Saturday, December 27, 2008

January's Inspiration - Claude Monet

I thought it would be a good time to do another painting by Claude Monet and this one is gorgeous! We haven't done a lot of green in the club so far so I thought it'd be nice to venture into some for the first month of the new year. This painting is called Le Pont Japonais a Giverny and is a wonderful landscape painting of a Japanese bridge.

Happy New Year everyone and hope you all had a wonderful holiday season :)

Friday, December 26, 2008

December's "Spoiler"

Hope everyone's enjoying their holiday season! I'm so enjoying a couple of days off and thought it'd be a nice time to post the spoiler for December's colourway. It's always interesting to decide on colours from each painting every month and this month was no exception. I decided to go a little lighter in the colours for a bit of a "softer" colourway that would hopefully remind everyone of the Christmas season without being too bold or too bright. Enjoy everyone and Happy New Year!

Monday, December 1, 2008

December's "Teaser"

Everything is ready and will be shipping today! Here's this month's teaser. I decided to go with the softer/medium tones in the painting this month as I always seem to gravitate toward the darker tones in all the paintings. It produced a nice, soft effect on the yarns. I hope everyone enjoys this version too! I am happy with it :) Enjoy!

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

December's Inspiration - Ando Hiroshige

This month's inspiration piece is called Plum Garden over Shin-Ohashi Bridge". Isn't it pretty? I'm looking forward to putting these colours onto the yarn...it should give an interesting result!

Hope everyone's doing well and Happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA who celebrate this holiday this week.

Friday, November 21, 2008

November's "Spoiler"

Here she is! November's colourway inspired by Gustav Klimt and called "Fulfillment". I thought it was a lovely colourway for the season and I hope everyone is enjoying it! Can't wait to see what people knit from this one too!

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA for next week! We got our first snowfall here in Ontario and what a shocker that was! Not just a bit either...more like over a foot and guess who had to shovel it all? Oh, my aching muscles! LOL Winter surely came in with a vengeance this year!

Have a great weekend :)

Friday, October 31, 2008

November's "Teaser"

A little sampling of this month's colourway to peak everyone's interest :) I found a new "liquify" feature in my photo editing software that creates a very cool effect without showing the yarn at all...reminds me of an oil painting too!

Everything ships on schedule on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Monday, October 27, 2008

November's Inspiration - Gustav Klimt

I stumbled on this painting while browsing for an inspiration piece and the colours really resonated with me! Isn't this just a lovely and gorgeous painting? I'm excited to paint these colours!

I've decided to use 100% superwash merino this month as it reflects colours a little more brightly and I think it'll suit this painting nicely. Deciding what yarn to use on a monthly basis is also a consideration every month. With different base yarn compositions I will get different colour results so each month I have to think about what yarn to use depending on what painting is chosen. Pretty cool eh?

Hope everyone's doing well! I can't believe it's almost November...where does the time go?

October's "Spoiler"

Here she is her non-teaser format! I hope everyone enjoys this colourway! I liked the effect the bamboo content gave this colourway - made the colours nice and subtle just like the painting.

Hope everyone's doing well :)

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

October's "Teaser"

Almost done with this month's yarns! The last batch is drying today and the colours came out how I wanted them to - woohoo! The bamboo gives them a nice water colour-ish feel and adds another dimension with the sheen. I hope everyone likes this one. Yarns ship tomorrow already which means it's October!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

October's Inspiration - Salvador Dali

Awhile back one of the club members suggested this painting (sorry, can't remember who but thank you!) and I've had it in my back pocket for awhile for painting. It's lovely and it feels like October would be a nice month for it too. I hope you like it! It's called "Person at the Window" and I am planning on putting it on my Bamboolicious base yarn - the bamboo sheen would be lovely for it and bamboo comes out nice and subtle in colour like this painting is. I also like it for the mixing of colour tones.

Happy October everyone!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

September's "Spoiler"

I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying this colourway! I enjoyed painting it as always and am looking forward to next month already!

