Materials for knitalong

Good morning everyone!  I'm working on the hat pattern as we speak, so that people who want to knit an adult sized hat can do so.  I'll put the pattern up very soon.  Today, we'll be discussing materials.  Warning: this is going to be a very long post.

Here is a list of our materials needed, with explanations following:

• Yarn of DK or worsted weight, categories 3 or 4.  Once you decide color, weight, fiber content, etc following the guidelines below if you need to, pick up some yarn.  If you're making a baby-sized hat, one skein of approximately 100 yards should do, and you will have some left over.  If you are making a really large hat, you will probably want two have two skeins at approximately 100 yards each, just to be safe.  You'll definitely have some leftover, but at least you won't have to experience the horror of running out.
• Needles.  How to pick your size is explained in the paragraphs about needles, but if you don't want to read those then just get some needles that are the size listed on your yarn label.
• Stitch markers: optional.
• Tapestry/yarn needle.

First, let's talk about yarn.  There are tons of different ways to pick yarn, but I'll let you in on my thought process when choosing yarn for a project, even though it could be rather scary.  The first thing I do is choose what color I want.  I'll be making the strawberry hat, so I know that I need red, green, and black (if I want to add seeds).  This pattern also lends itself well to being any vegetable or fruit; I've seen the red with black seeds for strawberries, plain red for tomatoes, orange for pumpkins, purple for eggplants, and even yellow for hot peppers.  If you are doing a plain hat without the stem on top, you can choose as many colors as you want, and do stripes, cables, or even knit from a chart to give you a really cool design of your choosing to really personalize it.  As a sidenote, knitting from a chart or a graph is a lot easier than it looks.  You can also knit the hat plain, and then take a different colored yarn and, following the stitches you've already made, stitch a design onto the hat.  I'm knitting plain navy mittens right now, and after they're finished I will be duplicate stitching the Boston Red Sox "B" on them.  This is even easier than knitting from a chart.  As I mentioned before, the possibilities are endless!

So, you've chosen your color(s).  Good!  The next step is to figure out the yarn weight that you need to use.  This is generally stated in the pattern you'll be using, but since you don't have a pattern yet I'll tell you; this pattern can use either DK or worsted weight yarn.  These are weight categories 3 and 4.  If you've never shopped for yarn before and this sounds totally weird, all you have to do is look at the label.  Any information you need should be on the label, as well as some that you won't care about.

This label is for a DK, or category 3, weight yarn.  The label will also tell you what knitting needle/crochet hook size you should use to get the correct gauge, which is on the label as well.  There will also be care instructions on the label.  We will talk about gauge very soon, for today we are just going to collect materials.

After choosing your color and weight, you should choose your fiber content.  There are loads and loads of different fibers to choose from, and then various combinations of these fibers as well.  It can be kind of overwhelming, but if you think about it a bit before going shopping, that will make it a little easier.  I'll tell you about some fibers that I have used, as well as some that I've only heard rumors about.

• Acrylic-This was the first fiber I ever used when knitting, and I have used it for all three strawberry hats I've made.  Acrylic is not terribly warm, but I like it for baby things because they are generally going to be bundled within an inch of their lives anyway.  It's definitely better than the baby wearing nothing at all, but it's not as warm as wool.  Acrylic is easy care, and can be tossed in the washer and dryer without a thought.  It shouldn't be ironed, because it can melt pretty easily, but other than that it's great.  Those of you who have sweaters probably have some that are 100% acrylic.  I have used Lion Brand Vanna's Choice, which is a really soft acrylic.  It made really nice baby hats and mittens.

• Wool-I have recently used 100% wool for a couple of projects, and I'm definitely in love.  I used Plymouth Yarn Galway Worsted weight wool for a pair of mittens, and it was some of the nicest yarn I have ever worked with.  I don't get out much.  Really though, it was soft, didn't break that I noticed, and was an absolute joy to work with.  Sometimes I just touched it because it was so nice, but we won't talk about that.  Wool is an excellent fiber, because it stays warm when it gets wet, making it really great for outdoor gear for people who are out in the snow/rain a lot.  You've heard of fishermen sweaters?

