Prizes!

Hi guys,

I just did the drawing using a random number generator to determine the winners. All sponsors' names were placed in an excel spreadsheet in order of donations.

Winners are as follows (Name in bold):

- Antonio of Malabrigo yarns has generously donated 1 bag (10 skeins Malabrigo worsted) mistake color as a prize. Jacquelyn Ridzy aka jacqui722

- An item knitted by moi (within reason) - we'll chat though various options and I'll both knit the item and provide yarn (no cashmere or outrageous yarns though) ;-). zzwhitejd - Jenny Raymond

- Handknitted socks by moi - again we'll chat to see what socks you like and I'll again provide the yarn. The socks below are just an example. I also happily knit men's socks as well. Archergal5219

- Ulmus Shawl (worn in the photo as a scarf): Many have admired this item I have knitted and I've loved wearing it. I think it will make a lovely prize for someone. Michaela Chatman



- Audiobook from recordedbooks.com: Kathy (Woolybelle on Ravelry)will donate to one lucky winner his/her choice of audiobook (15 CDs or less) from Recorded Books. iraknitwit

- $50 gift certificate to Yarn Company in NYC. This was generously donated by Patti (pattiblaine on ravelry). dknit52

- Cable Crush Cowl. This cowl was designed by yours truly this summer and it's knit in Malabrigo Merino Worsted. Colorway: Rhodesian. Lauren Koestner aka libra276



- Skein of yarn (fingering weight). This is a lovely plum color. 364 yards/100 grams; 50% Superwash Merino 50% Tencel. Dee Brown aka Blackrayne



- Skein of yarn (fingering weight). For the yellow lover in you. 100% BLF / 100g / 420 yards. warpedntwisted



- Skein of yarn (light fingering). Malabrigo sock. 1 skein = 440.0 yards. Colorway = Turner. ninja8tofu



- Statue bought during my summer volunteer trip to Ghana. Diana Samour



- 5 copies of the Cable Crush Cowl pattern.

Elizabeth Webber AKA PictureandBook
JinnyJ
Lachesis77
havnknitlover
Riverpoet

Congratulations to all the winners! I'll be in contact through various means shortly to let you know.

Disaster/Knitting Tragedy

We have this housekeeper (more of a live-in nanny/housekeeper as my mom is on her own with my little brother) who did my laundry and felted my Swallowtail shawl knitted in Malabrigo Dos (still a test yarn). I’ve cried. I've drunk wine. I've eaten buffalo wings. And now I think I might need a scoop of Haagen Dazs. I kept meaning to tell her not to touch my handknits but I hadn’t noticed that she’d picked up the shawl as it was hanging with my coat on the door. I hadn’t noticed it was missing until way way too late (when she dropped my laundry off in my room). My heart stopped for a moment.

A Eulogy for my Shawl

I so loved you shawl,
you were squishy and warm,
and though I'm not a huge fan of purple,
you were just the right color that I could enjoy.
Oh goodbye my beautiful shawl.
You are now a lovely, soft bit of felt and I'll try to make
a lovely purse or other felted item with you so that
you would have not lost your lustrous shawl life in vain.
Goodbye!

Marathon update coming soon...

Probably tomorrow I'll post a full brief of my marathon experience with pictures, etc, but today I'm too tired to write anything coherent. It was great: loved the first 8 miles, the crowd was awesome, I high fived anyone with there hand out and I was like, 'what are these people talking about, this is going to be easy'. The second half of the race was tough. Mile 15-16 was torture. Ran out of gas around mile 23. Could barely move. Pulled it together on mile 25 and finished strong; managed to sprint the last 100 yards - wanted to end in style. Overall, not a great time: 6:25:11. But I'm super happy! I've completed a marathon! Yay!!!!

The crowd cheers... :-)

Marathon Expo, Getting ready for the marathon and life's small emergencies

Yesterday I met up with an old friend to pick up all my marathon paraphernalia at the Jacob Javits Center. The two of us were in a bit of a frivolous mood, she was just off a plane from Geneva and well I'm always frivolous. Anyhow, I bought practical stuff like cliff shot bloks, long sleeved running shirt which was half off and wicks moisture, running socks that don’t slip and help prevent blisters, expandable running belt to hold ipod, etc… then slightly less necessary, arm warmers, anti-fog sunglasses, and the most frivolous: Halo Headphones - these are practical in that I always listen to my ipod while running and I hate that I’m constantly having to push my headphones in (especially when the ears start getting sweaty) but not something you’d call a need.

