First things first. With friends like this, who needs enemies? AND she told me to take a hot shower which is like the kiss of freaking death when you’ve been exposed to poison ivy. She’s trying to kill me and I think she’s actually enjoying herself. Bottom line. If that patch in the picture was/is poison ivy, I’d say I’m fairly fucked. I didn’t walk into it or anything, but I did try to place a square on top of it for a picture – didn’t work out though so it was quickly off the leaves. Yeah. Now I’m knitting a small pox blanket. Terrific. Apparently this shit could erupt on my skin anytime between the next ten minutes and two weeks from now. It’s like I’ve got bugs crawling on me. I itch EVERYWHERE. If you should happen to see me this weekend, oh say, at like an event in Central Park, and I’m covered in oozing pus filled sores, please note that I’m not contagious. And don’t use Ann’s wheel or anything. I’m just saying.

Let’s move on to happier things, okay? Because today is BRUCE DAY!!!!! That’s right baby! IT’S A REUNION! And in honor of the day I’m having a BRUCE CONTEST!

Here’s a quiz! ETA: THE QUIZ IS FIXED. PLEASE DON’T TAKE IT AGAIN IF YOU’VE ALREADY TAKEN IT. THANK YOU. Take it and everyone who scores 50% or better will be put into a random drawing for the following prizes*:

The Essential Bruce Springsteen
Prove It All Night STR
My favorite bootleg recording of Prove It

If you win, and you are already a Springsteen fan and feel you are above and beyond something like a Greatest Hits album, I will burn you anything you want from my bootleg collection. And if you win and for some ungodly reason AREN’T a Springsteen fan, I will have to insist that you listen to the entire Essential Bruce from beginning to end and report back to me. I will instinctively know if you are lying. Entries received after Thursday, June 22, 11:59 PM EST will NOT be included in the drawing. One entry per person please. HAVE FUN and don’t cheat! You know who you are! Hee!

Thank you for all your lovely comments about my (poisonous) green squares. Each square roughly measures about 10″x10/5″. So I’m guessing the blanket will be somewhere around 30″x40″. I haven’t completely decided on the layout yet – and for sure I will tell you all about the seaming.

Oh yeah and WE BROKE THE $10K MARK! Gobsmacked. That’s what I am. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

* Ann, my love, you are so totally NOT ELIGIBLE to win.

Before I get down to today’s business, a poetic interlude:

Uh oh Spaghetti-O!
Filled me with your orangey seed
and now meatballs in nine!

Never say I back down from a challenge.

I am FINALLY getting around to picking finalists for the Ombre Contest! FINALLY! You’d given up on me hadn’t you? I’m so sorry it took me so long. It’s not over yet because Ann and Kay still have to pick a winner, but these are the finalists:

Oops, [H]ombre! by Kathy
Shattered eggshell, yolk yellow, and gritty floor gray….

Junk Yard Ombre by Dave
Rusty brown, moldy green, seagull poo white (why do seagulls go to junk yards?) and a smoldering ashy grey.

Candle Ombre by Meghan
dancing dark brown, melted cream, tarnishing beige, and glimmering gold make for a lovely Candle Ombre.

New Baby Girl Ombre by Nichole
baby pink, soft, bright blue (the color of her eyes), pale yellow (like her soft little tufts of hair), and some white (for the spit-up). I love being a mom!

Cucombre by Liz in Nowhere PA
Dark green skin, light green flesh, studded with white seeds.

A Very Brady Ombre (or “Groovy Ombre”) by PBnJ
Avocado Green, Burnt Orange, Harvest Gold, and “Paneling Brown.”

The Drunken Ombre by Kristina
A little black, a little blue, some puke pinkish/brown, and some green to represent the giant lizard that was staring at me when I passed out the last night on my Cancun Spring Break.

MOMBRE! by Anne Margaret
A hit of dried spinach (green), a heavy streak of milk (white), a sprinkling of Cheeto crumbs (orange), completed with a Kool Aid (red) overtone rinse. This is either the floor under our kitchen table or a new yarn color (with a nod to all moms out there cleaning up after their kids.)

