Congratulations to Candy Lynn for winning the prize!!
The top voted costume was letter “A” the Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter Costumes!!
Thank you to everyone for participating and sharing your thoughts on the costumes so far!! We can’t wait until next Halloween!!!
We are close to 50,000 “Likes” on Facebook so we decided to have a GIVEAWAY for all our YARNutopians!! I want to share my appreciation for hitting 50K followers by doing a fun little Facebook GIVEAWAY!!
I am offering a magical Halloween Themed Box of yarn that retails $200+ USD!!!
Goodies include:
5 Balls of Red Heart Yarns Soft Essentials
2 Balls of Red Heart Yarns Super Saver Stripes
2 Balls of Red Heart Yarns Soft
2 Balls of Red Heart Yarns Super Saver
1 Ball of Red Heart Yarns With Love
Follow the directions below to enter! All tasks must be complete for you to be entered into this giveaway. You MUST have a US Address to participate in this giveaway! If a winner is chosen and they do not have a US shipping address, a new winner will be chosen.
To enter this giveaway you must do the following:
1. Make sure you are following YARNutopia on Facebook, if you are not, give the page a “Like”
2. Choose your favorite costume from years past in the photo below, then go to YARNutopia’s Facebook Page, Leave a comment on the pinned post about this GIVEAWAY with the letter of your favorite costume! (A, B, C, or D)–Your comment MUST be on the Facebook post. Any comments on this blog post will not be entered to win the yarn.
3. For an extra entry, share the post on YARNutopia’s Facebook Page about this GIVEAWAY with all your friends. (Be sure your share is public so I can add you in for an extra entry)
How to win???
The participants who vote on the costume with the MOST votes will all be entered in a RANDOM drawing to win the giant bundle of yarn in the photo above!!
This giveaway will run starting TODAY, RIGHT NOW, October 12th, 2018 and end on October 14th at 11:59pm CST. The winner will be randomly selected on October 15th. I will announce the winner here and on Facebook and I will try to contact you personally.
This giveaway is in no way affiliated with Facebook.
When I first heard of Stitches Midwest I had no idea what it was and although it interested me, I initially didn’t pay much attention to it and it wasn’t on my radar to attend. Little by little, more information popped up on my News Feed and each bit of information provided me with a more comprehensive idea of what Stitches would be. The more I knew, the more I was intrigued. Soon, I could not get enough of what this show was going to be about. I became more excited the more I learned about it. My mind was made up! I was going to be there this year!
Let’s do it!
It didn’t take much to convince my mom to go along because the two of us are always tag teaming these events, but soon after talking about it with Nate, he said he could maybe take a vacation day on Friday and go with us. My dad was on board too! We decided to make an entire weekend out of it and since it was in Chicago, there was so much we could do!
We left Wisconsin and headed down to Illinois on Friday morning. We had reserved a room right near the convention center so we were only a hop, skip, and a jump away from the event. It was about a 5 hour drive but we broke it up with a little sight-seeing and a stop for lunch. Before we knew it, we were pulling into our hotel and things were about to get real!
We walked into the lobby and the first thing we saw were groups of ladies knitting and crocheting! Just witnessing those sharing the craft had my excitement building! We checked in and first thing we did was to head over to the convention center to make sure we had our reservations for the events in place.
What happens here, stays here!
As soon as we walked into the convention center at the Renaissance Convention Center and Hotel the atmosphere was electric with the excitement from all the fiber loving community! I could not wait to attend all of it! First thing’s first, we got our reservations confirmed. Friday night was the Pajama Party, Saturday: the Trade Show, Saturday afternoon: a Crochet Class with The Marly Bird! We were all set!
We decided to spend the few hours before the Pajama Party grabbing some dinner and doing some shopping. Well, being in Chicago it is NO SECRET that my favorite place to be is on Devon Avenue! Sabri Nihari, HERE we come!! Sabri Nihari is my FAVORITE restaurant for authentic Pakistani Cuisine. After a fabulous dinner of Chicken Makhani and garlic naan, topped off with a mango lassi, we were ready to head back to the convention center to attend my very first Stitches Midwest Pajama Party!
