Another Winner

I loved reading the memories of grandparents that have been coming in over the week for the Phoebe's Birthday giveaway.  They were touching and inspiring, and many were craft related.  I love that crafts are often handed down through the generations.

Once again, with the help of random.org, I found my second giveaway winner for this week:

Jill C.

who wrote:

My grandma taught me how to knit when I was in elementary school--little Barbie rugs and blankets. Now, my mom is working on Phoebe's sweater for my daughter. Saw this post early this morning, but didn't want to be # 1 in giveaway comments, hehe. Rav ID: nmujillybean

Well, it looks like your strategy paid off.  I'll be contacting you on Ravelry to get your address in order to send the signed copy of Phoebe's Birthday your way.

As for me, I've been loving all the suggestions for baby knits on my last post.   I've been busy adding to my favorites and am hoping to find the time to wind up some yarn and cast on a project or two this weekend!

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Winner, Winner

So happy to announce that The Stella Pattern Collection Giveaway has commenced and a winner has been chosen via my good friend random.org.

And the winner is...

egoffensend

who wrote:

Um, Nashira, duh! : ) I always feel bad posting during contests like this. I should always comment so you know how many people really do read and appreciate your work (I say this knowing there is a slim chance of winning ; ). Keep up the good work - love you blog!

Well thanks, egoffensend!  If you see this post, just use the "contact" tab at the top of this page to send me a note with your email address so I can send the patterns on to you.  I will be hopping over to your blog to try to connect as well!

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Phoebe's Birthday Book Giveaway

As I posted on Monday, this week I had the pleasure of attending a book signing with author and knitter Joanna Johnson. What I failed to mention was that we also got to host the lovely Johnson family at our home for a night.

Me, Joanna, and Elise at the book signing.

Joanna and I met at TNNA 2010 (the first TNNA for the both of us) and became fast friends.  We have always made time for a quick dinner or lunch together at TNNA since then, but this visit was an extra treat.  Although it was one quick evening, we finally got to spend a little unhurried time together.  

The kids even got to explore the pond a bit and decided that they would like to stay a little longer (which wasn't possible with the book tour time constraints, but we still felt privileged that they felt that way).

Phoebe's Birthday is Joanna's third book.  She has once again collaborated with her husband, Eric, who illustrates the stories.  As with her other books, you will find knitting patterns (outfits from the story), in the back of the book.  Phoebe's Birthday also has a little something extra as it includes sewing patterns as well, even a pattern for a quilt!

*Phoebe the mouse, in 'mermouse', sewn form for the new book

Phoebe's Spool Quilt

Phoebe's Party Dress and Phoebe's Sun Romper

And now, continuing with the "Christmas in July" theme I set earlier this week (click here to enter the Stella Pattern Collection Giveaway), I have a signed copy of Phoebe's Birthday to giveaway to one lucky reader.  

Since the story is dedicated to Joanna and Eric's grandparents, I think it is only fitting to incorporate this in to the giveaway.  So, in order to be in the running, just share something about a grandparent in the comments below.  It can be a memory, a story, or just something special you like/liked about them.

Make sure to include a name, and place I can reach you if you win.  Contest will be open until Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 11:59 pm, with our winner announced Friday, the 27th.

If you want to learn more about the Johnson family and their work, check out their website at www.slatefallspressbooks.com

You can also find my review of Freddie's Blanket (their second book) here.

Stella Collection Giveaway

What happens when you combine the talents of this blog:

With the talents behind this one:

Along with some gorgeous yarn, and a little inspirations from the stars?  

An amazing new pattern collection, of course!

Today I am delighted to share this beautiful pattern collection with all you knitters out there- here comes the eye candy:

Suncrest:

Adhara:

Nashira:

Solaria:

Each of these patterns features a different Tanis Fiber Arts fingering weight yarn (my favorite weight to work with, btw).  You can drool over the whole collections of Tanis' yarns here.

The Stella Collection is available on Ravelry as a pdf ebook for $15.00 CAD.  You can also find each pattern available for $6.00 CAD a piece.

Now the title of this post does say giveaway, so that's just what we'll do.  I have an entire ebook to share with one lucky reader.  What do you have to do?  Just leave a comment below sharing what design you would cast on first (I think Suncrest is calling my name!). 

The giveaway will close on Monday, July 23, 2012 at 11:59 pm EST.  Winner to be announced shortly after.

Annnnnnnd..... GO!