“Goin’ My Way, Ombre?” by Heather
Is a seductive selections of scarlets, blushes, and bad-eyeshadow-blue.

And last but not least, in honor of today’s date:

Hurricane Ombre by Carol
Imagine every color there is outside blowing by at 150 mph.

Thank you all for participating! It was great fun going through all of them – you guys are WAY creative. The winner will be announced as soon as those MDK girls get back to me. Thanks all for your kind words about the car as well. And yeah – I’m catching lots of shit on the automatic purchase. Sure the manual’s faster, but DUDE! Faster is NOT what I need. Not to mention that I can’t drive a stick and that with G’s hip and knee problems it’s just not practical. Especially since a lot of our driving is stop and go in the city.

Yesterday was family day – I spoke to every member of my immediate family – which is kind of rare – and most of them I spoke to multiple times. I think my sister and I talked like fifty-seven times. At one point the phone was ringing every five minutes. I folded clothes for like two hours yesterday in preparation for my baby sister – today is her first day on the new job! YAY! It’s her first grown-up real world job and it’s perfect for her and I hope she loves it. She’s moving up near me so that will be nice but she hasn’t moved yet – so she stayed here last night and tonight. I drove her to the train this morning all first day of school like. She’s twelve years younger than I am so she’s still a baby to me.

No knitting. No spinning. No nothing. Hopefully tonight though.
Thanks so much!
L, C

BINGO! We have some winners!

First, the winner of the Ghost Story contest is:

And the winners of the Mason Dixon contest are:

Thanks everyone for playing! Tune in for next week’s contest: Guess how much toilet paper is in my house RIGHT NOW?!

Since I’ve got the luxury of hanging with the MDK girls FOUR nights in a row, and I know some of you won’t have that priviledge, I’m giving away a TWO SIGNED copy COPIES of their TOME!

In order to win, leave me a comment stating your most favorite thing MASON and your most favorite thing DIXON. For instance, mint juleps and a heaping bowl of clam chowder. Or reading Moby Dick while listening to Patsy Cline. Opposites attract, but judging from the girls I hung with last night, they also compliment very nicely. GO TO IT! Comments will close Thursday, 11:59 PM. Winner picked at random. Please enter only once. There may be yarn in the mix as well. 😉

Are you ready?! I can’t hear you…ARE YOU READY?! This is going to be so spectacular! I hope you LOVE it as much as I do. But first, head on over and CONGRATULATE

She won SHOWCASE #4. Happy New Year Cheryl!

Okay Johnny! I think the people are ready! Show them SHOWCASE #5!

First up, we’ve got THREE NEW COLORWAYS of SOCKS THAT ROCK in the NEW BIG HONKING SKEINS (360 yds)!

Now, these new colorways are really something special. Let me start with the one that REALLY, REALLY ROCKS!

PROVE IT ALL NIGHT

Sniff. Sniff. This is MY VERY OWN COLORWAY. FOR ME. DYED FOR ME WITH ME IN MIND. Named after one of my FAVORITE BRUCE SONGS of ALL TIME! DOES IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!!!!???!!!!!! Thank you Tina. Thank you. Thank you! I’m all verklempt. Isn’t is so beautiful? Mine. Me. Sniff.

Next up two AMAZING colorways:

ROLLING STONE

PHILOSOPHER’S STONE

Gorgeous! All of them! BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! Turns out, Blue Moon, the fabu team behind STR, has like a bazillion other yarns in their arsenal. When I was ordering the yarn for the contest, I ordered a kit they had which I hope you like:

KID MO in LAPIS

Kid Mo is 90% Kid Mohair and 10% Nylon. The kit is a shibori type scarf called the Urban Bubble Scarf and comes with the requisite wooden balls!

BUT THERE’S MORE! (I swear – there are no ginzu steak knives in this prize package!)

FRATERNAL TWIN SNOW MAN STITCH MARKERS! YAY! There’s one of each with a big ring and a little ring. Perfect for all your winter projects.

