Sweet Birthday Treat Pattern Sale

When I think of birthdays I imagine a festive celebration complete with the iconic, candle-topped cake like Sweetapolita's specialty, above.

Although the number of candles on my cake is threatening to become a fire hazard these days, and most days we try to eat healthy, I nonetheless enjoy a little indulgence on my birthday.

I thought this fluffy coconut cake from Marthastewart.com looked scrumptious.

These cupcakes are so pretty.

I love the simple appeal of these gluten free vanilla cupcakes from the The Wannabe Chef.

Of course, chocolate is usually a favorite for me, and My Darling Lemon Thyme's cake is gluten free as well (so maybe I can have several slices, haha).

Hmmm... I don't know what flavor of cake is the tastiest, but I DO know that since my birthday is in October, it means it's time for a pattern sale on all Robin Ulrich Studio downloads!

From now until the end of the month of October, enter coupon code: birthday2012 to receive a 20% savings off of all Robin Ulrich Studio patterns purchased.

I hope you enjoy these sweet treats, some lovely autumn days and a wonderful week. Thanks for stopping by!





Photos & Recipes
Sliced cake: http://sweetapolita.com/2011/06/love-cake-sprinkles/
Coconut cake: http://pinterest.com/pin/198510296045023524/ 
Cupcakes on tray: http://pinterest.com/pin/198510296045316013/
Vanilla cupcakes: http://pinterest.com/pin/198510296046471737/
Chocolate cake: http://pinterest.com/pin/198510296046335674/

A Contest Winner!

My goodness, the past month has been wild, with the onset of autumn weather requiring a lot of yard and garden work, a long road trip to Rhinebeck, our family holiday (where I took the above pumpkin photo), my birthday, tons of pattern work and a major family crisis to boot. Yes, it's been wild, but it's also been WONDERFUL to hear from so many readers! 

I love knowing that real, live knitters and crocheters are reading my page and not just my mom, my siblings and a lot of random people who stumble across this page while looking for something else on the Internet.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment, send me lovely birthday wishes, become a blog follower, and/ or enter the yarn and pattern giveaway contest. So many nice things were said, it made for one of my best birthday gifts ever, and I was intrigued to read the variety of preferences for yarn weights for knitted accessories. 

A successful yarn choice depends mainly on what you're knitting and a little also on how much time you have to complete your project. Right away I could tell from just skimming through the comments that knitters like a lot of variety in accessory yarn weight, with a few trends standing out.

Light-weight and fingering yarns are popular for lace projects, cabled gloves, or other items requiring less bulk, or for when you have more time to knit. 

Bulky and super bulky yarns are big (pun intended) this year for chunky scarves and neck accessories, making for super-fast knits. Many knitters love making scarves and hats in worsted weight, and DK weight seems to be the most popular, all-around choice in general. 

The many comments gave me a lot to think about concerning yarn choices for pattern designs.

After reading every comment, I made a numbered list of all the entries in order of date posted and used the Random.org True Random Number Generator to select the winner, who will receive a free PDF copy of my Katriel shawl pattern 

and a yarn prize including 4 skeins of Misti Alpaca Lace Solids

and a skein of Neighborhood Fiber Spun Silk yarn.

Without further ado, congratulations go out to the winner,

  Arnikai! 

Arnikai, I've emailed you to let you know of your win, please contact me within 7 days via email, Ravelry PM (I am Truknit) or a Twitter DM (I am Robinulrich), so I can arrange to send you your prizes!

Again, thanks to everyone for your comments, I truly appreciate all of my readers.

More contests, pattern and yarn giveaways and pattern specials, exclusively for my blog and Twitter followers, will be announced in future, so be sure to check back often and follow me on the blog and on Twitter. I've also got a lot of fun new posts in the works including reviews, helpful tutorials, tasty original recipes, pattern design and knitting updates and just general life stuff.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy knitting!

No Tricks, Just Treats - Pattern Sale, Free Knitting Pattern & Yarn Giveaway

No tricks here today, just treats! Today is the last day of my birthday knitting pattern sale and free pattern & yarn giveaway.

Until midnight tonight, EST, all Robin Ulrich Studio download patterns (except Katriel) will be 20% off, and my newest pattern, Katriel, is 50% off. One note - in order to receive the special 50% discount on Katriel, the shopping cart requires that pattern to be purchased separately from the other patterns.

And finally, since it's my birthday, 

 

 

I'm giving away a FREE PATTERN & YARN in a contest for all my followers!

The prizes for this contest include a PDF copy of Katriel (or other pattern of your choice if you've already purchased Katriel) and some yarny awesomeness to include four skeins of Misti Alpaca Lace in a lovely, silvery-lavender color (this is a total of 1748 yards!),

and a skein of hand-dyed Neighborhood Fiber Co. worsted weight, luminous silk yarn.

