And the winner is…

Thanks to all of you who entered my One Year Blogiversary Giveaway. It was so much fun to read your posts and get to know you a little better. I hope for those of you who were new visitors to my blog, you’ll come back again. Also, I would love to do another giveaway in the future, so come back soon (my birthday is in December, maybe I’ll do one then). Anyone who has stepped into my house knows it wouldn’t hurt to let some fiber go.

Because this is my first giveaway, I decided to award the first place winner with a selection of various goodies, but I’ll also be sending a small package to the second and third place winners.

Congratulations to:

1st Place = Mary Kay from Pennsylvania

2nd Place = Cathy-Cate from Wisconsin

3rd Place = Valerina from Virginia

one year anniversary!

I wasn’t paying attention and almost missed my Blog’s One Year Anniversary! That would have been a sad day indeed. Let us revisit my first post dated September 6, 2007:

Some time ago I made an attempt to create a “fiber specific” blog. Unfortunately I was again disappointed with the lack of interest. This is probably because I am not intriguing and at the same time I hunger for attention and approval. Yes, it’s dumb, I know. So, we’ll give it a second go.  

Hm. Well, I must say that this second attempt has been vastly more successful than the first. Between that first fiber blog, which began and fizzled in early 2006, and this one, I realized that it requires quite a bit of effort on my part to make this something substantial. In order to attract readers, it is necessary to comment in other blogs and become a presence online. Being a member of Ravelry, Flickr, Facebook, Livejournal, Etsy, webrings, and other groups has made me much more visible to the public. 

I would like to thank my regular commenters/readers, occasional visitors, lurking secret readers, spontaneous arrivals, and all those blogs who have linked to me. I really appreciate your interest in my quirky little life and what I am doing with it. Having the opportunity to network and make new friends has been great. Sometimes I get very discouraged working alone in my house feeling small and unimportant, but knowing that there are people out there who are following my story really inspires me! Thank you!

Love, Gwen

Anniversary Giveaway!

Answer the following questions and leave as a comment in this post. I will randomly select one response and that person will receive a package of goodies from me. Winner will be selected September 13, 2008.

1. Name:
2. Location:
3. Years knitting/spinning:
4. Personal project you are most proud of:
5. How you found this blog:
6. Visit my Warm and Woolly collection on Flickr, find your favorite project and say what you like about it:

a new addition to the blog

Greetings, faithful viewers! I’ve started a new aspect of this little blog, suggested by none other than Richard, Mr. String, himself:

What to do with all those little pieces of string?

You will see in the navigation bar at the top of the page, “Got Bits of String?”. On that page, I have started compiling a list of various ways to use those little bits and pieces of string that we find around the house, end up with after a project, etc. I am requesting that each of my readers contributes at least one way they have found to use small pieces of string. Please leave a comment there, here, or in my inbox.

Thank you for your input!

oops.

I guess I don’t know much about the rules for such things as memes and what-have-you.  But since Christabel mentioned me in her list of blogs that make her day, I guess I ought to say a little something about some other folks as well.  Apparently there are supposed to be 10 in the listing, but I don’t have an extensive blog-snooping sphere… Maybe I ought to get out there and read more blogs!

You Make My Day!

Rhubarb Supreme
Marion’s Arts & Crafts
Cosymakes
Mochimochi Blog 

PS. I just snatched some of Cosy’s spinning-blog recommendations. I definitely would like to start reading more blogs about spinning! Thanks Cosy for bringing those to our attention.

hey folks!

Welcome to visitors directed here from Adrienne’s Blog!  I was so surprised and delighted to discover an increase in visits this morning due to my blog being spotlighted by a fellow knitter. How exciting is that!?  Every time I check my blog stats, I’m convinced that the hits are really just spam-bots that like to torment me into thinking someone might actually be reading this. Perhaps not, eh?

