She Finished her Unfinished Mittens!

She did it! Brave and determined soul that she is, Clare (of Words & Stitches) finished her mittens! No longer languishing UFOs, these mittens are warming hands now- not next year- that's what finishing does for us! That, and makes us feel so good.

(pic used with permission)

Finishing gives us usable/wearable/giftable objects, gives us a great sense of accomplishment, and (mental drumroll...) earns us fabulous prizes. Well, it earned Clare a fabulous prize.

The box is packed with 4 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca's new Skinny Dyed 100% organically grown cotton in Cherry (color created with low-impact dye), a copy of the Baby Cardigan pattern I designed for Blue Sky last year, some yummy tea, a wee bit of chocolate goodness (with cherries to match the yarn) and a cute little red elephant tape measure- I don't know about you, but tape meaures are something I can never have enough of, so when I saw a bin of the cute little guys I had to buy more than one... just realized the elephant didn't make it into the picture and I'm so run down with a massive head cold that I have neither the will nor the energy to get up and take another one... so sorry... After you've forgiven me for not including the little elephant, hop on over to Words & Stitches to say a big hello to Clare and give her a cyber high-five on her mitten job well done!

For those of you who set a goal to do some finishing in January and didn't quite rise to the occasion- shame on you! Just kidding, I only finished 2 of the 4 projects I had intended to... but it was good to try. I have since finished a hat that was languishing on the needles, and am halfway through another- I think I am in small project mode, cranked out a mitten the other day as well (yep, you read that right, singular mitten, I guess I have another mitten to go before I can actually count that as an accomplishment. With our subzero air temps again today, there is still time to make and wear mittens here in Minnesota!)

I need to go take some more garlic and vitamin C and attempt to clear a sinus passage or two... then maybe drink some hot tea and settle in on my cozy couch with my laptop to do some random blog visiting... see you around!

Happy knitting-
ali

Off to Pick a Winner, a Wonderful Winner of Yarn...

Okay, it's that time. Nope, I didn't forget, life is moving really fast right now (mental note- time to hyper-schedule, find several small slots of blogging time each week, write it down, then actually use your planner!) Between my kids' orchestra, play practice, and various sundry educational opportunities... well, knitting and blogging time has to be planned out a little better!
Anyhoo- I figured I'm not the only busy person out there, and that's why I allotted 7 entire extra days for contest entrants to get their post up bragging (in a good way!) about their UFO completion success.
I'm off to peruse the blogs of the entrants, and I'll be putting the names of everyone who actually finished AND posted about finishing a former UFO into a hat (or some such vessel) and drawing one lucky winner soon and very soon.

You may have to wait the weekend- don't you just love the suspense...? Busy day tomorrow- 4H Project Workshop Day then off to husband's work's winter family event at the new fancy shmancy bowling alley. It's not every day someone else pays for our family of 8 to eat out and enjoy recreational activites- gotta get while the gettin's good, right? Should be fun, love the auto bumper bowling they have now, er, I mean, the kids love it...

More soon...
happy knitting,
ali