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2011 Christmas Sweater... and Winners

When I was just about finished with Elise's stocking, an idea popped in to my head.  Granted, I wasn't planning on making Elise a Christmas sweater this year.  After all- how could I top last year's outfit?

But, a little inspiration goes a long way and before I knew, all I wanted to do was get the stocking off the needles to start the perfect sweater.

But, before I get ahead of myself, the stocking is finished.  I'm pretty happy about how it looks- It's blocking now and I'll have pictures soon!

And finally, we have some winners to announce. And they winners are:

 Baby Vest:  Jen

Waldorf Baby Doll:  Ludamilla

Pattern of Choice:  Jill C.

Pattern of Choice: knit one, knit two

Only Jill C. included her email address- if you are one of the winners, use the "Contact" tab on the top of this page to send me and email to let me know who you are and how to contact you.

Congrats!  

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Adirondack Patterns: Spotlight and Giveaway!

December is an exciting time of year- especially for the knitterly/fibery kinds of people.  To help you prep for the holidays, I have sponsor highlights lined up for the next couple weekends.

To kick off this season I am pleased to introduce the lovely ladies over at Adirondack Patterns.

Adirondack Patterns is a collaboration between identical  twin sisters Laura and Julia who's love of sewing and crafting for their children expanded into the creation of a store.  Over the past 2 years, Adirondack Patterns has grown to include over 60 patterns and tutorials; including those on cloth diaper sewing, complete instructions on several variations of Waldorf dolls, crochet and knitting, clothing tutorials, and accessories for little ones.  All of the patterns and tutorials are very simple to follow and almost all of them have detailed photos for every step of the process.

"Our sole purpose in sharing our tutorials at reasonable prices is to inspire and make it possible for other Mama’s to create handmade goods and toys for their little ones.  Because every wee one deserves to have something handmade with love."

  Julia and Laura write about crafting and parenting in their spaces Happiness Comes and Mountain Mama.

Laura and Julia are identical twins who spend much of their time at their jobs as RNs.  When they aren't working or playing with their boys, they are crafting for their Etsy shop where they feature Waldorf, sewing, crochet, and knitting patterns.  

And with that, let me give you the chance to get to know the ladies of Adirondack Patterns:

Hello, Laura and Julia.  Thanks so much for joining me today here at French Press Knits.  When it comes to crafting, I find many people have a past with it- is this true with the two of you?

We both began crafting at an early age. Growing up being Identical Twins, we always had each other to play with. Our mom was always teaching us how to cook, bake, craft. From watching our mom make our many identical dresses/clothes, to helping her make the yearly Christmas ornaments that we would gift for presents to family and friends.  

Our Maternal Grandmother was a knitting goddess.  She taught us how to knit when we were about 9 or 10 years old.  Many days were spent watching her little arthritic hands click the needles showing us how to knit and purl.  Unfortunately the skill was lost in our teenage years, and we gravitated to sewing instead. 

 Our Paternal Grandmother, as well as our mom, showed us how to sew a few basic items.  We started making "scrunchies" (you remember scrunchies, RIGHT????) as one of our first projects, and gave them out to anyone who wanted one.  A few years ago we picked up sewing again, and whipped up a whole bunch of baby items to sell at the local craft fairs.  We came up with our own designs, and patterns, and made booties, bibs, bags, blankets, dresses, coloring wraps, burp clothes, you name it, we made it!  Unfortunately we closed up shop after the first year due to the huge amount of restrictions on selling handmade items, especially for babies. 

 Still having an itch to create, we decided to sell our patterns on ETSY, so people could make their own items for their babies. and loved ones.  Over time it branched out to include over 60 patterns and tutorials for a variety of sewn, crochet, and knit goods.

What craft takes the largest portion of your time these days? 

Julia has an affinity for making her Waldorf Inspired Dolls, and Laura tends to gravitate towards crochet.  But we both are equal opportunity crafters.  If we understand it, or someone can show us how to do it, we will try it, Julia is more broad in her craftiness, where as Laura is strictly Crochet and Sewing.

Besides crafty things, what other hobbies do you have?

  Laura loves play with her boys, bake, to rearrange her furniture, and honestly a large amount of time is spent in front of her laptop/T.V.  Julia likes to play with her boy, cook, read, listen to music, and enjoy the outdoors.

What inspires your creativity? 

Babies....there we said it.  We recently had a new baby (Laura's baby boy) join the family, and he is our main inspiration. We love making things for little ones to wear, or play with. We also find inspiration on Blogger, Etsy, and Pintrest is FULL of incredible ideas.   

How did you decide to start a shop together?

