Giggles Complete and a Giveaway!

UPDATE
And the winner is: Diane P. Congratulations! I hope you enjoy knitting Giggles as much as I did. Happy knitting!

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Woo Hoo! The Giggles Baby Blanket is now finished!

I’m blocking it in all it’s glory and will wrap it up and present it to my coworker at her office baby shower. Which come to think of it I need to verify the date. By the way, her due date: October 20th. That’s right, Rhinebeck! Good thing she’s not a knitter!

I really hope she and her new little one love it as much as I do. I always get a little nervous when I give someone something I’ve knitted, you know the feeling right? You put your heart into it and then you hope they like it. Okay, breath.

I know I’ve said it before, but Giggles is a beautiful pattern, it’s a fun knit, has enough going on to hold my interest but not so much that I get all fizzed.

So anyway, in my last post I mentioned a giveaway when I finished the blanket and it’s an awesome one! Kate the incredibly talented designer has graciously offered you Two Ways to snatch a copy of Giggles. Here are the details:

The giveaway begins today and runs through October 7th. On October 8th I will randomly select a winner who will receive a FREE copy of the pattern via email.

PLUS, anyone who leaves a comment on this post will receive a coupon code, via email, for 25% off the price of the pattern in her Ravelry store. Awesome! The code will be good through October 15th.

To be eligible for either the coupon code or a chance to win a copy of the pattern, you MUST leave a comment on THIS post.

And listen, she just launched a brand new website with her patterns, classes, tips and tricks and more, you should definitely check out this super talented lady: katelemmersdesigns.com

And I’m still thinking about that lap blanket…maybe a burnt orange?

Good luck and happy knitting!

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Home Stretch!

I’m in the home stretch! ALMOST done with the Giggles Baby Blanket I am making for a co-worker.

Only about 4 more pattern repeats to go. That’s 32 rows…like I said, only 4 more repeats to go!

I should be able to get this done over the weekend…Monday the latest. Then it’s off to blocking (yea) and weaving in ends (oy)!

Which reminds me, I need to decide on my next project. Hmmm…

Anyway I thought I might give you a little heads-up on something fun that will be coming your way when I finish the blanket: a GIVEAWAY!

Woo Hoo!

I’ll post the details on my blog when I complete Giggles which should be very soon. You don’t want to miss this, the pattern is wonderful! I like it so much I may make one as a lap blanket for myself. LOL

So stay tuned!

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New Knits for New Additions

I know, I know I haven’t posted much knitting lately but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been, believe me I sure have.
A few weeks ago I cast on a gift for a co-worker who is having her first child in October. It’s a wonderful pattern by Kate Lemmers, aka knitsophrenic called Giggles Baby Blanket.

I am having such a good time knitting it, if you want a beautiful fun to knit baby blanket I highly recommend this one. Go on, add it to your Ravelry and/or Craftsy queue, you never know.

So the woman I’m knitting Giggles for is one of those people you just can’t help but like. I’ve had this pattern in my library for a while now, waiting for just the right pregnancy announcement (There’s been a bit of a baby bonanza around my office lately…I watch where I sit.) She’s it. However, the fact that she her husband doesn’t want to know the sex of their baby until it’s born almost drove me to drink more. I couldn’t bear the thought of knitting another green or yellow thing, only because I’ve done several projects in those colors recently so I asked for some advice on Twitter about gender-neutral (excluding beige or white) alternatives.
I got great ideas from some uber- talented knitters including Samurai Knitter, Knitsophrenic (she didn’t even know what I was knitting yet, snicker), polkadotsandsun, Johanna_Lynn, Anneduffin and Manos Yarn. I love the suggestion of knitting rich colors for a baby and so I finally settled on purple.

Sigh. I selected a couple of possibilities in that color space and wouldn’t you guess it, I could not find them ANYWHERE!

I tweeted out my frustration and don’t you know Twitter once again came to my rescue. Actually, it was Katie aka @polkadotsandsun who rescued me. She was nice enough to go to her LYS and check on the yarn for me. They had it and she personally shipped it to me. Katie and I have never met. How incredibly sweet was that!? It’s Cascade 220 Superwash Heather in 1947 colorway. It’s a nice rich heather purple. Who would have thought this would be difficult to find, go figure.

I’ve done ten repeats of the pattern so far. Look how pretty!

I had some concerns about using non-natural fibers for babies, despite the fact that so many so-called baby yarns contain them. And this is especially true for objects that the little one may sleep in/on/with. I got advice on that from many of the same twitter friends too! So you’d think Choosing Cascade 220 woulda made it an easy find, HA!

Hey, have you noticed how many knitters there are named Kate, Katie, Kathy, Katherine? A lot!

Anyway, I’ll be posting my progress on my Ravelry page and will definitely blog the final photo when it’s done.

Ya know, I think this social media thing is gonna catch on!

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