An Arab proverb says, “If you have much, give of your wealth; If you have little, give of your heart.” I add, “If you have a bit, give of your yarn!”
Thank heavens for the random number generator, that’s all I have to say. If it’d been up to me, I’d have been thoroughly paralyzed, because I had a reason I wanted each one of you to win that skein of purple cashmere. I’d have picked one of you, then I’d have seen the next name and thought no, I want her to win, then the next name would’ve prompted oh wait, I want her to win, then but wait, it has to be her. And you see I never could’ve gotten anywhere.
Instead, I just plug 1 and 15 into the little website and I get this:
Kristie! Kristieinbc posted the first comment.
I already contacted Kristie, but in case my email went into her spam folder and Kristie, you see this, just let me know your shipping address and it’ll go out on Monday. I secretly wanted everyone to win, which makes little sense but there you go.
I finished Laurayana’s second sleeve last night (whee!) and cast on Audrey in Silt, so things are popping in my sweater wardrobe. This morning I’ll sew in the first sleeve and stitch up that side seam while the second sleeve is blocking.
leave me a comment! it’s giveaway time.
I think it’s time for a little giveaway: this is post 601, I have received 3030 comments, it’s almost December, I have a bunch of subscribers, and I really like you. I really, really like you. Friday morning (Dec 2) I’ll announce the winner, so just leave a comment by Thursday at midnight and you’ll be entered. It’s easy.
Here’s the giveaway prize: a skein of Artyarns Cashmere 5, which is worsted weight, 100% cashmere.
I'll ship it anywhere, so don't worry if you live outside the US
I know at least one person who loves purple (hi Kty!), but even if you don’t, it’s a beautiful shade. Good luck!
p.s. — I’m not responding to comments, so as to keep my own grubby mitts out of the comment list, but yeah, I’m sure…..I had two skeins and made a gift with one, so I know just how gorgeous the yarn is, but I’m ready to let this one go. And if I gave away something I hated, that wouldn’t seem much of a giveaway!
shout out — in NYC, or coming to NYC, and want to see the Picasso exhibit?
I am a member of MOMA, and yesterday I received two free guest passes in the mail for the February 9 – June 6 exhibit called Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914. Obviously, my membership will get me in, I don’t have two people who might like to go with me.
Does anyone want them? I’ll drop them in the mail to you, if you can use them! Airfare and expenses not included. 
thanks for being in this blog thing with me, y’all.
…but the winner of my on-the-fly giveaway is 
1. sherlock
2. pip
3. amanda
4. katie
5. turtlegirl
6. pamela
7. nancy
8. andrea
9. kelli
10. kty
11. sara
12. alannah
13. jannah
14. cdw
15. jo
16. amy v.
17. eskimimi
18. oiyi
19. cate
20. tammy
21. karie
22. ivy
23. louise
24. karen
25. allison
26. carol
27. kate
28. jocelyn
OIYI! I have a specific reason I was secretly hoping each one of you would be the winner. The reason in my heart for Oiyi is that I met her by winning a giveaway on her blog, immediately before Rhinebeck. Oiyi, I’ll be emailing you. And everyone else, thank you for being here with me. I think about you when something great happens and can’t wait to share it with you. Have a good week, and I’ll be back.
NO. WAY. I’ve won twice in the last month. Is everyone being nice to me because I’m about to die?
whee!!! You know how wonderful it is when bloggers sponsor giveaways… especially when the thing given away is something that makes you tingle, something that induces a spasm of want it? There’s an inverse relationship between those really prized things and the possibility that you’ll win, though, because well yeah, you and about a million other people want it.
check out this site if you love a beautiful aesthetic
Yesterday, Susana at MAKE.GOOD studio offered an Envelope Zipper Pouch, 12″x14″, made of charcoal felted wool and lined with gray and white ticking fabric. My mouth watered, and of course I entered.
see what I mean? Isn't it LUSCIOUS?
