The Minions have spoken!

Yes, Daenerys, Brienne, and Myrcella have decided the giveaway winners. I listed everyone and numbered them. Then I wrote all the numbers on torn up paper napkins. Then I hovered each gerbil over the batch and they grabbed a number. I was originally just going to do one each of SK Fragile and SK Malifiqueen but then Myrcella seemed a bit put out. Poor little thing, her sisters are much more extroverted and she gets ignored. So . . . I decided with this 50% off sale, I could do 2 SK Malefiqueens. Yes, I know the name is actually SK Evil Queen . . . but she used to be SK Maleficent and her name was changed. I like calling her Malefiqueen.



So . . . Myrcella picked the first QS Malefiqueen . . . and picked #46. Jan Doran

Brienne picked the SK Fragile . . . and picked 34. Becky Stitchy-Sheehan

Daenerys picked the other SK Malefiqueen . . . and picked #24. Lee-ann Bender



Congratulations!

"Evil Queen", yarn, giveaway

My favorite Disney villain is Maleficent. I didn't realize this until after the 2014 Angelina Jolie movie came out. But the more I think about it, she is. And I'm quite chuffed that somehow they've found a way to bring the character back to Once Upon A Time. I have Lady Purl yarn called Once Upon a Dream that I'm so going to knit me some socks during this second half of this season. I hope they can explain the huge plot hole of "she died in her dragon form in Storybrooke and she was some sort of undead" but either way, Maleficent! Her name has been changed to "Evil Queen" but she's still the same magically villanous lady.

So . . . on December 18, 2014, I see this beauty in my newsfeed.



I lasted a whole two days (I think) before I broke down and bought the chart. And then I realized, oh wow wouldn't she be great as a storykeep (SK) or a quick stitch (QS) or a mini? I decided I didn't want to wait about for someone else to request it . . . so I did. Someone else also got her without the background, but I'm not as sure on that point. The example was on some hand dyed fabric, but part of the beauty is the background. (Might still get it to go with the others.

So . . . yesterday, the SK, the QS, and the mini (along with the "no background") were listed on the site. Squeeeeeee!

And they look like:



Well the SK and QS at least. The mini is a smaller version of all of the big one.



And while I was looking on the "new charts" page I noticed a new SK. I love SKs, there's something about the shape, I think. So . . . SK Ice Princess, which I adore the colors of her, had to come along with SK Maleficent. Since, you know 50% off sale.





So . . . onto the next topic, yarn. I finished spinning and plying the Feather colorway of the Spun Right Round merino I'd bought to do during last year's Spinzilla. I didn't have the oompf to get a 3rd braid done, so that one was still sitting about. (I added another 3 to it - in the colors of Human Fly, Phosphorous Pixie, and Mint Me.) And I also was busy with both drop spindles. I did more on my top whorl "eclectic" yarn and realized when I wound it off, that I'd left it too long. Oooops. I'd gotten 9 1 ounce bags of superwash merino on eBay and it's going to be quite eclectic once it is all spun/wound/etc. And the other spindle (the bottom whorl) has been hosting some more of that "sweet tarts" yarn - 1/2 of the 4 ounce braid of Malabrigo Nube in baya electica. And again, I'd left it too long on the spindle. sigh But I have finished that one and wound it onto a cardboard wrapping paper tube. And I've started the 2nd half of the braid. It's soooo pretty. And a lot thinner than the previous spinning. (I have a pair of red braids, called Cereza, that is always out of stock on Paradise Fibers it seems like.) The only thing I don't particularly care for about the Malabrigo Nube is it seems a bit felted. If I had a drum carder, I'd probably run it through before spinning.





Ok . . . onto the giveaway. I've done a couple of giveaways before. One was in honor of my friend's birthday and the other was in memory of my Uncle on the birthday after he passed away. Usually I like to do a guessing contest. And there's clues and all that. But this time, I'm doing it a bit differently. Partly because I've left it too late to really have a proper guessing contest thingymy and partly because it's for my birthday. (plus some people already know what the "prize" is.)

