Today is monday again so I have some winners to announce and some new prizes to be won!
Okay, the winner of the green stripey yarn is..... Elaine! (not me!) And the winner of the firestarter socks is Ann G. If you could both drop me an e-mail with your name and address to labellehelene@btinternet.com, I will get your prizes off as soon as possible for you.
Well done and thank you for all the very interesting comments to my question! I particularly liked the idea of having a bag packed by the door just in case:-) But I don't think I have a big enough bag!
Anyway on to today's competition....
Lavender Blue
Today we have two skeins of sock yarns for you. The first is Lavender Blue. It's a softer mix of cornflower blues and pale lavender purples with a touch of sea green. The colour drifts subtly into the next but there is enough contrast to give a variegated knit. I should mention all my yarn is superwash sock yarn - 75%wool and 25% nylon. The nylon stops the wool from felting which is just perfect for socks.
The next yarn is Deep Fuchsia. I think I must have been subconsciously inspired by the large fuchsia plant in the garden as the colours are very close!
This yarn is a rich mix of strong fuchsia pinks and purples. The colours blend smoothly into each other and this will knit up as a highly contrasting variegated knit.
Please feel free to enter for both:-) or specify which you would like to be entered for. The contest ends this sunday evening (23rd Aug) and the winners will be drawn monday morning at random. So, my question for today is....Where do you love most in all the world? Somewhere you went on holiday? Somewhere you would love to pack up and move to right now if you could? Home is where the heart is:-) but if your partner and family came with you, is there somewhere out there that would have a special meaning for you?
Good luck everyone and I look forward to reading your comments. Apologies to those who had trouble posting a comment over the weekend - problem all sorted now. Thank you Elaine for alerting me to the problem and thank you Gill for your kind comment on my sock blank post. Unfortunately the hiccup wiped both your comment and my reply! Well, at least its all working again in time for today's giveaway!!Good luck!
Here I am, the brand new winner of some of your beautiful yarn, and then I see the next contest and begin to faint - these are so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIf you think it is unfair to enter again, then pardon me, but I couldn't help but try for either of these.
Where do I love to be? That's easy for me. A few years ago I was diagnosed with a very serious illness. That is a life-changing event in many many ways. While I was recuperating from treatment, we visited a long-time friend who had a sea-side home. Watching the water was so wonderful and peaceful, I decided I needed one too. But then I found the reality of what ocean-front homes cost in the northeast US. So to make a long-story short, we bought a very small lake-front cottage. Looking at the lake is just so calming and healing. We also bought a very old canoe and kayaks and I love going out and paddling around and just thinking. It makes it much easier to count one's blessings.
I love both colorways and would be thrilled to win either or both (talk about being piggy!)
ReplyDeleteI love hiking and being on top of a mountain is like being on top of the world for me. Even on the mountains in NJ (which admittedly are not much in the way of mountains)
Oh, Elaine! I'm loving the sound of your lakeside cottage..... Ah bliss! The peace and quiet, the restfulness, time to just ponder and think.
ReplyDeleteI was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue/ME about a year ago and although not life threatening, I have had to re-evaluate everything in my life. My total lack of energy and my inability to work as a textiles teacher means I'm having to forge new avenues that offer me more flexible working time and, in keeping with the new more zen-like me:-)hopefully a new career selling yarns - fingers crossed.
My garden has become my quiet sanctuary and is certainly an inspiration for yarn colours!!
And don't feel bad about entering again even if you have won:-)Life is too short and there is yarn to be had!
I'm an inner-city kid. I grew up in what was then a working class area and is now far less stable. I thought that anyone who owned what we called a "private house" was rich. I certainly never thought I would be able to live in such a beautiful place. It is not big and fancy, but it is beautiful and peaceful and I love it.
ReplyDeleteOne of the few benefits of having cancer is that it makes you reevaluate what is important.
I went through 3 rounds of surgery, chemo and radiation and never missed work. I told almost no one. I was not being a martyr - I wanted to go on with as much of my normal life as I could. I didn't want to become a fulltime cancer patient. I am certain that was the right decision for me, although obviously not for everyone.
I have been knitting all my life really - since I was about 5 or 6, and like the lake for me, and your beautiful garden and yarn dyeing, it give me great peace and joy. I treasure what I have and try not to dwell on what is bad. I do get knocked for a loop sometimes like this weekend when an old friend who is younger than me, died 2 months after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Zip - life was over. But I also have wonderful happy times and try to celebrate them all.
Funny - I didn't tell most of my friends or colleagues that I had cancer but because I am anonymous here, I can tell you. This is also very liberating.