If you have NEVER attended one of these events, you are missing out! I never knew what I was missing until I went and saw for myself! I have to say there is NOTHING like a Pajama Party hosted by a yarn loving community. Before I go further I have to say that I HIGHLY recommend you going to one of these events near you! Be sure to take along your project bag and an adventurous spirit! There is a rule: What goes on at the pajama party, STAYS at the pajama party! This means you will have to attend one in the future to see all the fun of what goes on at one of these crazy parties! And by crazy, I mean, “you will never forget how much fun it is” crazy! It was a BLAST!! Nate and I went and of course we dressed in matching pj’s because..well we are that couple!
I’m such a fan-girl!
One of the highlights of the weekend was meeting Marly Bird! I was so excited to finally connect with her in person and meet face to face! She is as warm and bubbly off screen as she is on screen! She couldn’t be more welcoming and friendly and it felt like I have known her for longer than the few minutes it took for our initial real-life introduction! I had a fan-girl moment, too! I mean come on, it is The Marly Bird!!! Squeee!!!!
Holy Yarn Balls, Batman!
On Saturday, we planned to head over to the convention early on in the day with a late plan to meet Marly for lunch. So off we went to the trade show and OH MY GOSH! I was overwhelmed by the enormity of this event! It literally took my breath away! I walked into the convention hall and had to take a few deep breaths. It was YARN HEAVEN!!! As far as the eye could see, it was everything yarn! *Insert a wide-eyed Nadia with drool coming down her chin* For real though, it was unimaginable for lil’ ol’ me who comes from a small town where the most yarn in one place is at the local JoAnn’s or local yarn shop. It was crazyyyy!
As I started to make my way down the aisles, there were certain booths I wanted to make sure I made a stop at. However, it was easy to get pulled into all the beautiful booths that were bursting with color and fiber! Demonstrations were taking place that were alluring as well! Spinning, weaving, and other crafts were being shown all day! I was taken by all of it! Along the way, I found so many treasures! I bought an Erin Lane Bag and found some amazing Leon Alexander Yarn! Nate gifted me a pair of socks with sheep all over them too!
Always an education!
Around noon, we met Marly for lunch and enjoyed a little down time while we got to know one another. I was excited to share our love for the craft and a few laughs about the party the night before. It was a nice way to decompress from the overwhelming feeling of being in overdrive from the proverbial YARN-utopia I just came from inside the convention center! Shortly following lunch, she was instructing a class that I attended: Crocheting with Beads. I rarely crochet with beads, but her class made it easy to follow and I am sure I will be using this technique in future projects. I left with such a positive feeling of friendship and look forward to more events together!
Special Thanks!
Once the class was finished, we did a quick once over at the show to make sure there wasn’t anything I missed, and from there we headed home. It was a fun-filled jam packed couple of days, and by the end I was exhausted. Nate and I curled up in the back seat of the car and fell asleep for the ride home, me dreaming of all the beautiful things I was going to make with my new yarn and Nate dreaming of ways to find room in the house to keep it all! Haha! Just kidding, he was probably dreaming of getting home to have a beer because he spent two days immersed in all things yarn, attended a pajama party in matching pajamas and all the while his wife dragged him around 500,000 square feet of fiber arts! That’s what true love is, folks!
Anyway, it was a great weekend all the way around, and one I will not soon forget. Until next year! A special thanks to Stitches Midwest for hosting such a phenomenal event and to Marly Bird and Lindsey from Erin Lane Bags for being such entertaining emcees for the Friday event.
Thank you to Red Heart Yarns for providing the prize yarn that was part of the Pajama Party giveaway, as well as Stunning String Studio for the wonderful set of hooks, and Crafty Flutterby Creations for the beautiful shawl clasp. These few items will be a part of a future giveaway here on YARNutopia!
To all the fabulous vendors who made my very first Stitches event so memorable, thank you so much. I will never forget all the fun I had. Thanks for the memories!
~Nadia
This post contains affiliate links, which I may be compensated for when you make a purchase. That means if you click on any link and buy from the linked websites, I will receive a small percentage of the value of your order. The amount you pay is not changed. Thank you for all your support in clicking the links in my blog!! You all are so amazing!! ~Nadia
My dad will continue to be the videographer, editor, and photographer for our videos when I move away.
Support YARNutopia today so we can continue to bring you clear, quality crochet tutorials even after I move into my new home!
There will be an added expense of more travel and hopefully this won’t deter our ability to provide consistent videos on a weekly basis.