I began with a few crochet items, and asked Julia if she wanted to add in her sewing tutorials.  The rest is history.

What can we expect to see in the shop in the future?

More crochet patterns, including some items for little girls, and more Waldorf Inspired Dolls accessories and patterns.

Anything else new and exciting we should keep our toes for? 

We are holding a giveaway for a beautiful Waldorf Inspired Doll four times a year over at Windfall Dolls http://windfalldolls.blogspot.com/2011/11/windfall-doll-giveaway-meet-holly.html

Giveaway

And now, for the stuff you've been waiting for.  Laura and Julia have graciously offered gifts for 4 readers.  The prizes are as follows:

1.  Baby vest (in size 2-4 months)

2.  Simple Baby Doll

3&4:  Two winners will get to pick any pattern in their Etsy shop.

Wanna get in on it?  Here's what you need to do:  Leave a comment in the comment section below.  Give Laura and Julia a shout out, let them know what pattern you are itching to try your hand at, give them a word of encouragement, etc.  

While you're at it- make sure you check them out at the following places:

 Etsy Shop

Laura's Blog

Julia's Blog

Windfall Dolls Blog

Facebook Page

For an extra entry, hop on over to their facebook page and "like" them.  Leave a separate comment in the section below to let us know you have done so.  

The contest will be open until Thursday December 8th, 2011 at 11:59 EST when the winners will be chosen at random and announced on Friday. 

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And the Winner Is...

Altogether there were 104 entries (101 comments along with 3 comments that came in via email) that came in for our Elegant Economy Designs Giveaway.  Using our dear old friend random.org, we were presented with the number 42.

Who is number 42?  Why, it's:

K. Dolan said... [Reply to comment]

Beautiful and elegant designs! I especially LOVE the cardi!

Congrats to you!  Please contact me so I can get your info to Maria, who will then send you the patterns for Silverlight, Crossover Cardi, Farewell , and Nouveaux

TOMS Giveaway

I've been meaning to post about this all week, but here I am... informing my readers about it on the last day of the giveaway.  Oh well, better late than never, right?

My little sister just started a blog.  It's a mix of freebies, deals, and how to get a good bargain.  But, it doesn't just stop there.  Laura also encorporates the idea of using these free/cheap "blessings" to bless others in return.  As a blessing to her readers (and to a child in need), Laura will be giving away a pair of TOMS shoes from a deal she found on the internet.

You can find her blog (and more info about her blog purpose) by clicking on her button in my left sidebar.  Or, you can go straight to the giveaway here.  Good luck!

Drumroll Please...

And the winner of the Freddie's Blanket Book Giveaway is....

Comment 26, from boxwater  who said:

Adorable book ! I would be thrilled to own a copy. 

Good luck EVERYONE!

boxwater, please contact me so I can get your info to Joanna 

I'm so glad I used my good 'ole friend Random Number Generator.  After the reading all the comments I wanted to buy a book for so many of you.  I was surprised to see how many expecting mothers I have reading my blog. I hope many of you will go out and locate this book in your LYS- I'm sure all the future knitters out there will love it :)

PS- Today is March Fourth- what will you do with it?  For me, I really need to get my taxes out of the way (yuck- least favorite time of year for sure).  Besides that, we need to figure out how to get Elise back to sleeping again.  For some reason she has forgotton how to sleep at night, silly girl.  March really has come in like a lion- praying it goes out like a lamb!

Freddie's Blanket

Being a mother of a new baby, I am always on the lookout for exceptional children's books.  Elise's nursery is currently stocked with all the classics- from Dr. Suess to The Very Hungry Caterpiller- she seems to have it all.  But a few weeks ago- an extra special children's book came in the mail:

It's my pleasure to introduce you to Freddie's Blanket by Joanna Johnson.  Freddie's Blanket combines two things I love: a lovely children's story (which is by the way- beautifully illustrated) and knitting patterns.  That's right- could you have a more perfect book for a child of a knitter?

I had the pleasure of meeting Joanna last year at TNNA and was so excited about her work.  Not only is she just about the sweetest person ever, she is captivating to talk to.  She shared with me all about her first book, Phoebe's Sweater.  She had an idea for a children's book with knitting patterns but couldn't get published.  Did this stop her? No way.  Her and her husband (who does the illustrations for the books) started their own publishing company- Slate Falls Press.   

 Now, less than a year later, they have already come out with their second book and are working on a third.  Talk about making your dreams a reality.  As soon as I got home from TNNA I purchased a few copies of Phoebe's Sweater for my knitterly friends and family. 