 

          This guy looks a bit too leisurely to actually be a fisherman, but I digress.  These intricate cable sweaters were worn by fishermen when they were going out on their boats, and were generally made of 100% wool so the men would remain warm even when wet.  Their wives would knit them these sweaters, and some women even knitted the family crest into the cable design.  Wow.  There are a couple of drawbacks to 100% wool, however.  Objects made with 100% wool, if thrown in the washer, will come out several sizes smaller than when they went in.  Felting or fulling, the process of shrinking handknits, occurs with hot water and agitation, so most 100% wool yarns say to handwash anything made with them.  However, there is such a thing as Superwash wool, which is 100% wool that is totally machine washable.  It's also less itchy, in my opinion.  Another reason why I tend to shy away from wool for baby things, is that they have pretty sensitive skin, so I don't want them crying every time their mother puts a hat I made on their heads.

• Wool/acrylic blends-These, to me, are the best of both worlds, to be totally cliche.  I've used Lion Brand Wool-Ease, which is an 80% acrylic 20% wool blend.  I've used it for baby things before, and it was excellent.  It combines the easy care of acrylic with the warmth of wool.  You can also find different blends, like 75% acrylic, 25% wool, and I'm sure there's a 50/50 blend out there somewhere that I haven't discovered yet, because I've been too busy sitting at home touching my 100% wool.
• Cotton-There are 100% cotton yarns, and blends with some cotton in them.  I have not used a yarn with cotton in it yet, but would like to try Lion Brand Cotton Ease, which is a 50% cotton and 50% acrylic blend.  100% cotton is not stretchy really.  I hear it makes excellent dishcloths, but I would not recommend it for a hat.  This is the fiber that I've only heard rumors about.

There are lots of other fibers too that I can't talk about.  All you need to do is go into a yarn shop to see everything there is.  And, most certainly, the fibers I have discussed here are not the only ones to choose from.  As long as you get some yarn in a color you like that is weight category 3 or 4, you will be absolutely fine.

Okay, so now we have our yarn.  Remember when we looked at the label to see what the weight of the yarn was?  The label also shows a suggested needle size.  You can pick up some needles of this size to start out with, and then we'll go from there.  Everybody knits differently, so it's hard to tell what size you'll need before you start.  I knit extremely tightly, so I generally have to go up two needle sizes from what the pattern states, and once made an adult large hat to fit a small child by using the needle size recommended in the pattern.  Woops!  There are also some choices to make concerning needles:

• Metal needles are good because it would take a lot to break them.  However, they have no give to them at all, so if you have arthritis, or knit all the time, they will be hard on your hands.  Metal needles are also very slippery.  
• Plastic needles are a bit more flexible, but I think with the same amount of slipperiness.  Metal and plastic needles are generally less expensive than bamboo.  
• Bamboo needles are very flexible, and easy on your hands.  They are also less slippery, since the wood holds the yarn.  I can't promise that you won't get splinters, especially after you've used the needles for a long time and they start to get a little scratched at the points.  Bamboo needles are pretty pricey, and can break much easier than plastic or metal.

My personal preference is for bamboo, but I want you to use whatever works for you.  Another choice where needles are concerned:

• Circular needles are two needles that are connected by a cable.  These needles create a tubelike piece of knitting, when used to knit in the round.  They can also be used to knit flat objects, which is really nice because you will never lose one of your needles.  If you choose to use a circular needle, you will want to purchase one that is one or two inches smaller than the circumference of the hat you'll be making.  Circular needles can sometimes be hard to manage if you don't get the right length.
• Double point needles usually come in sets of four or five, and they are pointed at both ends.  These needles also create a tube when knitting in the round.  They are also very good for looking cool if you are knitting in public, as many people think it's wild to knit with four or five needles.  Disclaimer: This isn't really true, it's pretty hard to look cool while knitting in public.  I've tried.  Double point needles can also be hard to manage, since at times it can seem like there are a million of them.  Also, you run the risk of having six to eight different ends for the stitches to fall off of, if you don't put something on the ends to prevent that.

My preference in this case is double point needles.  I find circular needles rather irritating to handle.  Also, with double point needles, I avoid dropping stitches off the ends by using much longer needles than recommended, so I have space for the stitches to move around.  My mother-in-law, who learned how to knit on a hat, prefers circulars.  This isn't really a choice that I can make for you, because everything about that needles is personal preference.  You can find debates about whether metal, plastic, or wood needles are better, and all sorts of people will give you reasons why you should use circulars over double point needles, and vice versa.  This is going to be the kind of thing that we find out through trial and error.  That said, it's okay to make errors.  I do it all the time.

