Mystery Sock KAL

The super talented Ruth Garcia (aka Rock and Purl) is running a 'Mystery Sock KAL' at the moment, and I was thrilled to be asked to sponsor a prize :)

I also get to judge the category 'Most Outrageous Colourway' sock ... she knows me so well!!!
Her Ravelry forum is here and all you need to do is buy the pattern... and post photos when prompted... obviously NO spoilers though, as it's a mystery *WiNKS*

I know a lot of you are a huge fan of sock knitting, and I urge you to support Ruth, as she's both an awesome peep, and a very talented designer.

And who can sniff at winning stuff for knitting something you love?? And supporting small independant businesses at the same time?

NicsKnots is sponsoring a prize category .... as is Debbie Bamford (aka The Mulberry Dyer)

So, there it is, you have no reason NOT to...

Community... and other ramblings

Sorry for the long blog silence... *sighs*
I have had a KA~raaaAAaaazy couple of months, culminating in some remodelling work here at Casa Longlegs.

But, hopefully (fingers/toes/everything crossed) normality will resume in the non-too-distant future ... whatever normality is :)

A few things have happened within my online community too ...
I have wanted to write about a few of the issues that concern me, as I feel really strongly about them. I don't always like to express a hugely biased opinion, publically, about stuff either, as more often than not, there are ALWAYS more complicated factors involved, which are hidden and may colour the situation.

I am not referring to any incident in particular either, as much more has been said, in a way more eloquent fashion, by people more closely involved.

But, I can share how I feel in general, I mean this is my space ... if you don't like what I say you can always close the tab and stop reading !!

Because of the way things work in the Woolly World, a lot of business relies on the internet, particularly marketing through social networking, eg. Ravelry, Facebook, Twitter etc... and it also relies very heavily on reputation. There are only so many shows one business can attend, so the majority of buying and selling has to occur electronically...
One wrong word on the right page can cause devastation for a small independent business, and this damage can take a long time to recover from, if at all.
I pride myself on my communication and customer service... you may not see a lot of me in the public eye, but should you deal with me directly, via email or whatever... I will always do my best to help you and give you what you want, in a timely fashion.
If I cannot be timely, I will tell you directly about it.

All of my Woolly friends are the same as me, in this respect. We value our community and our supporters enormously, because if it were not for that... we would have nothing.
We also value each other, and if someone is having a hard time, or has problems... we try our best to help, even if it's just a quick email/Tweet or Facebook comment.
*whispers* I have even sometimes been known to pick up the telephone *shocked face* ...

I switch on my computer when I get up in the morning, and it's then that I begin 'work', and when I turn it off before I go to bed, that's when I stop 'work'... so you see, 9 to 5 doesn't even come close!!

I love my job, and I love my peeps ... but it is sometimes very hard to stand by and watch the bandwagon when it starts rolling by ... and the carnage it causes in its wake.

Birthday Boys

Another year has gone by, like a flash, and it's that time again.
My boys have changed a lot over this year... and Daniel especially has grown like you wouldn't believe!!!
Happy Birthday, my darlings...

Just call me a Bag Lady :D

As you all know, I am very good friends with Nic Lucas, aka NicsKnots
We've done a few shows together now, and I have my own exclusive range of her project bags too :D
We've known each other for ages, we met through a Parenting website called MumsOnline, as at the time our kids were babies, and we shared a love of using cloth nappies as opposed to nasty plastic ones, as well as a love of knitting of course. If I remember correctly, Nic's daughter was one of the first recipients of a pair of Babylonglegs woollies... or was it yarn to make some... :P
Over the years, we've built up our respective businesses, from home, juggling children, housework (or in my case avoiding housework) and Husbeasts :D
Not an easy task, I can tell you!!
Nic has recently moved away from Folksy (do I dare insert 'About bloody time' here or would that be unprofessional of me?) and has set up her own website... which looks fantastic, and will cost her a LOT less and she'll have more control.
She's currently running a blog competition, asking customers to submit pictures of her products 'in the Wild' so to speak, as she wants to build up a picture gallery on her site.
All you have to do, to be in with a chance of winning, is take a picture of a NicsKnots product, be it a bag or a needle roll, or BOTH... and post it on her Facebook page or you can email it to her if you don't use Facebook.
The prize is a £30 voucher for Nic's shop, a skein of Babylonglegs yarn, and Rachel Coopey, an awesome British Indie designer is donating some of her patterns.

So what are you waiting for??
Get snapping... you've got till 25th of March to enter!!!!

P.S I am totally unashamed of my collection of project bags... and this is only half of them :P

Blog Comp...Blog Comp...Blog Comp!!!!

Okay... my brain has been running on overdrive the past few days, as you can probably imagine, with the whole 'Knit Now' thing happening tomorrow ... *squeeeees*, so, I thought I would run a competiton!!

I thought it might be fun... plus you guys will win something!!!

The winner will get a skein of semi~Precious DK, or semi~Precious sock... to knit WoollyWormhead's 'Tangled River' or one of the other awesome patterns featuring my yarn from Issue 6 of 'Knit Now'... and all other entrants will get a personalised discount code for free UK P&P to be used whenever you like.

All you have to do, is to go out and buy the magazine, then post a photo of you AND the magazine on my FaceBook Page ...

Simple huh??

My special winner chooser boy will pick the picture he likes the most, so a little hint... make it funny enough to appeal to an 8 year old... hahaha :D

I'm on the cover of a MAGAZINE!!!

© 2012 Tim Bradley for Practical Publishing

So, this Thursday sees the release of Issue 6 of 'Knit Now' Magazine ... and lookieLOOKIE who is on the cover!!!!

© 2012 Tim Bradley for Practical Publishing

The design is by my friend WoollyWormhead and the pattern is called 'Tangled River' ... made from my semi~Precious DK, in the 'Cortezs' Gold' colour.
I sponsored this month's 'Designer Challenge', and there are three other patterns in the mag too, made with semi~Precious sock weight, so as you can imagine, I am absolutely extatic/scared/bouncy at the thought of it all!!
Issue 6 will be available to buy on Thursday... and I will be having a celebratory shop update on Friday, around 8pm.
I have made some really beautiful colours for this one... so it's not to be missed *GRiNS*

Sorry... did i mention how excited I was???

Free Day? It had to be a Green Day!

So, yesterday, we all got a free day, and I got a new green dye...
So, there was only one thing for it. Green, as you all know, is my favourite colour, so, I could think of no better way to spend my free day :)
All these will be available to buy, in my next shop update... which I am currently planning for a week tomorrow.

'Perfection' sock (above) and 'semi~Precious' (below)