FO #1

Well, keeping my startitis under control is going very well. I finished one of my WIPs, am making good headway on the Log Cabin Blanket and another of the WIPs and did not start anything new.



The finished project is the Morning Surf Scarf. It's knit from 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Devon on 3.25mm needles. I saw it exactly in that colourway on Ravelry and just fell in love with the way it looked. The wavy pattern along with the turquoise of the colourway work together perfectly. It's about 10" wide and 5'4" long, so it's slightly on the short side for me (I'm 5'10"), but considering the lace makes it a scarf for slightly cold and not cold cold weather, I think it's great. And I wouldn't have survived knitted another skein in the pattern. ;) It looks great and is easy, but after a couple of reps it becomes quite tedious. Another plus point, though, is that it goes quite quickly with 4 pattern/8 even rows in each repeat.



Despite the finishing I'm slightly up in my stash count this month, since I received some yarn. But it's so pretty that I don't really care. ;)

One is a skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn.



Simply gorgeous colour and it's quite soft for Noro Yarn. I don't think it's quite as soft as the Silk Garden Lite I have and the mohair content might bother some, but I simply can't wait to knit with it. But first I have to finish more and find a worthy project.

Then there is a skein of Malabrigo Sock.



When I saw that my usual Malabrigo dealer had some of this, I simply couldn't resist. It's in the colour Lettuce, which is very unlike me, but I'll work something out for it. It's incredibly soft (I don't have it with me to compare, but I'm thinking Dream in Colour Smooshy might be similar) and the almost solid will look great in one of the more detailed patterns I have in my queue.

More Lightbulbs

After my moment of realization mentioned in the last post, I feel like I've come to another realization (and with it a resolution) during the last days. I really need to finish my WIPs.

Yeah, I know. I can already see you rolling your eyes, just as when somebody talks about a stash diet that works just as well as a regular diet. ;)

So I'm going to take it slowly. No few glorious goals that are unattainable without strict discipline, as well as giving myself a generous time frame.

The first project that has been bugging me is the Log Cabin Blanket. I mentioned it first on here over a year ago and I'm not even half-way finished. Unacceptable. So I did what I always do with deadline knitting and set myself a deadline (Dec 31 this year) and then started a spreadsheet to track my work.

As some of you may have noticed with my stash counting, I'm a little anal about numbers, so a spreadsheet is perfect for me, because it encourages me to actually work on something since it a) cuts my goal into small achievable goals and b) keeps the project on the forefront of my mind.


(Click to see larger picture)

Now this little sheet counts down the days to Dec 31 (143 as of today) and then allows me to enter the number of stitches I have already knit, as well as calculates how many stitches I have to knit each day to finish by the deadline. And this last part is always what keeps me going. When I knit more than the required stitches per day, it's great to see that number go down (as in the pic above), but at the same time when I don't meet me goal of 1,000 stitches per day, it encourages me to do better instead of discouraging me with feelings of guilt.

For example, didn't knit a stitch on the blanket for two days? No problem. I simply have to knit 15 stitches more each day to compensate for it, instead of having to squeeze these 2,000 missed stitches completely into another day, which always causes my number of missed stitches to just get bigger and bigger, because knitting 3,000 stitches in one day is quite a big deal.

Of course, there are also some disadvantages to this. Since it only counts the number of stitches, but not the difficulty of them, a mix of complex and simple pattern projects are going to be misrepresent during the complex pattern part. Also it doesn't take into account the time needed for seaming (which is going to be a lot for this blanket) or lining, but I still feel that for the majority of the work, it's a great way for me to motivate myself simply by staring at the numbers.

Something else that has been pulling me down is my left-over yarn stash. I have lots of small bits of yarn and also a lot of bigger amounts of left-over sock yarn, so I finally found a way to deal with that. The very small bits get turned into Mini Socks, which I posted about before and which are great fun to knit (at least as long as you don't have to knit the same sock from the same yarn about a dozen times), which is why the larger amounts of left-over yarn are going to be turned into a crochet blanket. Since it's all sock yarn, I don't think I'll have a lot of problems using all the different yarns together and once I have collected enough (I have about 16 ounces at the moment, and need at least 21, better some more) I can figure out the colour succession. I don't want it to simply be a mish-mash of colour, but kinda go from one end of the rainbow to the other (with an overrepresentation of some colours, of course) and so I need to wait until I have all the yarn to figure it out, but I already feel better about all the yarn just knowing that I have a plan for it. And crocheting is such a fast craft that I feel confident about finishing it relatively quickly once I do start.

