If you want to win this awesome stuff here:
photos from http://www.knitpicks.com
You have just a few more days to enter! The giveaway ends on Sunday at 6pm EST, so if you want a chance at these awesome items, click here and follow the directions!
Good luck everyone!
And it’s bigger than my last Thanksgiving giveaway, too. Ooooh, I’ve been waiting to be able to do this one! Lets jump right into what you could win! You could win ALL THE THINGS:
photos from http://www.knitpicks.com
Let’s go into details, shall we?
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
photo from http://www.knitpicks.com
So, to recap, that’s the Frozen Lake Wool of the Andes Sport Sampler (6 balls), an adorable Llamarama Tall Mug, an equally cute Llamarama Steel Pencil Case, the Inspiring Mandalas Coloring Book, the Lullaby – Aloft Sampler (4 balls), a Yarn Valet Yarn Bowl, a tin of Love + Leche Anywhere Balm – Lavender Mint, a pack of Locking Stitch Markers, & finally, the Pansy Posie Swish DK Sampler (6 balls). That’s a lot of stuff!
The retail price would be $118.69, but you have the chance to win it all for free!
First off, anyone can win, anywhere in the world. I’ll ship it wherever you are!
The giveaway starts when this post goes live (Monday, April 11, 2016), and will go through Sunday, April 24, 2016, ending at 6:00 pm EST. At that time the winner will be drawn randomly and notified via e-mail, with 24 hours to respond. If the winner doesn’t respond by Monday, April 25, 2016 at 6:00 pm EST, I will draw another winner, who will then have 24 hours, etc. The winner will be announced here on Not Your Average Crochet as soon as they have responded to me via email with their shipping address.
Remember, if all three steps have not been completed, you will not be entered!
Also, please keep in mind that if you are a new commenter on my blog I will have to verify your comment before it will appear below, but you are entered once you submit your comment, so there is no need to comment twice! 🙂
Good luck everyone, and happy Spring!
-Hannah
It’s been over 2 months since I’ve shared an update on my Aspen blanket that I have lovingly dubbed “the blanket everyone wants” (well, they seemed to be all the rage this winter). You hold the yarn double so I don’t know why I got an odd number of balls, but I’ve finished 16 balls of Garnstudio DROPS Andes in 0100 Ecru and this is what I have:
Far from my estimated 60″ wide, it’s about 45. Granted, I wasn’t stretching it at all and I think it will grow over time, but still, I was off on that guess. Also, I thought 16 balls might be enough to finish the blanket. It is not. It’s only about 36″ tall (again unstretched). I MIGHT be OK if this was 2/3 of a blanket, meaning I might be happy if I ordered 7 more balls to go with my extra 1. At $7.15 a ball, though, that’s $50.05 not counting S&H, and I just can’t do that right now. That’ll put this blanket at over $150 worth of yarn. I hate putting that much into one project because I’ll be so worried about it getting messed up that I might not use and enjoy it, but this was one of the cheapest super bulky yarns in wool that I could find. Maybe I should keep blankets acrylic, but wool blankets are so much warmer! Guess there are pros and cons to both.
I’m really sad but I guess this will have to go into hibernation mode for a while until I can get the yarn. The plus side is that I still haven’t broken my New Year’s Resolution to not buy yarn (although when I do buy the yarn to finish this I’m not sure it’ll count against me, since it’s to finish a WIP that I thought I had enough yarn for). Also, Chris and I both needed a pair of new shoes this month so unfortunately that has to take precedence over yarn, hehe. We got Chris some new kitchen Crocs because his current ones are old and literally falling apart (they’re heavy duty Crocs made specifically for working in kitchens, without holes in the top and with extra tread on the bottom and padding on the inside), and I finally had to replace my Rainbows sandals after about 9 years of constant wear.
My Wing Chun lessons are going great — we got to stay about 20 minutes extra last time and our teacher taught us the first 5 steps of the wooden dummy form, which was really cool. I’ve been trying to practice at home on a wall but it has corners, which hurt my arms, and it doesn’t have arms for me to practice blocks. I’ve looked at practice dummies but even the ones made with PVC are over $500. Why does everything from yarn to shoes to practice equipment have to be so expensive? Ugh.
Sorry, I’m a bit grumpy, so I’ll sign off for now, but I do appreciate you stopping by! I have plenty of other WIPs going too so hopefully I’ll see you soon with updates on those, or maybe something even cooler!
This is kind of my last big hurrah, since my new Wing Chun Kung Fu lessons are expensive (but I’m not complaining, it’s worth it)! These KnitPro Zings were purchased from knitproneedles.co.uk — thank you guys for shipping to the US, or else it would have been really difficult and really expensive for me to get them! KnitPro, Knitter’s Pride, and KnitPicks are all made by the same company, I believe, but for some reason have some differences in needle availability depending on where you are and what company officially ships to you.
Zing is a new line, I believe. I got all 13 sizes (US 0-10, or 2-6mm) in the 30cm (12″) length, although they have other lengths available as well as fixed circular needles and double points (I’d love them all)! As you can see, they are aluminum needles that are color coded by size. They are very sturdy, although of course as the gauge goes down the flexibility goes up a little.
I took my crappy bamboo needles that came with my Cath Kidston needle case out and am donating them (I’ve had them for years and never use them), and I’ve put the Zings in the case to give the needles at least a little protection since they didn’t come with a case, and the Cath Kidston needle roll will get some usefulness:
I’ve taken some photos to compare the Zings with other popular brands, so you can see what they’re like and maybe decide if you want to get some yourself!