Congrats to Julie who's our random winner this month and will receive next month's for free! Happy knitting everyone :)

Friday, August 29, 2008

September's "Teaser"

A little teaser of the yarn for September and hope everyone has a fabulous long weekend! Everything ships on Tuesday, September 2nd!

Looking at this yarn, it reminds me a bit of the blog button too - something subconscious going on there? LOL

Anyways, have a great one everybody and see you in September!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

September's Inspiration - Wassily Kandinsky

It's that time again! September's mailing is just around the corner and it's time to announce this month's inspiration piece! While searching through the art pieces I was looking for something that would be both summery but yet also hint at Fall coming and I think this piece captures that wonderfully. It's bright enough to take us through the last days of summer but Fall-like enough to remind us the leaves will soon be turning colours.

Hope everyone likes the piece - it is called Improvisation No. 23.

Monday, August 18, 2008

August's "Spoiler"

Wow, who could believe a year has gone by already for this club? I sure can't! I am enjoying each and every month of this club and this month was no exception. I loved choosing the art piece and then dyeing the yarn to match! We had two winners this month and congrats go out to Mary and Kelly - you will both receive September's shipment free! YAY!

How's everyone doing? Summer is coming to a close and I'm itching to get back into the cooler weather not only to help my knitting mojo return but also my dyeing mojo. When it's hot, it takes a lot of motivation to dye the yarns! It was a rather hot and humid couple of days painting this month's colourway but in the end, it's so worth it when I see everyone enjoying the yarns!

Happy knitting everyone!

Monday, August 4, 2008

A New Year & A New Contest

Hello everyone! Hope everyone's enjoying their summers!

I've been mulling it over a little and I've decided to return to choosing the art piece monthly. Why? I miss it terribly and part of the fun is picking the art piece that will inspire my dyeing. It also gives me a bit of leeway when it comes to what art pieces are chosen including up and coming artists and even unknown artists. I have a few ideas for these too and would like to slide them in every once in awhile to mix things up.

As for the contest, I love having a monthly contest so we will continue to do so! The format will be similar to August's in that everyone who is a member for the month will be eligible and the winner will be chosen randomly by having the words "WINNER" or "YOU WIN" on their insert card. This will help with keeping the contest random and for making everyone eligible to win each month. I think it's kind of fun to open your package and hope for those little words on your card! Whoever wins will win the next month free!

Hope this sounds good to everyone and thank you for being a member of this club...I appreciate everyone's support in making it what it is!

Thursday, July 31, 2008

August's "Teaser"

I'm so excited to get this out to everyone as I'm really pleased with how the colourway worked up from this month's painting! YAY! Don't forget to check your insert card for the word "WINNER" as we have two random winners for September's membership. How fun! I still can't believe we've come to the first year anniversary for the club - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to everyone! Onto another year of great paintings and fun colourways!

Friday, July 25, 2008

August's Inspiration - Jo Moulton

I thought it'd be fun to incorporate "Zen" into this month's anniversary offering so when I did a quick search of zen on Art.com I stumbled onto this painting and fell in love! Isn't it gorgeous? The artist calls it Zen Peonies. Wonderful combination of colours...lovely! I can't wait to dye this one on the Louet Gems - it should translate in a beautiful way!

Oh, and to make the drawing for 2 winners for September completely random, I am going to be putting "winner" on two insert cards for August and if you have the card, you're one of the winners so make sure to double-check your insert card to see if you won! I didn't know how else to make it totally random and thought this would be fun...a bit of a scavenger hunt with your packages :)

Monday, July 14, 2008

August's Membership Subscriptions

Wouldn't you know it! Paypal's invoicing is down and not accessible...some kind of glitch...I called about it but not sure when it'll be back up and working so I've set up Paypal buttons in the right hand sidebar for subscribing for August's membership. Please choose by your country and these buttons will be available until at least the 23rd or 24th of July so you have a chance to sign up now or later.

August is our anniversary month so in celebration, I'm going to do a random drawing and give away two (2) free memberships for September! You just have to be signed up for August and that's it to be eligible.