You might also want some stitch markers, which you can get at any craft store that sells yarn.  You can also use a piece of different colored yarn, or I keep a bag of those elastics that everybody had to wear when they had braces.  Paper clips and safety pins work too.  This is just going to be something that you slide on your needle to mark the beginning of your round.  You will also need a tapestry or yarn needle.  This is a larger needle with a big eye that will take yarn through it.  I would suggest blunt tip for this particular purpose; you'll be using it to weave in ends, and if you have a sharp one you'll be splitting stitches and it will be way more trouble than it is worth.

If you are planning to purchase circular needles, here is a note on choosing your hat size:  If you can measure the recipient's head, that is your best bet.  The hat should be about 1 inch smaller than the head circumference, because it will stretch.  For example, if I wanted to make a hat for myself, and my head circumference is 22 inches, I would want my hat to have a circumference of 21 inches, and would need to buy a circular needle with a length of 19 inches.  Circular needles aren't sold in lengths of 19 that I'm aware of, so I may choose to try double point needles instead.  If you get a needle that is too short, your stitches will be really bunched up and you'll have a hard time knitting the hat.  In the book Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, there is a handy chart with average head sizes to use when making hats.  This book is available at the Presque Isle Town Library, but that link above will take you straight to the Amazon listing, and your local yarn store may have it as well.  This is a great book of general rules for all knitters, as well as being a downright hilarious read.  I would highly recommend it.

As another sidenote, this hat can be knit flat and then seamed up the back.  That seems like a lot of work to me, so I've never tried it.  If you would like to do that, just buy straight needles with the caps on the end and we'll work that out too.  The hat can also be made without the ear flaps, but will become roll-brim unless you do some sort of ribbing on the cuff.  We can deal with that possibility too.  Pompoms can also be added to the top to make it fun.  The ties, if you wish to have them, can be a knitted cord or a braid with a tassel on the end.  Like I said, the possibilities are endless.  If you would like to try one of these things I mentioned, or something I haven't mentioned, just let me know and I'll try to make the pattern as detailed and complete as possible for all of those things.  In fact, let me know if I can do anything to help you on this quest for a knitted hat.  I love knitting, and want to share it with as many people as possible, so don't hesitate to ask anything!  Thanks for joining me, and good luck with your materials search!

We have a winner!

Hi everyone!  Just want to say thanks to everyone who entered, there were eleven in all!  I used a random number generator, assigning each post a number, and the winner was Jeanne.  Congratulations!  If you want to email me at alexandyj@gmail.com, we can work out the details of your prize!

To everyone else, worry not, there will be other giveaways!  In the meantime, I'll be posting details of the knitalong very soon, such as materials needed, and whatever else anyone wants to know before we actually start knitting.  Let me know in the comments if you want me to answer any questions in particular.  Thanks again to everyone who entered!

Reminder!

Just a quick reminder that you all have until tomorrow, Tuesday, at noontime to enter the yarn giveaway.  I promise I will blog about something soon, it's been a crazy week!  I keep saying that about every week, so maybe it's not that I'm having crazy weeks all the time, it's just that my standards for a normal week are too high?  Hmm.  Must think on this.  I finished the mittens, and just need to sew the buttons on the scarflet, in other news!  Yay!  Enter the giveaway, and I'll talk to you all soon!

Overdue projects

So, for the past few days I've been scanning fabrics into the shop computer in an attempt to get the online shop up to date.  As a sidenote, scanning fabric with a regular scanner makes the colors come out way better than taking photographs of the fabrics.  This was Jake's idea, and it's really really cool and I don't find scanning every single bolt of fabric in the shop monotonous (yet), because it surprises me every time how good the fabrics look.
Anyway, as a result of scanning fabrics all day every day, I have nothing exciting to blog about.  I'm just going to show you a couple of projects I'm working on, that I have been working on for a really long time, and I'm pretty sure the recipients are getting tired of waiting for them.