A few months ago Joanna contacted me to let me know she was working on her second book, and asked for permission to use the French Press Felted Slippers as illustration inspiration- here's a sneak peak:

Can you tell what Mama Platypus is wearing on her feet(there are more throughout the book- you'll have to pick up a copy to see them all!)?  As cool as this is, I think this may be even cooler:

It's always fun the see your name in print!  

Besides sending me a review copy, Joanna has also offered to giveaway a copy of the book here on my blog.  

For a chance to win, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post by Thursday March 3 at 11:59 EST. 

Annnnnnnnd.... go!

Aravis Cowl and Yarn Giveaway

Some of you may have seen by now- but this week on Yarn on the House, they are giving away Aravis Cowl patterns and yarn.  When the post went live, I was in awe of these beautiful pictures.

From the pictures themselves to the amazing styling, Ve is going to have to give me some pointers (along with her daughter, Jasmine, who helped with the styling- this girl's got a future!).

You can see more of Ve's pictures here on Ravelry.  There's also a Yarn on the House group on Ravelry- go see what they're up to!  Want a chance at free yarn and patterns?  Just stop by this post over at Yarn on the House and leave a comment for your chance to win.

And the Winners are...

Thanks so everyone for their participation in my first blogiversary this week- it was great to have so many to celebrate with!

Mr. True Random Number Generator at random.org provided us with the following contest winners:

For the Never Not Knitting Pattern giveaway, our winner was number 22....

Chrissy  who wrote:

Loving all of the patterns, but the Cedar Leaf Shawlette really looks devine! I entered on twitter @chrissyza as well!

And for the Knitterella Notepad giveaway, number 92- which was a Twitter entry from...

Gynnab83

here on the blog, Gynna commented: 

I absolutely love the "Knitted Sweater Note Card Set" Totally cute! Now just gotta hurry up and knit more gifts for Christmas!

Congrats to both our winners, I will be contacting each of you for your addresses. 

Before I sign off for the weekend, I need to let you in on my exciting plans.  Tomorrow I will be having my very first trunk show at Have You Any Wool in Berkley, MI.  The day begins at 10 am with a showing of all my designs.  Not only will I have the new Aravis Hooded Cowl with me, but I will also be previewing a brand new (just came off the needles last night) sweater design.  Here's a sneak peek...

If you want to see more, you'll have to stop by.  I'll be there at 10, and there's even a French Press Felted Slipper Workshop starting at 1.  Space is limited, call (248) 541-9665 to check for availability.  For those of you not in the area, I'll be sure to take some pictures to document the day and share with you next week, have a great weekend.

Knitterella Giveaway!!!

As if this week hasn't been exciting enough, I have another giveaway to offer up today!  If you have been reading my blog for any time at all, you have probably heard me mention my good knitterly friend, Jill.  Jill is better known in the knitting world as Knitterella.

Jill is a graphic designer by trade, and a knitter by choice!  With these two talents, she has created her own line of Knitterella Stationary for knitters.  I actually knew of Jill's work before I knew Jill the person- it's popped up all over the big knitting magazines, including Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits.

Besides the stationary,  Jill has also been busy designing logos and layouts for many knitters. If Sally Morgan is the "Physchic to the Stars", then Jill is the "Graphic Designer to the Knitters".  If you have been looking for a great graphic designer to work with, you should check out Jill's work (but honestly, if you are a knitter, you've porbably already seen it!).  Jill was one of the graphic designers behind Alana's new printed pattern line- so if you read my blog, you saw her work on Monday!

Up for grabs today is the complete set of Knitterella notepads:

One lucky winnner will receive all six notepads from the Knitterella collection.  Here's how to enter...

Stop by knitterella.com to check out the rest of Jill's line.  What's your favorite item- what would you like to see more of?  Leave a comment on this blog post before tomorrow night (midnight, EST) for your chance to win. Winner will be announced on Friday along with the Never Not Knitting Giveaway winner.  

For an extra entry, copy and paste this to your Twitter feed:

Just entered the giveaway on frenchpressknits.com for a chance to win notepads from @knitterellajill .You should enter too! @frenchpressknit

I have my own Knitterella notepads- here's one of them hard at work:

This one reads,  "Knitting through the day one stitch at a time"- how fitting!  This is definitely the 

ugly side of working on a new design.  Fortunately for you, by the time I have a  pattern all ready to go, it's a bit more legible than the above picture!