Here it is all together:

You’ll notice I’m also throwing in a glow in the dark sheep and the phenomenal clear orange chibi. Now, I’m not one for chibis – I like my Altoid box just fine, but I do LOVE the needles in here. They are the same hooked end tapestry needles we’ve come to love, but they’re silver, and they are TINY! Perfect for kitchenering toes. I was skeptical that the size would make a difference, but I’m here to tell you SIZE DOES MATTER when it comes to chibi needles.

Now. How do you win? Each week the questions have gotten harder and harder and I’ve made you search longer to find out all of these inane facts about me. This week will be no different. In fact, this week will be the hardest question of all. In order to win the fabulous prize package shown above you need to:

This is the gift Margene sent me, which I’ve been waiting PATIENTLY to open. I will be opening it tomorrow. But you can guess now.

LEAVE ME A COMMENT WITH YOUR GUESS. Right or wrong, they all get entered! COMMENTS WILL CLOSE AT 11:59PM EST JANUARY TWO 2006. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TUESDAY JANUARY THREE 2006. ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. WINNER WILL BE SELECTED AT RANDOM.

I’ll give you a couple of clues. The box is pretty dang heavy. When you shake it, something is kind of loose, but not loose enough, say, to be a case of Junior Caramels. AND BE VERY WARY OF MARGENE. Her evilness is documented. She WILL try to throw you off. I can guarantee it.

Thank you everyone for helping me end the year on such a high note. I’ve really enjoyed these contests, and I hope you have too. There’s nothing like getting everyone in on the act of celebrating your birthday! And thank you all for reading my blog – it’s nice to know you all enjoy it – and not just when I’m giving stuff away! 😉

Now go out there and have a GREAT NEW YEAR’S EVE! Be CAREFUL! Be SAFE! Have FUN! See you on the flip side!

L, C

Here we are again! I especially like this week’s give-a-way. I hope you do too. A little background first:

A few years ago I put on a solo photography show at my local library (where I am currently persona non grata – long story….) I called it Summer In Winter and it featured my botanical photography. You can see the set up here. It was a HUGE accomplishment – I put it all together my self – frames, postcards, picture hanging (well – G helped with that) – everything! It ran for a month through January and February. One of the pictures featured in the exhibit was this one:

Sunny Side Left

This photograph also appeared in the “Secret Garden” exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden last Summer. The question for this week is:

Did I forget to tell you what you’ll win? I did, didn’t I. Here goes:

It’s SUMMER IN WINTER all over again! Flowers galore. In this prize package, you have enough Wool of the Andes yarn and the patterns to make the following flowers: Daffodil, Iris, Tulip and Calla Lily all from Pick-Up Sticks! The yarn included is as follows: Cherry Blossom (2), Violet (1), Tulip (1), Blue Bonnet (1), Daffodil (2), Cloud (1), and Grass (3). I’m also including a Lantern Moon project bag, and these super cute summery stitch markers:

Now I know a lot of you are out having fun with (or maybe just tolerating) friends and family – so I’m extending the deadline for this entry to next Friday! The winner will be announced on Dec. 31 – the same day I will be revealing the GRAND PRIZE in the BIRTHDAY CONTESTS. I am promising you – the finale contest will put the others to shame!

Here’s how to enter this week:
ALL ENTRIES MUST BE EMAILED TO s4 AT januaryone DOT com. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. ANY ANSWERS LEFT IN THE COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED AND DISQUALIFIED. CONTEST ENDS AT 8PM EST FRIDAY 12/30/05. ANY ANSWER RECEIVED AFTER THAT WILL BE DELETED. THE WINNER WILL BE PICKED AT RANDOM FROM CORRECT ENTRIES. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON SATURDAY, 12/31/05. GOOD LUCK!

Have a wonderful weekend whether you’re celebrating something or not!
L, C

It’s that time again, folks! TIME TO WIN! This week will definitely be tough, but I think it’s worth it. Here’s what we’re playing for:

We’re taking a trip to the Far East! We’ve got three skeins of beautiful recycled silk made from sari yarns.