Boye needles are the most affordable and available aluminum metal option, at least in this area of the US, but let’s take a close look:
A US 10 Zing is on the left, a US 10 Boye is on the right. The Zing is sharper, for sure.
You can sorta see that the Boye needle is a bit shinier than the Zing. This is probably because the Zing needles have a bit more grip to them than Boye, which I like (although of course they’re still smoother than wood or bamboo or acrylic). Boye needles have the size labeled on the end of the stopper, not on the shaft like the Zings (although it seems to be engraved on the Zings — I tried scratching it with my nail and it didn’t change a bit). I think the quality difference is noticeable and that it’s worth the extra couple of bucks to get the Zings.
The Knitter’s Pride/KnitPro Karbonz have been so popular, so let’s compare those!
A US 5 Zing is on the left, a US 5 Karbonz is on the right. The points seem similar, although it’s worth noting that the size label on the Karbonz DOES scratch off with my fingernail… Oops… The Karbonz also has that join between the tip and the body, while the Zings don’t have a join at all, it’s just a texture/color change. Many people say that the Karbonz joins are very smooth, but if you don’t like joins at all, there you go. As far as the grip on these needles, they seem very, very similar. In fact, when I closed my eyes and mixed these up I couldn’t tell which was which. So in my opinion the Zings win, since they have no join, are color coded, and the size is engraved on the shaft, not stamped (also they’re cheaper than the Karbonz)!
KnitPicks Sunstruck are made the same as their Rainbow and Caspian and Majestic needles, just minus the color, and I think the UK/EU equivalents are KnitPro Symfonie.
As you can see, the Zing is sharper, but I do have to say that I’ve used the Sunstruck needles a few times so they may not be as sharp as they once were (although I don’t think the birch wood tips are supposed to get dull easily — they’re certainly a bazillion times better than my ChiaoGoo bamboo straights which I’m not even comparing in this post because mine have splintered at the tips a bit). Obviously the Sunstruck needles have more grip, since they’re wood.
Unfortunately I don’t have any other brands to compare with — I’ve never owned any HiyaHiya needles or good ChiaoGoo needles or any fancy brands — but hopefully that gives you a bit of an idea as to what the Zing needles are like!
I’ll probably let you know more as I use them, but my first impression is great!
That’s all for today, thanks so much for stopping by!
First off, thanks everyone for your kind comments on my new Faux Knit Puffy Cowl pattern. I’ve been super inspired lately and there’s another pattern in the works now, too! Unfortunately though, I haven’t done much in the way of knitting or crocheting in the past few days, so I don’t have much crafty stuff to share today. The only related news is that I just ordered some KnitPro Zing straight needles (12″ versions) from www.knitproneedles.co.uk — shout out to them for shipping to the US, or else I’d have a hard time getting ahold of them! I’ll share photos & a review when they arrive and I’ve had a chance to try them out.
At work I’ve had some ups and downs lately; I had a great opportunity but I passed it up because I’m not quite ready. I feel relieved, like I did the right thing, but I am still a tad bit down about it. We also are building on to our clubhouse, and the addition was completed on Thursday. We spent all Friday moving everything over to the new side so that they can renovate the old side, so it’s going to be a bit chaotic for a couple of months.
In addition to that chaos, I’ve been off lately, emotionally speaking. Depressed, to be honest, and anxious. Having some personal issues. My hormones have also been changing due to a change in types of birth control (sorry if that’s TMI), so that doesn’t help.
To combat the chaos and depression and fluctuating hormones, I’ve been working on some coping skills the past couple of weeks. The first is just practicing mindfulness, or being in the moment. Too much of my life has been spent worrying about the future or dwelling on the past and that’s got to change. Chris made me some little reminders and stuck them all over the house and on my keys and in my wallet, so those reminders help me remember to “check in” and see if I’m being mindful or not (and if not, then I try to be). That’s already helping a little with the depression and anxiety.
I’ve also started back in the mindful practice of martial arts, particularly Wing Chun Kung Fu (and the fact that it’s a bit of exercise also helps, with all those happy brain chemicals that are released). A couple of years ago I was super into it but my friend, who was teaching me, lives about 2 hours away so it kind of fell off. We’re reviving the lessons though, and I’m also joining a martial arts center where they have Wing Chun lessons for an hour every Saturday. It’s expensive but it’s cheaper than therapy, and I walk away feeling much the same (albeit for different reasons; the point is, it helps a lot). I’ve already met a couple of women there that I’ve really enjoyed working with so hopefully I’ll be making new friends, which also should help things since my support network outside of family and coworkers is almost nonexistent nowadays. The center gave me a t-shirt to wear for lessons:
I’m really excited about both the paid lessons there and the lessons with my friend; I feel like they are going to make a big difference in my life, even though it seems like a small thing to be doing. I’ve already learned a little bit that I can practice at home by myself, and my teacher has a YouTube channel with videos he made of the forms in case I forget!
Well I guess that’s all for today. I hope that wasn’t too boring! I plan on crafting some today so hopefully I’ll have more crocheting/knitting related updates coming up really soon. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Hi, I'm Hannah! Click on my face to learn more about me & this blog & all the awesome stuff that goes on here.
not your average crochet 