And in the meantime, I'm simply knitting, knitting, knitting on my WIPs and hoping this need to finish lasts until at least a few of them have been turned into FOs. My startitis is locked away in my desk drawer and from time to time it rattles in there to remind me of all the gorgeous projects I could be starting, but so far I'm resisting unlocking it.

Lightbulb Moment

Last night while lying in bed and thinking about knitting (which often results in having to jump up, switch on the light and jot down some ideas, because I'll have forgotten them by morning) I had an epiphany regarding my startitis (which is still going full force). It's not my, it's my WIPs' fault!! They're all boring or complicated or require tinking and I don't feel like doing any of that. I want something simple, but engaging that I can almost do in my sleep without actually falling asleep.

That's why I finished the Monkeys in only 5 days.

They are the perfect pattern for this. I knew that the stitch number would work out with the Jitterbug and the needle size. I can knit socks in my sleep and the pattern was just interesting enough to keep me going, but not complicated enough that it required a lot of thinking.

I actually have two other projects going that satisfy the same criteria in general (and therefore I should be able to finally finish them), but which I'm having some kind of problems with nonetheless.

First, there are Coupling.

The pattern kinda fulfills the requirement, although it's less intuitive than the Monkey pattern, but I could deal with that. Only problem is that when I tried them on last some of the stitches dropped off the needle and with the yos and decs I can't figure out how to get them back onto the needle without tinking back at least 4 or 5 rounds. I hate tinking back, so the sock is sitting in my knitting basket.

Second, there are the Hippy Ripply Retro Socks.

Again, the stitch pattern is simple, but what's keeping me from working on them is my insecurity if I made the leg long enough. Since they have an afterthought heel, it's a bit hard to gauge (you can see where the heel is supposed to go on the left side where the spot of red is) and I'm almost desperate enough to frog them yet again and start from the toe-up to squeeze every bit of yardage out of that Koigu that it has. But that'd require work.

Then there are the projects that are kinds boring (simple stitch pattern) and seem to take forever to finish. That list includes:

Log Cabin Blanket

Trillions of stitches in garter stitch in an unexciting yarn.

Morning Surf Scarf

Two skeins of Lorna's Laces Sock in a mindnumbing dropped-yo pattern for the length of a scarf. (Although this one might actually be on its way off the list; I knit quite a bit on it today and I can slowly see that I've actually used up yarn. Yay!)

Slip Stitch Socks

Boring pattern with which I'm not at all happy how it looks. This one is getting closer and closer to the frog pond, the more I look at it.

Multidirectional Scarf

My latest case of startitis, but already in a slump, because after the first couple of directional changes, it does become a bit boring, even with the entertaining striping. I also think I'll need another skein of Rowan Tapestry for this which I won't get until September. Discouraging.

And finally, the problem cases:

Estonian Socks

The heel pattern is a mess I just don't want to figure out. I already dislike cables on good days, nevermind when I have to figure out how to switch them from a pattern for knitting in the round to one for knitting flat.

Blackberry Stitch Bag

The knitting part of this is actually pretty easy, fun and fast, but I'm already worried about the lining (and how much work it'll be and how I really don't like sewing and absolutely suck at it) and therefore I stall on the knitting.

Francie

Apparently I'm too stupid to do the increases called for in the pattern and it looks bad using others.

Siena Socks

Barely started, but I already have the bad feeling that the design idea I had won't be working out and it seems like too much effort to figure it out properly.

That's it. My list of shame. Now that I've realised the problem, I'm not quite sure what to do about it. Try and power through it? Rip a couple of things (Hippy Ripply and Estonian Socks come to mind)? Plonk myself in front of my computer with a season of QAF and just knit the borning stuff while bitching at Showtime about the inconsistency and characterisation issues? Completely ignore the term paper I still have to write?

Actually, I think that last one is a given. ;)

July and August

Work has eaten my brain and knitting mojo in the last two weeks. I've been knitting a little on a scarf in Rowan Tapestry, but other than that it's been work, recuperating from work, work and work.

Therefore I didn't meet all of my goals for July.

(1) finish 4 sqaures of Log Cabin Blanket
Nope, only finished one, bringing me up to

16 / 35 squares. 46% done!

(2) knit a pair of socks for my Mum's birthday
Done! My Mum will be getting the lovely Circle Socks.


