Thursday, June 30, 2011

Another prize! And some FAQs

First, Carin from Round the Twist was one of the lucky test knitters of the My Wish Shawl and she has generously donated her shawl to the drawing! I've seen this shawl in person and it is stunning. It's made out of her own handspun SW merino from Enchanted Knoll Farm in Sedona and Wollmeise 100% in WD Gianduia. She's working on getting photos sent to me.

The details. Unless otherwise noted, for every $10 donation you make to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Colorado using the following information, you'll receive one entry.

If you live in the U.S. here's how to make a donation to Make-A-Wish:

Click Here to visit the Denver Oyster donation site.
Select City: Denver
Select Team: Cupcake Mafia
Team Member: Lynn Zimmerman
Then, complete the rest of the form with your donation amount and contact information.
I will receive an email with your donation amount. With a $5 donation, you will receive the My Wish shawl pattern designed by Laura Linneman. I will email you the pattern and enter you in the drawing. For every $10 you donate, you will receive one entry in the prize drawing that will be held at the end of August.

If you live outside of the U.S., you can make your $5 donation for the My Wish pattern on Ravelry. If you would like to make a larger donation, please send me an email at LynnATlynnzimmDOTcom.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are you doing?
For the 2nd year, I'm teaming up with my little sis Mary and my friend Tali to form Cupcake Mafia to race in the Denver Oyster. It's an urban adventure race that has Amazing Race style challenges. We won't know that they are until right before we have to do them. We had a blast last year and can't wait for race day!

Who are you raising money for?
All of the money we raise goes to the Make A Wish Foundation of Colorado. Their mission is grant the wishes of Colorado children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Each wish costs an average of $5,000.

Why are you raising money?
Last year, we started raising money because we had to raise at least $100 to participate and we would benefit by earning extra clues to help us on our challenges. If we raised $300, we would get two clues. We decided to set the bar a little higher and try to raise $800 because we thought Make A Wish was a very deserving organization. When we hit that after only a couple of weeks, we were hooked and decided to see how much we could raise. We ended up raising more than $2,600. Thanks to our fundraising and the efforts of other Oyster teams, Make A Wish was able to grant three wishes.

We felt so good about what we did last year that even when they took away the fundraising requirement for participating, we couldn't imagine participating in the race without giving back. To us, it is the most important part of this race.

When is the race?
The race is on Saturday, Aug. 27.

When is the last day I can donate?
The online donation site will be turned off at noon MDT on Friday, Aug. 26.

When will you draw for the prizes?
I plan on doing the prize drawing on Sunday, Aug. 28. I'll post an update on the blog if this should change.

How can I donate a prize for the drawing?
Send me an email at lynnATlynnzimmDOTcom and let me know what you'd like to donate. I'll get the information posted on the blog ASAP.

Can I donate multiple times? Will my donations add up for the drawing?
Absolutely! I get a list of the names of donors and the amounts donated, so I can combine donations for the drawing entries.


I'll keep updating the FAQs as the fundraiser continues. I'll probably even get fancy and create a link on the left navigation for the FAQ and the prize drawing.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Let's Make Some Wishes Come True!

First, a huge thank you. Before I've even posted any of the prizes we have raised more than $1,500! That's halfway to our goal in only 4 days. I'm thinking I might need to revise our goal...but that's for another post.

This post is all about the prizes! Another huge thank you to everyone who has donated a prize for the drawing. Once again, both friends I know in real life and virtual friends have been generous with their talents and their stash to make this list drool-worthy. Let's get this started.

The details. Unless otherwise noted, for every $10 donation you make to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Colorado using the following information, you'll receive one entry.

If you live in the U.S. here's how to make a donation to Make-A-Wish:

Click Here to visit the Denver Oyster donation site.
Select City: Denver
Select Team: Cupcake Mafia
Team Member: Lynn Zimmerman
Then, complete the rest of the form with your donation amount and contact information.
I will receive an email with your donation amount. With a $5 donation, you will receive the My Wish shawl pattern designed by Laura Linneman. I will email you the pattern and enter you in the drawing. For every $10 you donate, you will receive one entry in the prize drawing that will be held at the end of August.

If you live outside of the U.S., you can make your $5 donation for the My Wish pattern on Ravelry. If you would like to make a larger donation, please send me an email at LynnATlynnzimmDOTcom.

THE PRIZES!

1. An amazing and absolutely gorgeous My Wish Shawl kit with two skeins of Tempted Lil Luxe Grrl in Frigid and Moonlight hand-dyed by my wonderful friend Stacy (who lets me play with her dyes when I come to visit her!) This is the yarn and colorways used in the original My Wish Shawl. Lil Luxe Grrl is 80% SW Merino/10% Cashmere/10% Nylon.



