a new domain!) I’m giving away a little giftie for summer knitting. This cute bag is lightweight, a canvasy type material; but will stand up on it’s own as shown here.

The story behind this bag: I bought a book at my LYS. When I was telling a friend about it and how much I paid, I realized there had been an error in what they charged me. They had overcharged me by a bit. I called them on the phone, explained the situation, and said I could come by later that day to get the refund done (I don’t live that far from this LYS). When I was in the shop, the owner apologized profusely about the error; and gave me this bag as an apology. I thought a kindness like this should be shared out, and since I was looking for blog giveaway item, it’s perfect!

But wait, there’s more! Take a peek inside the bag:

Nestled inside is enough yarn to knit two pairs of socks. One is an Opal yarn (100g ball) and the other some knit-picks patterning sock yarn that are so fun to knit up!

To enter the contest, please send an email to contest AT persistentknitter DOT com. (You may leave a comment, but to enter the contest you MUST send email to that address or you won’t be in the drawing!) If you think it’ll help you can give me a good story as to why you should win, but I’ll just choose the winner by random.  Get your email to me by Saturday July 14th, at midnight pacific time!