Your treasure hunt is nearing its conclusion. Unfortunately, the you may find the clues to be a little tougher. Here are this weeks clues.

Happy Hunting

Clue 3

(26 November 2011)

1. What caused the foot injury that required the application of a Ratatouille Tattoo bandage ?
2. What was the unfortunate consequence of my Kool-aid dyeing experience?
3. What character trait gives a person the most points on the “Knit worthiness” scale?

If you missed Clue 1 or 2, go to this post for details.

Here is my latest adventure in stranded colorwork. This faux Fair Isle hat, that almost didn’t have a name, is created using variegated sock yarn along with a coordinating solid. This is a great pattern for that beautiful skein of hand-painted yarn that is uncooperative with most stitch patterns.

The pattern requires knowledge of knitting in the round, double decreases and basic stranded colorwork, as well as reading color charts. Colorwork is fully charted with written instructions for basic techniques.

Introductory Special – Through December 31st, buy this pattern together with Fire & Water Beret and get a $3.00 discount using coupon code TH-Stranded at checkout. Use the redemption link below for this offer.

Redemption Link

I just listed my 48th design on Ravelry. Fire & Water Beret

This colorful stranded colorwork beret was inspired by the Aztec art of Mexico. Doubly warm because of the stranding, this colorful hat will cheer the coldest winter day.

Pattern is suitable for intermediate knitters. Skills required: knitting small circumference in the round, stranded colorwork, chart reading. Charts are in color. I purchased Loopy Ewe Solid Series yarn for this pattern but the contrast colors can be worked easily with scrap yarn from your stash. All together I used approximately 90 – 100 yd of the blue, and approximately 20 – 25 yd of each of the three contrast colors.

$5.00

Be watching for matching pieces for this hat.

Hope you had fun finding last week’s treasure hunt clues. Thanks to all of you who have participated and given me feedback on the game. If you missed last week’s clues, you can find them along with the game rules in the Saturday Surprises post.

Here are you next clues.

Clue Two
(12 November 2011)

1. Find the Tutorials page on my website and tell me the name of my Kool-aid dyeing tutorial.
2. Find the What’s Cooking? page and tell me the name of the friend who gave me the Biscuits and Chocolate Gravy recipe. /li>
3. Find the Newsletter Archive page and tell me what month featured the Chickpea and Feta Salad recipe.

Bonus Points: Answer this question for an extra entry in the drawing for the yarn gift certificate.
Find the Gulf Breezes post and click on the link for the website for the yarn used for shawl sample then tell me the name of your favorite colorway of Amanda’s wonderful yarns.

When you have found all the answers, click this link to enter your answers.

Happy Hunting.

May I present my first every Holiday Treasure Hunt.

Here’s how it works:

Each Saturday for the next four weeks (throughout the month of November), I will post a list of things you need to find on my website. There will be three questions to answer each week regarding those three things that you find. At the bottom of the post will be a link to click to enter your answers for the treasure hunt for that week. The links to all for clues will stay active until mid-December so if you are doing holiday things and miss a clue, you can always fill it out later.

After the last clue is posted, those who have solved all four clues will receive a download link for a new pattern that has not yet been released. In addition, one name will be drawn at random from among those who completed the treasure hunt to win the yarn to complete the design. You will be given a gift certificate from WEBS for the yarn so you can pick your favorite colors.

Ready for your first clue?

Clue One
(5 November 2011)

1. Find the post about blocking felted hats and answer this question:
What unusual supplies were used in the blocking of the Lily Alexania hat?

2. Find the From the Heart page on my website and answer this question:
What is the name of the recipe page on my website?

3. Find the Resources page on my website and answer this question:
Which is NOT a section of my Resources page? (multiple choice)

If you think you have found all the answers, click this link to enter your answers.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Next clue will be posted on 12 November 2011.

Today is the Autumnal Equinox, so you all know what that means. It is officially fall. Fall here is a little less pronounced than in other parts of the country. Here, our summer gradually blends into winter and fall is that blending period. It means that the high temperatures are in the mid-80s instead of high-90s. It means that is is cool enough to sleep without the air conditioner and the leaves start changing. Here, they don’t all seem to change at once. You see a tree here and a tree there but often we don’t get that blaze of color typically associated with autumn. Also, there are lots of evergreen trees here so even in the dead of winter, there are still plenty of patches of green.

We have a few flowers that only bloom here in the fall, like the spider lily

and the confederate rose. My confederate rose hasn’t bloomed quite yet this year but that first bloom of the year is always reason for celebration. It tends to get featured in a knitting pattern.

I also still have azalea blossoms. Our mild climate is suitable to a variety of azalea that blooms in the spring and fall. I rather like this particular plant.

With the temperatures not being so miserably hot, I have renewed creative energy so my knitting and designing tend to kick into high gear. This year is no exception. Here is my latest design.

Debbie’s Diamonds Shawl

I have been working on this pattern for a while. It was my first attempt at a fully charted lace design. This shawl was designed for my friend Debbie of Dodge Creations. The sample is knit in her lovely hand-dyed yarn – Dodge Creations Dye Works.

