stash, knit, repeat

(**With apologies to Becky…)

The best contests, I’ve always thought, are the ones that prompt us to do something wonderful. To not only try and get the prize, but improve life for ourselves or others in some way, too. Well, Claudia is the current queen of such contests. In June, she’s participating in the National MS Bike Ride, and she’s providing us all a little incentive to help the cause.

Yup, you read that right. Every $10 in donation to Team Claudia gives you one chance to win a fabulous prize. MS is a terrible disease, and research is actively making a difference in the lives of the 400,000 Americans currently living with it. Last year, the Ride raised $67M, almost $18,000 of which was thanks to Team Claudia! This year, she hopes to raise $20,000. Pfffft, I say. The Harlot has helped encourage knitters to raise over $300,000 for Doctors Without Borders. Surely, we can help Claudia zoom right on past her goal. To sweeten the pot, I’m offering up part of my Stitches haul as one of her many fabulous prizes:

One hank of Jade Sapphire Cashmere-Silk 2ply, in the “Forest Glen” colorway. It’s yummy stuff. Trust me. And a chance to win it (or something else in the huge prize-pool–I’m hoping for the laceweight cashmere, of course ;-) is yours for just a $10 donation to a supremely worthy cause. Or 5 chances to win it are yours for a $50 donation. And so on.

So go ahead. Do something for the good of your fellow man, and go for the goldcashmere, all at once.

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In other news, the weather has turned cool and foggy here once more, and Tulip now has a back!

I’m feeling much more hopeful about the rest of the sweater, now that the back looks like an actual sweater-back and not like the Frankensteiny horror I feared. I still like the way the color is playing out, and I only had to rip once! The modifications for the front were a little trickier, but I’m still hopeful that some time in May I’ll have some new spring duds. Hooray!

I am totally a winner.

This beautiful scarf arrived today from Grumperina, and I’m even happier now that I entered her contest. The scarf is luscious and an extremely welcome addition to my wardrobe. It’s even big enough for two, in a pinch!

Thanks so much, Grumperina!

No pictures of the fir cone cardigan today–gotta save my bloggable material. The second sleeve is around halfway done, and the blocked body is lovely. I’m really excited about giving it to my gram. This gift sweater knitting is making me think once more about a dressform…

You can’t win if you don’t play, the saying goes, and I guess it’s right. I usually don’t enter blog contests, but when the multi-talented Grumperina ran a photo contest for a very long scarf scarcely a week after I took this photo, I couldn’t resist.

And what do you know? I won! *does the little happy dance* I’m going to receive this gorgeous rose alpaca scarf. Just in time, too. The fall weather here in coastal CA isn’t cold enough for me to drag out my coats, but neither is a sweater quite enough. I’ve been wearing my pooling colors scarf, but a little variety will be a very very good thing. Thanks so much, Grumperina!!

(The best thing about winning this contest is that I got the email in the midst of my last-minute elections research, just when I was good and tired of useless, uninformative official candidate pages. It definitely gave me mood boost I needed to sift through piles of campaign crap.)

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The fir cone cardigan is really coming along.

(Unblocked lace: There’s nothing quite like it. Thank God.)

I’m basically done with the left front now; I should be sipping some kind of froufy drink on sleeve island this week. I still love the fabric, and the lace repeat has a nice rhythm to it. Next up is a shawl, though, and I’m anxious to get to it. Go, go, gadget lace!!