2. A copy of the extremely talented Wendy Johnson's new book Wendy Knits Lace, personalized for the winner by Wendy.



3. Art Yarn handspun by one of our favorite Knit Girllls Laura. (photo to come)

4. A project bag handmade by Denise (Deknits). (photo to come)

5. A project bag handmade by Sharon (SeashoreSharon). (photo to come)

6. A project bag handmade by Sharon (SeashoreSharon). (photo to come)

7. A project bag handmade by the Piddleloop Sewing Team, Jen and Wendy. (photo to come)

8. 3,040 yards of a gorgeous, the photo doesn't do it justice, handpainted pale gray laceweight yarn donated by Rachel from Dyeabolical Yarns and Fibers.

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9. Three colorful cotton dishcloths hand knit by Cathie in the Starburst pattern. Once you've used a hand knit dishcloth, you'll never want to use anything else.

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10. A skein of the super-popular self-striping two-stripe yarn in Sheena from Lisa aka Fibernymph on her Squoosh base (75/25 SW Merino/Nylon)



11. Another skein of awesome self-striping two-stripe yarn in the Mint Chocolate Chip colorway from Fibernymph on her Squoosh base (75/25 SW Merino/Nylon).



12. A gorgeous skein of hand-dyed merino/tencel yarn from Heidi at Fibermorphosis.



13. A beautiful hand-knit shawlette by Bev (paletpc). It's the Maika pattern knit in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in The Incredible Shrinking Violet colorway.

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14. Another gorgeous hand-knit shawl by Bev. It's the Charlotte's Web Shawl pattern, knit in Koigu. It's absolutely stunning.

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15. A set of my very favorite stitch markers (RAINBOW!) in the whole wide world hand made by by dealer - um, I mean my friend and Rhinebeck roommate, Rose-Marie from Beagin Design.



16. A pattern of the donor's choice (valued up to $10) donated by Wendy from the Knit 1, ♡ too podcast.

17. A skein of Wollmeise 80/20 in the Aquarius colorway, donated by Wendy's partner in crime on the Knit 1, ♡ too podcast, Sheila. Sheila's son had a wish granted several years ago by Make A Wish and she has offered to share her family's story with us in a future blog post.



18. A beautiful Summer Swatch Scarf hand knit by Chrystal. The scarf is knit in oh so soft Malabrigo Lace in the Cognac colorway. You can see a photo of this light summery scarf here.

19. Two skeins of Sock Hop Yarn from Crown Mountain Farms in the Free Bird colorway donated by Tonia.



20. A pattern of the donor's choice (up to a $10 value) donated by Erin from the MommyNeedsYarn videocast.

21. A skein of Wollmeise 100% SW Merino in the Maus Jung Colorway, donated by Diane from the Knitabulls Audio Podcast and Video podcast.




22. A gorgeous hand knit Little Shells shawl knitted in Sundara Silk Sport yarn, donated by Diane from the Knitabulls Audio Podcast and Video podcast.



Next up is my handspun - I'll be spinning at least 5 skeins of yarn over the next two months. Here is what they look like now.

23. Polwarth from Woolgatherings. This is the January 2011 club colorway.

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24. Polwarth in the Fairplay Vineyards colorway dyed by Forest Fiberworks

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25. SW Merino dyed by PoppyFlowerFibers

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26. BFL dyed by Spunky Eclectic in Thermograph

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27. And for the Dr. Who fans, Oatmeal BFL from Southern Cross Fibre in Time Lord.

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28. This next prize is the exception to the $10 rule. Those who donate at least $30 will receive one entry and additional entries for every $10 past $30. This will be a bonus drawing - so if you donate $40, you'll have 4 entries in the drawing for the prizes above and two entries in the drawing for this fabulous prize.

Leslie from The Knit Girllls has once again offered to donate a pair of custom-fit hand knit socks in the pattern of the winner's choice from any skein of yarn in her Ravelry stash! If you've never worn a pair of hand knit socks, you don't know what you're missing, and if you've ever knit a pair of socks, you know what an incredible prize this is. Leslie will work with the winner to determine the pattern and the yarn.

Thank you to my incredible friends for their donations and for spreading the word about the fundraiser. This is a team effort! I'm still taking prize donations, so if you'd like to make a donation, contact me at lynnATlynnzimmDOTcom. I'll post all additional prizes in separate blog posts, but I'll create a master list of prizes and post a link on the right hand navigation on the blog.

Once again, if you live in the U.S. here's how to make a donation to Make-A-Wish:

Click Here to visit the Denver Oyster donation site.
Select City: Denver
Select Team: Cupcake Mafia
Team Member: Lynn Zimmerman
Then, complete the rest of the form with your donation amount and contact information.
I will receive an email with your donation amount. With a $5 donation, you will receive the My Wish shawl pattern designed by Laura Linneman. I will email you the pattern and enter you in the drawing. For every $10 you donate, you will receive one entry in the prize drawing that will be held at the end of August.

If you live outside of the U.S., you can make your $5 donation for the My Wish pattern on Ravelry. If you would like to make a larger donation, please send me an email at LynnATlynnzimmDOTcom.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Make a Wish Fundraiser - A placeholder

One last update - I promise there will be a new post on Sunday night. First, we've already raised more than $400. WOW!!! Thank you to everyone who has donated!

