Whoduknit Easter Hunt

We're going on a Whoduknit Easter Hunt! This will be a test of your whoduknit sleuthing abilities. You will need to investigate the blog and the WhoDuKnit Yahoo Group. E-mail your answers to grammieknits@yahoo.com . The contest ends at midnight on Easter Sunday. A winner will be drawn from all of the correct entries....and the prize is this felted tote with some surprise goodies inside!

Here are your clues - let the hunt begin!

2 .Who won the entrelac scarf KAL contest?
3. What is our April book?
4. What is the group project for April and who is leading the KAL?
5. What size and color are the squares for the Great Whoduknit Charity Blanket?
6. What was #10 on Deb Brown's New Year's Resolution List?
7. Who created the whoduknit buttons on the blog?
8. What is a "Mystery Ball"?
9. What was the date of the very first post on the Whoduknit blog?
10. What was Whoduknit's September, 2006 book?
11. Where is the real Lambspun Yarn Shop located?
12. What was Mary Lynn's entry in the Tooth of Time project contest?
13. When is Cathy Hannigan's 50th birthday?
14. Which five books were nominated for our March/April mystery read-alongs? 15. How many members are registered on the WhoDuKnit Yahoo Group?

GOOD LUCK!

My Square

I just love the book, Haunted Ground. I love Ireland, Scotland, Wales and all the British Isles. Part of my family heritage is from there. When I found this motif in one of my Barbara Walker books, I just had to make it. It is how I picture the cottages mentioned in the book.

Leaping Leprechauns!

The purloined stash has arrived in Ireland! (hope there are no severed heads in the box!)

Entrelac Scarf KAL Winner

After much deliberation, fun, thought, fun, examining photos, fun, some excitement, fun, oh and did I mention lots of fun, we have a winner of our very first WhoDuKnit KAL........drum roll please......Dobarah! She was picked from six entrants in our entrelac scraf KAL. There were eight of us at the LYS yesterday and because all of the scarfs were so beautiful we came up with the only fair way to pick a winner. We put everyone's names in a hat (felted, of course) and each person there drew out a name, the person that had their name drawn the most was the winner and it was Dobarah. I sent her an email today and she had to pinch herself to make sure it was real...lol. She picked her prize and she chose a years subscription to Interweave Knits Magazine.

I hope everyone had fun with this project and I look forward to doing more of these in the future. As you all know we have another one coming up in April, so get those circular needles and sock yarn ready because KyleAnne is going to educate us on how to do two socks on two circular needles.

Deb

For Your Eyes Only

(The members of an unseen orchestra softly play Aaron Copeland’s “On the Trail” from Grand Canyon Suite. They could have played “Hoe-down,” but American members will recognize this as the lovely piece of music that has been appropriated by the U.S. Beef Council for their “Beef! It’s what’s for dinner,” TV campaign… so it might not provide quite the same ambience. A small dog works at his desk mulling over a really silly report. He munches on dog biscuits as he works. He doesn’t know it, but soon his person will put him on Milk Bones Lite and—sadly—this is his last night of full- flavor biscuits.)

It was a dark and stormy night … No, no, that’s not right! I was born a poor… No, no that’s not right either. Stop being a Jerk and start over:

It was a wonderful day in the neighborhood when the members of the Sylvan Loop Irregulars received word that the Purloined Stash was continuing Westward Ho! from a secret location in an undisclosed Rocky Mountain State.

Quickly, Irregular members Larry and his sister Darryl, and his other sister Darryl and—yes—his other sister Darryl hurried to their mail-box post and then settled in for a long winter’s nap.

(Orchestra switches to Brahms’ Lullaby. Can you believe it? Aren’t these irregulars lazy! Last time fashionistas are hired for a job. Just wait until She-Who-Must-Be Obeyed finds out!!)

They had not napped long, however, before they awoke to see a Jeep with the driver seated on the wrong side of the car. “Oh like, where are we?” the Irregular fashionistas cried. “Is this like, really like, a Twilight Zone moment? But like, wow, maybe yeah, that’s like a clue like,” they thought. Sadly the thought was too heavy, and they dropped it.

Whatever.

