Seasons of Lace » ShadowDancer

Poll Participants Win Raffle Prizes

ShadowDancer — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:56:37 +0000

Thank you so much to those of you who participated in our poll. We will use your input to improve Seasons of Lace.

As promised…. we’re raffling off the last things in the prize vault.

Kristina (GrandmaKiss ) has donated a skein of Skacel Merino Lace: 100% fine merino, 100 grams, 1375 yds. color 831 dye lot 3307. The color is a very pale ballet pink which she says would be attractive by itself or overdyed.

She’ll be sending it to sfknitty.

Crimson Orchid will be sending some of their lovely stitch markers to SusanS.

Amber of KnitMyWorld has made us a set of fifteen stitch markers, which she’ll be sending to Vicki (Minstrel Spinner).

Ronda (RondaBen ) has agreed to make a row counter for one lucky winner — one like this, except that she’ll make them in the winner’s choice of colors:

She’s sending it to greich (who, as it turns out, participated only on Ravelry).

(Shadowdancer ) from Fiber Dancer’s Design Studio , is sending a skein of Yarn Place’s Touch to YarnSpider

This yummy stuff is 5% Cashmere, 85% Merino, 10% Tencel 62 1/2 g ~800 yds

So, winners, if I haven’t reached you yet… please contact me with your snail mail addresses so that I can ensure that your prizes get to you!

And thank you all, once again, for your invaluable help in making Seasons of Lace even better next Season!!

We’ll be doing a bit of house keeping, and will soon open sign-ups for Winter of Lace 2008-09. Winter of Lace runs from December 21 to March 20 (thus, from the Winter Solstice to the Vernal Equinox). We will, of course. let you know what you need to do … and how to convert your current registration for the new season so that you needn’t start over again.

It’s been a glorious season… and we’ve learned a lot. We hope to see you in December!

Winners …. Winners…. and More Winners!

ShadowDancer — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:22:30 +0000

It’s time to wrap up this adventure (so we can start looking forward to the new one).

So… it’s with a lot of pride, a certain amount of joy, and a tinge of sadness, that I present to you the following awards today: a couple of Raffle Prizes for our most popular raffle categories, a little bit of not quite so Random Joy for an unannounced raffle… and, the most exciting of them all… the Viewers’ Choice Award!

As you may recall, some of the Raffle Categories drew quite a few entrants. Since we can, because the folks out in the world are so incredibly generous, we decided to do one more round of raffle prizes for the larges two of them. Without further ado, I bring you Round Four Raffles for Small Lace and Medium Lace.

For Medium Lace, which, as you may recall had 89 entrants from 32 knitters, we have a $25.00 Gift Certificate from

Our lucky winner (eligible for some of the finest hand creams out there as we enter the cold season) is jan229! Congrats Jan! I’ll tell Aubrey to look for a contact from you; enjoy browsing her site (and tell us what you pick!!).

In addition, Small lace had a whopping 102 entries from 26 knitters (busy knitters these — and these don’t include the small items that were knit for the Quantity Competition either!). Once again… resistance was futile, We had to do one more raffle. And we just happen to have one more Sampler Pack from KnitPicks lurking in the prize vault! That sampler will be wending its way to littlelena. I can’t wait to see what she knits up with that yarn for Winter of Lace!!

This round still left a few prizes in the Prize Vault. So… we thought we’d award one in a raffle to reward the folks who contributed by voting in the Viewers’ Choice Award “election”. (Yes, the magic of computer polls means that the folks behind the curtain can see who voted.) I’ll be sending out a skein of a skein of Yarn Place’s Graceful Lace Yarn (the colors gradually shade from one to the next): 100% wool (first grade), 50g, 903 yds.

donated by ShadowDancer and a gorgeous set of stitch markers made by Mary (Banshee ) of the Beading Banshee. The Random Number Generator tells me that Radarkaty wins!

Finally, and totally deserving of its very own big splashy post… the Viewers Choice Award. There were a dozen gorgeous items nominated for this award. I, personally, found it very difficult to choose among them. Seven of them clearly caught the eye of the voting public…. And as between six of them, the running was pretty close. Makes me wish I could reward prizes for all of them that received votes from you, our readers.

However, the winning entry stands out. It wasn’t close here…..a full third selected our winner (that’s a good 20% over the nearest competitor).

This Neibling shawl is the Winner of the First Seasons of Lace Viewers Choice Award! (sets a pretty high bar, doesn’t it?)

Congratulations tinker!! You will be receiving your very own Amy Butler Madison Bag made just for you by our own Beverly (PoMoGoLightly ). Way to Go Tinker!!! (and thanks Beverly).

It’s almost the end…. we have one more important thing to do, and one more round of Random JOY to clean out the Prize Vault. We hope you’ll stick with us …..