I am riding in the MS150 bike ride on Saturday and Sunday and I'm not sure if I will have access to the internet to send patterns out on Saturday. If I'm not able to send them out on Saturday, I will email them to donors as soon as I get home on Sunday.

If you live in the U.S. here's how to make a donation, Click Here to visit the Denver Oyster donation site.
Select City: Denver
Select Team: Cupcake Mafia
Team Member: Lynn Zimmerman
Then, complete the rest of the form with your donation amount and contact information.
I will receive an email with your donation amount and will email you the pattern and enter you in the drawing.


Hi to everyone who is visiting the blog from Round the Twist and The Knit Girllls. Welcome!

I'll do a more detailed post tonight, but here's the quick info about making a donations to my Denver Oyster fundraiser for the Make A Wish Foundation.

If you make a $5 donation, you'll receive a copy of the AMAZING My Wish shawl pattern that was designed by Laura from The Knit Girllls.

If you make a $10 donation, you'll get the pattern, plus one entry in the drawing for some fantastic prizes that have been donated by my incredible friends. I'm also going to throw in some of my handspun. You'll receive one entry for every $10 you donate.

If you live in the U.S. here's how to make a donation, Click Here to visit the Denver Oyster donation site.
Select City: Denver
Select Team: Cupcake Mafia
Team Member: Lynn Zimmerman
Then complete the rest of the form with your donation amount and contact information.
I will receive an email with your donation amount and will email you the pattern and enter you in the drawing.

If you live outside of the U.S., things are a bit more complicated because the donation site is only set up for U.S. donations. I've let the Oyster organizers know that they need to update their site to accept international donations and they're looking into it Hopefully, this won't be a problem next year.

To make your $5 donation and receive the My Wish pattern, you can purchase it on Ravelry (the pattern is still not up on the site at this moment - Laura is working on it).
If you would like to make an additional donation to be entered in the drawing, send me an email at lynn AT lynnzimm DOT com. Your pattern purchase will count toward the first $10 donation.

Thank you in advance for your generous donations. I'm excited to help make some wishes come true in 2011!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Competition

I'll be announcing the items that will be included in the giveaway for the Team Cupcake Mafia fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and how to make a donation next week. If you would like to donate an item for the fundraiser, please contact me at lynn AT lynnzimm DOT com. Thank you to everyone who supports our team!

I've always loved competition. Growing up, it was softball, volleyball and basketball as well as showing animals, baking and sewing for 4-H at the county fair and entering things that I had made at the Iowa State Fair. Competitions allow me to set a goal and get feedback on how my work compares to others who have the same hobbies.

As an adult, I've been on the rowing team, done triathlons and recently started doing Olympic lifting competitions. Since I've moved away from Iowa, I can no longer enter the Iowa State Fair, and I haven't lived near the state fairs in the other places I've lived, so I haven't had a lot of chances to enter the things I make in competitions. Fortunately, I live near Estes Park, Colo., and can attend the Estes Park Wool Market that is held each year in June and enter their handspun competition.

This is the second year I've entered the competition, so I felt like a pro going into the competition. Last year, I learned that the judges prefer skeins where the wool is prepared for spinning by the contestant rather than using fiber that was washed and prepared by a mill, so I took on the challenge of preparing fiber from a Paco-Vicuna and an Alpaca.

This is much more time intensive because the fiber is dirty - Paco-Vicunas and Alpacas roll in the dirt to clean themselves and they have bits of hay, weeds, etc., stuck in their fiber. You must try to get as much of that out of the fiber as possible. Then, you card the fiber - basically brushing it to get all of the fibers lined up so it's easier to work with as you spin. I chose to wait to wash the fiber until after it was spun into yarn. Alpacas and Paco-Vicunas can also have secondary fibers that are course and you really don't want them in your finished yarn. I spent a lot of time picking those out...and I was picking them out until I finally had to let the yarn go to be judged.

All the work was worth the effort! There were a lot of amazing entries in the competition and I'm sure the judge had a tough time picking the winners. Despite having an underweight skein (lesson learned - unwashed alpaca will lose a lot of weight once the dirt is washed out) I took first place in the Alpaca category...

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and I took 2nd in the Paco-Vicuna category. And again I lost points for an underweight skein. From now on I will always make sure to spin much more than I think I need.

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After prizes were awarded by points, the judge got to select a few skeins for special awards that were not based on points. She selected my Paco-Vicuna skein as the best skein of all the PV/Alpaca skeins that had been entered. For that, I won some yummy alpaca/cashmere fiber and a cash award!

The rest of the Estes Park Wool Market was just as wonderful. My friend Denise once again flew in from Portland to join me there and the weather was perfect.

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We got to see lots of cute animals...

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I love the goats...

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And the vendors at the market had a lot of lovely things to look at (and possibly bring home).

I can't wait until next year!