Congrats to both winners, Elaine, nice to see you victorious ;)
ReplyDeleteI think I'll always want to call San Francisco home. I wouldn't mind a nicer flat with room for a few sheep and llamas, but after 30 years of rent control, I could never afford it. I would love to see some of the natural beauty of the world - painted desert, glaciers, rain forests. But I'll always want to come home to SF. Both yarns are lovely, I'd love to have either.
Congrats to this week's winners. I hope to see my name in lights next week. Both yarns are gorgeous and I love both the subtlety of the first and the wildness of the fuchsia. You really did capture it.
ReplyDeleteWhere would I love to be? Well I don't think I'd like to move to a different place, but I do love to visit new places. I love San Francisco. It is beautiful, fun and my oldest childhood friend lives there.
WOW! The colors on both are gorgeous (I would proud to knit with either)!
ReplyDeleteI would love to be in Jamestown, Rhode Island. It is where my mom was born and raised and I remember how fun vacatiions up there were as a kid.
Everyone in town knows each other, everywhere you look there is water, it's impossible to get lost, there is always a salt water smell... what could be more perfect?! Sadly, I have not been up there for years. I am really hoping I will take a trip up there next summer!
I lived in Honduras for three years. I would love to live in one of the little mountain towns there- life is simpler and you spend endless hours just growing closer to the ones you love. Thank you- beautiful colors!
ReplyDeleteOh, please put me in the drawing for both these yarns. They are both gorgeous! So..now for the answer to my favourite place in all the world! Really that's so tough....My first inclination is to say right where I live, near the beach. I love the sea and walking on the beach when you and your love are the only two people in sight is very special...but then truly I have to mention that Verona in Italy is a really special place for me. It's where I spent my honeymoon. We didn't have much money so used to get take away pizza and find some gorgeous spot to sit...there was a particular spot just underneath a bridge with the river flowing by at sunset that remains indelibly printed in my brain. That is a favourite place that I hope to find again if we ever return.
ReplyDeleteI love both of those yarns! I'd love to be entered for both of them!!
ReplyDeletePlaces that I love: Florence or Venice. Would I want to live there? No. But that doesn't detract from my love for both of those cities.
Florence is my favorite if I have to choose! The art, the architecture, the gelato!
Sue
I'm Elaine's (not elaine's) mother and I'm here to enter your contest too. I think you should have a contest for the longest knitter since then I would definitely win - it's been more than 80 years (I'm 94)! I think that both of your yarns are extremely beautiful. I slightly prefer the first one, but would love either. I have never knit with a hand-dyed yarn, in fact I never even heard of it until a few years ago when Elaine showed me some of hers.
ReplyDeleteWhere would I want to be/live? I just moved to an independent living community right near Elaine, and I can't think of a better place for me to be. I get to be with lots of other people, have my own apartment, and see Elaine almost every day.
Home (where I grew up, not wherever I happen to be living, although I am at home right now) is definitely my favourite place to be.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to enter for the Lavender Blue yarn, please.
Oh yummm, what gorgeous colours! They're both beautiful, but I especially love the lavender blue yarn, please do enter my name for that one!
ReplyDeleteAs for where I'd most want to be... well, having been on my own (for longer than I care to say!) and then, surprisingly, finding the love of my life last year, I am really happy right now just to be at home with him. Otherwise, if he can come with me...... Paris! Always Paris. La plus belle ville du monde. :)
I would be more than satisfied with either one of those beautiful yarns.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I don't know that I've found some place that caters exactly to the kind of life I'd like to live quite yet, but one of my favorite places in the world is what used to be my family's ranch in the Mountains behind Colorado Springs. Today we only have a teeny tiny portion of what it used to be (a portion so small, our little "cabin" is legally defined as a storm shelter) but if I could find a way I would love, love, love to have the old ranch back in my family and to raise Alpaca!
Oh are the two hanks glorious! I think I prefer the paler one, but would love to win either. You are really too generous. As you can tell from my name, either are right up my alley.
ReplyDeleteI would love to live in New York. I did many years ago, and now live in the nearby 'burbs which is just not the same!
I thought of you when I was dyeing them:-)Purple for purple-power!
ReplyDeleteI think I am working my way through the colour spectrum for the giveaways but I thought that paler tones might appeal to those who maybe don't like strong vibrant colours so much - and I do have a tendancy to use them more;-)Sometimes you can appreciate a yarn but know you wouldn't use it your self.
Good luck in the competition!
