Tuesday, December 21, 2010

50,000 Winner

Thank you all for visiting my blog and for your kind words about my books!

I drew a name while waking up with a cup of coffee. Lisa from Mississippi wins a copy of Color Style. Lisa, email your address to me at annbudd@annbuddknits.com and I'll get it in the mail to you (but maybe not until next week).

Hmmm, I wonder what I'll do when the clicker hits 100,000...

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Getting Close

The 50,000-hit drawing should take place soon!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Count Down to 50,000!

Actually, we're counting up to 50,000, but the days are counting down to that goal. The clicker (at the bottom of this page) is at 49,485 as I write this on Friday evening. At the rate it's been going, my blog will register 50,000 visitor hits in just a few days.

Help me celebrate and post a comment the day the clicker turns to 50,000. You'll have to check back to make sure you post on the correct day. On that day, tell me your name, the state where you live, which of my books you'd like to win, and why. Please post a separate comment for each book you'd like. (Go to my website to see a list of my books.) I'll put the names in a basket and draw a winner. I'll post the name of the lucky winner the following day. If I don't hear back from the winner within 3 days, I'll choose another name and that person will have 3 days to contact me. I'll keep going until I have someone to ship the book to!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

We Have a Winner

I'm happy (and relieved) to say that Debbie #2 from Massachusetts has claimed her prize of Knitting Green from the Thanksgiving raffle. Debbie, your book will go out tomorrow.

Remember that I'll do another raffle when my block-hits clicker (at the bottom of the blog page) turns to 50,000. It's at 47,601 now. To be eligible, simply post a comment on the day it reaches 50,000 telling me which book you'd like and why. One entry per book please. And please, if you enter, be sure to check to see if you win!

While I've been waiting to hear from Debbie #1 and Debbie #2, I've been learning to spin thread. My friend, Lori, sent me an adorable miniature Turkish spindle from Thomas Creations. The spindle is just 4 1/2" long and weighs a mere 0.7 ounces. The shaft is made from olive wood and the whorl is made from Lignium Vitae (whatever that is). Spinning thread is easier than I thought--the spindle won't even spin if I feed it too much fiber. I have no idea what I'll do with such fine yarn; for now, I'm content to know that I can make it.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Alternate Winner

I still haven't heard from Debbie, the winner of Getting Started Knitting Socks so I drew an alternate name. The lucky winner this time around is also Debbie. But this Debbie asked for Knitting Green on 11/25/10 at 6:46 Colorado time. Debbie, please email me at annbudd@annbuddknits.com to give my your mailing address and I'll send the book right away.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Desperately Seeking Debbie

It's been more than a week since I announced Debbie as the winner of the Thanksgiving drawing and I still haven't heard from her. Debbie, I have a copy of Getting Started Knitting Socks all ready to send you, but I don't know where you live. Are you toying with me?
If I don't hear from Debbie by midnight 12/11/10 (isn't that a cool date?), I'll do another drawing from the same list of commentees. But honestly, I hope to hear from Debbie first.

Monday, December 6, 2010

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

As some of you know, I've been working on a book called Sock Knitting Master Class, which will be out in the summer of 2011. In addition to 17 sock patterns by master sock knitters, this book contains insights into how those designers (including, but not limited to, such notables as Cookie A, Kathryn Alexander, Cat Bordhi, Nancy Bush, Evelyn Clark, Anne Hanson, Meg Swanson, and Anna Zilboorg), went about creating fantastic socks. It's a smorgasbord of inspiration and technique, whether you like to work with cables, stranded colorwork, lace, twisted stitches, slip stitches, intarsia, shadow knitting, or entrelac and whether you like to work from the top down or from the toe up. The cover (below) shows just one of the innovative designs (this one's by Deborah Newton) you'll find in the book.



The book is in production now, which usually means that an author's work is mostly done. But notice the red circle in the lower right quadrant? It says that an instructional DVD will be included. I met with the folks at Interweave today to go over the contents of said DVD. Taping is scheduled for January 11, 2011, and I don't mind admitting that I'm in a bit of a panic. Not only do I have to knit a boatload of samples in order to describe various stages of various techniques, but I have toTALK in front of a CAMERA. Despite my fears that this is going to be detrimental to overall book sales, I'm told there's no getting out of the taping. But, between you and me, it's perfectly fine for you to buy the book and never watch the DVD. 
 

Friday, December 3, 2010

A Finished Project!


I finished knitting the triangular shawl that I started while visiting my father in the hospital, worked on at the Knitter’s Review Knitter’s Retreat, and finally finished last week. The shawl requires 4 skeins of Quince Tern (a fingering weight yarn that’s 75% soft wool and 25% tussah silk). It follows a simple 8-stitch pattern that is repeated for 6 rows, then offset for the next 6 rows. The edging is worked simultaneously with the body of the shawl, then incorporated into the bind-off edge to be continuous around all three sides. 

When I took the piece off the needles, I was surprised to see that the bind-off edge (which I thought would be the straight side at the top of shawl but forms the two ruffly sides in the photo below) produced a more pronounced “V” shape than the two selvedge edges (the two straighter edges in the photo). Veteran triangular shawl knitters probably know to expect this, but I was afraid that my triangular shawl would have four corners.


With a bit of a sinking feeling, I soaked the piece for 20 minutes, spun out the water, and set about blocking it. The thing about blocking lace shawls is that it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s fussy work that takes a lot of time and requires a large, empty space. My friend Lori has an entire bin of finished lace shawls (at least 20) that just need ends woven in and blocking. She says she prefers knitting lace shawls to blocking them, and after inserting blocking wires through every blessed edge stitch, I understand what she means.



Fortunately, the wires did their job—the stitches opened up beautifully and a perfect triangular shape was revealed. Unfortunately, the shawl was just too big for me to get a decent photograph, even when standing on a step stool. You’ll have to wait until Quince’s photographer Carrie Bostick takes a professional photo. This is the first project on my list of things to do for Quince & Co (see November’s post titled Back to Knitting)—it should be available from their website in a few weeks.



By the way, I still haven’t heard from Debbie, the winner of Getting Started Knitting Socks. Please, Debbie, contact me so I don’t feel like the girl who hosted a party that nobody attended!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Lucky Winner


The winner of the Thanksgiving book raffle is “Debbie”, who asked for Getting Started Knitting Socks on November 27 at 10:04 am. Debbie, email your mailing address to me at annbudd@annbuddknits.com and I’ll get the book to you. I enjoyed this raffle and was interested to see which books are most in demand—the most-requested books were The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns, The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, and Knitted Gifts.

For those of you who did not win this time—keep in touch. I noticed that the little clicker at the bottom of my blog page says that there have been 45,763 hits since I started my Blog last January. I’ll do another raffle for the people who post comments the day the clicker turns to 50,000!