Snakes and Adders - Competition Winners!

Ah yes, it's time to announce the winners of my wee competition. I know you've all been checking my blog lots over the last 24 hours in anticipation that the winners might be announced (yeah right!)

There were to be 2 winners, one that was the favourite and another that was chosen at random (I know that fellow bloggers use some fancy online selector, but the pulling the name out of the ice-cream container was as fancy as it got here).

There were 7 separate entries entered into Rav.

Krissie's 'Bruce'

Bob's 'Steve'

Gen's Slithery Snakes

(Gen's entry was hilarious - you should so go and check out her blog about them)

Odette's Rainbow

Sam's Rocky

Rachel's Sanks and Wiggy Werns

Sam's Woody

Janis' Modified Crochet Version

Thanks to everyone for entering! They look great!

Right - The Winners

Penny's Favourite
I had to leave it up to Penny to choose a winner - it was too hard for me to pick from so many lovely online friends. But the after looking at loads and loads of photos on Rav, the one of George eating the 'Sanks and Wiggy Werns' was her fav.

The Random Draw
For each snake that was made, people got an entry into the draw. The winner - Bob (Bob, are you Krissie's fabulously clever knitting hubby?!)


The prizes consisted of some still undecided goodies as well as a choice of one of the 3 prizes listed below:

1) 2 sock blockers made to your choice of sizes

OR

2) Your choice of something knit from my custom knitting selection to the maximum value of $25 (I've got more not pictured yet too so if you like this option we can talk about the more extensive list I actually have permission to knit)

OR

3) A 'Coco Kids' voucher (specifying me as the knitter) to the value of $25. You can use this yourself on anything I can make or sell (a nice discount off a swift) or this could be gifted to someone else if you don't like either of the options above for yourself.


But wait! There's still more!

I know that I never announced a winner of the name the snakes competition. So, I'll pop it in here while I'm at it. I didn't announce it at the time as we went with Blair's suggestion - but we've picked a commenter from all the comments completely at random who is also able to pick from the 3 prizes listed above.

The winner - Mary

My intentions are to contact everyone through Rav in the morning to talk about addresses and prizes - thanks again for changing the project count for the pattern from my sad little 1!

When I Can't Sleep

When I woke early the other morning I found myself lying in bed trying to go back to sleep. But instead in my head I found myself composing a blog entry. Goodness knows what it was meant to be about, I just remember being frustrated with myself because I had this important entry flowing through my head instead of nothing so I could go sleep again

So, it must be time for another blog entry

This time, I've got a lot of F.O's to share. Years ago if you'd said to me 'I've got some F.O's to share' I would've been very confused as F.O stood for something quite different.

Anywho

I made a stack of dishcloths for my friend who was going to babysit. I actually think it may have been only the second time we would've left the kids since having Tim (the first time being my G'ma's 90th back in Hastings in August) but Tim was a bit under the weather so we didn't end up going out anyway

These are knit in Anchor Magicline, a self striping 10ply cotton

This is a test knit for tiKKi of a new pattern she'll be releasing shortly (I know SQUEEEE, lucky me!). I have plans to test knit another (in the next week hopefully) and it's an incredibly versatile pattern...but I'm sure I'll blog more about that soon

(The beads were Penny's idea - not mine!)

I also knit a little soaker and hat set  - I know the hat is in here already under the Aviatrix info, but I love it, I've got 2 more on the needles at the moment for a twin order) The soaker is Kelly's Vanilla pattern - of course, and the little heart embellishment is designed by Watermellish Designs - something else I'm testing. Again, I'll post more info another day :)

A little pink shrug I knit for a little girls birthday party yesterday. I must admit, I'm always a little nervous knitting things for other people (who haven't proclaimed a love of all things yarny) as I'm not sure what people think when they open their presents. I do love this pattern designed by Stitchy Mama/Katherine though and think it's both practical and pretty so I do hope others see the same as I do

And then there's the pair of cabled hats I made for an order recently. I do love this pattern, and I love that the person who ordered has 2 children about the same size as mine so I can check the fit is ok. What will I do when my children no longer fit the orders?!