Ah, Sylvia, you noticed the distinction of 'e' and 'E' in elaine. I always have a lower case 'e' to make it softer. Maybe that comes from it being pronounced harder with emphasis on the 'E' when I was young - mostly by my mother!!a lasting impression! Maybe it was just the scottish accent. Now i'm down in Cornwall, in England, the emphasis and accent is different and I don't notice anymore. There I've rambled on!
ReplyDeleteGood luck in the competition in winning your first hand dyed yarn!
hello, hello, finally made it to the comments board yeah!! wasn't so hard after all. Thanks for your help sis! Lots more sneaky peaking at your marvellous creations in store and now I can comment too!! yippee :-)) xxx
ReplyDeleteBoth of the yarns are beautiful - tres belle - I would love either.
ReplyDeleteI have been to London and loved visiting. I'd be very happy to visit again, but I don't think I would like to leave the US permanently.
Is Ms Anonymous about your sister? I'm someone's relative too, but I'm not saying whose. They've also entered your contest - maybe one of us will win this time :-)
Ms anonymous is my sister just saying hello but not entering the competition:-)That would be total nepotism;-)))Anyway, I think she prefers if I surprise her with made things in the post rather than making them herself!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck to you and your 'relative':-))
I also like them both very much. Since you seem to be able to enter for both, that is my choice. I also prefer the paler one but would be thrilled with either.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to live somewhere where it is not so crowded, with not too much traffic. Pretty vague, isn't it?
Both of the yarns are gorgeous. I'd love either and promise to fondle it for days.
ReplyDeleteI know it sound too boring but I like living right here in NJ, close to New York City, but also close to outdoor things.
Oh I really like your lavender skein, such calming colours.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you could wave a magic wand and send me anywhere, I would love to be on the beach by the sea, a warm blue sea. Any sea they are all wonderful.
Both skeins are beautiful. Where I like to be is in the backyard swinging in a quilted hammock, drinking Ace Pear Cider, and reading a good book.
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm new to your blog and you do such wonderful work! I love both yarns.
ReplyDeleteI live in Michigan and do love living here. 4 seasons, plenty of green and water.
But I also LOVE the desert! One place (well 2, they are close together) I have a longing to re-visit is Zion in S. Utah. We went there one time and I was PG for my older son. We pulled in at night so could not see anything though we could tell we were decending verry quickly on the switch back roads. We pitched our tents and went to sleep (despite severe winds). When I woke up and opened my tent all I could do was look straight up at these massive and marvlous red clifs getting up all around us with the river running through them which we camped next to. Such beauty in those achent clifs and rock formations. i have always wanted to go back and hike the narrows, it really humbles a person! And the Grand Canyon is just south of Zion and it's like a whole nother world. Just georgous! i could never tire when visiting the desert sights. i did live in a desert mountain valley for 3 years in S. Arizona.
That whole corner of the country is just breathtaking!
I would love to live in Paris! My Psyhic told me that I have spent many past lives in France, so Paris is where I feel home. :) It's romantic, it's full of history, beautiful architecture, delicious cuisine and fashion. I couldn't find any reason not to be there.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, your lavender variegated yarn makes me think of a small town in the south of France, Sault. It is where La Route de la Lavande situated. When I walked through the fields of lavender, I was surrounded by the aroma and the bees at the same time! It's so lovely! The experience is so memorable!
It's difficult to choose which yarn to enter to as they are both so yummy! I slightly prefer the lavender one over the fushia one. But of course, I'll be happy to enter for both. :)
Good job! Keep on!
Cheers,
Agnes
I've been meaning to post how honored I am to have been your muse :-).
ReplyDeleteI love the flower photos and again, congratulations on your beautiful yarn dyeing.
The weather here in NJ has been dreadful. I came over to get cheered up by your yarn. I also loved the new sock blank and flower pics. I think I should rethink wanted to stay right here in NJ :-)
ReplyDeleteI am finally ready to enter because I am certain, I mean CERTAIN, that I am going to win the lavender yarn (although please enter me for the other one too in case I am wrong).
ReplyDeleteA slight overview of my current life I graduated from the university in spring, and I landed my first job in ... Provence, land of lavender. Now it is only a one year position, and it pays a pittance, but it is a job, and it is in my field, and I've finally gotten my work visa and TODAY, right now, I finally found a place to live, at least for the first month.
So the color matches, the question matches, things are lining up and really starting to happen, and my Mom promised that if I win, she'll knit me something very special with the yarn.
ps There is another Rachel who has entered, but I'm the one who is going to win. Please. Your faithful reader RACHEL O.