And the Winner's Are

Sally is the winner of the Knitting Needle case from Lantern Moon. Michele won the skein of blue sock yarn, even though she doesn't knit socks! Yvonne won the braid of fiber for spinning. My coworker Nichole won the lavender sachets. Helen won the skein of yarn dyed to her liking. Daisy won the newsletter from Deb and a skein of yarn to accompany it. Sandra won the skein of hand spun yarn. Thank you to everyone who donated money! Then walk was a great family event and I'll share pictures as soon as I get them from Daisy!

A lot of behind the scene action around here. I'm almost done with a secret little baby project, I'll put up pictures next week. Lot's of dyeing and general getting ready for Sock Summit. I'm in booth #223, please visit!

Prize Basket

Here are the prizes currently in the basket that you, yes you! could win. I lovely skein of hand spun merino silk yarn, a four ounce skein of fingering weight yarn, a circular knitting needle case from Lantern Moon, and a bundle of lavender sachets. Not pictured is a copy of An Omnibus plus a skein of yarn to knit the pattern that is included.

After looking at the prize basket I thought it was a little empty. So I've added a skein of fingering weight yarn to dye for the winner. You tell me about your favorite colors and I'll dye it for you! Your choice of yarn includes super wash merino, merino/bamboo, or merino/tencel. For every $5 you donate to Take Steps your name will be entered into a drawing. If you donate $25, your name is entered 5 times!! Just click on the button that says Support Lorajean Now! and donate away.

I'm doing the walk because Crohn's Disease affects my family's life directly. My husband, E, has Crohn's disease. I am not a fan of the disease. E is in good health compared to a lot of people with the disease. He hasn't had a surgery to remove intestines in close to 20 years. Right now he is having a flair up. His diet is incredibly limited, it is really hard to walk through grocery stores and look at all the food you can't eat. It is also difficult to have a stomach ache every time you eat. Research is making a difference though. This is an autoimmune disease, an inflammatory one. Researchers are finding new treatments to keep the inflammation down as well as treat other issues that arise with an autoimmune disorder. Money raised from this walk will help continue research.

Donated money will also go to supporting kids going to a camp in Northern California that is focused on youth with Crohn's or Colitis. I can only imagine what a retreat this is for youth. Not being able to eat the same as your peers is an incredibly isolating experience. Being surrounded by kids who have been through similar circumstances and getting to participate in normal camp activities is a great releif!

I could go on and on about this topic, but I'll stop. Thank you so much in advance for donating if you are able to. The contest will close Saturday, June 20th at 11am. The winners will be chosen and announced June 21st.

I'm going out of town this weekend to round up some donation in one of my hometowns. I'll be back next week. Hope you have a great week end.

Planning Ahead

e almost one year ago to the day!
This summer feels like the busiest one in my life! Besides all the yarn fun in my future, there are several babies being born. The first one that is expected will be e's cousin. I can't wait to meet the little babe. I'm almost finished with the quilt from my class. Tomorrow night I'm hoping to get some hands on help from the teacher on putting all the squares together. We're doing a quilt as you go method, so all my blocks are already quilted. Once they are sewn together I'll attach binding. I'm nervous about that part too! I'm taking a trip this weekend and I think that might be a good project to bring along when e takes a nap. Sort of wishful thinking that I'll get something done, but idle hands...

All the yarn and fiber I dyed on Monday is just about dried. Tomorrow my mom is coming back over to babysit! so hopefully I'll get it all put away before I leave on Saturday. I'm going to a wedding on my way up to Blaine. I'm so excited to see friends and family for a few days! Everybody met e last summer when he was three and a half months old. He cut his first tooth up there! Now he's walking and talking like a cave man! Lots of grunts and fingering pointing. I'm a little nervous about being gone for five nights with just me and e. Mainly about how tired I'll be when I get home! But all the kids will be home and plenty of entertainment with e! I'm also a little nervous that Sock Summit is 8 weeks away now and I'm loosing two dye days! But two is that many and I'll get to see family! When I get back my friend Daisy will be watching e a couple days a week while I dye. e is in love with Daisy, they always have a great time. Knowing she'll be watching him makes me feel more confident that I'll get loads done! Gosh I sound like a big pile of anxiety!

