We got so many amazing entries for the Mr. Foster Halloween contest, it’s taken us longer than we originally thought to narrow it down to just three finalists!
The patterns for our finalists aren’t available, but you can still download the original Mr Foster Sock Monkey pattern and get patterns for the Mr. Foster Doll, his pajamas & robe for those lazy days, and three outfits for his many career paths: Dr. Foster’s scrubs & labcoast, Officer Foster’s cap, shirt & pants, and Sailor Foster’s pants, shirt & cap.
After lots and lots of deliberation, I’m excited to present you with the following 3 choices:
Zorro by Deb Thomas, aka Freelance

King Kong by Cheryl Waters, aka cherylbwaters

Spock by Elisa Willis, aka ClosetGeek

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In September, we announced a contest so members of the Knitting Community could help us find all of the pickle ornaments hiding in the Knit Picks online catalog. There were 20 pickles total, and we received a lot of correct entries!
I randomly chose 5 winners with correct answers, and they will each receive a complete Tidings of Joy Holiday Ornament Kit so they can knit their own pickle ornament, as well as the other 21 ornament patterns in the kit.
The winners of our Pickle Sleuth contest are:
dinasmiles2
archercrafts
emcknits
Sunshine
PurlGirl
All of the winners of the contest have already received an email from me. Congratulations!
Also, this picture is of the pickle ornament hiding on top of a ball of Hazelnut Palette that I put in my cabled coffee mug. <

It’s officially fall, and it’s time for me to pick up my City Tweed sweater that was a little too hot to work on over the summer.

City Tweed is a great yarn for fall knitting. It’s warm enough to be outerwear before you have to break out the winter coat. It’s soft enough to wear next to your skin, so you can be cozy in a sweater whether you are raking leaves or sitting in front of a fire. The yarn colors range from rich harvest tones to bright jewel tones with several neutrals as well, so it’s sure to match your fall wardrobe.
I found some wonderful inspiration when I was perusing City Tweed HW and DK projects on Ravelry. Thanks to everyone who gave me permission to use their photos! In this slide show, each picture has the knitter’s Ravelry user name, the name of the pattern, and a …

Have one pair of socks in progress at a time!
Last weekend I finished off the second pair of Ric Rac Socks from The Little Box of Socks. After that I took a critical look at the two pair of socks that had been languishing in my knitting pile. I made myself be honest about why I had been leaving them sitting for so long. It turned out that there weren’t any excuses, I just ended up not liking that patterns once I got started.
If I am completely comfortable giving up on a book I’m not enjoying because I know there are thousands of other books out there waiting for me, why do I get all worked up thinking about abandoning a project? Particularly one as small as a sock. The other justification for ripping out the two pair of socks is that I never …

I’ve decided that Friday should be an inspirational seque into the weekend! Check out this spectacular project at Painted Threads!
Just what I need to keep in mind as I do some of my fall cleaning!! When I find little bits of yarn and fiber I can set them aside for felted balls! That and the audio book of Master and Commander makes for a lovely weekend! <

Remember the Portland contest I posted a few weeks ago? Sorry about the delay in picking a winner–we had lots of great entries, and I got sick last week, so it was a double whammy. We had so many awesome ideas suggested that we ended up choosing the top 10 entries and then drawing a random one from those. The lucky winner is Gwyneth who posted the following suggestions:
1. The Armory Theater in the Pearl District
2. Pix Patisserie on SE Division
3. If you can do outdoors, the Beverly Cleary statues in Grant Park
4. New Seasons or Whole Foods, esp produce sections
5. Bridgeport Brewery in the Pearl District, if you want to start a brewery series
6. Ecotrust Building in the Pearl District — bonus: get pizza at Hot Lips
7. Ace Hotel and its tenants: Clyde Common, Stumptown, Kenny & Zukes and the Cleaners event space
8. Again, if you can do outdoors, …

According to our very official poll results, 79% of you are knitting at least a couple gifts this holiday season. If any of you gift knitters are on a budget, you might appreciate our Knit 1, Give 1 kits. Each of the kits marked with this logo on the product page…

…contains enough yarn to make more than one item.
So for example:
You can knit ornaments as gift tags or make one for each of your aunts, uncles, and cousins with the Tidings of Joy kit.
Or knit accessories for the little girls on your gift list with just one Belle of the Ball kit.
Both colorways of our Modern Classics Christmas Stocking kit make more than one stocking.
The Clock Tam kit makes more than one so you can make a hat AND a clock (or 2 hats…or 2 clocks…).
And the Learn to Knit Gloves kit makes more …

Five more inches and I will be able to join body and sleeves!! That is quite an incentive!!
Thanks to a staff meeting this morning I was able to finish the second sleeve up through the increases. Now all I have is simple knitting around and around for the last five inches. I have to say that the windy, rainy weather we are having today is ideal for knitting. I started my day knitting by the fire since I didn’t have my computer at home. I think it would be an excellent idea to end my day in the same way. But, I’ll exchange my sock for the sleeve of my Classic Lines Cardigan (CLiC). <