Thanks everyone for your continued support and if you have questions, don't hesitate to email me at zenyarngarden AT yahoo DOT com.

NOW CLOSED!

July's "Spoiler"

I enjoyed handpainting this month's colourway since it was a soft colourway with golds and blues and it seemed like a nice fitting for the warmer month of July. The base yarn is Louet Gems so I hope everyone enjoys knitting with it! I am excited for August as it's our anniversary and I get to choose the painting! Stay tuned...I'm hoping to find something exciting or even totally different. Thanks everyone for a wonderful year and onto our next!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Discarded Roses in a Scarf

I'm just not a sock knitting sort of girl. But I love, love, love this yarn. So I cast on 40 stitches on a size 3 needle and commenced to knit, knitting two together at the start of every other row. And when I was down to one stitch, I picked up 40 stitches along the 40 garter stitch ridges and repeated the process, decreasing one stitch every other row. As you can see, those decrease edges form the hypoteneuse of a right tiangle, and the triangles are arranged so that the hypoteneuse is the outside edge of the scarf. If you pick up only one thread from the garter stitch ridges, it gives an almost invisible join and makes your scarf quite magic. The pointed ends are very dressy and feminine. I got 6 triangles out of a skein of yarn, producing a scarf about 4.5 feet long and about 9 inches wide. You could make a narrower, longer scarf by casting on fewer stitches and working more triangles. Knit happy!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

July's "Teaser" & Club's Anniversary in August!

Wow, I'm so far ahead of myself - this is a record for a teaser post and how quickly I'm getting it up! However, after last month I was in a bit of a last minute tizzy so I decided to be a bit more organized this month and now I'm early...how funny! Ignore the reds in this teaser as that's the yarn label and in the middle is the art piece - the yarns are surrounding it :)

Also, August is going to be the club's first anniversary! Wow, can't believe how quickly time flies! In celebration of that monumental date, I'm going to put the contest on hiatus for the month of August and choose the art piece myself! To be honest, I've been missing this part of the club a bit and in lieu of my choosing, I'll be picking two (2) random winners for a free month in September! All you have to do is be signed up for August and you're eligible - it's a nice way to give the new kids on the block a chance to win too! So with that, Happy Anniversary to the ART WALK Sock Club and I'm looking forward to the next year of great masterpieces! Thank you to everyone for your support this past year as without you, this club wouldn't be possible!

Monday, June 23, 2008

July's Inspiration - Pierre Redoute

For the month of July I thought it would be nice to do something a little lighter and a little more serene since we've been doing brighter colours lately so with that in mind, I quickly fell in love with Melanie's suggestion of this painting called A China Urn with Flowers and Fruits on a Ledge by Pierre Redoute. It's soft, serene and gorgeous and my only hope is that I can do justice to these wonderful colours. Isn't it pretty? Congrats Melanie for a wonderful choice - this painting is stunning!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

June's "Spoiler"

How's everyone's summers going? It's nice to finally see some great weather and I hope you're all having a great summer season! These yarns were handpainted to to be bright and vibrant just like the weather we've been having! I hope you are enjoying it and I can't wait to see your projects :) Click to see bigger!

Sunday, June 1, 2008

June's "Teaser"

Here we gooooooooo....the yarns are painted and ready to be stuffed into envelopes and shipped out tomorrow! I am really pleased with this one...it's sure to be a bright and cheerful knit for summer! YAY! Can't wait to see what everyone does with this one - it's pretty cool!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

June's Inspiration - Paul Jenkins

Every month I'm faced with the task of narrowing down all the wonderful selections from the clubbers and every month it's never easy! This month was no exception because I really liked two paintings. I ended up almost tossing a coin to choose Paul Jenkin's Phenomena Waves without Wind (1977) but what ended up swaying me in the direction of this painting is it's bright, cheerful and colourful nature. Summer's almost here and colour is everywhere so it seems quite appropriate to bring lots of colour into this month's colourway :)

I'm looking forward to painting this yarn - it's always fun to work with bright and vibrant colours!

Congrats go out to Miriam for this month's art piece choice! Thank you :)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Time for June's Contest!