Come back tomorrow when I'm a little calmer. I'll be reviewing all the prizes in the basket you could win!

Thank you!!

Wow there are some generous people out there!! Lavender Sheep is one of them. She has great yarn and fiber if you are in the market! I also got some donations from some old employers over the weekend. Reese from 8 Women contributed and so did Bruce and Mary, the owners of Bread and Ink Cafe. I have to say that I am proud to have worked at such a great portland institute! They have the new addition of the Waffle Window, which will be two years old in August so not super new! I spend a lot of fun tickets at this place. Mary is a waffle genius! With my off line donations and online donations I think I am close to $260. Half way there people! I think I need to add some non knitting prizes to the basket since I have so many people that are donating that aren't knitters (yet, mhaw ha ha ha!) Lavender sachets are always in need I think, so lets through a set of those in the basket! You can donate here, for every $5 donated your name will be entered to win a fabulous prize. So far there is a skein of hand spun yarn, a skein of fingering weight yarn that I dyed, a circular knitting needle case, lovely lavender sachet, and a newsletter with yarn to accompany the pattern included! Good luck!



I've been super busy making skeins out of yarn on cones, but thankfully it's going pretty fast. Tomorrow my mom is coming over to watch e while I get some dyeing done. I always feel antsy before a big dye day. I get nervous that I won't get enough done. There's not a quota, but I do have a lot to do between now and August 5th. I have a lot more time in July than this month and I need to keep reminding my self that. For now I think I'm going to go turn a heel on my little sample sock.

It's Official

I'm allergic to wool. I found out I'm allergic to alpaca a couple of winters ago when I bought the cutest hat and glove set. After a week I had a lovely rash around my head where the hat sat. Then when I started nursing I used lanolin for all the ouchies I had but had a rash after a few uses. So yesterday I was separating the bump of merino and bfl I just got from Ashland Bay and started itching like crazy. I discovered a baby wipe cleans all the itches off my hands and face quickly and I can move on to the next task. So I'm just going to be careful. Grrr.

On to better news. I also picked up some new fingering weight yarn from Ashland Bay. Merino/bamboo/nylon blend and a Merino/tencel blend. I'm so excited about both. Besides socks I think they'll be lovely as baby clothes and shawls. Especially the tencel blend. I plan on dyeing this monday so I'll post some results soon.

The walk!! So, I had two people contribute so far. Thank you Michele and Helen! I'm so thankful you participated. They are going to be winning a lot of prizes. So if you want to get your name in the hat so Michele and Helen don't win everything, donate $5. For every $5 you donate your name will be entered once. Give $25, you are entered 5 times!! Another prize being added to the basket is a circular knitting needle case from Lantern Moon.
They have such gorgeous things!

I'm working on a little tutorial, my first so be gentle. I'm just testing out the sample right now. And I just cast off my glove sample and my needles are nice and warmed up to start the little sock from the last post. Thank you for the input too. I need to get out my swift so I'll have some yarn for the commute. Enjoy the weekend!

Drum Roll Please

And the winners are.... 79 and 50! So that would make it...Marit whose "favorite charity is Norwegian Mission Society. We are a woman's group that keep a raffle to raise money once a year. This year I am knitting doll clothes!" So fantastic. She is the winner of the handspun yarn. And Melissa is the winner of the lavender sachets. From Melissa, "My husband and I do a lot of random stuff/giving, but we're going to be working with the UN in central Asia with our little one for 6 months supplying clean water!" I'll be emailing both of you to get addresses and off the prizes go. It turns out I'm a bit of a winner too! From ="http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=821">Sew Mama Sew, the host of the big give-a-way, I won a bag of remnants and scraps. I can't wait to see what they are and what I'm going to use them for!

That is all for now, but watch out! There is a lot more happening here. There is lots of yarn and fiber to choose from in the shop and Sock Summit excitement abounds around here! I also have a prize to add to the basket for donations made to Taking Steps. If you can give $5 you will be entered into the drawing! I'll see you back here really soon!



Can you help me decide? I don't know which yarn to use next for some samples at Sock Summit. I'm going to do a baby monkey sock and a baby jaywalker! Which goes with which do you think?