Winter Warmers Winners

Yesterday turned out to be a strange day, some awful person hacked into a lot of webshops and destroyed them. Mamma4earth phoned to warn me and so I decided to keep my computer switched off, hence no posting. I have since discovered that not being online makes no difference and fortunately the people who host her webshop had it up and running again by last night.

So although a little later than promised, here are the Winning entries from the Winter Warmers Competition.

Knitted Warmers - Adult - 1st Marie Heydenrych

Knitted Warmers - Adult - 2nd Shirley Wilson

Knitted Warmers - Child - 1st Adri du Plessis

Knitted Warmers - Child - 2nd Alison Freneman

Stitched Warmers - Adult - 1st Marie du Toit

Stitched Warmers - Adult - 2nd St Francis Sewing Friends

Stitched Warmers - Child - 1st Annette Zondagh

Stitched Warmers - Child - 2nd Mariaane Niemandt

We received a total of 48 beautiful blankets and quilts which will all be given to needy individuals to keep them warm this winter.

The winners will receive prizes sponsored by Bernina, House of Embroidery, Arthur Bales, Wilson & Maclagan and Sew Easy.

Winter Warmers

We've had a wonderful afternoon judging all the blankets and quilts but have not managed to get done on time for me to take the photos so that will be done tomorrow. Time to turn all the lights off now.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour - 27th March 2010 from 8:30 to 9:30 PM - Don't forget to switch your lights off for that hour!

I've been thinking how we can help save the earth from a fibre point of view. We would need to recycle. A few ideas immediately come to mind.... save all those little bits of yarn that are cut off after the ends are woven or darned into your knitting and spin them into a new yarn.

Spin old news papers into yarn - using recycled cotton as a core - and use to make anything from jewellery to vessels

Make your own unique, one of a kind fabric from even the tiniest scraps this one was a gift from my very dear friend

and most of all, try to always use only natural, earth friendly materials.

For the last 6 years I've been involoved in project to collect Winter Warmers for people who would otherwise go cold. It has been run as a competition through Craftwise magazine and the judging of this years blankets and quilts takes place tomorrow. The photos of all the entries will be posted on http://www.in2crafts.co.za/  and I'll post photos of the winners here.

Until tomorrow... HAVE FUN!

and remember - discoveries are made by not following instructions :)

I'm a Blogger

Hi and welcome to my blog,

Yesterday, at a regular get together with friends (where we knit, eat, chat and laugh a lot) I was convinced that it is about time that I add blogging to the list of things I do. So here I am...

I've been busy all morning between my dyepots and my computer, setting up my blog and dyeing yarn - having fun, something I do a lot of. One of my favourite sayings is "HAVE FUN". It's important that we enjoy what ever it is we do, it shows in the results. I've been pondering what I'm going to blog about and have made quite a list of things I hope will be of interest to everyone. Besides talking about whatever I'm busy doing, I intend posting tutorials, profiles of fibre artists, book reviews, great places to shop.... So, please let me know if there is a topic you would like me to cover, a technique you would like a tutorial for, an artist you would like profiled, a good place to shop, anything else....and I will do my best to do it here.

In the mean time, I'm looking for a title for a book I'm writing which is due for publication early next year. The book is all about our local (SA) yarn makers and knitting creatively using their yarns. The title needs to reflect this and it must work in both English and Afrikaans. The Afrikaans doesn’t need to be a direct translation or exactly the same title as the English but it must be close enough for people to know that it is the same book.

Any ideas? Who ever thinks up the title/s we use will receive a free copy of the book once it is published.

A section of my studio

Have a wonderful rest of the day and don't forget to HAVE FUN!