This lovely rectangular shawl featuring a bold diamond motif will be a versatile wardrobe addition. It looks as fabulous with eveningwear as it does with jeans. Shawl is knit in one piece using basic lace techniques. Design is fully charted, and no line by line written instructions are included. Pattern is suitable for Intermediate to Advanced knitters. You will need to know basic lace techniques as well as chart reading.The pattern file is quite large (over 3Mb in size) so please contact me if you have trouble downloading it and I can send a multiple file version of the pattern.

$7.00

Before I shut up, I need to announce the winner for my “The Thing about Summer” contest. The winner is Joyce. I will be sending your patterns to you through Ravelry later today. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who played.  The next contest will be in October – it will be a scavenger hunt.

Until next time, happy knitting.

And when I am not working on getting everything in the house back in order, I am knitting socks.

That’s about all for this week. Don’t forget to enter the contest from the last post and the contest on my Ravelry group. Winners for both contests will be chosen on 10 September 2011.

Here is a quick update on what’s been going on this summer.

Summer Reading Program
Everyone in the family, except Mr H, took part in a summer reading program. With all the other stuff going on none of us read an astronomical number of books but we still won some prizes. SmallFry won a game, Buttercup won a gift certificate to her favorite restaurant and I got tickets to a play. Plus we all tried out some new authors and have a list of books to read for the rest of the year.

Gardening
We tried but the weather just didn’t cooperate much. It was exceptionally dry this spring so the plants just didn’t do much. We did get some fresh veggies but not as many as we would have liked. We are hoping for better luck with the fall garden.

StarFleet Fiber Arts Corps
I mentioned this group in my last post. I am still knitting away for Starfleet. I should have at least one more promotion by the end of the summer but I am hoping to jump two ranks.

Home
The house has tied up a lot of my time this summer. First, there was the series of appliance failures and car woes to deal with. And then we turned the house totally upside down to create an office space for me and a more functional school space. When all is said and done, there will probably only be one piece of furniture in the entire house that didn’t get moved. On the bright side, I love my new bedroom and office. I think this new arrangement, once everything finally returns to its proper place, will be more conducive to creative work.

Designing
I’ve been working away on a number of designs but I haven’t quite got them ready to show you yet. Just know that there will be a lot of new things to see for fall.

Contest
Finally, a contest since I haven’t given away anything on the blog lately. Many of you who read this will be aware with my family’s fondness for the TV show Doctor Who. In celebration of the start of Season 6.5, how about a chance to win my Doctor Who-themed patterns? Just post a comment about your favorite Doctor Who moment. Please include your Ravelry ID, an email addy or some way to contact you if you win. One winner will be chosen using the Random Number Generator and will receive a copy of the following patterns – Medusa Cascade Shawl, Medusa Cascade Socks, Time Lord Socks and Sprinkles Socks which are affectionately known as TARDIS socks because the lace looks like little TARDISes hurtling through time and space. In the event that the winner already owns some of these pattern, he or she will be allowed to choose a different pattern or even gift the duplicate pattern to a friend.

For more chances to win, join my Ravelry group, like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter and then post another comment for each social outlet to let me know you are following me and you will receive an extra entry. So that is four chances to win per person. As an bonus prize, the winner will also receive the Who-themed pattern that I am secretly working on as soon as the pattern is released. That is a total of 5 patterns! All in time for holiday knitting.

There is also another contest going on my Ravelry group so if you join that group, make sure you play the game.

I have been also knitting away to earn another promotion in Starfleet. Here are some of the little things that I have knit so far. My goal is to be a Lieutenant or higher before the end of the summer.

Here are some of my completed  missions:

A disguise

A bracelet

A plethora of dishcloths

A communicator cozy

A fez for Timmy

which is in the process of being shot off his head by Doctor River Song.

A timelord worthy scarf for Timmy

which is proving to be quite handy for a variety of tasks.

Substitute hat after River has destroyed fez

Thinking aid

Tree climbing apparatus

Wild horse taming device

and Escape tool

On the whole, Timmy was very pleased.

To round out my Starfleet knitting, I also completed a  pair of Rainbow Medusa Cascade Socks

A Shawl – my design.

and a hat – also my design.

I am disappointed that I don’t have a new pattern ready to show you. Those last two are about to enter the testing phase so I should have the ready in a few weeks. I also have a second shawl that will be ready as soon as I get the yarn for the last 5 rows.

Until next time, happy knitting.

So let’s catch up, shall we?

Timmy has been properly fitted

Though it’s not an easy thing to do with someone so small.

Dead Freezer has been removed. It was a good freezer that served us well. It survived 18 years and at least 5 moves. It will be missed.

However, I have suddenly discovered that its removal gives me much more room in my kitchen. So it may not soon be replaced.

All glass has been repaired but I thought I might show you what happens when I have a bad week with car glass.

Now one but 2 windows drop into doors without reason or warning.

This is only the seventh repair (technically, we could call it 9 since they replaced the parts on all 4 windows this time) we have had on the 4 windows of the Jeep. Can you say “factory defect”? I really hope I don’t have further problems with this vehicle. Maybe we should have gotten a van instead.

But as if two window replacements weren’t enough, Mr. H decided it might be fun to catch flying scrap metal with his windshield.

There were three other vehicles damaged by the same flying scrap metal. Truck that tossed it into the air was oblivious to the situation. Fortunately, Mr. H wasn’t hurt, other than in the wallet.

So hopefully, you all will forgive my temporary absence and consider yourselves fortunate that you aren’t me right now.

Next post will be about knitting. I promise.