The first project is a scarflet.  I had originally intended for this yarn to be a full-fledged lace scarf.  However, it was getting close to Christmas, so I decided to make a shorter scarf that would button instead of a long scarf.  I guess we can all see where I am on that.  I used this Basic Recipe for a Scarflet, along with some Cascade 220 superwash wool from Fiberphilia in Orono, Maine.  I was very specific in what I wanted for yarn, and I had been looking for a long time for just the right thing.  I have this notion that when I get an idea to do a project, I will know the yarn and pattern when I see it.  So, this started with "I'll make a scarf for Chelsea."  Chelsea is a friend of mine who is really trendy and likes to accessorize.  One of her favorite colors is purple.  So, I had to find a pattern that I thought was perfect, and then find a yarn that was perfect.  Back before I decided that I needed to not make a full scarf for Chelsea, I chose this scarf:

It would make a nice accessory, and it wasn't very long, so I figured I'd be okay.  I just had to find the perfect yarn.  After a very long time of searching, the Cascade yarn won my heart for this project, and I was ready to go.  However, there is something that is a big part of making lace, called a yarnover, which creates the holes in the lace.  I have this need to pull every stitch tight after I knit it, which is perhaps why I knit so slowly, so my holes disappeared and the scarf didn't look right at all.   It was pretty bad, actually.  Someday I would like to try this scarf again, because I do think it's rather fetching, but for now I am not doing lace.

The stitch used in this pattern is called the linen stitch, and you really can't see it in the pictures.  This next photo might show it better, but all it really does is show what a difference turning the flash on and off can make with color.

These pictures are, in fact, the same scarflet.  I really like how the stitch pattern is coming out, it has a really nice texture.  There is a garter stitch border to keep it from curling, but I added stitches to the middle without adding stitches to the border, so mine is still curling.  I hope blocking helps.  Here are the buttons I'm going to put on it:

I think they're really cute, with the little dried flowers in them.  I feel sad for Chelsea that she has waited so long for this, and by the time I get it done it will probably be too warm to wear it.

I always have two knitting projects going at once, even though my husband is trying to cure me of that so that I won't complain about knitting so slowly.  The other project that I'm working on is a pair of mittens for my brother in law, who is actually Chelsea's boyfriend.  My husband's great grandmother knit everyone double thick mittens when they were kids, but now her hands are so crippled with arthritis that her knitting days are over.  Last time we visited, she was showing me a crochet project, however.  The woman is approaching 100, and her hands are crooked and bent, but by golly, she is still going to do some sort of fiber art.  I hope to be like that.

Anyway, I was commissioned by my brother in law, Gabe, to make a pair of mittens for him EXACTLY like the ones Great Grammy used to make.  I pretty much decided to wing it for the first pair, and ended up making a pair that fit my sister.  I'm currently working on a pair that should be more his size, and am almost finished.  My husband graciously agreed to model them for you:

One of them needs to be closed up at the top, and they both need thumbs.  But I'm so close!  The two different colors is what makes the mittens double thick, because you carry the color not being used behind the stitch you're knitting.  It creates a very cushy material.  I used the Basic Men's Mittens from the Knit with KT blog.  I had to heavily modify the pattern because I knit super tightly, and because you get a different gauge anyway when knitting with two colors, or at least I do.  Pip is not as excited about these mittens as she was about Jake's scarf...

I'm hoping to finish these projects up very soon, because next on my list are...more mittens.  So excited.

Start of the knitalong: a giveaway!

Remember this post where I talked to you about knitalongs and quiltalongs? Well, today I would like to introduce our first knitalong (again, since I kind of introduced it in the explanatory post)!

We are going to be making a hat with earflaps and ties. Before you immediately stop reading this post because you don't know how to knit, you CAN learn with this project! You can make your hat any size and any color, or multiple colors! This is the one I'll be making, except I had lots of complaints that strawberries aren't fuschia, so I purchased some red yarn instead.

If you would like to learn how to knit, would like to try knitting with circular needles, would like to learn how to read a pattern, or just want to make a quick project, this is perfect for you! This project is great for doing colorwork (stripes, designs, etc) in the body of the hat, or for doing cabling, if you feel up to that. As a sidenote, cabling is actually way easier than it looks, but maybe I told you that already when I was going crazy showing you my cabled projects.

We're not going to start the knitalong for a couple of weeks, probably, because I want to give everyone time to think about what they would like to do in terms of colors, sizes, etc. This is going to be a pretty slow paced, but if I end up going too fast I expect someone to tell me! I wouldn't worry about that, though, because I have a good many projects to do on the side (is anyone but me still doing Christmas knitting? As in, Christmas 2009?).

Another reason that we aren't going to be starting for a bit is because I want to have a

Yarn Giveaway!

