A Contest and 2 Tags

I love contests, especially when they involve yarn!

Anne is giving away Malabrigo yarn. Have you heard of this yarn? (Please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't know about it until last week!) It's 100% wool from Uruguay. Up until a week ago (when I started hearing the Malabrigo drum), the country name Uruguay immediately made me think of Manos del Uruguay. Manos is lovely wool. I was super excited to receive it for a bday present last year from my MIL.

According to Karyn at Knotty Stuff, Malabrigo is better than Manos. Much better. "It knits like butter".

What better way to get your hands on some than to win it - free! All you have to do is leave a comment on Ann's Contest post naming an unpublished designer. Easy. You do know an unpublished designer, don't you? Of course, you do. Well, to remind you, there's me (though I hope to change that later this year), Tracie (though she will be published later this year), Sharon (who just got word that she will be published in Interweave Knits - yay!), and Katinka. So, now you have no excuse.

Onto the tagging.

Vicki of Knitting Dragonflies tagged me with a meme on Feb 7th. (Boy, am I a slacker!) Thank you!

I'm to share 7 random/weird facts.

1. My bicycle is my main form of transportation during the work week, since we are now a 1-car family. Dan takes the car to work. I run any errands with my trusty red bike. Yesterday, I piled two big boxes on the bike rack and pedaled down to the post office.
2. My favorite gardening task is pruning. Jake's favorite gardening task is breaking up the pruned sticks into kindling for our fireplace. He's extremely quick and efficient.
3. There are only 3 candles in our entire house and they are kept behind glass doors. Since I quit smoking 6 years ago, candles, perfume, smoke, and other strong smells give me an instant headache. I avoid them like the plague. Around the holidays, I carry Ibuprofen with me and drink a lot.
4. My favorite fruit is apples. I wait all year for the fall harvest. Then, I go batty. Apples are cooked into everything for a solid 2 months. By the end of it, I am sick of apples and won't touch them again until next year's harvest.
5. I fell in love with cooking when I was 9 years old. I would wake up early in the morning and cook my sister breakfast. Breakfast is still my favorite meal of the day. I eat two breakfasts; one before I take Jake on his walk and one after while he is eating his only breakfast.
6. There is lotion and chapstick in almost every room of our house. Dan doesn't touch the stuff. It's all for me.
7. I am not a big fan of fresh cut flowers. I would prefer them to be planted outside in my garden. It would never occur to Dan to bring home a vase of flowers. Instead, he keeps my chocolate supply well stocked and drives me to the garden center for seeds and starter plants. He's a good husband.

Jo of Blissed Out tagged me with a You Make My Day award. I'm so glad to know that she doesn't view me as a stalker.

Now I am to tag 7 people for the meme and 10 people for the YMMD award. That's 17 blogs and/or websites. I'm not sure I have the stamina. We'll see how far I get.

Amby - Fantastic sewer and knitter. I love seeing her new creations. She's a bit crazy about her cats, but I try not to hold it against her.

Creative Apples - Perhaps my favorite card seller on Etsy. I started out with her cupcake photo cards. Now, when I want a new pack of bday cards, I go straight to her Flickr album and pick out the photos I want her to print.

Letterary Press - My next favorite card seller on Etsy. I gave this card to Dan on our anniversary.

The Dip Lady Knits - The Dip Lady has undergone surgery on both her hands for tendinitis and still she knits. She was actually chomping at the bit the day after her surgery. I'm not sure I would jump back into it quite as fast.

The Knitsy Bitsy Spider - Though it's supposed to be two friends blogging, it's really just Marti. It started out as a knit blog but has morphed into a needle felting, dog loving, and travel bopping blog. Oh, and Marti is hysterical.

Sew Spun - A new blog I just found. She's a spinner and a sewer. If my MIL is reading, this is for you ... Sew Spun posted a tutorial on how to get great corners on your quilts.

Kitty Grrlz - Long have I read her blog. Well, truth be told, I'm not sure how much I read it as I just scroll down and drool over all the beautiful yarn she spins up. I'm an avid fan of her Navajo plied yarns. Exquisite.

Glorious Hats - I love hats. There are no hat shops around me. The last one I went to was 9 years ago. So, it's wonderful to see and read Jane's blog. Not only does she make hats, but she's quite the sewer too. I suppose the two do go hand in hand. I feel like I should stress that Jane's hats are amazing. We're not talking bucket hats. We're talking fancy hats.

OK. I'm sorry. I ran out of steam. I made it halfway. That's good, right?

If you are still looking for blogs to read, check out my Blog I Read list. It's updated (well, it was two weeks ago).

Thanks again to Vicki & Jo. I truly appreciate it even though I'm slow as molasses in January.