(3) get down to 8 WIPs max
Nope. Startitis is continuing to strike and I'm currently at 10 WIPs and am already planning on what else to start in August

August Goals:
(1) use up 1,500 yards of yarn
(2) finish Francie
(3) finish Coupling
(4) finish Hippy Ripply Retro Socks
(5) start a lacey shawl

Startitis Saga

I did mention that I wanted to get down to 8 WIPs this month, right? Well, I just started 2 new pairs of socks, getting my total up to 10 WIPs. So I'm going to have to do a hell of a lot of knitting to do in the next 2 weeks. Did I also mention that I have an exam on Tuesday and will be working 10 hours a day starting Monday? Of course, procrastination from studying is doing wonders for my knitting progress.

I finally succumbed to the wonder that is the Monkey sock pattern. So far I never saw what all the fuss about this pattern was about. It seemed like a pretty standard lace pattern to me and I just couldn't see why it'd be so insanely popular. Well, I've been converted. :D


This is how far I got this afternoon, avoiding studying for my investment and financing exam. Everything that's being said about the pattern, is right. It is addictive, and it's also fast and intuitive. Since the pattern is only 64 stitches around, I decided to go with a thicker yarn (Colinette Jitterbug) that I could knit on 3.25mm needles. The colourway is Kingfisher and as with all Jitterbug colourways, I'm absolutely in love with it. In fact, I even like Jitterbug colourways made up of colours I usually don't like.

Yesterday I also worked with another favourite yarn of mine, Thank Ewe's merino sock yarn. I have never worked with a yarn this soft and squishy and I love it more the more I knit with it. The skeins are also a very generous 540 yards and its owner is incredibly nice, also doing custom orders.


The pattern is a simple slip stitch pattern and while I'm not completely happy with it, I can't quite bring myself to rip back either. We'll see.

In an attempt to avoid studying last weekend, I also finally made a needle case for my DPNs. So far I had them in a box, which I sectioned off with cardboard to separate the sizes. It turned into one big mess, because the cardboard wasn't holding up and I always had to get the box out of my bookcase when I needed a needle or wanted to return one. It just wasn't working out.

So instead I turned this


into this.


My woodworking skills leave something to be desired so it didn't turn out as well as I hoped it would. The outside of the case is made from 8mm plywood, the partitions from 3mm plywood. Then I painted the wood white and decoupaged coloured napkins onto it. I still want to pretty up the white top, but I'm not quite sure how yet, so I'm using it the way it is for now. And it might not be the prettiest around, but it's doing its job perfectly. :) I now have all my DPNs on my desk, can grab them anytime I need to and don't need to go digging through a box where I can never be sure wether I actually grabbed the right needle or not.

Also, sorry, new feature isn't ready yet, since I decided to brush up on my CSS skills and make a new banner for this blog while I'm at this whole coding stuff, so it's going to be a while longer.

Running Around in Circles

I'm not. But my Mum will soon. :) Her birthday is at the end of the month and even though I won't see her until the middle of August, I already finished her present. I feel very proud of myself for not waiting until the last minute. :D



I'm not modelling them because my Mum's feet are roughly an inch shorter than mine, so these just very barely fit me. They are Anne Campbell's Circle Socks (PDF link) and were a very quick knit, as well as a pleasure to knit. The pattern around the leg goes very quickly even though you need to knit more rounds then usual since the slipped stitches pull in the length.

These sliped stitches also cause the pattern to pull in slightly and after a first try I was worried that the leg wasn't wide enough, so I knitted these toe-up instead to give me a bit more time to work out a strategy. ;) In the end I simply switched from 2.5mm needles for the foot to 3mm needles for the leg. Worked out very well.

My Mum has been ogling this yarn whenever she's been in my apartment, so I decided to use it for these socks, especially since it turned out that the colourway wasn't one I liked anyway. ;) It's very useful when your Mum's colour likes are just opposite your own. No matter what the colour, the yarn can always be used.

In contrast to last year I also already have a box for the present, made from some paper I had lying around.




Next post should be about a special new feature I'm planning on starting here on the blog. If I can finally get the html to comply. :D

Yarn of the Month

Yesterday, I was working on a lace swatch with some new yarn.


Looking closer at it, it looks an awful lot like the Shetland Shimmer Scarf I posted about a while ago.

Truth is, I ripped the beginning of the scarf.


