Hurricane Giveaway!

So Irene is gone, though her effects are still being felt up and down the East Coast. On this sunny cool morning, I'm feeling so relieved that Irene wasn't more awful that I thought a giveaway was in order to celebrate her passing. I'm giving away some nice nice sock yarn and a free sock pattern.

Here's a beautiful skein of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn (based in Barton, Vermont! Yee haw! Go, Northeast Kingdom of Vermont!), 420 yards of superwash merino. Colorway is Champlain Sunrise - beautiful deep red, magenta, blue, orange.

I'll also email you a copy of either the Momogus Knits Easy Toe-Up Socks or Momogus Knits Twisty Toe-Up Tube Sock pattern - y0ur choice.

Leave a comment here or on the Facebook page and let me know your most interesting hurricane experience, and I'll pick a winner at random. Mine was not particularly interesting (thank God!) but it was kind of sweet: because our house is surrounded by big old trees (two of which have crashed down and just missed our house already this year), my husband and I decided it would be prudent to all sleep downstairs in the living room. So we blew up an air mattress and my son got in his sleeping bag, and we all got cozy and listened to the rain and fell asleep. It was fun, though we did have to take shelter in the basement once when there was a tornado warning for our area, which was spooky. And for you readers out west who missed all the Irene fun, any interesting weather experience will do!

Contest Winners!

As always, I was so moved and thrilled by the response I got from you all! Great thoughtful answers, suggestions, tips - you guys rock!

Our winners, who will each receive a fold-up reusable shopping bag and a PDF of the Momogus Knits pattern of their choice, are (drumroll please): Lisa, David (who very graciously asked that his reusable bag prize be reused for another contestant - more recycling!), Debi, Kathleen (Ramseyer - Kathleen - please email me at info@momogusknits.com - I couldn't get a message to you on FB!), Cathie, and Julie.

Here are some of the great tips: Save our Beach has some great recycling and earth-friendly tips at the bottom of their home page.

Composting raw veggies, dumping coffee grounds on your plants, leaving yarn ends out for the birds to use for their nests (love that tip!), using old canning and peanut butter jars to hold craft supplies, decorating old Pringles jars as knitting needle holders (another knitter-friendly tip!) or using them as part of a game, using wax paper instead of plastic wrap - so many great, easy-to-implement ideas! You can review them in more detail on the Facebook page or in the comments in the previous post here on the blog.

Congrats and thank you so much for your (and everyone else's) participation!

Happy Earth Day! Giveaway! (Bags and Free Patterns!)

No sermons here. If you're a breathing human adult, you're aware of the importance of taking care of our dear planet. To push things along a bit, though, I'm having a giveaway! Some details.....

My personal pet peeve is plastic bags. For the past couple of years I've tried to train myself to say, "I don't need a bag," as often as I can. It's difficult at first to remember, but it's amazing how often you don't need a bag. Of course, I live in the suburbs and drive a car, so it's easy to carry things from the store to the car and just plop them on the seat. When I lived in the city and walked everywhere, then you do need a bag, which brings me to.....Giveaway!

I'll pick 5 people at random and they will each get this bag:

AND the Momogus Knits pattern of their choice emailed to them in PDF form (we'll save some trees!) I have a lot of reusable shopping bags, but these ChicoBags are my favorite - they fold up small into their attached pouch and have a clip to hold them to your purse.

Leave a comment here (make sure you add your email address in your comment) or on the Facebook page. Share an Earth Day thought, recycling tip, or nature appreciation, and also which pattern you'd like.

Here's mine: I'm pretty sure I was a tree in my last life. This big old tree in my backyard is like a soulmate for me:

I love looking at it in all seasons, I worry about it in windstorms, I pat it with my hand when I walk by it. Happy Earth Day, tree!