And lastly, another order for a Vanilla in girly colours. I popped the little heart on the bottom both because I love this Watermellish design, as well as an extra surprise for the customer (I do hope that she doesn't mind it!). It is a size bigger than what my model would wear normally, hence why it might not look like a good fit :)

 

And last, but hopefully not least - my little competition for the Snakes & Adders pattern closes on the 12th of March - there've only been a few knit at the moment so you're in with a good chance to win if you get a chance to whip some up

Snakes & Adders - Competition Time

So, I've posted my little Snakes and Adders pattern - now I'd love to see what other people come up with (I'm a pretty standard just follow a pattern kind of knitter)

So, the competition is simply to get knitting!


Try making some snakes and enter them with some pics on Ravelry (let me know here if you can) and you'll go into the draw. I'll be picking 2 winners - 1 will be the best snake/collection of snakes, and the other will be a completely random snake (so that those who are not necessarily the best knitters and are pretty new to it all still have a chance to win)

We'll be drawing the winners on the Saturday the 13th of March, so final entries need to be in by the end of the evening of the 12th of March.

The prizes...


As well as some still undecided goodies, as a winner you could choose from any of the 3 prizes below

1) 2 sock blockers made to your choice of sizes

OR

2) Your choice of something knit from my custom knitting selection to the maximum value of $25 (I've got more not pictured yet too so if you like this option we can talk about the more extensive list I actually have permission to knit)

OR

3) A 'Coco Kids' voucher (specifying me as the knitter) to the value of $25. You can use this yourself on anything I can make or sell (a nice discount off a swift) or this could be gifted to someone else if you don't like either of the options above for yourself.

This competition is open to anyone anywhere - I'd be prepared to post to where-ever the winners are from :)

I also notice that 6 people commented that they liked Blair's name and that was the name we ran with in the end - so I've still got my thinking hat on for what to do about the comp that had no official winner. I haven't forgotten

Snakes & Adders

Snakes and Adders it is! Thanks for all the name ideas and feedback! There's a new competition coming and details about the last one.

This pattern came about when I needed some little extras to pop into some birthday pressies. We've got lot of birthdays on at the moment and all the presents I've purchased felt like they needed something a little more personal.

These are easy and quick to make as well as a good way to use lovely remnants that you just don't know what to do with - variegated look great with little stripes as do semi solid and plain colours. I actually haven't checked their useage, but I'd say about 5gms? (I'd be interested in any feedback including that)

(click to enlarge)

Requirements
Approx 3.25mm needle to magic loop with (DPN’s the same size would be handy later on if you have them) – gauge isn’t particularly important
DK or worsted weight yarn (4 ply can be used double stranded)
Pipecleaner
Darning needle
Buttons, felt, embroidery thread – whatever you’d like to use to decorate and embellish

Method

• Cast on 8 stitches, split 4 onto each end of the needle and join to knit in the round – no need to worry about stitch markers

• Knit approximately 5 rounds.

This is when I add my eyes so I can hide the ends in the inside of my snake. I have been using duplicate stitch in either yarn or embroidery thread – though buttons or googly eyes would also be great if you could ensure they were safe for the recipient.

If you used a long tail cast-on, you could pull your cast on tail through the little circle/hole from the initial cast on row using a crochet hook. This will be used to sew up the little hole later.

•  You are now going to reduce the 8 stitches to 6 for the snakes body, so on the next round knit 2, k2tog, k2, k2tog

• Then knit your 6 stitches in the round for the length of your pipecleaner (mine were 15cms long)

If you have DPN’s the right size, you could do this as an i-cord

Bend up a teeny bit of both ends of the pipecleaner so that no sharp edges poke out. This makes it easier to feed into your snake, as well as safer for the recipient.

• Feed pipecleaner into the centre tube of your snake

• You have 6 stitches that you've been working - you're going to reduce them so that you get a tapered snake tail by k1, k2tog, k1, k2tog

• Next round K2tog, k2tog

• Cast off
  

Finishing off
Add a little tongue – you could insert a little felt one into the circular hole at the head
Or
Using some embroidery thread on a needle, sew in and out of the snake at a position where the mouth would be and then knot together a couple of times, cut to the right length for a forked tongue. Sew up the little circular hole at the head with the cast on tail

Sew in the tail end

(click to enlarge)