This Giveaway has ended
Thank you to all who participated!
Congratulations to the winner Stephanie Parish Buser!!
If I were to start this blog post a year ago, you would have heard my howl of frustration across the globe as I spent most of my efforts attempting to Yarn Pool in utter failure. No joke. I can’t even begin to count how many times in the past year, as yarn pooling began to trend, that I have been making feeble tries to make a go of it. After a few failed attempts, I would give up. Many people here on YARNutopia would ask for my help or write to see a demonstration, and I had to honestly admit defeat. Yarn pooling was something I wrestled with and lost. I started to reconcile it was NOT for me.
A few weeks ago, I was invited to participate in a Yarn Pooling Blog Tour hosted by Marly Bird. She has a great book Yarn Pooling Made Easy. I was provided a copy of the book and asked to give one of the projects a try by combining her detailed instructions with her comprehensive video tutorials. This was my chance! My last-ditch effort to make it through and understand this incredible technique. So, I agreed. I WAS going to overcome this challenge! I was bound and determined THIS time I was going to succeed.
The instructions say to use a variegated yarn with a repeated color way. I had my yarn Red Heart Super Saver in Platoon that I felt would be perfect for this. I decided to not over shoot my first attempt by getting over zealous taking on a huge pattern, so I decided on a scarf as my first project to try yarn pooling. I was ready. I was excited. I was optimistic. I was geared up to tackle something that previously tried to defeat me. This time I was NOT to be defeated!!!
However, things did not go as smooth as I had hoped in the beginning. Have you ever tried to do something and no matter how hard you try, something just doesn’t click? I lacked the coordination to understand some key elements and my first several attempts I had to frog my work. I was not going to let Marly Bird down! So, I kept going. I watched her video tutorials and read the instructions in her book very carefully. I started over and over. I put my headphones on, tuned out everything, and listened to each word of her videos. By the time I reached the end of her segment, I was sooooo inspired!! Marly, you inspire me so much!
I began to work my yarn into to the right calculations and GUESS WHAT, it works!!!! It worked out for me!!! I started to see how the pooling effect created the argyle pattern, and boy, I did an epic happy dance all over my house!!!! How thrilling!! This has been the ONLY helpful guide for me to be able to succeed on something that I was about to give up on. I am typically NOT a quitter and thank goodness, because if I was, I would not have found my way to this great book and Marly’s fantastic videos and I would not be Yarn Pooling today! I am so thankful to have stuck it out and succeeded. Marly, thank you!
To make this even more exciting, I am giving ONE copy of this book away to ONE lucky follower here on YARNutopia!!!! NOW YOU TOO CAN HAVE THE KEY TO UNLOCK THE MYSTERY OF YARN POOLING OF YOUR VERY OWN!!
WOOT, WOOT!!
Congratulations to the winner Stephanie Parish Buser!!
Who Can Enter? Only open to those 18 years of age or older and US residents. (sorry…legal reasons prevent us from making this open worldwide)
My Giveaway will end on September 20th, 2018 at 11:59pm and the randomly chosen winner will be announced and contacted on September 21st. The winner then has until September 24th to claim their prize.
Here is a schedule of the blogs that will be sharing a review and doing a GIVEAWAY:
*NOTE: Winners will be chosen at the discretion of each blogger host, and by their rules. All winners will be notified within one week of the last tour date. All winners will need to respond to the host with their information by 9/24/17 or they will forfeit their prize. All books will be sent at the same time at the end of the tour, regardless of when the winner was chosen. Winner must have a US or Canadian address.
I can’t express the excitement it is as a seasoned crocheter to be able to find a way for this to make sense! Now the opportunities are endless! If you are like me, struggling to understand this technique, this is a fabulous instruction manual and pattern book you won’t want to miss. Combine these great instructions from the book with Marly’s step by step video tutorials and you have yourself a winning combination!!
A few notes:
My persistence paid off in one day! From the moment I sat down to try this to reaching success, was only a few short hours.
My scarf using the pattern in her book took me a combined 4-5 total hours once I got the hang of yarn-pooling.
This post contains affiliate links, which I may be compensated for when you make a purchase. That means if you click on any link and buy from the linked websites, I will receive a small percentage of the value of your order. The amount you pay is not changed. Thank you for all your support in clicking the links in my blog!! You all are so amazing!! ~Nadia