I'm a little late posting this but I wanted to get it up so people who aren't suggesting in Rav can make their suggestions here! Rules are the same as when we started the contest in February. I have links in the sidebar to our group page in Rav as well as previous colourways.

Please submit by Sunday, May 25, 2008. Thanks and good luck everyone!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

May's "Spoiler"

Thank you to Crista for choosing this month's art piece! I hope everyone enjoys the yarns and the colourway! This month was a record for delivery time too with most packages reaching the USA in 3 days...wow!

Happy knitting everyone! What have you decided to knit with this colourway?

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

May's "Teaser"

A little sneak peek of the yarn colourway for this month! In the middle is the painting and surrounding it is the yarns. As you can see, I picked up on a good part of the tones in the painting but not all :) This was a fun dye yet again - I dyed the yarns, loved them when they were wet, looked at them when they were dry and thought "oh gosh, did I really dye them like that?" LOL I always seem to forget month to month that the yarn is the boss not me! It always tells me how it wants to reflect the colours no matter how much prodding or poking I do. In the end, I love how these yarns turned out and I hope everyone enjoys them too :)

A note about the SeaCell blend for those that haven't worked with it before. The yarn can tend to have slubs in it which is what you ask? They are little misspun areas in the yarn that for some reason just don't spin right at the mill. I thought it a quirk of the first few yarn I got from the mill but they seem to be quite consistent in all the yarns I have gotten so far. What do you do with them? I pick them out if they are large or if they're small, knit right through them! This quirk definitely gives the yarn a "green" feel which is not a bad thing at all and it's yummy enough to deal with the slubs. No worries though - they only appear every once in awhile and not throughout the entire yarn.

Happy knitting everyone! The yarns are going out tomorrow :)

Friday, April 25, 2008

May's Inspiration - Henri Matisse

I was really excited when I saw this suggestion from our contest winner Crista for May! I had narrowed down the entries to 3 and then based on colours we have done already and the base yarn, I couldn't resist this entry!

We haven't done anything by Henri Matisse either so it's a wonderful choice for that reason too! So Springy and with the base yarn I'm going to use for May, it'll work out really well! Can't wait...now to dig into the dye pots and have fun with these colours!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

April's "Spoiler"

When Tara chose Paul Klee's Flora on the Sand, I looked at it and thought, wow, that'll be a nice challenge to try to get the colours "blocked" onto the yarn especially since the skein is in a circle and the colours are in squares...LOL! These types of challenges monthly with this sock club keep me hopping that's for sure!

Overall, I like the effect and I can't wait to see how this one knits up for everyone as it'll surely be quite different. Don't feel inclined to only try socks - maybe a scarf or another project will work better for the way the colours will distribute with this one.

Enjoy everyone! I had a great time dyeing this one!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Time for May's Contest!

I'll be away for a week in April so I thought I'd get a head start on the suggestions for May's art piece. All I pretty much have in mind at the moment is something seasonal - cheery and bright would be good instead of dreary :)

Rules are the same as when we started the contest in February.

Oh yes, if you are on Rav and need a reminder of what colourways/artists we've already done, please click here. You can also make your suggestion in the Rav group here if it's easier for you!

Good luck everyone!

Monday, March 31, 2008

April's "Teaser"

A little hint at April's colourway! Everything will go out tomorrow and for those that ordered something extra with this month's yarn, I may need an extra day to get it together for you so you may get a shipping notice a day later - if I'm good at getting it all together, it'll go on the first with the others :)

This month's colourway was indeed a challenge! At first I thought maybe I could dye the yarn to create the cubes like in the painting but since we knit in a circle, that's a bit of a mathematical feat so I decided to try to get the colourway to look "blocked" with colours. I hope everyone enjoys this one - I'm anxious to see how these knit up as I have never dyed this way before but I like the results! It looks very "artsy".

Enjoy everyone and have a great week!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Woohoo!

