We have a winner!

Melanie is the grand prize winner of the Hanne Falkenberg kit! I know it sounds so cheesy, but things really do happen for a reason - today is her birthday. She has already picked out her prize, and I know that inquiring minds want to know...

Lido!

She picked the Lagoon/Indigo colorway:

I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Thanks to everyone who made this fund raiser possible. We raised $1750 for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund! I am very, very proud of everyone for pitching in and so glad I finally worked up the nerve to do this.

The rest of the raffle winners have been notified, so if you haven't received an e-mail from me, sorry, dudes. But we can all vicariously live through Melanie today...

The long-awaited prize post

Dudes, I know, I am completely lame. How hard it is to take a few pictures of the generous prize donations I received a few weeks ago and slap them on the blog? Apparently it's either really hard or I am really lazy. Personally, I'm going to go with #2.

Prizes! In addition to the Hanne Falkenberg kit, three pairs of handknit socks and the prizes showcased a few weeks ago, I have some excellent new prizes to show off.

From Tahmi, this amazing bracelet:

Is that not stunning? This prize is available to both knitters and non-knitters because jewelry knows no stitching boundaries.

Next, we have some beauties from Ashley. The first is a two-skein set.

You have some recycled yarn - a merino/viscose/angora/cashmere blend (on the right) as well as some gorgeous handspun alpaca.

Ashley also sent a braid of this gorgeous Falklands wool in the Candy Apple colorway. I'm pairing that with some cute stitch markers from Molly. I love them because they're not a swingy and jangly and shouldn't get caught up in your knitting.

And lastly we have some of my hand-dyed yarn - two skeins of Spring Violet, about 400 yards total. This stuff is so fun because each ply takes up the dye differently, giving it a nice barber pole effect.

Don't forget - you can keep on donating through August 15. Actually, I'll be out of town until Sunday, so let's close entries at 11:59 p.m. on August 16. I'll pick the winners Sunday afternoon. Woo-hoo!

If you're feeling incredibly generous, hop on over to my MDA page. It was a late Friday afternoon at work, I'm in a half-daze and someone calls and asks me to participate in a "lockup." Never done that before! Sounds fun! Right before I hang up the phone I'm asked to raise $1600. And even though I was already in the midst of the Red Cross fundraiser, I couldn't say no. It's to send kids to camp. How could I not help with that? Anyway, any and all donations are very appreciated. I have no more prizes to give, but if you ever sell off parts of your stash (especially the sock yarn), I'll be first in line.

Wow.

Thank you all for your donations over the past 24 hours. I knew the notice on Ravelry would help, but the girls at Lime & Violet totally stepped up to the plate and added some prizes to the pot. I was going through e-mails this morning and donations just kept coming in. We're very close to our goal, but I'm going to keep this thing rockin' until August 15 as promised.

More later, but I need to scoot and get to the doctor's office. Is today the day I get my cast off for good? If it's not, I'm getting a navy blue one and I will decorate it with glitter glue tears. It has been six weeks since I've been able to walk with a normal gait and I'm starting to look like Quasimodo. With a limp.

** Update! We're past $1,000! Wooo! Also, my cast is off, but I may have a torn ligament in my foot. I won't get into it, but there were things growing on the bottom of it. Ewwww. And I'm still in quite a bit of pain, but at least I will be able to take a shower without a huge plastic thing around my leg. Woo-hoo!

Now with prizes!

Who wants to win some fabulous prizes for donating to the Red Cross? Because, boy, do I have some nice things to give away. There will of course still be the grand prize, a Hanne Falkenberg kit of your choice, but I also have some smaller yarny goodies. Check them out:

Chrissie donated this beautiful Pigeonroof Studios sock yarn, complete with an adorable mini-skein. I had never seen this stuff in person, and man, is it pretty.

This is Fleece Artist Nova Sock in an unnamed colorway (but I think of it as Slytherin). It is delightfully silky and soft.

Great Adirondack Montana. This is 500 yards of worsted-weight merino in the Chili Pepper colorway. Love it.

KCPL, dyed by me. 462 yards of superwash sock yarn (this is actually Trekking base yarn).

An alpaca extravaganza! Two skeins of green Frog Tree and three skeins of Plymouth Indicieta in a rich brown. That's a lot of alpaca.

If you are not a knitter, I can promise yummy baked goods. I make really good bread and cookies, as well as excellent mix CDs.

So come one, come all, help us raise money for the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund! For the first prize, I have picked a secret number and whomever's donation gets us there will get to pick something from the prize basket.

We are awesome

Do you see that number over there? $675 raised for the Red Cross! Can you believe it? I am so excited. And just to keep things interesting, be on the lookout for smaller prizes to start making an appearance over the next few days. There will be yarn and fiber for you knitters and maybe some baked goods for the non-knitters! Thanks for being awesome.