While I really like the pattern and the yarn (Elann Peruvian Baby Lace) on their own, there are just a few things wrong with using this yarn for this pattern. Since the project is a lace project, IMO it should look delicate. This is already somewhat difficult with a garter-based pattern, but the fuzziness of the alpaca, as well as the lacking depth of the solid colourway only exagerated that problem. In addition, I was using the yarn doubled up, so that made it even worse.

Over the last few days I had been on the lookout for a much shinier, slinkier yarn and couldn't find anything I liked and could afford. The Cherry Tree Hill Cascade Fingering looked like a great candidate, but $56 a skein is just a tad out of my price range.

Then yesterday, my July paket for the Yarn of the Month Club arrived. I fell in love with the Panda Silk from Crystal Yarns immediately and swatched with it for my Shetland Shimmer. It's slinky, it's drapey, it's shiny, it's a winner! And at about $9 a skein very affordable. Now, of course, I only have to decide which colour to use. The one I have is Jade Tones, but I also like Berry Tones and Plum Tones as well as the new one coming out in fall, Granite Tones. But since I have too many projects going at the moment anyway (see yesterday's post), I still have some time to decide.

I joined the Yarn of the Month Club only last month and I'm really excited about it. :) For a few $ (for me it's less than $10, including international shipping), you receive about 5gram of 4 different yarns, usually belonging to one theme (in June it was 'cotton', this month 'bamboo'), which is enough to swatch with it, without having to buy a whole skein. Especially for me, living in Germany, it's often difficult to get my hands on the non-European yarns and I won't find them in any yarn shops here, so I'd have to order online. And as much as I love the online buying options, sometimes nothing beats just being able to touch a yarn before buying it.


June (from left to right): Noro Matsuri, Zaol Olive, Mirasol Samp'a and Rowan Purelife

While I wasn't that happy with the June yarns since they were all cotton and mostly DK weight, I am much happier with this month's shipment.


July (from left to right): Crystal Palace Panda Silk Print, Pagewood Farms Yukon, SWTC Bamboo and Blue Sky Alpacas Brushed Suri

The Panda Silk is definitely going to be a Shetland Shimmer and I could well imagine the Yukon to be a very nice sock yarn with 70% merino, 20% bamboo and 10% nylon. The SWTC Bamboo would look great as a summer top, I think. I can't really imagine knitting anything out of the Brushed Suri since it's incredibly fuzzy (when I wound it up, I couldn't even see the strands of yarn anymore, only the fuzz!), but it's still interesting to see a yarn like that.

Promiscuity

I never claimed or wanted to be a monogamous knitter. I need different projects for different times of the day, different multitasking options and different brain capacities. Today, however, I was an absolute slut.


I not only have 5 projects going at once, no, I actually worked on all of these today in one fashion or another. The sock on the right only needed a bind-off and the ends woven in. The little cuff in the middle, I only started today and the toe on the left is an experiment of mine. The lavender bit is, of course, me trying to reach my monthly goals of finishing 4 squares for my Log Cabin blanket and the bit of lace in the middle is a swatch with some yarn I just received.

And when I was trolling through Ravelry this week I found so many projects that I wanted to cast. on. right. now. that my queue is back to 4 pages. And I'm not allowed to look at it, because when I just did I could barely keep myself from casting on a multidirectional scarf with some Rowan Tapestry from my stash.

On one hand I'm glad that my schedule isn't as crazy as last month, so I actually have time to knit and cast on new things (not that I didn't do that in June, but it was always with a bad conscience :D), but this way I can't get anything done! I knit two rounds on one sock, then switch to a couple of rows on my blanket square, suddenly feel like knitting some lace and add a couple of stitches to the swatch, only to get bored with it again and go fiddle with my own pattern. The idea of being allowed to knit one thing only is giving me heart palpitations and even now the one thing keeping me from casting on something new right now is that I'm typing.

I just hope this startitis gets better soon...

June and July

I only met one of my goals this month, but I'm still feeling pretty good about it, because I used up lots of old yarn and managed to decrease my stash, despite the yarn buying.

June

(1) really finish the centre square
done!

15 / 35 squares. 43% done!

(2) seam squares that are finished together
nope

(3) finish the knitting part of my Knitting Needles Knitting Bag
nope

(4) knit the Odds n Sods Socks
nope :D

July
(1) finish 4 sqaures of Log Cabin Blanket
(2) knit a pair of socks for my Mum's birthday
(3) get down to 8 WIPs max

I started a couple new projects and decided to drop some others, but more on that on a day when I'm not almost falling asleep on the computer. :)

Last FO of the Month

In several ways actually. Today I handed in my Ravelry term paper after working on it most of the night (that's my MO for papers, because if I did have a middle name, it would be 'procrastination'!), so I should get my grade back in about 4-6 weeks. The professors are just as swaped as the students at the end of the semester, so it's gonna be a while.

