My friends, have you heard the good news?
The blog carnival is coming to town.
It's time for Yarnival!

The time has come to sing the praises of the knit and fiber blog.
In these last days, I'm calling on all my fellow fiberists to look back over this past year and bear witness to the light, laughter and love of fiber that is shared throughout the year on our knit blogs.


In the new year, on January 15th, I will hold a gathering here of your testimony and will post with links so that all may behold the beauty of the blogs handiwork.

Oh, I know there are those among who are saying,
" You poor thing, haven't you heard?
The time of the knit blog has come and gone,
it is a thing of the past.
Blog is dead!"













The flock has lost their way, you say.
They have strayed from the truth and the light of the written word of the blog.
They have foregone the warmth and loft of the fiber blog and have been caught up in their wild Ravelry and have turned their backs to blog.

I hear you.
Oh, I hear you
and I'm here to say;
Repent!
Repent, say I.


Oh, hear me my fellow knitters!
It's not too late to turn from your wanton and wayward ways and come back to the fold.
Come back to blog.
Blog still loves you,
blog has always loved spinners.


Here at Knits and Giggles
I'll be hosting an ole time revival meeting.
I'll be pitching my tent here at throughout the month of December

I'm calling on the faithful brothers and sisters
(and the, ahem, not-so-faithful*),
to submit their favorite fiber or knit related blog post over this past year.

I'm looking for those posts that inspired you to greater knitting endeavers,
posts that renewed your faith in fiber crafts,
and those posts that ended any or all doubts that you suffered alone in your trials and tribulations that is knitting.
The one you couldn't help telling all your friends and loved ones about even though they had no idea what you were going on about.

To make your entry for consideration, please submit your choice here.


*Hey now, there 's no call for the pointing of any fingers, nobody's to be pointing any fingers.
It's not polite to point, you know.

"For (s)he who is without spin may cast on from the first cone."

Err.. something like that...anyway you get my point.






Remember what I told you about pointing.

My friend Max was telling me that he had taken to bribing his mom, who's a costume maker for a children's theater by trade, to finish his doublet so he could wear it the coming weekend to the Renaissance festival. Having the doublet would bring Max one step closer to completing his entire period piece costume that he has slowly been putting together over the last couple of years.
I made a show of commiserating with him a bit about it, though in truth I empathized more with his mother, having a backlog of costume requests from my own family to contend with.
As I was getting ready to leave he noticed the State Fair button on my bag and he asked after it. He asked how it was that I had a state fair button before the fair has even started.
Well, I finished that blanket that I was knitting and on a whim I decided I should enter it in the state fair competition and they gave me a button when I turned the blanket in.
What blanket?
You know. Max ,the blanket that you have seen me knitting on, the blanket that I've been knitting on and off now for almost nine months.
*blank look*
Remember? I decided to use up the left over yarn I had from knitting a Dr. Who Scarf for Suzi Q, by knitting a baby blanket for a friend who was due in October. So I decided I would square the Dr. Who Scarf using the same stripe pattern as the scarf. To do this I started with a center square (the first stripe of the pattern) and then knit the following stripes on one side of the center square, turning the square one quarter turn for each of the subsequent stripes of the scarf, circumventing the center square of the blanket until the end of the scarf. (In quilting terms it's known as the log cabin block)
I did it out of curiosity.
I wanted to see if I would have enough yarn to finish the pattern. ( I didn't.)
I decided I wouldn't alter the stripe sequence from that of the scarf, I was curious what it would look like and wondered if I would be knitting any of the same colors over itself on any of the sides. (Surprisingly, not until the end of the scarf pattern)
I wondered how large it would get. ( A lot larger than I thought. It went from a baby blanket to a lap robe to an afghan before it was finished.)
Come on, Max, the blanket I put up for raffle for the Relay for Life?
Really? You don't remember?
Max just shook his head a little and laughed and said, " You know, Kellene, you really are quite a geek."
I?
I?
I'm a geek?
*bows head in acquiescence*
Aye, I be a geek.
*raises head with a mischievous gleam in her eye and a wry smile*
I may be a geek but I'm not necessarily a loser.
The baby blanket, lap robe, afghan won a Blue ribbon none-the-less.
See it for yourself at the Minnesota State Fair Creative Arts Building this week when you are there.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the completed blanket. When I get the blanket back I'll do a proper post with all the particulars and numbers.

I know my blogging has been pretty spotty these past few months and I'm hoping to find my way back to some sort of balance, at least I keep hoping, anyway.

In which "C" stands for Charity, but of course, I am sure that that was exactly what you were thinking. (Right? *cough*Lisa*cough* Right?)


This Friday July 18th, my daughters and I will be participating for the third year walking in the Relay for Life with the Cure-Rageous Knitters to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

We walk in celebration of our friends that have survived cancer, in particular our friend Lisa who has survived ovarian cancer and is the honorary chair of this years event. You can read Lisa's story by visiting her blog here.

We will walk in remembrance of those who we have lost to this disease and we will walk in the hope of a future in which this is a disease that no longer threatens our lives.

Ani, Kate and I want to invite you to show your support in the ongoing fight against cancer by joining us for this year's event. Our relay is held in Eden Prairie at the Central Middle School starting at 6:00 pm Friday night, the party lasts all night until 6:00 am.
The Cure Rageaous knitters have been knitting in preparation for this years event and there will be knitted items available for your perusal and to sweeten the pot this year the knitters planned to knit a lap robe to be raffled but we ran out of time to coordinate the effort.

But not all is lost for I have offered to donate the Dr. Who Squared Blanket that I have been working on for the past couple of months for this years raffle. (next year we'll make an earlier start on knitting a blanket for the Relay)


This is a project that began as an experiment. My idea was to use up the yarn left over from knitting a Dr. Who Scarf to knit a baby blanket using the same stripe pattern as the Dr. Who Scarf (season 12) only this time knitting it in a log cabin block pattern. (That is starting with a center square, each stripe is then added to one side of the block, going around the outside of the center square.)
I was curious to see what it would look like (pretty cool), how big it would get (bigger than I thought) and whether or not I would have enough yarn ( I didn't).

The blanket will be at the Relay for raffle. (I've been knitting as fast as I can, I'm hoping to have it done by then. Let me tell you knitting an ever growing wool blanket in 90 degree temperatures is no summer picnic)
However, you don't need to be at the Relay to enter the drawing.
For every dollar you donate to our personal page or team page your name will be entered into a drawing for the lap robe. For every donation of $10.00 not only will we make you a luminary but also enter your name 12 times in the drawing.


The drawing for the Blanket will be held on Friday at the Relay. The latest that I will be able to accept entries so I can be sure to get your name in the drawing is Friday, July 18th at noon.

And as bonus, my daughters and I have been making these tiny temari balls to be made into a key chains. These will be at the Relay, but Ani has offered to make a temari ball key chain for anyone who makes a donation of $10.00 or more to our relay page.

Don't wait too long to decide, the relay is in only a few days.