I noticed the other day that there were a lot of people who came here using the search terms “pieces of string too small to save”.  So I thought, does that mean that people are really looking for me or just curious about that phrase?  That made me curious about the phrase, which I hadn’t looked up before I claimed it.  As I might have mentioned before, I first heard it from Rich, who told me that his grandfather had a box with that written on it.  Apparently it was a rather common thing to do.  I found quite a few instances of grandmothers and grandfathers and such who had attics full of stuff and a box or jar labeled “pieces of string too small to save”.  We decided it must have been a phrase that was known to a certain generation of people via the farmers almanac or something.  I thought it was pretty neat. 

how did i get here?

I always get a kick out of ’search terms’ people use when they stumble on to my blog!

For instance:

11/28 -
senso wool cotton yarn
migraine – spotty vision
mini moo card craft

11/27 -
how important is it to get the same dye
“natural daylight bulbs”
HTML CODES GIDGETS ETC

11/26 -
wool scarfs with pictures of cats
why does excel button get bigger

and what does this mean? -
thin aluminium string photos

widgeting gidget

I’m feeling really frustrated at this point. Yesterday I got it into my head that I would like some progress bars because they are cute and… um. Yes.  So I went a-googlin’ to find a tutorial, code, etc. that may be of some use. I found quite a few different options, most of which were beyond me, until I came across this HTML code from Soapbox.  It looked doable, so I made a widget text box and inserted the code. I’m not an expert, but informed, so I wasn’t feeling concerned. However, no amount of number changing influenced the image on the page! There were only four numbers and I changed them all to no avail.  So, out of curiosity, I leafed through the alternate themes.  Of course it works on every other theme but the one I’ve chosen! So, due to the progress bar discrepancy and the weirdness regarding my blogroll/links, I’m thinking about choosing another theme. I enjoy the colors and feeling of my current theme, so I have to decide whether I want to give up some widgeting possibilities or give up my colors. 

Edit: I have decided to GO FOR IT – if you hadn’t noticed – and change the theme. It’s a little less colorful than the previous theme, so that’s a bummer. When I get the chance I’ll put in a better header, but for some reason Safari freaks out when I am working on the blog stuff. Unfortunately I still can’t figure out the progress bar dilemma.  Like I said before, there’s only four number options!  

Edit #2:  Weeee! I got the progress bars figured out! Aren’t they cute? Now I’ve got to get knitting so I have something to document the progress of.  It’s really satisfying to figure something out on your own.

wee!

Go me. I got the KnitOhio ring to work. Awesome. Sign me up! Come visit my blog!Now, if only I had the free time to devote to crafting. Lately I’ve been taking a few moments in the morning before leaving for school to spin a little on a handspindle. I sit in the sun in my newly acquired Fiber Den (sister’s old bedroom)  and just spin a wee little bit. It’s relaxing. This weekend I’ll be giving spinning instruction to the unenlightened at Saxon Summer, our local SCA group’s big event. I wonder if anyone will come. I’ve never tried to teach a large group – up to 8 – at one time. It’s only been a one-on-one. We’ll see how it goes, eh?

this morning, it rained.

I’ve been trying to manipulate my sidebar to get just what I want where I want it. For the most part, I’ve figured it out, however, there are still a few things I can’t quite grasp. I joined a ring for Ohio Knitters, but there doesn’t seem to be anyway for me to get it into the sidebar. I tried a “text widget” but it looks really dumb – each part is separated into a row of its own. Also, I want to separate “blogs” from just “links” – do I do that with a text widget too? At least I found out how to get the Flickr pictures to be mine.

In other news, I FINALLY ordered some fiber from Pigeonroofstudios. It feels like I’ve been catching glimpses of her stuff but never being there to buy it. People keep popping up with photos here and there and I’m so envious. She updated her Etsy shop about a week ago and I waited and waited, refreshed the page, waited, refreshed, waited… maybe an hour into it, I finally spotted one I wanted: Drift. Immediately and without thinking, I bought it. Do I buy superwash merino? Never! Did I? Yes. I bought it August 30 and I got the notice today that she shipped it. I’m dying to see  this in color!