CAN YOU STAND ANOTHER CONTEST?

This time, I’ve got a batch of booklets for you. I’ve been clearing out magazines and leaflets from my stash. I have found duplicates aplenty! So, I’m willing to part with them.

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This first batch includes 7 digest sized booklets (like the one pictured above). Six are Annie’s Pattern Club (the one above is one of the magazines in this batch) magazines and one is Creative Hands ‘Ripple Afghan’ booklet. These are not all crochet patterns, but there is plenty of crochet in them. Also, if you knit, there are a few knitting patterns included.

So, what do you have to do to win these? Well, I can’t make it too easy.

First, when you enter by posting a comment here, you also need to email me privately with your snail mail address. I’ve had too much trouble tracking down winners in the past. I’d prefer to be able to just mail the prize to the winner. Easier for you, too. You may well get a surprise in the mail, then, if you aren’t a regular reader. So, that’s rule #1 – ENTER A COMMENT AND EMAIL YOUR SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS AND NAME TO ME WITH YOUR COMMENT. ([email protected])

Second, to actually enter the contest, you need to list a crochet technique that has not previously been mentioned by an earlier entrant. No duplicates. So, you could mention sc, dc, hdc, camel crochet, catherine’s wheel, etc. There are plenty of crochet stitches, motifs, patterns, and terms. Including a link to a picture of the entry may well give you an edge. Let’s see how many we can list.

I’ll select the winner from amidst the entries. Last contest had well over 100 entries. One entry per email address please!

Contest opens today (May 21) and will end on Monday, June 15. Winner will be announced shortly after the end of the contest. I look forward to seeing how many different entries we can come up with!

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

Have you read?