Like the pattern download sale, the yarn and pattern giveaway contest will run through midnight EST, tonight, October 31st. A winner will be chosen tomorrow, November 1st, by random number generator from amongst all the entries. See the rules for entering in this post: Birthday Contest.

Even if you don't wish to enter the contest, I always love to hear from readers, so feel free to leave me a comment anyway. 

I'll choose the winner tomorrow and announce their name in the next post (this week), and also notify them of their win. The winner will have 7 days from the time of the announcement post to let me know where to send the prizes. 

Good luck and happy knitting!

 

Rhinebeck Review - aka New York State Sheep & Wool Festival

At long last, I had the opportunity to visit the famed New York State Sheep & Wool Festival (commonly referred to as "Rhinebeck" because of it's location), as the first part of our vacation this year.  

Having read endless raves and reviews of past years' shows, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect - barns full of magnificent yarn, fiber and knitting and spinning supplies, fleece and fiber-animal competitions, workshops, people, food, food and more food, and lots of fun. On every item, Rhinebeck fulfilled those expectations, but I had some reservations as well. 

We arrived about 30 minutes prior to the show opening on Saturday, and had plenty of good parking choices near a secondary gate. After sitting in the car knitting for a while, we purchased wristbands for entry - $17 for a two-day pass - and joined the growing queue.

 

The fairgrounds where the show is held are clean, beautifully landscaped and easy to navigate.

The autumn trees are lovely and there are food opportunities everywhere from the giant building full of food and wine vendors

to local 4-H kids raising funds, to fair-type food like cotton candy.

A fun part of the show for me was meeting up with my knitting friends Lynn, shown here in the Brooks Farm booth,

and Andrea, a workshop teacher at this year's event.

I kept a sharp eye on Ravelry badges, hoping to see names from my friends list, but was disappointed to not find any Rav friends. However, in the photo below are a few Ravelry designer faces (and backsides), including Ysolda Teague, Stephen West and others.

Muddy fields and parking lots, hard pavement and changing weather conditions mean comfortable shoes and layered clothing are a must.

Of course, knits were everywhere to be seen and a favorite part of the experience for me was admiring all the hard work displayed by thousands of knitters.

The only unpleasant part of the show for me was from about 12-2 PM on Saturday, when the buildings became so crowded that you were literally pushed along with a solid mass of people. Stopping to look or enter a booth was difficult, and I was concerned for mobility-challenged folks with walkers, and for  those pushing baby strollers.

Lines to have knitting books signed by the author were long, with one of the longest being to meet Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot.

This photo was taken on Sunday when things were much calmer.

Of course for knitters, the fiber and yarn were the stars of the show and there was something there to tempt every taste. I especially loved selections from Briar Rose (always a favorite),

 
Spirit Trail Fiberworks, and The Sanguine Gryphon

It seems I'm also smitten with this skein of gray Miss Babs Yummy Sock yarn - what a surprise...

There are other interesting things to peruse in addition to fiber, like jewelry, baskets and farmer's market apples.

  
A pumpkin-carving expert displayed some creative items.

I saved the animals for Sunday so I could really take my time to enjoy interacting with them. A large part of the show is centered around fiber animal competitions and there were plentiful opportunities to touch the animals,

learn about them,

 
watch them being prepared for showing,

and competing with their handlers.

 
This little goat was so friendly and sweet.

My husband and I had a wonderful time and I look forward to visiting again sometime. Although it was a terrific show, for me it is not a yearly 'must-do' event, as there are so many other great fiber events held around the US that I'd like to visit. But Rhinebeck is certainly one I will keep on my list.

Celebrating My Birthday with Free Knitting Giveaway Treats!

My how time flies! I've been busy with other things, including knitting, writing patterns, submitting designs and babying my ancient computer, and it's suddenly the end of the first week of October? Criminy.  I realize I've not posted in about the longest stretch ever for me although I have, in fact, worked on several posts and will share those soon. (photo Marthastewart.com)

The changing season reminded me that later this month is my birthday. And lest you think I'm still young enough to believe the passage of time a wonderful thing, think again my friend. 

No, I'm not young (or old depending on your perspective) but I've come to love a birthday as a personal anniversary, or new year celebration of sorts, that marks our individual arrival on earth, when we began filling a place in the world that only you or I can fill.

It allows us to look back on life in the last year, remembering joys, challenges, love, failures and growth, reflect on goals from the calendar New Year and think about how we want the next 12 months to play out - perhaps differently than the last dozen.

A birthday is not another day nearer to death, after all, we're dying every second of every day, with no guarantees of even another minute in this life. Rather, I see a birthday as an opportunity to make the most of this moment, to get another 'do-over' and have a fresh start. To hopefully be a better person than I was last year.

