JessaLu Knits (and Spins!)

Posts Tagged ‘Stash Enhancement’

Comments are now closed for the giveaway – thank you to everyone who participated!  I will be pulling winners for the five prizes over the weekend and posting the winners on Monday, February 22.  Have  a great weekend and good luck!  ~jess

Five Years

725 Posts

An uncountable number of friends.

Thank you.

I’m so happy that I’ve been able to share my fiber life with you all for five years – it doesn’t seem that long since time flies when you’re having fun – but when I started this blog…

I was a new knitter

I had never spun anything, ever, and had no intention to do so (thanks, Carole, for the arm twisting, btw.)

Dobby was a Freshman in High School

R and I had just started talking about getting married…someday.

I only had one dog…and I think we had a hamster?

I thought the only place I could buy yarn was Joanns and Michaels (I know!)

I hadn’t had even one thought that anyone would ever want to buy anything that I made.

I took horrific pictures.  Truly terrible ones.  It’s a wonder some of you kept coming back!

Now?

I’ve been knitting for over five years, spinning for four, Dobby has graduated High School and moved on to her own apartment (good thing because I needed the room for my stash *cough*), R and I are engaged and getting married in the fall, we have two dogs (no hamster) and I now know that I can get really awesome yarn from really awesome people and a boatload of really awesome people have purchased something I made with my own two hands (and a really cool sewing machine).  Also, thanks be to bob, I am a little better at taking pictures.

Thank you so much for making this journey with me.  I wouldn’t have kept blogging if it weren’t for you guys who take the time to leave comments (because, in case you hadn’t already guessed, I’m a bit of a comment whore *ahem*)  I’m so glad that I have made it to this milestone that I am going to be giving away not one, not two, not three or four but FIVE prizes in this little contest I have cooked up.  It’s REALLY simple:

Comment here, you get a chance to win.

Send people here, you get another chance to win.  One for every person who said you sent them, in fact.

Tweet about my contest, with a link, you get yet another chance to win. (you can tweet up to three SIX!! times throughout today and tomorrow, just not more than once per hour.  You’ll get a chance for each tweet – please tag with #sbjl or mention me (@jessalu) so I can see them!)

Link in FaceBook for another chance!

There you go!  Want to know what you’re playing for?  Two of the prizes are Gift Certificates to my shop for your choice of one bag.

For the third prize, my friend Scout has let me offer up a skein of exclusive Scouts Swag club yarn:

The fourth prize will be a pair of socks I knit for you on my CSM.  I will provide the yarn and the CSM, you provide an idea of your favorite colors and your shoe size.

The fifth prize will be a $25 gift certificate to the Loopy Ewe!

Contest closes at Midnight on Friday night (so those of you who want to post on their blogs but see this late on Thursday, have another day to get a post up), I will pull winners over the weekend and post them on Monday.  ETA: I wanted to mention that these are five separate prizes so you have five different chances to win – sorry for any confusion!

There you have it, I hope you find one of those prizes worth a comment!  ;o)

Was, of course, wonderful.  There was a weather ‘issue’ and it was a little chilly but it was warm and not raining in the barns which was all I cared about.  ;o)

I’m having trouble coming up with a cohesive post since there is so. much. so I’m going to completely steal from Carole and go with a random post.  Ready?

I had a great time walking around with Risa, Carole, Sharon, Kathy, Manise, Kim and Hillary on both days.  Saturday was ohmygawd crowded but Sunday was pretty awesome.

Seeing lots of my friends on both days – unfortunately only for quick moments. (and some I did not see at all…some I heard rumors of their attendance and some I did see but completely forgot to link to since I kinda suck at the remembering thing…sorry…)

Dinner at the Coyote Grill on Saturday night was totally worth arriving home at midnight in a semi-comatose state (only to get up at some ungodly hour on Sunday to do it all again).  I had the *somewordIcan’tpronouncebutSharondidsothewaitressfiguredoutwhatIwanted* tuna.  Yum.  I looked forward to having that dish for a whole year (I had it last year).

Autumn colors

The shopping.  I didn’t do too much on Saturday:

…but I made up for it on Sunday:

ETA:  I’ve been totally busted.  The green and blue skein of yarn in the first picture?  There are actually 20 skeins total.  Enough for two sweaters.  *ahem*  and the Abby Batts were in the Carolina Homespun booth where Morgaine could keep a close eye on them.  ;o)

My favorite purchase?  The Abby batt (in the plastic baggie) and my new spindle.  Olive wood.  So pretty…

Jazzy’s favorite purchase?

The bacon flavored treats I bought because I had to leave them home and crated all day.  :o(

The rain kinda sucked on Sunday and I thought it was fitting that this was what was playing when I got in the car to drive to the fairgrounds:

I met Guido of ‘It’s a Purl Man‘ fame on Sunday and did a little voice blurb thingy from the fest.  (mine is the Oct 18 2:30 pm one)

by Sunday most of these:

had found new homes!  ;o)

I think that covers it?  Who knows, I probably missed like eleventeen really important things that happened – my brain was so fried from exhaustion that when I got home on Sunday?  I slept for three. hours.

Okay…going to go pet my new spindle…

…the one with all the enhancement.

Stash enhancement, that is. ;o)

When Risa arrived on Friday, the second thing she did (after admiring my peonies – Tina, you can stop giggling now  – and laughing at my dogs) was throw yarn at me.  I know!

This yarn began as roving I gave to her a couple of months ago, never expecting to see it again.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  It’s a true three-ply and the first she’s ever done.  How lucky am I?  ;o)

Next up are the fest acquisitions:

The above was purchased at Massachusetts S&W (if you click after the whole page loads, you can click through all the photos on this post like a slideshow).  From left to right:  Wool Peddler BFL in “Barnwood”, Wool Peddler Merino in “Enchanted”, Spunky Eclectic Superwash Merino in “Rocky Mountain High” and Spunky Eclectic Panda (Merino/Bamboo) in “Potluck”.  I bought one more Spunky Panda hank-o-roving but since I’m spinning it already (on Emma), my living room is a cave and the sun has disappeared, I couldn’t take a picture of that one yet.

I didn’t mention in my last post that I took Risa to visit Colorful Stitches on Friday.  I also neglected to mention that some yarn happened to jump into my bag while I was there:

Madelinetosh and Lacey Lamb.  So pretty…even prettier is the hostess gift from Tamara of Spincerely Yours:

It freaking sparkles, how cool is that?  ;o) (she made it, even.  If you follow that link to her Etsy shop up there ^ odds are good you can get some of your own…)