Yeehaw! I'm very excited. Okay, here are the details for the yarn giveaway:

• Whoever wins gets to pick out a yarn color that they want (up to two colors), and whether they would like to make the hat out of 100% wool, a wool blend, or acrylic. I can give suggestions on that as well, if you're worried! :)
  
  
• I will get the yarn for the winner, and get it to them (or, if you're local, we can meet up and go together if that works out). Another option is for me to get the winner a gift certificate to a local yarn shop of their choice.
  
  
• Then, the winner will only have to get the needles for their project. Is anyone besides me excited about this?!
  
  
• Also, even people who are related to me can win. All you have to do to enter the yarn giveaway is comment on this post, telling me if this is your first project, who you will be making the project for, and what color you plan to make it, if you know. The deadline for entry will be 12 noon, EST, on Tuesday, February 23.

Even if you don't want to make this project, and just want to score some yarn, you should still enter! Just comment on this post and tell me what you plan to knit next.

As a reminder, to be entered in for the yarn giveaway you must comment on this post! To do that, just click on the link at the bottom of the posts that says "comments."

Good luck to everyone who enters!

Craft musings...

I often wonder to myself, why do I do this?  When I'm in the middle of a particularly irritating, difficult, or monotonous project, I ask, "Why do I put myself through this misery?  I say that it's because I enjoy it, but I'm certainly not enjoying it now!"  I've also heard people talk about being a "process" crafter or a "product" crafter.  If one is a process crafter, they are doing it because they simply enjoy making things.  If one is a product crafter, they enjoy the finished product, but may not be wild about seaming knitted pieces together or sewing borders on to a quilt.  I haven't decided which of those I am, because I really geek out sometimes about certain parts of the process, but I like admiring the finished product as well.  Although, many times, it takes me so long to finish a project that by the time it is a finished product I've moved on to the next project in my head.  I do have a couple of ideas about why I craft, however.

I'm a huge fan of multitasking.  I crosstitched and embroidered a lot when I was younger while I was watching TV, or doing other things that didn't require the use of my hands.  Lately, I've been knitting like a crazy person.  I find that the more I do it, the more I want to.  It's a vicious cycle, but I'm not complaining!  I love to watch movies, but often feel like if I sit down and spend two hours watching a movie without doing anything else, even if I like the movie, I've wasted time.  I solve this problem by knitting while watching movies.  My favorite kind of evening is one spent at home watching a movie with my knitting, and maybe my husband.  :)

It's harder to quilt while doing other things, for me.  I'm relatively new to quilting in particular, and sewing on a machine in general, so I have to really pay attention to what is going on.  Especially when sewing clothes.  I recently had a run in with a pair of flannel pajama pants that I'd rather not speak about.  I think the reason that I sew is because I enjoy creating one of a kind quilts.  I can make the same pattern 50 times and have it look different every time.  I haven't sewn too much in the way of clothes, but I do have a little bit of an arrogant side when it comes to sewing.  Not too many people my age sew, at least that I know, so if I wear an article of clothing that I've made, and someone says, "Oh wow, your dress is really cute!"  I generally reply with, "Thanks, I made it!"  I should probably work on toning down my pride when I say that, because the stuff I make really isn't all that exciting, but I have a problem.

I also craft because I love the look on a person's face when I give them something that they know no one else will have.  I give most of the things that I make away, mostly because I'm still working through a huge list of things that people have requested I make them ever since they found out I knit and sew.  My family and my husband's family are both full of unique people, so they really appreciate receiving something that will make then stand out.  That's what they tell me, anyway.

Lastly, I craft because it keeps me fairly sane.  I find it very relaxing to spend a day sewing or knitting.  Most times.  I have also found that if I'm in a particularly trying situation, if I pull out my knitting it causes a calm to wash over me, to be totally cliche.  It makes me concentrate on something else rather than whatever annoying thing is happening at the time.

I want to know why you, our readers, craft.  Or, conversely, if you don't craft, I want to know why you don't.  Do you wish you could, and want someone to teach you?  Do you think crafting is totally a waste of time, money, and energy?  Or do you, like me, get a warm fuzzy from giving someone a unique, homemade gift?  Let us know by clicking the comments button at the bottom of this post, we would love to hear from you!

Attacking Applique, Part 2.5 and a giveaway!

Okay, today I'm going to share with you that half of an applique method I did a long time ago.  But first, a little bit of backstory....