Last Chance to Vote!!!!

ShadowDancer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:36:06 +0000

Don’t forget!!! The polling for the Viewers’ Choice award closes tonight at midnight CST!!! If you’ve done it yet … please go VOTE

Raffles — Round THREE!

ShadowDancer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:53:52 +0000

So…. there are more raffle prizes…

We’ve done a Round Three Raffle for four of our Raffle Categories. These four had plenty of players… and we just couldn’t resist.

First up… Wee Lace JustdotChristina is our lucky winner. She’ll be receiving a kit for Maureen Mason-Jamieson’ scarf Whimsy

from Shelridge Farms.

Christina… contact Buffy at Shelridge Farms to choose your color!

Buffy will be sending in the color of the winner’s choice.

Then… Small Lace Birgit She’ll be receiving some luscious a hank of cobweb yarn from Freyalyn of Freyalyn’s Fibers

It’s a blend of merino and mohair, with a slight halo and lovely lustre. Weight is between 80-90g, but the yardage is 1500 yards/1300 metres. The color in the picture below is Murex, but she will dye to whatever colour birgit desires! .

Then Medium Lace – dplantlady is our lucky winner — she’ll be receiving three skeins of KnitPicks Shimmer, donated by escr

and finally

Lace Socks. judybll will be getting a hand dyed skein of yarn from Rabbitch!

And now… the Prizes!

ShadowDancer — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:16:29 +0000

We know who won, but what do they get?

Luscious Yarn of course!

We have two generous donors to thank for the Judged Competition Prizes:

Chris at Briar Rose Fibers will be sending one hank of Angel Face (2500 luscious yards of 100% alpaca lace-weight) to each of two winners. I have no pictures — because the winners get to choose their colorway from whatever is currently available (or… acquire any other yarn of equal value).

Tina at Blue Moon Fiber Arts sent three luscious prizes:

one skein of Geisha (70 Kid Mohair/ 20% Mulberry Silk/ 10% Nylon, 8oz. / 226g, 995yds / 910m)

(ya know… that not black color? it’s greener in real life (and on my other computer screen).

Anyway… they’ve also provide one skein of Laci (100% Extra Fine 80′s Merino, 8oz. / 226g, 1,750 yds / 1,600m)

AND one skein of Silk Thread II (100% silk, 3.5oz. / 99g, 1,250 yds / 1,143m).

We used our friend the random number generator to assign the prizes…. but I’ve also secretly polled the winners, without revealing the actual yarns, just in case there were strong preferences (like, say, mohair allergies). In the end, it made no difference.

For her Brilliant Achievements in Conquering Lace Disasters, tinker will receive a skein of AngelFace in her choice of colors (or, whatever yarn of equal value she wants). We hope that she’ll post when it arrives!

For her Thorough Documentation of Lace on Vacation, ShadowDancer will receive the other skein of AngelFace!*

For her tour de force performance with a Lace Extravaganza, lacefreak will receive a lovely skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silk Thread II in Midsummer Night, because she plans to knit something thin for Winter of Lace..

For her artful presentation of Lace on Display, littlelena will receive a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Laci in Blue Moonstone

For her brilliant and subtle marriage of yarn to pattern creating a perfect Lace Partnership, thislittlepiggyknits will receive a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Geisha in Thraven (I love this colorway!)

To the winners …. please be sure I have your addresses so that I can get your prizes to you!!

Meanwhile…

Don’t go away! Coming up, we have the Viewers’ Choice Award (for which the polls are still open — don’t forget to VOTE – there are over 125 of us eligible to vote for this… let’s not disenfranchise ourselves) and…..

MORE Raffle Prizes!!!

and

a chance to help us make this even more fun when Winter of Lace opens later this year… AND….

One final round of RANDOM JOY!

(and of course, any additional lace knitting you wish to post, and updates from our prize winners).

*and yes… that’s me getting some AngelFace. I’m more than a little pleased about that result!)

And the Last of the Judged Awards….

ShadowDancer — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:30:45 +0000

And now, at long last… The Lace Partnership Awards

The full set of the posts Nominated for this award can be seen here, but you can see each individual post by clicking on the link above the pictures. This time… they’re in reverse order of when they were posted…

And the nominees are:

An Icarus Shawl

My First Shawl

Some “Man Lace” For My Sister

MS9 Finished

Heartland Lace Shawl

Olympic Gold

Pictures At Last – The Skirt

I’m Back

or perhaps they meant this one?

Enchanted Tumbling Blocks

Hydrangea

Madli’s Shawl

Two fo’s

or perhaps they meant this

Waves Finished

Peacock Feather’s Variant

Shetalnd Triangle

First Finished Project

16 Nominees. Once again, I’m so very glad that others had the responsibility of choosing the winners… and I get the fun of awarding the prizes.