But, hark, hark we dogs did bark; the postman was coming down the road. Our alert jarred the Irregular fashionistas from their vapid stupor, and they started contemplating peek-a-boo pumps vs. skater shoes vs. Uggs for the walk back down the driveway. They donned the fastest foot attire and got ready for the hand off. Too bad they got distracted by the postman who had stopped to ring twice.

It had to be the package; the postman always rings twice when mail must be hand-delivered.

The other member of the canine unit and I rushed to get She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed who was inside refusing to buy yet another “*^%^%$#$ three-ring binder” for the Short Boss.

(Orchestra switches to that old cowboy favorite: "Git along little doggie(s).”)

“Bow wow, what big eyes that postman has,” said Canine Freckles as he got this poor dog a bone. “The better to read the addresses with,” I replied.

She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed took her package and quickly went in the house. Then she asked me and Canine Freckles to round up the Irregular fashionistas so they could go back in the closet. Late that night we heard the odd rustling of tissue paper, and then She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed headed upstairs to the old chest where she keeps the treasure.

Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell? For several days we heard nothing about the box.

This morning, however, we heard her tell Furry Face Man that she was going to go you-know-where to mail you-know-what (wink! wink!) when she picked up the Short Boss from school.

Verrry inter-es-tink. Maybe it was a red herring. “Red herring?” asked Canine Freckles, “I thought that’s what they were eating for dinner on Friday night…” I withheld comment. (Canine Freckles’ heart is in the right place, but clearly other parts of him are not. This will be the subject of a later report.)

I last saw the Purloined Stash at approximately 14 hundred hours PST as it was being loaded into a small foreign car. Box was not there upon She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed’s return with the Short Boss.

She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed went to the computer and sent a message.

“Whew, I’m glad that’s done,” she said as she opened a soda: pop, pop, fizz, fizz, “what a relief that is.”


--Report respectfully submitted by Officer Sir Doodles of Sylvan DCF, Sylvan Loop Irregulars, Canine Unit.

(Orchestra closes with “When Irish Eyes are Smiling.”)

My Entrelac by Sharon

Ok, so Bright and Early did not happen but here is my scarf to date! :) the required 10 sections as requested. Everyone elses scarves look great!

Almost done entrelac from Mary lynn

Lindsey & Zachariah with the scarf.





The scarf isn't finished yet, so it hasn't been blocked. I stretched and tucked it into the couch cushions to give it a pseudo blocking.


Lindsey is eyeing it up and wants the entrelac hat from Hip Hop Hats that would match it:

Northern Lights Winner

After slogging through about 500 posts from Feb and early March to check for book comments, I have found a winner--Jane came out of the hat--and yes, that's the way I do it. Everyone's name goes in and my DH pulls one out. I'm pleased that so many of us liked Northern Lights.

One more reminder--PLEASE edit the subject line on your reply posts if the subject of conversation changes!

I have to say I am really enjoying March. The weather here in NC is glorious, I'm not sick anymore, I'm happily knitting my blanket square in screaming green--dug out some old Knitter's magazines (#61-67) with the patterns for the Great American Aran Afghan, and loving our March book!

Speaking of patterns, another great source of 12" Aran squares is the St. Patrick's Day Afghan designed several years ago by members of the Aran list. You can find 16 patterns which have permission for charity knitting at http://www.msu.edu/user/szathmar/afghan.html

If some of you are still looking for Haunted Ground, it is available as an audio download from several sources. The recording is fantastic--thanks to Stephanie for nominating a real March treat. The narrator's accent takes me right to Ireland. I'll post a critique prize list later.

Entrelac scarf - LeslieJ

Here is my finished scarf. It is very pretty, and it was lots of fun to knit.

I think I am going to send it to my friend in GA. She needs a little pick-me-up, her hubby just left for his 3rd tour of duty in Iraq.

Entrelac Scarf and Charity Blanket Square

My entrelac scarf (which I love!)