I also finished the Boteh Scarf a few days ago, but didn't have time to post about it yet.


Yet another try at capturing the length and pattern of a scarf. One day I'll find a better way to do it. :)




(click for bigger pictures)
The pattern instructs you to add a border of hdc around the scarf after you're done with the pattern repeats. I almost didn't do this, because it sounded like an enourmous amount of work, but then I read on Ravelry that one person who crocheted it, thought it was definitely worth it. And I have to agree. The left picture is before the edge, the right after. It looks much tidier and the edge-dtrcs are more stable.

Since I had two skeins of Lorna's Laces Black Purl, I did 24 instead of 16 repeats and then steamed it lightly after finishing. Very pretty.

The only thing I'm not that happy about it the way the two skeins differed even though they were from the same dye lot.

I changed the skein in the middle of this triangle and since I had only wound up the first skein, I didn't notice until I actually wound up the second that it's much more brown than black/grey. It's very drastic at that one point, but since the border is in the brown one, that kind of brings the difference together again. I'm just happy I didn't knit socks with this, because those would have looked awful next to each other, whereas the scarf will be mostly wound around my neck, so it should be less noticable.

Finally, last part of today. I plan to start keeping track of the yards in my stash here on the blog. I already have an Ecxel file over the last few months on my computer, but I fell like I need a bar here as well to keep me going. :)

My goal is to use up at least as much yarn as I buy each month, if possible, actually reduce my stash. At the moment I have 39,154 yards, and I want to get down to 20,000 yards. Since I'm a bit anal about my Ravelry stash, I actually know pretty accurately how much yarn I use each month and how much I buy. Since February I'm already down by about 4000 yards, but I knit/crochet about 1,500 yards a month (1,486 this month, which is pretty good, considering how insane it was) so it's going to take me a while (13 months if I don't buy any new yarn, which, let's be realistic, is not happening).

In fact this month, I only barely got a positive using/buying ratio (148 yards more used than bought) and I'm already expecting some more yarn next month. Although so far it's only 2 mini skeins of Opal (~47 yards each) and one skein of STR Lightweight (360 yards). I'm so excited about the second. I've been meaning to buy STR for forever, but always found too many and then couldn't decide. Now the Doctors Without Borders colourway caught my eyes right away and I just had to have it. And 6$ something in shipping isn't too bad. :)

PS: Reading over this last part again, can you notice that I've been writing statistics for the last 2 days? ;)

The Hooking Continues...

The Sassy Scarf is done!


It's incredibly hard to photograph, what with being sparkly, varigated and two very different plies twisted together. One of the plies is the novelty material in different shades of purple with accents of grey and black. The other ply is mostly wool in shades reaching from white to dark grey. So, long explanation short, the above photo is photographed against the light to show off the pattern.

The following, in contrast, doesn't show the pattern that well, but the colour is more accurate and you can see somewhat how long it is.



I changed the pattern (which is simply stripes of different stripes of stitches) a bit by adding more stripes since I wanted to use all the yarn I had (I almost succeeded, only have a very small amount left over) and also twisting the stitches to create vertical lines along the scarf.



But not enough that I finished this, I started a new scarf already, again in crochet. Apparently, it has me... *g* hooked.

The new scarf is the Boteh Scarf from Interweave Crochet.



The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Black Purl, using a 4mm hook. The pattern says that you need 2 skeins, but I can't see how that is possible. I've now done 7 of the 16 triangles and still have *well* over half the skein left. Of course, the finishing is going to take up quite a bit of yarn, but I still think I can add a couple of repeats without fear of running ou of yarn. And I'm really going to need to do that anyway, since I like my scarves to be snuggly instead of only accessories. The 16 repeats aren't going to give me enough length to make that happen.



I'm really happy with how this is turning out. The little patches of light purple stand out nicely while at the same time integrating well into the colourway and I'm happy to be doing something a little more complicated and entertaining than rectangles. :D

A Happy Customer

Two weeks ago, when I went to Tausendschön in Saarbrücken to pick up the prizes for the Ravelry survey, I also stopped at their local Wolle Rödel and picked up some sport weight yarn for socks.