Hi everyone, I’m Tara.. I’m very excited to have my suggestion chosen. I chose this painting because it reminds me of flowers and gardens and renewal. I especially love the earthy tones in the painting surrounding the blocks of color. I don’t know about yall but I am very ready for Spring to get here because it is just ugly outside.

I’ve been a fan of Roxanne’s yarn for awhile now and just love the idea behind this club. I am getting quite a collection of gorgeous sock yarn. I suppose I’d better knit some socks instead of just petting and admiring all my yarn.

I can’t wait to see what Roxanne does w/ these colors. I know it will be lovely.

April's Inspiration - Paul Klee


This painting called Flora on the Sand sings Spring to me and thank you to Tara for suggesting it!! I have a few ideas on what to do with these colours too so I'm anxious for April to get here now...LOL!

Tara will drop by and say hello to us all too...congrats Tara for being this month's winner!

Monday, March 17, 2008

March's "Spoiler"

I think most everyone should have their yarns by now! If you don't and you're in the USA, it's been too long so please email me! I am trying to wait as long as I can before posting a spoiler photo so most everyone has their yarns!

Have you made a suggestion for April yet? If you haven't, please make sure to!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Go with the Flow Flaming June Socks :)

I just wanted to share my Flaming June socks. The yarn looks so beautiful in the cake but WOW! It looks truly terrific when knitted up. I love how the colors stripe and the blue and gold mix and highlight each other. I am in love with the way they look. The pattern is Go With The Flow from IK's 25 Favorite Socks. I think this is my favorite yarn so far. But I say that all the time!

Monday, March 10, 2008

April's Coming - Time for Suggestions!

Time is quickly going by and April 1 will be here quite soon! Let's start the guessing for April's art piece! I don't have any real inclinations for April so I'm open to anything, however, since it's April some may want a few seasonal colours so the only thing would be let's try to stay away from dark colours and lean toward more cheery colours :)

Rules are the same as when we started the contest in February. Good luck everyone!

Oh yes, if you are on Rav and need to get a reminder of what colourways/artists we've already done, please click here.

Invoices for April's membership will be coming out in the next day or two.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

March's "Teaser"

Here's a little teaser of this month's colours! I enjoyed dyeing this month's colours and what I found interesting between this Van Gogh and the last we did is that his colourations seem similar from one painting to the next - the big difference being this one is much brighter and lighter than the last!

Enjoy everyone and I have dyed these yarns in such a way that you could easily do a simple sock pattern and have all the colours do the work for you! That's my plan with this one anyways :)

Have a great weekend!

Monday, February 25, 2008

March! I Won?

I'm so tickled, I'd like to thank the academy, and my agent...and ...and...

NO. Really. I'm delighted to have won! This painting was the first I saw when I went out to search, and nothing else (tho' there were many I liked) said "early spring" to me quite the way this one did. I cannot wait to see how Roxanne interprets it - I just know it will be gorgeous!

I'm Knitnana and you can visit me at my blog where I detail everything knitting-related in my life. I'm also Nana Sadie Rose, which is my fabric bag business. I live with my two kitties: The Meezer and The Calico Curmudgeon, and I sew, knit, and work a full time job and have a business client as well. (Whew!)

(No, I have no life outside of that, it's true!)

Well, not exactly true. I have countless friends all over the world, thanks to the internet! And I have a daughter, three grandsons, and a Big Sister I knit for, when I'm not just knitting for me. I don't knit sweaters. None. Nada. Never. Socks, felted bags, scarves, shawls, mitts. Lace and cables. But no sweaters...

What I enjoy doing most is knitting to classical music, opera, and books on CD. I see that as the ultimate retirement to aspire to. So I'm stashing yarn now for my retirement - and Roxanne's yarns are my most favorite of all (so there's a LOT of Zen Yarn Garden in my stash!!)

Thanks, again, Roxanne! I can't wait to see this colorway!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

March's Inspiration - Vincent Van Gogh

For the month of March I was looking for something that said "Spring" to me and when Sallee suggested Van Gogh's Almond Branches in Bloom as a piece to consider, it really left a great impression not only for it's fabulous colours but also because it really does remind me of Spring and everything getting ready to bloom.