So today, I had a game plan of stretching, drinking lots of water and resting my soon to be weary legs. After some morning stretches, I thought I'd take a morning bath to get myself even more relaxed. I'm not a bath person as I just tend to get really bored. So I had the bright idea that I'd listen to an audio book on my ipod. BIG MISTAKE! Yours truly somehow manages to drop ipod into bath. On any other day, I would have looked at all the internet 'how to repair submerged ipod' links and tried my best to figure this out. BUT I have the marathon tomorrow and the idea of 26.2 miles without music or audio book could not be faced. So my poor mother who'd been working all night volunteered to drive me to the nearest apple store (40 min drive away) to see if they could repair it. As you can guess, they couldn't and it was out of warranty. They then suggested that I could recycle said submerged ipod an get 10% off a new one. Now of course I could have gotten a cheaper ipod on Amazon but as I mentioned this was a marathon emergency. So I sucked it up and got this new baby:



I've been out of the ipod loop since I got my last one two years ago so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my new baby has FM radio - super cool and a video camera - xtra super cool!

So now I'm home and want to relax but not sure on that one as my lil bro is desperate to go to a haunted house. My mother has to work tonight and can't take him and I want to relax after my 'harrowing' day and marathon tomorrow but I feel bad that he can't go. We'll see how that pans out.

Anyhow, I'm crazily promoting my charity that I'm running for. You can donate at www.firstgiving.com/carylpierre and there are lots of awesome prizes to be won: Check it out here. I'd really appreciate the support and I think it's a pretty great cause especially after my summer as a volunteer in Ghana.

Yarn Gluttony AKA Stitches East

Despite just arriving in NYC, first on my agenda was heading off to Hartford, CT for Stitches East to hang with my fellow Malabrigo junkie ravelers. As I'm unemployed, the plan was to socialize more and spend less. Hmmm... See the above picture and you can see that I did an amazing job of multitasking...

Here's the group of us at the Malabrigo booth:



It was supertastically fun to meet up with the Mal Gals and become inducted as an NJ Mal Gal. It also seems that I've taken on a bit of a British accent though mainly I've just picked up British vocab. I shocked myself when I yelled 'Oh crikey' on seeing the large volume of DIC Stardust on offer. I don't even remember saying crikey when I lived in England. Maybe I did and never noticed it... The Mal gals found my Britishisms quite fun so at least it provided entertainment :-). For me it was interesting putting voices to the posts I've been reading for nearly a year. Especially the NJ accents. :-)

It was also lovely meeting the people behind the Malabrigo yarns of which I'm obsessed and getting a wee treat as well.


A quick sum of what I purchased:
- Dream in Color Stardust (2 skeins of marooned)
- Madeline Tosh Lace (1 skein of Oxblood)
- Madeline Tosh Worsted (2 skeins of Lepidoptra)
- Cascade Eco + (3 skeins of a plum red color)
- 1 mini skein of Habu
- 3 mini skeins Planet Earth Fibers to make masks in camel, sandstorm and a plum color
- Shibui Knits Baby Alpaca DK (2 skeins)
- Tess Superwash Lace (2 skeins)
- 1 pair of Sassafras hoop earrings made of recycled knitting needles
- Gail Hughes buttons
- Beads (1 tube of 6/0s)

Gifts/Trade
-Traded 1 skein Mal Worsted Polar Morn for 1 skein of Jacinta
- Gifted a skein of wounded yarn by Cupcake Jenny
- Gifted a skein of MerinoCash laceweight in Bobby Blue (1180 yards) by Malabrigo and a skein of MerinoCash Fingering weight in Velvet Grapes(450 yards) by Malalabrigo

OMG!!! I am a yarn glutton!

Official First Family Photo

Just saw this pic on a forum I follow. What a beautiful family!

Goodbye London

My cab should be arriving in about 10 min to carry me off to Heathrow. I'm packed and ready to go which is a complete shocker as I'm usually packing till I have to head out the door. I managed to wind some mal sock for some airplane knitting and just went out to say goodbye to the Thames and the Southbank. It's a perfect London day, spitting rain. Almost too little for an umbrella but if you choose the path of no umbrella, you'll arrive at your destination soaking wet. :-)

It's weird to be leaving after so long living here. It's been the best of times and the worst of times as they say...

GOODBYE LONDON!!!