Never Not Knitting Giveaway

As I said last week, to celebrate my first blogiversary- there are some exciting things planned for this week.  If you haven't already cast your vote in the Name That Cowl Contest, it's not too late.  The winner will be revealed tomorrow and the pattern will be available for purchase soon after.

Today I have a very exciting giveaway for all of you.  Alana from Never Not Knitting has sent 5 patterns my way to give away  to my readers.

Alana has recently redone all her patterns so they look like a cohesive collection.  The printed patterns are only available through yarn shops (you can find one in your area by clicking here), but all patterns are available as pdf downloads on nevernotknitting.com.

Each pattern is uniquely designed to look like a page from a scrapbook- just take a closer look at this beautiful design work:

Alana's patterns were some of the first I found (and fell in love with) when I got on Ravelry about a year ago.  Playful Stripes is one I'm planning on making for my child one day and was ecstatic she sent an extra copy for me!

Not only is Alana a super talented designer, she is also the host of the ever-popular "Never Not Knitting" podcast.  She just kicked off a new season last week, but you can catch up on all the episodes here.

On to the GIVEAWAY!!

As I mentioned above, the giveaway consists of five of Alana's printed patterns.  Among these, you will find:  Sheepish, Playful Stripes Cardigan, Cosette Wrap, Cedar Leaf Shawlette,  and Alana's newest pattern, Shawl Collared Cowl. 

In order to enter, stop by Alana's pattern store to find which design you would love to knit up.  Come back and share your favorite design on this blog post for a chance to win.  For an extra entry, you may tweet the following phrase from your twitter account:

Just entered the giveaway on frenchpressknits.com for a chance to win patterns from @nevernotknittin .You should enter too! @frenchpressknit

Contest will close Thursday night at midnight (EST) with the winner being announced Friday, October 8.



If this is the first time you have seen Alana's work, I would recommend checking the rest of it out.  Here's where you can find her:

Never Not Knitting Blog

Never Not Knitting Podcast

Ravelry Designer page

Ravelry Never Not Knitting Group

Yarn on the House

Have you heard about Yarn on the House? If you haven't, you should! It's a new blog whose purpose is to give away free yarn...EVERY WEEK!

Veronika (of Yarn on the House) has already given away skeins of the new Malabrigo Twist, Cascade 220, Cascade Eco Alpaca, and Malabrigo Worsted. If you're wondering what the giveaway is for this week, take a look below:

Yarn on the House is giving away 3 French Press Felted Slipper Patterns- and two of them will come with Paton's Wool as well. So, make sure you stop by, look around the site, and leave your comments. Veronika (Ve) also came up with some interview questions so her readers could get to know me a little better. Hop on over- you'll probably learn something new about me as well!

The Results Are In...

The entries have been counted. And recounted. The hanging chads have been closely examined.

Our tabulations went late into the night. Many valuable lessons have been learned about blog giveaways- next time it will be far less complex. There were many links to check and blog posts to read, and when all was said and done we came up with 922 entries- WOW!

Each entry was assigned a number and placed into an excel document (I did mention we were up late... right?!). Then, we headed over to random.org to find our contest winner. Don't worry, we had quite the ceremony. Joe provided the drumroll via his thumbs and laptop surface- I did the announcing. It was such a thrill to scroll through our excel document to see who our slipper recipient would be.

And the winner of the E2K Slipper Giveaway is...

Tara said...

Oh, fun! The burgundy wine with any of the silvery buttons.

So Tara, we suggest tonight you celebrate with a nice glass of burgundy wine to go with your new pair of French Press Felted Slippers. But keep your thank-you speech to a minimum, you have only 48 hours to claim your prize or else we strike up the music, cut to commercials, and pick another winner.

And speaking of picking other winners...

The lure of generating another number through random.org, proved to be too great. So we doubled our fun and picked again...Susan said...

I never win stuff on blog giveaways, but why not? I keep meaning to pick up the pattern and make myself a pair and a few for gifts. Burgandy Wine slippers would be cute. I'm having trouble picking a button! If I win, can you surprise me?

So Susan, it turns out you do win stuff on blog giveaways. Lucky for you we couldn't pick just one. Perhaps you can meet up with Tara for the celebration, as you both seem to have a penchant for wine. 48 hours to claim your prize.

Thanks so much to all who participated! It really was a great time seeing the response. Stay tuned for more patterns, and more giveaways!

Last Day to Enter!

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway for a free pair of slippers. It's been great to see the overwhelming response, we will definitely do this again.

I came across this and it made me laugh- Happy Friday!

{via Dweebist}