I love the colors, and the magnetic draw of the gorgeous charcoal wool felt. I entered, never expecting to win (cf above, about that inverse relationship and all).
Cut to today………..I WON! And check out how she announced it – this post has a 40-second embedded video that sets a new standard for announcing things. Definitely click that link and watch it, it’s adorable. I’d have embedded it here for you if I could, but now that I think about it, it’s better that you click over. And then look at the whole site. And then subscribe. All the cool kids are doing it.
Thanks, Susana. I’ll be a foaming-at-the-mouth proselytizer for your beautiful designs!
the noro has left the building!
After a rapid flurry of comments all at once – and thank you for them! – I just crossed the 500th comment marker that triggered the giveaway. It was a little plea for rain that yielded a lovely ball of Noro Bonbori for ………
Thanks to everyone who posts comments on this little blog. You help me feel so much less alone.
And for everyone else, I wish I had Bonbori to spare so I send each of you a little gift to show my gratitude that you share my online world. Your comments always make me smile, often make me laugh, and always help me feel connected.
a funny little giveaway!
I was just on my wordpress dashboard, deleting the inevitable spam comments, when I noticed that I have 401 comments so far. I had such fun with the 100th post giveaway, so it hit me. I’ll do another giveaway for my 500th comment! This one’s a little trickier, since you won’t know when it happens, but this is what I’ll give the person who leaves the 500th comment: a gorgeous little ball of Noro Bonbori, which a friend of mine brought me from Tokyo:
squishy and soft, blues and purples, enough for a hat
Just between you and me, I hope you are the one who gets it. Shhh…
I put a little widget at the very top of the sidebar – it lists the current comment count, so you’ll know when we’re getting close to 500.
Yikes! This morning at 7, I’d completely forgotten that it’s Wednesday, and I was going to select the winner of the giveaway. I just noticed, but I’m at work so I can’t copy and paste the actual image of the random number generated by Random.org……..you’ll just have to trust me on this: it’s #6. And #6 is Noreen. I’ll be contacting you in just a sec for shipping information.
Continue Reading–5 words totally
Yikes! This morning at 7, I’d completely forgotten that it’s Wednesday, and I was going to select the winner of the giveaway. I just noticed, but I’m at work so I can’t copy and paste the actual image of the random number generated by Random.org……..you’ll just have to trust me on this: it’s #6. And #6 is Noreen. I’ll be contacting you in just a sec for shipping information.
Thank you all for leaving such nice comments on that post. And for reading my blog, and commenting whenever you do. I wish I had stash to spare to send each of you a lovely little gift.
living in an apartment in NYC does NOT mean you’re too poor to buy a house!
TRANSLATION
If you live outside the greater NYC area, the words probably have a different meaning – they did for me, anyway, before I moved here. People live in apartments because they can’t afford to buy a house. There’s a kind of implied social class aspect to it. A co-op is some collection of resources: an electric co-op, for rural electricity; a financial co-op; a grocery cooperative, etc.
But here, people live in apartments that they rent, or that they buy. A co-op is a legal structure in which residents of a building own shares in the building – it’s kind of like owning your apartment. But it does involve ownership, even if it’s not exactly like buying a house. I live in an apartment in a co-op building that’s pre-war (i.e. built before WWII, but ours was built in 1900). Our building was built before there was a subway. I live on the Upper West Side, which has a particular flavor like all the neighborhoods in NY do – the UWS is the literary, arty neighborhood. Upper East – richie riches, ladies who lunch.
So it sounds pretty fancy! But this is NY, where real estate and space are at a premium, even in these difficult financial times. Except for the upper-est echelons, apartments are small. Space is minimal. Older buildings – the cool ones, like mine – are old! (obvious, but true) This morning, I looked out our bathroom window and thought there had been a dusting of snow, for a minute, until I realized it’s just the general layer of soot and grime that coats everything here. That’s the view from my bathroom, just below. It’s hard to see, but the railing and the steps have a layer of white-ish crap on them, and it’s not paint, and it’s not snow.