When I first learned to quilt, my mom, grandmother, and cousin, along with a friend of my grandmother's, all went to Sheila Belyea's house for lessons.  She used to own the shop that my mom now owns.  My mom had done some quilting, so I think she was finishing up a quilt she had started for my older sister when she was a baby.  My grandmother and her friend were both doing the Turning Twenty quilt, and I chose Eleanor Burns's Log Cabin.  My cousin also chose the Log Cabin, but she made hers out of a Jelly Roll from Moda.  I chose a bunch of different fabrics, first choosing a border print with lots of color, and then making one half of each of my log cabin blocks red, and the other half purple, with a teal center.  It actually turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself!

So, I finished that top.  I was pretty excited about quilting.  My then fiance was graduating from college in a couple of months, so I thought I would make him a quilt, by which I mean I would make a quilt that I liked, and give it to him, since we would be sharing it after we got married anyway.  I ended up choosing a scrappy star quilt from the Fons and Porter Fat Quarter Friendly book.  I chose a bundle of Moda Wovens, and went wild picking out fabrics for the stars, borders, and backing.  I was very excited.

I washed my fabric and got it all prepared and ready to cut.  I thought I would cut out all of the star pieces first, since the bulk of the pieces were stars, and it wouldn't be very exciting.  Then, I really looked at the quilt picture while reading the instructions.  There were 154 stars in this quilt.  The centers were 2 inches finished.  I had to cut 154 2.5 inch squares.  Not only that, but I had to cut 1232 1.5 inch squares, since each of the stars was to have eight points.  Likely I had been praying for patience shortly before that, and this quilt is what I got.

This quilt involved a lot of sweat, blood, tears, and seam ripping.  I even had other people at class seam ripping for me because they felt so bad for me.  It wasn't a good scene.  Finally, I got the dang quilt done, several months late, but Josh loved it anyway.  It was completely done by me; pieced, quilted, binding put on, and label attached.

 

 Josh loved the quilt (as did his mom, who asked me to make her one exactly like it.  I made her one with thirty bigger stars instead.), and every time we make our bed and lay the quilt out, he says, "Have I ever told you how much I like this quilt?"  This is possibly because when I gave it to him I made it plain that he had better appreciate everything I had invested in this quilt.  Anyway, on to the applique part of this post.

 

I like to embroider too, because I don't have enough other projects to keep me busy.  I got a little piece of muslin from somewhere, probably my mom's scraps, and traced the words off of a piece of paper that I printed off of the computer.  My freehand embroidery is not so great, so I definitely needed some lines to go by.  I embroidered all the letters, and then when I was done I pressed the square to set everything.  Then, I laid the piece face down, and pressed all of the edges under about an eighth of an inch.  After pressing the edges under, I placed the label where I wanted it, and blanket stitched all the way around the edges.  I've also heard of people using freezer paper for this method, but at the time I just wanted to get the quilt out of my sight, and didn't really know that I was doing applique anyway.  How I did it was a quick and dirty method that got the job done, but doesn't necessarily look really great.  My corners are unfolding a little bit, but I keep telling myself that that adds to the charm of the quilt.

So, this wasn't actually a tutorial on applique for you, it was basically me showing off a project that perhaps had a tiny tiny bit of shoddy applique.  But now, I'm going to tell you about a giveaway that's happening!

 

A blog that I follow, French Press Knits, is holding a giveaway.  So no, we're not doing a giveaway here, but maybe someday!  Melynda, the blogger at French Press Knits, sells these felted slippers, along with the pattern for anyone who wants to make their own.  I first saw them when Stephanie Pearl-McPhee blogged about them right before Christmas, and like many other lemmings out there, went straight to Melynda's site and bought the pattern.  Stephanie, also known as the Yarn Harlot, has quite a few readers, so once she blogged about the slippers, Melynda's pattern sales went really wild.  One of the sites that she sells them on requires her to email PDF copies of the pattern to whoever purchases them, and she was getting so many email requests that her email company flagged her as spam and shut down her email account.  So anyway, these slippers are pretty great, and popular! :)

Melynda is giving away a free pair of custom made felted slippers on her blog.  All you have to do is go to her blog, and comment on the giveaway post with your favorite color and button combo, and your email address.  There are links to choices in this post as well, when I originally read it I thought I had to pick from every color and button in the world!  Which is, incidentally, why I shouldn't read other people's blogs right when I get out of bed and before breakfast.  She also includes different ways to get additional entries, so there is no reason that some nice person reading our blog shouldn't have a fighting chance!  So, go check out that post, and her blog is pretty great too, so you can explore that as well.  See you next time!