To my Secret Pal 9 gals (and you other folks too if you want to peek)

Bonjour mes chéries!

*skip to the bottom of the post for contest news if you can’t stand reading this VERY long post. Except read this EDITED to add part first:

I just received a very helpful email from one of my sp9 gals.  I can’t say it any better than she did, so here is our guest poster–

It might help to send out a reminder to post the questionnaire, also, this
might be an issue as well…two of your email messages went straight into my
junk email folder.  I check it regularly so I caught it.  Maybe you can
remind people to either look into their junk email to find things from their
“secret pal” or even from YOU!  Maybe we could make it a habit to make sure
that everything we send has SP9 in the subject field and then we all could
make sure we make filters to accept those messages.  I don’t know.  If I
wasn’t computer savvy, I would have never gotten my pal in the first place!

Muchas gracias, secrety lady.  Do what she said and you’ll not go wrong.  Put sp9 in the title is the best idea.  Try to do it each time you write to me and to your pal.

BACK to our regularly scheduled post:
Everyone in my sp9 group should have received her match up by now. If you didn’t please contact me ASAP, and I’ll check it out.

I’m so excited! We have a great bunch of swappers (the best, yay!), and I’m enjoying getting to know you.

Some quick thoughts about sp9–

Check in at the Official sp9 website for updated info. We’ll post discounts and other great ideas there. And I’ll post info here on my blog too.

Keep me posted on questions, comments, concerns, cool stuff. Whatever it is, I want to know!

The more you put into it this swap, the more you get out. (Seems obvious but true.) I don’t mean money here. My favorite swap pals have been the ones who’ve left me comments on my blog, sent me regular emails and e-cards, and just let me know they were thinking of me. If you run into some problems, please contact me; we don’t want anyone waiting and waiting and waiting to hear from/receive a package from a spoiler.

Let’s share! Send me suggestions about things you’ve done in previous swaps or heard of that are great, and I’ll share them on my blog or in a group email. Do you make stitch markers and have a great formula? Share please! Any super patterns or yarn shops or great deals? We want to know!

Let’s learn from each other! Tell me your favorite knitblogs you read, and I’ll share those. My all-time fave is my girls Ellen and Sarah from KnitSisters. They are having a contest, too! They totally rock.

Great places to shop! (I can’t stop using exclamation points!) I LOVE these yarny purveyors. They are all people I have bought from or received gifts from or would sell body parts to have their merch. Great bunch of gals and guys. This is not an exhaustive list by any means. Let me know your faves too.

Scout’s Swag
Mama E’s C*EYE*BER fiber warehouse
Valerie’s store (my ColorSwap pal)
Wendy’s store (my OneSkein secret pal–Katydid yarn–to die for)
Dave Daniel’s Cabin Cove

My gal Susie’s Perchance to Knit shop

Kerry’s HipKnits

Astrid’s Dutch Obsessions–great prices on sock yarn and needles

Webs has super discounted prices and great quality.

Knitting Pattern Central is an online resource for free patterns.

That’s just a start (and excuse the spontaneous double-spacing: gnomes, I tell you).

ARRRRGGH! I just groaned loudly enough for all of you to hear. I sent the email to you, my group, with all the anonymous addresses typed into my BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) line. I sent it to myself too, and I see all of your names in the header. QUICK! Erase it without looking! Could I be any more technologically impaired? Tell the gnomes to get out of my email account! Nothing like outing everyone before sp9 officially starts.

Forgive my dizzy-dameness. I’m harmless like Crazy Aunt Purl, another of my fave knitbloggers. Pass me the Shiraz, baby. Yeah, I know it’s only 9 a.m., but I’m already digging myself a ditch.

Your impaired but well-intentioned hostess with the mostess (mistakes, that is),

lorinda

*Oh yeah, the contest! Most of you have already posted your sp9 Questionnaire. If you haven’t please post it quick as a wink. Once you’ve done that, look through all your Finished Objects (FOs) or pics of those FOs. Post a picture of the FO you like the best or are proudest of. Maybe it was conquering a new technique? Learning to steek? Shaping? You won a prize? Brag on yourself a little and then leave me a comment or email. I will happily check out your sp9 questionnaire and BFO (best finished object) because I’m nosy, and then I’ll use my RNG to come up with a winner. Sound like fun?

NaNoWriMo

 The countdown to National Novel Writing Month has begun! Seasoned writers, newbies, professionals and amateurs race collectively to their writing instruments and bang out 50,000 words in the space of one short month. It doesn’t have to be good (think “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” 5000 times), heck it doesn’t ever have to be seen by anyone but you! But it’s yours, all yours.

This is my third year. Year one I think I accomplished my 50,000 words or got really close. Last year I totally bailed. What will this year bring? Time and the muses will tell.

Here’s a foretaste of what I shall be writing:

Furthermore, a recliner prays, and the blithe spirit related to some tabloid bestows great honor upon another senator toward a chess board. Another cloud formation over a minivan sanitizes the bullfrog. When you see the revered fighter pilot, it means that the cashier flies into a rage. The earring buries a moronic deficit. A roller coaster of a cowboy shares a shower with a mastadon.

Just kidding; that was an email I received this morning. Nothing like dropping acid before you send out spam.