The image on the bottom is the view from my kitchen. I’m always struck by how it looks like a prison yard. Our building is shaped like a U, with the bottom facing the street and a kind of courtyard between the two ‘arms.’ It’s not a fancy courtyard that people use, it’s just a space for getting between the buildings. But that door, at the bottom left; the barbed wire; the general gloominess; it always screams prison yard to me.
But our building is absolutely wonderful, and so is our neighborhood, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere other than Manhattan (though I might consider Hanoi, Paris, or Cusco…). We’re very lucky.
100 posts + a giveaway
This morning I happened upon Anne’s 100th post (congrats, Anne!). In celebration, she is offering a giveaway — so hop over and leave a comment. Reading her post caused me to look at my dashboard and what do you know: I was at 99, so my next post would be my 100th post! Coincidence. So in the same spirit, I thought I’d do a little giveaway. I’ll give two skeins of Berroco Jasper, in a beautiful brown color that variegates to an orange-brown:
Berroco Jasper - 2 skeins just for you!
To enter the giveaway, just leave me a comment. On Wednesday, June 9, I’ll do a random drawing at 7am, and send the skeins to the winner. When you leave a comment, the form asks for your email address, which does not show. Be sure to enter it, so I can contact you.
Of course I’d love it if you looked around the blog and subscribed, but that’s not required. Feel free to forward the post to friends, for the giveaway. If you tweet it or repost on your blog, let me know and you’ll get an extra entry.
It’s a good place to pause for a minute and say that I am glad you read, and leave comments. Have a wonderful Sunday!
a Christmas wish of mine….you can grant
i know you’re there…..just a little wave’ll do! leave me a comment and you might win a prize. someone will!
And do you play DJ, do you go to YouTube and pull up every old song you can think of? Because you can find the most obscure stuff, songs most people seem to forget about. It’s always there, whatever you’re looking for.
With one exception. I wanted to find a clip from The Wizard of Oz, the one where Glinda warbles to the munchkins:
Come out, come out, wherever you are….
You know that song, it’s a good one. And it would’ve been so perfect for this post. Obviously a picture (or video) would’ve saved me the thousand words it’s taken me to tell you about it.
But! Here’s my Christmas wish. Come out, come out, whoever you are. If you’ve been lurking and reading my little blog and you’ve never left a message, believe me I get that!! I read blogs a lot, and rarely leave comments. Those of you who do comment regularly — Laura, Jocelyn, Dina, Pamela, Kelli, Kty, Pip, Tammy, Alannah, Perches, Sara, my daughters — and those who comment on occasion — Noreen, Janna, Alison, Karie, Nancy, Andrea, turtlegirl, cdw, Allison, eskimimi (and apologies for not naming the rest!) — well, you just make my day. Thank you for being part of my life in such a wonderful way.
But if you feel like it, please leave a tiny little comment here so I have a sense of who’s out there. You can make up an alias if you like, of course. If you write a blog and feel like including your url when you leave the comment, I’d love to check out your blog too.
I’ve met some of the nicest people in the world through this blog. Obviously we don’t really know each other. And obviously, if I were in big trouble at 2am and needed help, I’d need to call on someone else. But I do feel very lucky to have met you all, and count you among the blessings of my life.
xoL
p.s. and if you are so inclined, you could also tell me if you subscribe to my blog! But I don’t want to push it.
p.p.s. i’ve talked myself into this: i got so touched, thinking about how much a part of my life you feel, how much your readership, your connection, your always-kind comments (unlike asshole spam) make me feel, I decided to turn this into a giveaway. I have to decide what the prize will be, and as soon as I do, I’ll do another post, but for now here’s the deal: I’ll randomly pick a commenter! Even if you’re here for the first time. Even if you’re in the U.K. or somewhere else.