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Join Me for a Giveaway of Olympic Proportions!

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olympic giveaway craft gossipI’ve been hinting at something special happening in conjunction with the Olympics, and now that the opening ceremonies are just a day away I can share with you what I’m planning. I really wanted to do something special to celebrate joining the Craft Gossip team as well as celebrating the Olympics.

The Games are such a fun event, bringing people from around the world to their television sets to watch great feats of sport (and, let’s hope, sportsmanship) and enjoy a moment of togetherness and commonality it’s rare to feel these days.

Odds are good, despite the recent unpleasantness, that a lot of knitters around the world will be watching the Games, and many of us will be knitting while we do. I know I’m going to be working on a bunch of projects for my book, and I hope the dedicated TV time will keep me on track (grin) to finish a few things.

So, on to the fun stuff: the giveaways! Starting tomorrow, and continuing each day through the Olympics (that’s through August 12) I’ll be giving something away — a book, magazine, yarn, I don’t know what all yet.

What I do know is they’ll be one giveaway a day and it will last a day. You’ll enter by posing a comment on that day’s post; the winner will be chosen at random. You’ll have to comment on each giveaway to be entered, so come back every day to see what’s on offer. And winning one giveaway won’t make you ineligible to win future giveaways, so keep coming back and enter as many as you like.

Because of that I’ll wait until the Olympics are over and all the winners have been notified to mail the goodies.

I’m really excited both to clean out some of my stash and to share some knitting goodies with you. Who’s ready to win some free stuff? I’ll see you tomorrow with the first giveaway!

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Comments

  1. Hooray for the US and all the families, friends and fans that encourage the players. Woot woot. I’m in!

Have you read?

A Blanket Knitting Pattern Where Yarn Selection is Everything

Many times when I write these posts I will say something like “you can use any yarn you want” or “this would be a great stash-busting project.” That’s just how my mind works. And my stash, too, since I probably have sweater quantity of two or three yarns at most, but tons of singles and odd balls and leftovers.

Blankets are generally a really good way to use up those bits, but in this case, I think you’re going to want to plan it out a bit better.

Looking at photos of the Color Study Blanket from Purl Soho, it looks like it’s made with two yarns held together, and that block in the center is worked with one of each color from the adjoining sides to make a mixed up color.

But that’s not actually how it’s done. This is three separate colors (four, really, with the neutrals in the corners) chosen form a yarn with an expansive palette so they play off each other. The project calls for a worsted weight superwash wool, which is a great choice for a blanket that’s both warm and washable.

This pattern was originally designed by Laura Ferguson and was updated by Hiromi Glover. It is worked in one piece in garter stitch intarsia, which is a great way to learn the intarsia technique if you don’t already know it. It comes in crib or throw sizes.

Despite the introduction to this post, I am going to go ahead and say that, yes, of course you could do this blanket with scraps or odd balls or even just choose five colors that don’t blend together so easily. But I really do love the look of the color play, and I think it would be worth your time to find colors that play well together to get a similar effect.

This pattern is available for free from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]