So how does it work? Very simple. I'll be posting here and on my fb and in a few of the groups I'm in. And if someone wants to have a chance, just comment either there or here (or both) or message me. Then next Friday, January 30, 2015, I will pick a name for each chart. (And then RAK the chart) Actually, I'm not picking, my furry minions, Daenerys, Myrcella, and Brienne, will be doing the picking.



So . . . it's my birthday, but you're getting the gift! lol

So . . . what are the lovlies I've picked out to giveaway?



They're both storykeeps. The first I picked is one I've stitched. He's still my favorite SK - I was able to stitch him in 17 days. Plus, dragon. Yes, if you're thinking SK Fragile, you're right!

The other one I picked was of course, SK Maleficent. Since she's the my favorite Disney villain. I was hoping she'd get released in time for my birthday so I could include her.

So . . . here are the pictures of SK Fragile and SK Maleficent:



So . . . good luck!

Update

Well . . . it has been a while since I blogged . . . I've been busy with things like work and knitting and gerbils and spinning and forgetting to blog. What can I say? Oops. Plus, you know, working 2nd shift seems to suck up all the time. And I have discovered the cuteness of gerbils taking sand baths . . . they roll in it. Soooo cute! Plus all three of my girls bark. Yup, my gerbils bark.

Let's see . . . the alpaca shawl is done, but not yet blocked.

Expecting has like 4 more colors to go to be done with that row of pages. The date on the last pic I've taken is 7/27/14.

I requested a QS (quick stitch) of Ice Wind I - lol I seem to have problems remembering if it's 1 or 2 - I've liked this one since I picked it to be the picture of what Corsira, who is the daughter of Tannith & Corsaire, will look like when she's all grown up. Now I've got the QS of both Ice Winds (the other one is Tannith's little sister, Piper).

I also discovered etsy. And in particular, two specific sellers. Neeley's Knits has 4 different Babylon 5 colorways - I do love me some Babylon 5. I had her do a custom order of her Marcus yarn, which I had my mom put away so I could open it on Christmas morning. Hmmm . . . I've still yet to "receive" my yarn . . . mom put it in a "safe place". The other seller is Lady Purl Designs - her blog is ladypurl.blogspot.com. She has some fun, nerdy colorways and I love her descriptions. The first yarns I got from her were a lace weight color called Mermaid Tails (for The Little Mermaid) that I "made up" a shawl pattern I'm calling Mermadia. I've yet to get far on it. And I got a fun sock yarn colorway made of 80% wool and 20% angora, called "Twixt My Nethers" - created for the Firefly/Serenity character named Kaylee. I knit some socks out of that to dress like Kaylee and I had enough to make fingerless mitts as well (and still have more of that yarn).

Speaking of socks, I got several pairs done . . . well more than several pairs. Let's see . . . Christmas socks for my sister, me, my mom, my sister's boyfriend (as he was there on Christmas morning, so therefore, he must have new socks) . . . and Girl on Fire socks (yes more Lady Purl yarn!) for my sister and I to take to watch Mockingjay part 1 . . . and I had to have some Hobbity socks too. I used another Lady Purl yarn called The Shire (or There and Back Again). I started the Smaug socks while watching the movie . . . but I messed up on the ribbing, so I'll have to start them over. Which is good since I have to watch the movie again as the movie seemed to be on fast forward or something. Oh and the blue Cascade Heritage yarn I "got" for Christmas 2013, I knit that up into socks and some wristlets. And socks for my sister too for Christmas.

I've also made some fingerless gloves. I found a free pattern on Ravelry (oh that place is soooo bad for finding neat things to do!) - it's called Te Ara and it's got a neat cable portion. Fairly simple/straightforward, but look complicated. I used the Multipass yarn (LP) for mine and another LP yarn called The Capitol for my sister's. I just finished a pair using the Kaylee yarn that I adapted to be shorter/no cables. And still have a lot of yarn left lol. Edit I forgot the name of the pattern is Te Ara Fingerless Mitts not "Te Avanna" . . . lol I guess I was remembering that tea company, Teavanna, or something.



