Knit. . . "Comfort Slippers", a Fishy Hat and a couple of mysteries.

Children's Fishing Competition hat

There was to be a Children's Fishing Competition at the local wharf, and the likelihood of catching any fish was pretty slim. However, Sonny Jim reckoned he could be in with a chance at getting a prize for "Best Dressed Fisherman" if only I could come up with a costume for him at a few days' notice! So, I scrabbled around in the cupboards and found a length of fabric adorned with a shark print, which would suffice for a fish-hunter's cape. But February is summer and so young Sonny Jim needed a hat to keep the sun off. I rescued one of his discarded ("because it's not cool!") school sun hats and found some fish left over from my epic fish blanket (finished last year). Et voilà! One fishing costume, with a brim large enough to hook the fish up onto at the front, when they got too annoying!

Not only did the young man scoop the coveted "best dressed" prize, but this Fishy Hat also won me a prize in the 12-in-2012 group on ravelry, for daring to be quirky! Which comes naturally to both the son and me!! Two prizes from one impromptu costume - what a score! Not bad for a bit of fabric, an old sun hat, some stuffing and 16 knitted fish!!

And for myself, I managed to complete a pair of Comfort Slippers for Japan, by Reiko Arato - a fund-raising pattern for disaster relief efforts in Japan.

These slippers are just perfect for late summer/early autumn, when you don't need anything too toasty, but bare feet on cold lino floors isn't too much fun either. I have worn them lots since I finished them, and I made them from Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Spirit, which I know from experience is a very hard-wearing yarn. Definitely a hit!

I was working on a Mystery Knitalong shawl, but have put that to one side for now in favour of more pressing things, such as birthday presents. However, I will show you a progress pic as the last clue has been available for over a week and many participants in the knitalong have long since finished the entire shawl, so hopefully I am not spoiling anyone's surprise. . .

Part of the shawl at the end of clue 1 (with stitch markers handmade by the beautiful Derailme)

The other mysteries will have to remain just that, as they are birthday presents for two ravelry friends who sometimes frequent this blog. However, all will be revealed next month :)

Fold. . . Paper crane competition prizes revealed

Both blog prize packages were received long ago, in NZ and England so at long last I can share a few details. I had planned to reveal the prizes here weeks ago, but then life got in the way. . .

Anyway, first up we have the prize awarded to one of Sonny Jim's classmates who made the best guess of the number of cranes in the box (same as in the photo on the blog), after I had spent the afternoon teaching the class how to fold paper cranes. A 9 year old  boy won the prize and I gave him some origami paper and an origami basketball set, whilst I gave the "Paper planes handbook" to the whole class as a thank you for helping me out with the crane project. It even has the instructions for a "flapping bird" at the back (and that is one of the things I taught the class to make!)

Prize for school

Next up we have the prize awarded to the first prize winner in the blog competition, Laura, who managed to guess only one away from the correct number of paper cranes:

First prize (think I swapped small paper for large at the last minute?)

First prize - crane mobile made by me

In my original first prize I also had two balls of amazingly coloured Japanese Noro yarn and I happened to know that the first prize winner wasn't a yarny kind of gal, hence a runner up prize was awarded to the person who got the second closest guess - "DerailMe". Luckily, my spies told me she is very much a yarny person, so this is the runner-up prize:

2 balls Noro Kureyon sock yarn

I couldn't resist making a paper crane mobile for her as well,  in Canterbury colours this time as she lives in the Christchurch earthquake area. In the photo below you will see that the birds are "flat-packed" ready for sending through the post, but it only takes a few minutes to cajole them into 3D form.

The beads at the bottom of this mobile say "Kia kaha" which is a Māori phrase roughly equating to "Be strong" or "Stay strong".

So that's it - all the prizes handed out or posted and received safely. Now I just need to finish folding the first 1000 cranes. We're almost there folks. . . thanks for all your help :)

Love. . . the prize I won in the 12in2011 group on ravelry

So, there's a "12in2011" group on ravelry and the main purpose is to try to make at least 12 things this year using wool you already had before 1.1.11. It's not a very "rules-y" group and there are only "Pirate guidelines"rather than strict rules to be enforced. "Aharrrr me hearties!!" 

In the 12in2011 ravelry group there is a "Prizes" thread, where prizes are handed out each month in fun and funny ways as well as by use of a Random Number Generator. In early March I was lucky enough to be awarded a "fun and funny" February prize for my "Tree root caterpillar". I won the special category of "Yarnify all the things" with this cheery little fellow. . .

My prize was a US$20 voucher to spend in Zippypins' ArtFire studio (online shop). The extraordinarily generous Jamie (Zippypins) has donated twelve of these vouchers to be handed out in the ravelry 12in2011 group each month. I had a blast choosing my prize, and ended up with two bumper stickers, a set of 10 knitting/spinning themed badges and six larger badges with various quotes. I slightly exceeded my US$20 budget, as there was so much great stuff on offer! I even bought two badges especially for Wifie  ("Coffee is my therapy" and "I'm the rainbow sheep in the family") which she is delighted with. I bought a "rainbow sheep" badge for me too - that's such a great quote! My box of goodies arrived last week and I just wanted to share my good fortune with you via the blog. As well as the badges for the Wifie, I just sent a couple of the little knitting badges away in a friend's birthday present parcel, so I am really trying to share the love!

Here are a few of the favourite badges I got from Zippypins. . . 

So huge thanks to the generous prize awarder "Dovely" on ravelry and heaps more thanks to Jamie of Zippypins for my lovely prize. . .