Can you SMEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLL what The Saun is cooking!

Aww, yes. It is time for The People’s Blogiversary *. What is that you ask? Well, I’m gonna tell you.

As the one-year anniversary of Saunshine approached I reflected on where I started and where I am now. I realized that this thing is less about me and more about everyone who reads it. My love and dedication to all things technological can fade at times and when I started I never thought I would make it through a whole year. It is only because of you that read and put up with my nonsensical rantings, that I have made it this far. So this, my friends, is for you. My way of thanking all of you for reading and giving your encouraging words as I endeavor to turn a hobby and a dream into a reality.

The People’s Blogiversary is a celebration chocked full of prizes.

The first is my gift to all.

The Waves Pattern

You can scoop up this one from the sidebar. See the pattern for details.

The next thing is a drawing for three prizes. Here are the rules.

1. The drawing is open to all, even all you lurkers out there. (He,he,he, I’ll get you my little pretties. I’ve found a way to get you to leave a comment. Bwwwaahahaaa!).
2. I expect that the prizes that are received are never resold.
3. There are three different prizes. You can choose to enter for 1,2, or all 3, but you can only win once. Please do not enter if you do not really want the item or already own it.
4. Leave a comment (with an email address)with the drawings you choose to enter (eg. “All 3″ ,”1&3″, etc.). Please do not email me. This will help me keep this organized.
5. You have until Thursday, May 25 at 11:59 pm EST. The drawing will take place Friday.

Drawing #1 – Purplelicious Goodies

3 skeins Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Lilac Haze and
2 skeins of Claudia Hanpainted Sock Yarn in Plumicious

Drawing #2 – A Onesie

One Skein by Leigh Radford
1 skein Rowan Handknit Cotton in Red

Drawing #3 – Winner’s Choice

A $25 gift certificate to pureknits.com

Now click on the comments section and enter. Thanks again everyone!

*Inspired by the People’s Champ, The People’s Elbow, and The People’s Eyebrow.

Coming Monday…. “The People’s Blogiversary”.

It’s been quiet around this here blog. That’s due in part to the many season finales on the television this week. Did you see Grey’s Anatomy! That Izzy and Denny! Woooo! With all that emotion there was no way I could knit through that. It was fabulous! Then there was the Prison Break finale and you all know I luvs me some Wentworth. No knitting through that either. I got a brief reprieve last night so I spend a little time on Urban Aran and finished the back piece.

Those finales are the reason that the Waves pattern still hasn’t been typed up. It should be here by the weekend but that depends on how I feel after tonight’s America’s Next Top Model finale. If I’m not on the phone discussing the finale then I might type it up tonight and proof it tomorrow.

Saturday I had a chance to head out to the fabric store in search of some material for skirts. The objective is to expand my wardrobe with some Project Spectrum inspiration. I don’t have much green so I hoped to find some. Right now I’m really inspired by this big skirt craze. Have you ever seen Imitation of Life . It’s by far one of my favorite movies because of the clothing. It was filmed in the late 50′s when clothes were glamorous. I could never dress like that now for fear of looking like I’m in a costume but the big skirts may be the closest I get.

Unfortunately the JoAnn’s near me didn’t have much in the way of green. This was all I found. The green/blue material will be my Project Spectrum cross-over project, May and June.

Yarn alert ! Yarn alert! Yarn alert!

For all those wanting to try the Lasso pattern, Elann will be putting Berroco Suede yarn on sale at 9 am Pacific (Noon Eastern) today for $4.98 a ball.

Announcement

I have decided in celebration of my 1 year blogiversary, I will publish the Waves tube top as a freebie sometime this week. It’s my way of showing appreciation to all the great people I have met over this past year in the blogosphere.

I hope everyone had a weekend and all the mothers had a great Mother’s Day.

As I traveled to Maryland, I struggled with what project I should take with me. I knew I wouldn’t have the right concentration for Urban Aran and I wanted to take a break from the size 3′s for “The Dress”. So, what to take?

Well, last year while in DC I bought a few balls of Calmer from Stitch DC . I just wanted to try it and thought I might make a scarf. But then the yarn just sat in stash. When I came across it during stash organization I decided to give myself a design challenge. The requirements of my challenge were:

1. To make something using the 3 balls of Calmer that I had and wouldn’t require that I buy anymore.
2. Didn’t have any ribbing.
3. Wasn’t a tank top.

My idea was a tube top. I was inspired by the fact that I had just discovered the joys of a good strapless bra and tube tops the previous summer. The first idea involved ribbon and buttons but I reduced the idea down to this.

Buttons but no ribbon. Since I didn’t want ribbing to hold it up I had 2 choices. The first was to make a folded hem and encase some elastic or make a band with a button closure. I decided on the band because it was more decorative then a plain folded hem.

Since I knew this was mostly stockinette in the round, it made for a good travel project. I finished it yesterday. The hem went through several revisions. The first being a simple bind off that rolled. Then a folded hem which puckered and rolled. Finally I settled on a switch to a needle that was 2 sizes larger for 2 rounds and then a bind-off. This helped stop it from rolling. These pics are pre-blocking so I hope to have better ones after it dries.

I like giving myself design challenges. The next one will involve this.

It’s Red Heart Lustre Sheen (which I think has been discountinued). Perfect for Project Spectrum.I’m realizing that none of my summer knits are really work-appropriate so my next challenge is to keep this one summery but work appropriate, which means no lace. And I want embossed leaves on it. I’m intrigued with doing a leaf pattern on something and since this is green, it should work out perfectly.