My First Shawl and Enchanted Tumbling Blocks tied for fourth place….

Heartland Lace and Olympic Gold tied for third place…

Four our runner up…. we’ve yet another tie:

Hydrangea and Madli’s Shawl

But the winner stands alone: I’m Back…. one or both of these entries earned thislittlepiggyknits the First Place Award!

Pictures of the prizes tomorrow…..

The Awards Continue

ShadowDancer — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:53:38 +0000

Today we look at the nominees for Lace On Display (13 nominees).

Our Judges had more of a challenge with this category than with the prior two, as there were more than twice as many entries! Once again, I’ve selected what I perceive to be the key photos from the posts, and once again, I’ve linked to each post by title so you can check out the rest of the pictures the author originally listed. The nominees are, in the order in which they were first posted to the Seasons of Lace blog:

First fo

This post featured two projects. I think that this picture is the best of them for displaying lace…

but I have no idea whether the judges were looking at that, or at the larger project, shown in this photo

I’m the Lame Lace Maven

International Shawl (fini)

This is one of two, quite different, pictures from the blog post.

Waves Finished

There were other shots of this scarf in the original post. I liked this one best. The judges may have focused on a different shot… so it’s worth a peek to see them all.

Remember This One?

There were two shots here. This one is the more … unusual… so I’m using it for this page. The other shot is more … well… yeah. Again… no telling which one the judges based their decision on. Likely the combination… so go take a look.

I’m Back!

This is my personal favorite of the several shots. The judges may have been focusing on a different shot in the post… it’s totally worth nipping over to the original post to see them all.

Look What the Ravelympics Made Me Do

Again, this is my personal favorite of three excellent shots of this shawl. I don’t know which one the judges used as their voting criteria shot. Go check out the others… in case they liked one of them better. They’re all great shots.

By Special Request

The Glamour Shots

I’m feeling like a broken record — but the post had other shots, if you want to see them.

I know I’ve said it before, but It’s hard enough to choose from these selected photos… the task is even harder when you’ve got the whole blog post for each of them! I sit in awe of our wonderful judges.

As you might gather, the competition was fierce …. but once again, despite a tie for third place, we had a clear winner.

In fourth place …. Look What the Ravelympics Made Me Do

Tied for third were il Mare Oscuro and Last Official Post

Our runner up is The Lame Lace Maven

And the winner, for Best Photograph of Lace on Display is….

littlelena for Remember This One? shown here in it’s more conventional shot

littlelena sure has a way with display, doesn’t she?? I just loved the shot with her bearded model!

A look at our Lace Extravaganza Awards…..

ShadowDancer — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:34:17 +0000

Today we look at the Nominees for Lace Extravaganza (10 nominees).

International Shawl (fini)

This is one of two, quite different, pictures from the blog post.

Neibling Shawl Finished

Madil’s Shawl

Hydrangea

a tour de force in beads, yes?

The next few nominees were knit during the Olympic Games — at least two from start to finish in those few weeks!

Ravelympics Hyrna

Look What the Ravelympics Made Me Do

Again, this is one of three excellent shots of this shawl. I don’t know which one the judges used as their voting criteria shot. Go check out the others… in case they liked one of them better. They’re all great shots.

Olympic Gold

Black Olives

Lyra

Though started as a Revelympics project, it didn’t quite make the finish line… but it WAS knit on 000s!

il mare ocsuro

It’s hard enough to choose from these selected photos… imagine the task when you’ve got the whole blog post for each of them! Aren’t our judges awesome? (I tried to do it… it was brutal. I am SO glad that none of the judging parts were up to me!)

I wish we could give prizes for all of them! Or at least for those that ended up one of ANY judge’s top three! Perhaps next time around, we’ll hold back some Random Joy prizes so that we can do just that! Since I haven’t got prizes for all, I’ll at least give honorable mentions…

il mare oscuro and Madil’s shawl tied for fourth place.

Lyra earned third place

Neibling Shawl Finished is our runner up…

and the winner for Lace Extravaganza is….

International Shawl (fini)! lacefreak has truly earned this award!

And the Winners Are….

ShadowDancer — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:38:25 +0000

We interrupt this raffle fest to bring you the first round of Gold Medal Winners of our Judged Competitions.

You, our members, nominated various posts for the Judged Competitions. We collected them, and set up screenings for each group, and invited our illustrious judges to go take a look.

Before we reveal their choices, let me introduce our judges to you.

