One Year Blog-a-Versary! and A Cause for Celebration Contest!

Wow, a year. I'm feeling a little verklempt. I hope you can bear with a teeny traipse down memory lane with me. I have found blogging to be so ridiculously satisfying, it's beyond comprehension. I think what truly got me started thinking about it was a book from my sister. Yarn Harlot: Secret Life of a Knitter. She bought it on a whim for me for Christmas. It was then that I realized that there is a world of knitters out there talking about it. So I started reading Harlot's blog, following her links. I even talked my supportive non-knitting sister to go with me to see Harlot in Chicago last summer. It was so much fun taking the train down, having decadent liquer chocolates at Ethel M's Chocolate Lounge, spending way more than I could have imagined at Teavana...and while we sweat in an echo-y community center listening to Harlot I was knitting these. My favorite socks in my favorite colorway - Cosmopolitan - by my favorite dyer. By now, if you have read my blog, you know I love Yarntini - she was so open to my first request for a special order that my adoration blossomed and we kept in touch. She has since spoiled me so silly I often have to pinch myself. And now, you guys could receive a little Yarntini love. Look what I got today as an offering for my contest...



yes, can you read the label? peaknit semi-solid, I squealed when I saw it. *clapclapclap* Jessie sent it as a generous surprise. And she just knew, based on past experience, that I wouldn't be able to part with it, so she included one for me too. How's that for supporting a habit:)

So as my blogging continued, I started getting comments - omg, I am so grateful for each one. Each comment made me want to keep making new friends through blogland. Then I started seeing "swaps" - I can recall in earnest wanting to be in Sockapalooza so bad, and Secret Pal 8, but I was too late to the party. But eventually I got in on some. I have "met" some great people through this process. I was the kid in class jumping up and down to beg for the international pen pal and I even wrote my school friends just over summer - so this has been a real treat. I met blogless Christine through the KMKS swap. Her friendship has been the most rewarding in that we exchange e-mails regularly and I think we may have been separated at birth - well, years apart - but nevermind that!

It has been so interesting meeting people from both coasts and in between through comments and tracking back to their blogs. I have enjoyed serial commenting with Chicken Knits, Susan B. Anderson (blogging has kind of reintroduced me to her, the owner of the shop where I learned to knit, small world), Sandra over at Stay at Home Knits - she has been a fun International friend that I have also swapped with, Lady Knitterly, Marisol at Purls Just wanna Have Fun, The Knitting Bandit, Tina's International House of Yarncakes (the name got me!)...and so many more. I have also met several locals Ann at Yellow House Treasures, Molly Bees Attic and my co-worker from Gramknits - she and I will often talk about things being "blogworthy" which merely stumps, or scares everyone around us.

Okay, so I have loved blogging and the relationships it has come with. Then there are all of the other goodies I have found...the links to such great places, talks about sales, Ravelry and swaps. I think I have bought every piece of jewelry that Scout J. has linked to - she has incredible taste. And then the lace at Beyond Your Peripheral Vision - she is a amazing and I need some of that Wollmeise! I've read book reviews and movie reviews and have been turned on to podcasts I would have never otherwise uncovered. I have seen projects in yarns I would have never thought of trying. But, maybe most of all, it is a great place to be myself and feel accepted among many fiber kindred spirits. It's like a huge knit night every night!

And then there is a contest - a celebration should always include prizes. So what I would like you to do is simple, please leave a me a comment, anything...it would be a real bonus if you would include the name of your favorite sock pattern. (as a non-recovering sock-a-holic, I am always looking for new ones) I am thinking with the surprise arrival of the kick a** yarntini today - I would like to offer at least two prize packs - one with the peaknit yarn and another with some sock yarn from my stash. I am also planning to include some handmade stitch markers, candy and whatever else I can come up with. I plan to try this "random number generator" thing next Friday and come up with my winners!! Orif I cannot be techno-savvy enough for that - I will write the names out and my daughter will be my lovely assistant and draw from a French Market Bag! So please leave a comment and help me par-tay! Thank you!

And in true party form, I am now planning to scoop up some Araretto Slush and enjoy the next episode of Meadowlands in air conditioned comfort before everyone rushes the door in an hour. Motherhood requires planning.