Thanks again everyone for all the wonderful suggestions - some really great ones come through each month and I appreciate everyone taking the time to look up and suggest art pieces too - it really helps to inspire me :)

Sallee is going to drop by and introduce herself and this week I'll be painting the yarns for everyone - yay! I can't wait :)

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Yarn Weights - Your Preference?

We haven't done a poll for awhile and last time I asked this question was in September of 2007 so I'm curious to see if the answers have changed since then so please enter your choice(s). Thanks! :)


Wednesday, February 20, 2008

No Purl Monkeys

I have been looking at doing the Monkeys pattern for awhile and when I saw someone had done it without all the purling I decided it was time to try this pattern too! Not that purling is bad but it's less thinking when you read the chart/pattern...LOL I'm such a lazy knitter but I like results without too much effort!

Everyone ready for March? Don't forget to get your contest guesses in soon so I can consider them. Deadline to get your entry in is February 24, 2008.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

February's "Spoiler"

I am hopeful most of us have received your yarns but if you haven't, please don't click the photo to be taken to a larger photo of the spoiler.

What have you decided to knit with this colourway? I'm working on some no-purl Monkey socks :)

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

March's Contest - Here We Go Again :)

I am going to start taking suggestions for art pieces for March's inspiration! Have something in mind you'd like to suggest? Here's your chance! Same rules as February's contest with one added note - previous contest winners are not eligible (Lynda that's you LOL) for this month but we'll put you back in the mix again in a couple of months :)

What am I leaning toward for March? Something with a bit of a Spring feel - after all, it's coming soon!

You can leave your suggestion here or in the club's Rav group.

EDITED TO ADD: If you would like to see all the artists & colourways done to date, please click here for a summary of these (Rav link).

Thursday, January 31, 2008

February's "Teaser"

I'm such a yarn tease but you know what? I can't help it! When the yarns are in the envelopes and ready to be going out the door tomorrow I just can't resist!

Lynda...thanks again for a wonderful selection and I hope you guys enjoy this one. I'm pleased with it and you'll notice the skeins are a little different from usual - shorter and more plump which makes them oh-so-squishy! I love that this new skein length has upped the squish factor! For those of you who don't have swifts, it should be much easier to wind and for those who do, it'll fly off your swifts when winding into a cake. I am quite sure I'll keep this style for the rest of the club yarns - hope you enjoy it!

Is it bad of me to already be thinking about March? Okay, never mind...let's get these out in the mail and off to everyone!

If you are a late comer to the club, I'll know tomorrow if I'm including you with this shipment (I've emailed you already) - I'm quite sure I'll be able to sneak you in. If you have extra yarns coming with this shipment, your packages will go out on Saturday but won't actually get in the mailstream until Monday. I need tomorrow to get them organized for you.

As always, happy knitting and enjoy everyone - I had a lot of fun with this colour this month :)

Monday, January 28, 2008

I'm So Excited

Hey, I actually won something and it was something that was worth a great deal to me! Not only did I win something, but I found out that I have good taste too. Win free yarn, find out you have good taste...win/win situation for me!

Hi, I'm Lynda and I won the February contest for choosing the art piece that Roxanne is going to use to base the yarn colors on, woooo hoooo! It's a gorgeous piece, and when I saw it, I immediately thought that it looked like February, but it also looked like Roxanne. You know, not that Roxanne looks like discarded roses, but it looked like the kind of work that she does in her dyeing. Anyway...

My husband and I own our own trucking business and we travel the United States from North to South and East to West and all the while, I have the opportunity to knit. I do have other responsibilities that cut into my knitting time, like paperwork, homeschooling our son, paperwork, surfing the web, paperwork, trip planning, load finding, fuel finding, etc. I am extremely fortunate that my DH is a nice guy and tolerates my yarn habit. He's very good about helping me to contain the yarn that I carry on the truck. Oh wait, that's not true, he complains about the yarn on the truck and then threatens me with losing it if I don't contain it....that's how it works. But, I do have a rather large plastic bin of yarn, 2 knitting bags and a tote bag full of yarn that is available to me. I also have yarn stashed at my mom's in Colorado and several boxes and bins of yarns stored/stashed in our container in West Virginia. I also have a couple of favorite LYS that I shop at when I can convince DH to stop.