In no particular order, I bring you Joe

He writes the blog Queer Joe’s Knitting Blog, where he generally has great pictures, and lots of lovely knitting. Lately, he’s been “swatching” for a sweater — by knitting a wonderful hat. How he thinks he’ll get away without publishing the pattern for that hat is beyond me…. perhaps he’s already realized the truth.

To be sure we have serious LACE experience on the panel, we invited Miriam Felton.

Her lace patterns appear in places like Interweave Knits, Knitty, in her own books, and on my needles. But despite such fame, she’s really a very charming person, who was delighted to help us with this competition.

And last, but by no means least, Jared Flood.

He writes the blog Brooklyn Tweed, designs great patterns, and takes awesome pictures. His blog is worth subscribing to even if you don’t read a word, the pictures are so consistently good. Of course, if you choose that option, you’ll be missing out on some good stuff… but hey, it’s your choice.

These three wonderful knitters generously agreed to look at all our nominated pictures, and to send me their top three choices for each category. I had a go at the task myself, just to see what I was asking. This was no easy walk through the park, let me tell you. You’ll get to see for yourselves when it’s time to vote on the Viewers’ Choice Award.

A quick note — each of these contestants received multiple nominations (as is true pretty much through out these competitions). We didn’t really keep track of how many times any given post was nominated, since we wanted the Judges to choose the winners, and didn’t want to weight anyone’s decision based on the number of nominations a given post received. This also means that, though several posts were self-nominated, most self-nominated posts had “seconds” to their nominations.

But best of all… it’s quite clear that the competition was close — there was only one category in which the first place choice was unanimous!

But enough of this background stuff, eh? You want to hear who won… I know you do. I’ll be doing this in several posts, so that I can have actual pictures for you to see, instead of just a bunch of links.

First up … with the fewest contestants (a thing for which we are grateful, actually, given the category) … we have

Lace Disasters

To see the collection of the complete posts for this entry, follow this link. It will open in a new tab or window, so you won’t lose your place here. You can also go directly to any image’s full post by clicking on the post title that shows below the pictures. For this contest in particular, the image doesn’t tell the whole story, and the judges may well have voted on the story behind the image as much as on the image itself. My interpretation (presented in the order in which they were originally posted to the blog) of the key photos presented in each post is that these tell as much of the tale as can be told in a picture:

LLR’s Lace Disaster

Progress, Disaster, and Cast On

Peacock Feathers Variant

Negative Progress

It was a close race. The two runners up, Progress, Disaster, and Cast on and Negative Progress were tied for a very close second place. The winner is……

Peacock Feathers Variant! This disaster was ultimately overcome by tinker!

Four our second category (you’ll note we’re running these by the number of entries), you collectively nominated have five contestants for

Lace on Vacation

You can see the full posts for each of these entries by following this link (again, to a new window or tab). It is harder to pull out single shots for this event, as some of the posts intentionally included a number of shots to show how much fun the lace was having. Even so, here are some representative views.

Scarf on Vacation

Pictures At Last, The Shawl

Waves Finished

I’m Back

Lace Everywhere

Again, the competition was fierce. Oddly, the second place winner (Lace Everywhere) was unanimous – because it place third for all three judges. Third place was tied — because each of the posts in third place placed second with only one judge. But the first place winner, shown here in another shot, was a unanimous among the judges (our only such winner).

A Scarf on Vacation.

This scarf’s chaperone for it’s prize winning vacation was – ShadowDancer.

(the Prize Maven blushes furiously, and comes to the stage just long enough thank the many who made this possible — her mother, and Joan (the Fairy GodKnitter for taking her on that last cruise on the Niagara River, and Anne Hanson for the pattern, and Malabrigo for the yarn and….. ).

We pause now for station identification. Stay tuned for the Lace Extravaganza Award.

Raffle Round Two — Part Two

ShadowDancer — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:24:21 +0000

And you thought we were done….’

But I still have more yarn to give away!

For example… there are three skeins of Malabrigo lace, just aching for a new home.

Our very own Darla donated this prize, and we’re awarding it now as the Second Round Raffle Prize for Medium Lace. The lucky winner is …. hilltopkatie! And she’ll also be receiving a Shawls Booklet from JoyKnits.

in addition, I have this yummy Yarn and pattern combo from Stitch Jones

This is harder still, since I can touch it and everything. Even so, I’ll be sending it off to the winner of our Socks Category Round Two Raffle,along with a pattern for Angel Wings socks from JoyKnits The winner is….. vicki!

And finally … for round two anyway… There is this lovely hand dyed merino from our own Vicki (vicki953)

I’ve got to tell you, sending this away — like to kill me! But even so, it’s been awarded as the second round prize in the Beaded Lace category, so I’ll be sending it along to bagoyarn, who will enjoy choosing patterns from

KnitSpot as well, since she wins the last of the $10.00 gift certificates.