I bought the yarn from the Wool Peddler, and had a wonderful conversation with Stephanie. She and her husband just moved to East Newfane, Vermont. G and I eloped in Newfane! She’s got some beautiful, beautiful yarns and the service was friendly and fast and I would definitely shop with her again. Find out what she has to say about this gorgeous yarn as well. Not seen in the picture, but included in the prize, is a pattern from Just One More Row for the very cool Sunburst Sling Bag. A perfect match for the recycled silk.

Also in the package are these amazing Japanese figures – PERFECT for stitch markers! I picked them up while I was out and about with the girls.

There’s also a lantern moon project bag and maybe some other stuff. I’m always looking for little stuff to stick in the bag. Maybe some surprises?

Okay. The moment you’ve all be waiting for – this week’s question.

I have published FOUR SHORT STORIES (one has been published twice – so FIVE publications.)

Here’s how to enter:
ALL ENTRIES MUST BE EMAILED TO s3 AT januaryone DOT com. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. ANY ANSWERS LEFT IN THE COMMENTS WILL BE DELETED AND DISQUALIFIED. CONTEST ENDS AT 8PM EST MONDAY 12/19/05. ANY ANSWER RECEIVED AFTER THAT WILL BE DELETED. THE WINNER WILL BE PICKED AT RANDOM FROM CORRECT ENTRIES. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON TUESDAY, 12/20/05. GOOD LUCK!

Things are going well here in Philly. My dad seems to be doing okay (thanks for all your good wishes) and it’s been nice to spend time with the kids and my sisters, as always. I’m coming back home later on today – I’m in package mode now. All the processing has been done and it’s time to send everything out. Fedex is my friend. That’s my mantra from now until 12/26.

I’ve been knitting a little bit – I’m hoping for a finished sock by the end of the weekend. And maybe a finished mitten if I’m a good girl and make lots of progress with my work. Soon. I’ll be able to relax soon.

Thanks for all the book ideas! WOW! What a great thread! I have to say, I was really suprised to see that I have read most of the books listed – well – okay – A LOT of the books listed. I’m not doing as bad as I thought. I used to be known among my writing friends (and most everyone else I know) as being extremely well read. I’ve been feeling not so well read, although I’m feeling a bit better. I’m thinking that The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and East of Eden are at the top of my list. Also, it’s almost time for my birthday book, so that might be the top option. Thanks again!

Don’t forget! You’ve got to be IN IT to WIN IT! Have fun!

WOW! Even with the hard(er) question and the email, you people really come out for a contest! Nice to meet all the newbies, hope you stick around! The answer, which almost all of you got, was PURLS OF WISDOM. Silly and pretentions and I changed it after a month or two. The funniest answer I received was from Mrs. Pilkington. She told me she thought it was Purls of Wisdom, but she wasn’t sure. WASN’T SURE?! As of yesterday, she still HAD A LINK TO IT ON HER BLOG!! 😉 I think she’s since taken it down. Love you Missus P!

Anyway, I know you’re not all hanging around to hear me blab. You want to know if you won. I’d want to know too, and since I’m too tired and overworked and anxious today to make you wait, I’ll just give you the winner. Right now. No. Now. Okay. NOW!

Yay Anne! Congratulations!
Showcase #3 is shaping up to be pretty darn good, if I don’t say so myself. The questions WILL be getting harder though, so maybe it’s time to brush up on your January One knowledge. I’m just saying.

Work continues apace. I fear if I slow down I’ll never get back up to speed. There’s still A LOT to get done. So much I haven’t knit for TWO WHOLE DAYS! I know. I’m really feeling it too. I’m anxious. Disjointed. Out of sorts. All because I haven’t been knitting. It’s hell I tell you. Tonight. Tonight I knit if it kills me.

Since I’ve got nothing else to report, I’ll be going now. I miss you all. I feel very unconnected to so many things these days: my blog. My husband. MY LIFE! Better days ahead! I can see the light!