I also got a lot of spinning done. I went to a spinning workshop at the Vinton Public Library. I got to learn corespinning as well as beehives and lace. I want to make some more of the b&l yarn in "Drazi colors" - green for the beehives part and then purple for the inner core bit. The one on the left is the corespun, I got to use pom fur for it. And the other is the beehives & lace. And then in October, I got to participate in Spinzilla. What is that? It's a week where the idea is spin as much as you can. There are prizes and things like that and people compete to see how much yarn they can spin. Last year (the 2nd year) it was October 6 - 12, this year it will be the 5th - 11th. I have that week as "vacation". My goal was to spin a mile. I juuuuust made that. It was funny, I would tell the gerbils "it's spinning time" and they would start digging about. I decided to spin as a Rogue Spinner (mostly because I waited until the last minute, but also because I don't know enough about which team to pick.)

And because of this Spinzilla, I was introduced to Mirkwood Arts and the Mirkwood supported spindles. And I waaaant one. Actually a couple. That's something I want to get to expand my skill set. I also want to try other sorts of fiber (banana, rose, angora, silk, etc).



Ok . . . onto the cross stitch. I got lot of that done too.

I did get some done on Tannith (poor thing, looks like another year before she'll get done or something like that). At least I'm on the second row now.

I finally got SK Logan framed for my mom (she goes "I trust your judgement when it comes to framing") and SK Forbidden Doorway for me. SK Logan is hanging in the dining room right above the little triangle/corner desk and Doorway is over top of the gerbils in my room. She's really easy to forget it's stitched and not a print or something.

And . . . in October . . . finally, after a lot of work from a group of us, I can finally reveal the "secret project". It is a quilt of The History of HAED that a group of us made for the owner/designer, Michele. We divided the chart into 12 parts and each part got a stitcher to work on it. Mine was what I called "Left Facing Dragon". And we each used the 25 ct Magic Guide lugana fabric and 1 strand over 1 for full crosses. And then we all sent it to one of the ladies (I included some purple fabric as it just seemed appropriate for this project) for her to quilt it all up. She also included a patch with our names on it. We also sent in pics and hand-written notes to be turned into a scrapbook of the journey. We had a simply marvelous time being sneaky. And Michele was so touched and moved by it, it made it all worth the effort. (Plus, it was just fun planning/making it happen!)

So . . . here's Left Facing Dragon and the finished project:



So . . . I'm a sucker for a HAED SAL. I mention this because I got "suckered" into doing a Halloween SAL. And it was a good reason to finally start the first of The Very Long Term Project (which I started a facebook page to under that name). What is TVLTP? I want to stitch all the Faces of Faery that have been charted. Hmmm might be a bit longer to do than I thought. So I started with Faces of Faery 99 (or as I call her 99.)

And speaking of SALs, this year (2015) there is a HAED BB SAL. I picked the QS Frogs Kissing. It was the most fantasy like one and I don't fancy Santa. Here's what I picked and how far I got on the 16th (mom's foot surgery). And in the big cross stitch group I admin, they decided to do a HAED SAL. So I was like ok I'll participate. And rather than being cheesy and having it do for both SALs, I decided to pick something other than QS Froggies. I went with QS Nostlagy, which was from the 2013 BB SAL and was my second choice for that one. I haven't gotten far, but still. She's one of those character pictures. I picture her as a Human necromancer. She is more of a science/see if it can be done (almost innocent) rather than evil "I play with dead people" sort of way.

And I decided yes, I will participate in the once a month (1st weekend) SAL for the Mystic Stitch group. I'm doing Night Shade II.

And then, for some reason, I decided Melena ought to have some attention too. I just don't have an updated pic yet of her. I got distracted by spinning yarn on my spindles.

Almost done . . . next time, I am going to announce a new giveaway. But we'll save that for later.