I really like to knit socks because they are small, I can have several pairs going at any given time, they don't take long and sock yarn is absolutely gorgeous. I have started knitting different things here lately because DH and I found out that his middle son and daughter-in-law are going to provide us with our first grandchild. How cool is that, although I am not old enough to be a grandma. I think it will be fun and our daughter-in-law appreciates hand knits.

If you want to find out more about me, you can go to my blog and sporadically catch posts about my knitting and our travels across the country. I am getting together another post that will have some pictures of our trip across Vail Pass in Colorado the other day and so pictures of FO's and Wip's that haven't been pictured before on there.

Thanks Roxanne, for the chance to win and for having such good taste as to pick the artwork I chose for you.

Lynda

February's Inspiration - Pierre Auguste Renoir

Thanks everyone for entering all your suggestions for this month's art piece! It was fun to read through everyone's favourites and when I came across Discarded Roses suggested by Lynda, I couldn't resist! It's a Renoir piece and flowers...so pretty and very nice for the month of February. It has colours we haven't touched on yet too - reds/greens! Yum. So with that, we do have a winner! I'm sure lots of you know Lynda but she's going to drop on by and introduce herself in what I thought might be fun - a contest winner spotlight each month! So take it away Lynda... :)

And stay tuned for next month's contest too - this month was so much fun I'd thought it'd be great to continue!

Friday, January 18, 2008

February Contest - Get Involved!

I’ve been really thinking about how to get everyone more involved in posting here and on Ravelry and here’s my first idea - let’s have a monthly contest!! And yes, it does involve free yarn…if you get chosen!

Let’s try it out for our upcoming February month. Here’s what I’m after - suggest an art piece for me to dye and tell me why you think it’d be a great piece to use!

In order to win, I will have to choose your art piece as the colourway for February. What do you win? The following month membership free! Yup, that’s right…free! Free yarn and free shipping!!! So get your thinking caps on and post away!

The only thing I ask is the following:

**You have to have been a member for 3 months and also a member for the coming month you’re suggesting for. The 3 months don’t have to be consecutive either, just 3 months so tell me how long you’ve been in the club when you post.

**You can only make 2 suggestions - any others will be disregarded - hold that thought until the next month as I plan on doing this every month.

**Please make sure it’s a fine art piece so as to keep with the theme of the club - it’s masterpieces we’re after!

**Duplicates will not be considered so please try to suggest something someone else has not - only the first suggestion will count.

And that’s about it until I think of something else….LOL Now get to suggesting and have fun with it…I do every month.

If I don’t choose any of the suggestions which I reserve the right to do - don’t worry, I’ll do a random drawing of all those who entered to give away the next month’s free membership.

Oh yes, a good resource I use to find the artwork is Art.com.

(cross-posted on the Ravelry group - please feel free to suggest either on the blog here or in the Ravelry group)

Sunday, January 13, 2008

I'm a tad obsessed...



With what you ask? The REIMS STOCKINGS pattern...LOL! Mostly it's because I almost have the pattern memorized and it's an easy knit when you do that...can just keep knitting without referring to the pattern charts all the time. I quite enjoyed knitting this one - the colours came out quite fun. Photos are of each side of the sock since the colours came out slightly differently on both.

Have you started knitting with Flaming June yet?

Thursday, January 10, 2008

January's "Spoiler"

Hopefully everyone or most of you have your yarns by now...the postal system seems to be cooperating a little better this month - guess it's not Christmas anymore :) Don't click the photo unless you want to see the yarn up close! Have you decided what to knit with this yarn yet? I'm working on another REIMS STOCKINGS (linked to Ravelry project) sock because I pretty much have the pattern memorized so it's easy for me to knit after a day of dyeing yarn :)

I haven't thought about February yet BUT I am leaning toward something Valentine-ish in colours. What does everyone think?