And another square for the charity blanket. (directions for this square are on my blog)

Spring Mystery Swap

It's almost spring! Ready for a swap? This is a fun swap that won't require a lot of time or money. Here's how it will work:
Sign-ups begin now and end on the first day of Spring, March 21.
You will be assigned a pal - it won't be a secret pal, you will be swapping with each other. The mystery comes from what you will be swapping!
You know that one skein of yarn you have in your stash (or on the shelf of your favorite LYS) that you love, but don't know what to do with? You will be sending it to your pal - and she will knit or crochet something with it and mail it back to you. In the meantime, she will be sending you that special skein of yarn that she has, and you will knit or crochet something for her and mail it back. And, since this is a reading and knitting group, you will be sending a book back with the finished project.
The Rules:
Sign-ups begin now and end March 21. To sign up, send an e-mail to me at grammieknits@yahoo.com with your name and address, blog address (if you have one) and whether or not you are willing to send overseas.
Once you receive your pals name, you need to contact each other and get to know each other a little bit. Remember the fun part of any exchange is getting to know your partner. Since this is not a secret exchange, getting to know each other will be that much easier. The only secret will be what kind of yarn you are mailing - and what you will be making with the yarn you receive. That will remain a mystery!
Deadline for mailing your skein of yarn to your pal is April 15 (right along with your income tax return!)
Finished projects along with a book (it would be fun, but not absolutely necessary, for the book to somehow relate to the project) should be mailed back to your partner no later than May 30. That should give you plenty of time to come up with a project.
When you receive your yarn back - made up into a wonderful something - post a picture on the blog!
That's it! Sign-ups begin now!
Jane
grammieknits@yahoo.com

Charity Blanket Square

Here is my first square for the charity blanket. It's knit in a heather green Wool-Ease in a Trinity stitch. It was a little smaller than 12" so I crocheted a border around it, then blocked it using a 12" cardboard square as a guide. If you have a problem getting an exact 12" square - the crochet trick works great. If you don't crochet, you can send some of the leftover yarn with the square and I'll do it for you.

Prizes for Northern Lights comments

Lots of interest in Northern Lights, although most of it took place weeks ago. Keep talking.

Since I still have some terrific stuff left over from last month (Opal selected one of the Amelia Peabody books), I am leaving the leftovers in the prize pile for a while longer. Please look below to refresh your memories. The new additions to the prize selections are:

A Field of Darkness, by Cornelia Read. Madeline Dare, a newspaper reporter trapped among the "garbage blanc" of Syracuse, New York, becomes enmeshed in the 20-year-old unsolved murder of two young women. Madeline's preppy cousin, Lapthorne Townsend, is among the suspects when his army dog tags are found at the scene of the crime. Read has a venomous wit and accurately portrays both the rural folk of upstate NY and the decadant monied class of Long Island. She is much more sympathetic to the Syracuse natives. I loved this book and think it was one of the best mysteries of 2006. It has been nominated for an Edgar for best 1st novel by an American author.

Black Maps, by Peter Speigelmann. This is the first John March book, and with the 3rd coming out next month, this series has legs. Protagonist March has left law enforcement after the murder of his wife and is working as a PI in Manhattan. The collapse of financial giant MWB (Merchant's Worldwide Bank) and the subsequent federal investigations in detail. March's friend, lawyer Michael Metz, hires him to help a client, an officer at a major investment bank. It appears that fallout from MWB's failure has prompted a blackmailer to use information seemingly derived from MWB documents to threaten Metz's client with exposure that would ruin his career. A series of deaths indicate that more than money is at stake. Spiegelmann, the author, worked in the NY financial business for 20+ years, and this book is rich in both local color and business detail. Good characters, a little romance, decent mystery, and lots of action. This is the British hardcover edition, gently used.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith, unabridged audio cassette. If you haven't read this series yet, you have missed real treats, and this is the first of them. Precious Ramotswe, alone in the world after the death of her father, establishes the only female owned detective agency in Botswana. The books in this series barely fit the mystery genre guidelines, but are wonderful common sense tales of a wise and compassionate woman. You will be charmed! If you have read them but not listened, you have not really experienced them. Reader Lisette Lecat, with her exquisite South African accent, invokes the music of the language, and sounds like Africa itself. Sorry, I don't have CDs, but I bought the tapes myself ,and although I loaned them a couple of times, they remain in excellent condition.