In the US, it's customary for a birthday child to bring treats to school to share with classmates, often consisting of cookies, cupcakes or other edibles. Because my birthday is at the end of October, I usually brought fresh apple cider and doughnuts.

Always cake doughnuts, because those were my parents' favorites and because they were easy to tie to a string and hang for a children's speed-eating game. 

To this day, the fragrance of cinnamon, apples and doughnuts make me think of my birthday treats. And in honor of my birthday month, I'm again giving away goodies, and you all are invited to my party.

No tricks here, it's time for pattern discounts and yarn and knitting pattern giveaway treats!

First of all, for the rest of the month of October, all Robin Ulrich Studio download patterns (except Katriel) will be 20% off. The special birthday price will post automatically when you make your selection in the shopping cart.

Next, my brand-new pattern, Katriel, will be 50% off!

 

And lastly, I'm giving away a FREE PATTERN & YARN in a contest for all my followers!

The prizes for this contest include a PDF copy of Katriel (or other pattern of your choice if you've already purchased Katriel) and some yarny awesomeness to include four skeins of Misti Alpaca Lace in a lovely, silvery-lavender color (this is a total of 1748 yards!),

and a skein of hand-dyed Neighborhood Fiber Co. worsted weight, luminous silk yarn.

Like the pattern download sale, the yarn and pattern giveaway contest will run all month through midnight, EST on October 31st. A winner will be chosen November 1st by random number generator from amongst all the entries, and anyone can enter by doing three things:

1.  Be or become a follower on my blog (the button to link is on the sidebar). 
2.  Leave a comment to any post this month answering the question - what yarn weight do you prefer (it can be different for each) for accessories like hats, fingerless gloves and scarves? - before the end date of the contest.
3. Make sure I can contact you via your blog or other site to let you know the news of your win, or message me on Ravelry (I'm Truknit) or on Twitter (I'm Robinulrich) with your contact information.

That's it! I'll announce the winner here in the next post after the contest ends, and also contact you, to let you know if you've won. The winner will have 7 days from the time of the announcement post to let me know where to send the prizes!

Have a terrific weekend and happy knitting everyone!

Autumn Inspiration on the Needles & Hook

This time of year it seems the calendar starts to fly by.  Wasn't it just hot as blazes?  Now the air is cool and crisp with curls of woodsmoke rising from chimneys, mornings are frosty and I'm in the mood for warm, woolie things to wear.  I've winnowed down my works-in-progress (WIP's), but still have a lot going on.

This morning I went to one of my favorite nearby parks and took this photo.

The silvery-frosted leaves and berries against the backdrop of golds, greens and oranges made me want to get stitching!  I went home and dug through my stash to find several candidates but the winner was, hands down, a skein of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn in colorway S242.  

It seems Eisaku Noro must have a penchant for these same shades of Autumn as I have.

I've used the Kureyon Sock to start a crocheted shawlette called Elise Shawl  by designer Evan Plevinski.  This photo shows his shawl, mine is shown in the photos above and at the top of the post.

After the set-up rows, the pattern is a simple two-row repeat worked from the neck down, using only basic crochet stitches like double and triple crochet.  I'm working it with a US size I hook. Fast and fun so far!

Also on my needles are a gazillion prototypes for a hat to match my Lavande neckwarmer pattern, 

a cardigan, from another designer, left over from my vacation (more details when I have photos to share) and a couple of versions of this pattern project.

I'm also playing around with yarns for a variation on the Greyhaven cowl.  And I am excited to announce...

...that Greyhaven was voted as the November knitalong free pattern project for the Ravelry Cowls group!  Thanks to everyone who voted for this pattern.  By the way, I uploaded a new version of the pattern on November 1st, 2010, so if you downloaded one before that date, go ahead and grab a new one. 

This cowl KAL will be going on all month, so it's not too late to join if you still want to.  Some members have already completed multiple versions and are still casting on for more, many looking ahead to making holiday gifts. 

As for KAL's, the Ravelry Anthropologie group Brandywine Falls KAL will continue for quite awhile, so there's plenty of time to join in on that one too.  

This week when I stopped at the post office to pick up my mail, I had a surprise package waiting from my very talented, Chicago-based Ravelry buddy Loren (Twisted1 on Ravelry).  It contained some awesome birthday goodies including cute project gift tags, a Vogue stitch pattern calendar, and most especially this gorgeous scarf she knit for me!

Loren has been working a lot lately with Jane Thornley's amazing tutorials using color and texture in multiple yarns, and designed this scarf herself and titled it Ephemera.  Thank you so much Loren, I love it!  You're so thoughtful! 

Happy stitching everyone!