Yesterday I started Francie in Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000 and quickly found out that the yardage wouldn't be enough. The leg alone takes up half the skein and that's with only 1.5 instead of 2.5 pattern repeats.


Apparently, this colourway is absolutely impossible to find. I tried a heap of online shops, went into the city today to go through all the yarn shops (three (one of which sells almost exclusively Lana Grossa) + department stores) and still couldn't find that colourway. Finally, I was desperate enough to call the shop in Saarbrücken (that's a big deal for me, I hate speaking on the phone) and ask if they still had a skein and if there'd be any way for me to get it without having to go back (3-hour round trip). And it's no problem at all! They will send it to the Wolle Rödel in Trier (which is much smaller and therefore doesn't have the yarn) and I can pick it up there. It's gonna take about 2 weeks, but at least I'll get my yarn and won't even have to pay anything for shipping!

Old Stash

Even though I finally finished the center square of the Log Cabin Blanket, reaching the rest of my goals isn't going so well. I haven't started the seaming of the blanket, haven't started the Odds'n'Sods socks and haven't continued knitting on my bag. Despite that I'm very happy with what I have accomplished so far, since I've been using old stash yarn. With all the pretty new yarn I have, some of the old things just seems like a burden, especially since my tastes have changed somewhat in the last three years.

So, first we have the crochet bathmat, which I finished in only 2 days.

The cripsness of the crochet, coupled with the mercerized cotton, make me swoon any time I look at it and the best thing is that the two yarns I knit it from (Ilse Wolle Malta and Wolle Rödel Maramara), have been in my stash since spring 2006.


Then I'm working on a crochet scarf from Crocheting for Dummies and I'm using novelty yarn that I bought in fall 2005. Even though I'm not and never really have been a fan of novelty yarn, this was just a colourway I couldn't pass up. The photo doesn't do it justice and as a scarf I think I'll even wear it, even though I'm usually not much for the sparkly in my wardrobe.


I'm not only crocheting, but also knitting. In fact, I started knitting socks again, my SoSS not lasting very long. I wanted some simple socks with an easy lace pattern, so I decided to go for Coupling on Knitty. The yarn is CTH and I bought it in summer 2006.

I just turned the heel, only haven't had the right weather for a photo yet.

Three unplanned projects, but 4 yarns used that are at least 2 years old, so I simply can't feel bad about it. :)

Yet Another Onset of Startitis...

It seems I get Startitis every couple of months, but this time I really did it. I not only started three new knitting projects,

Morning Surf Scarf	Coupling	Shetland Shimmer

but also two crochet projects.

Washcloth	Bathmat

On a much more productive note, I finally finished the centre square of the Log Cabin blanket!


Well, almost finished...

Like almost anybody else I just hate weaving in ends, but am trying to be a good little knitter and do it as soon as I finish a sqaure, instead of waiting till the end.

In term paper news, I sent out most of the yarn and stitch markers, so they should arrive in while (remember they go overseas). :) 4 people still haven't answered my mails, so I'm going to try again this weekend and if they still haven't answered by next Sunday, I'll do a re-draw and let the new people know about their luck. :D

And the Winners Are...

Not quite as exciting as the Oscars, but the drawing for the Tausendschön yarn took place this morning. :) The four lucky winners have been contacted and tomorrow I'll go on a little expedition to the Tausendschön shop. (I've never been to the actual shop before, only their website, so this is exciting!)

So, here we have the winners of one skein each of Tausendschön sock yarn:
Julie
Kerry
Julia and
Jan

Congratulations!

In the end 1,482 people finished the survey and 1,371 of those entered into the drawing, so I felt incredibly bad that I only had 4 prizes to give out. On the other hand, I really can't afford giving away more yarn, so instead I drew another 10 names and those people will be getting stitch markers! :) A few of those markers are here already, others are still making their way over from the US, so a photo of those I ordered from a German store:

There are only 3 or 4 in a set, but for a lot of patterns you don't need more and they are really pretty! The snag-free wire also helps in making the knitting as comfortable as possible and they have a pleasant weight, not too heavy, not too light.

Again, the winners have been contacted and here they are:
Liz
Penny
Betsy
Cindy
Joy
Lindsey
Kate
Regenia
Rachel and
Kirsten

Congratulations to those ten as well!

And again, thank you to everybody who participated. I'll talk with my professor about offering the results as a download, for those interested, but can't guarantee that yet. If it's okay, I'll probably have that ready in late July or early August, depending on how long the grading takes. I'll let you know here on the blog.