Blogiversary with a Cause

A year ago today, encouraged by Beth, I signed up on WordPress, and whoops, before I knew it:

I had a knitting blog!

1st picture; borrowed digital camera with a dirty lens giving an impressionistic look

What a long, strange trip it’s been.

And what an amazing number of wonderful people I’ve met along the way, many of whom I am proud and honored to call friends.

(And how much yarn I’ve acquired, but we’re not discussing that now. Move along now. Nothing to see here.)

So I’d like to celebrate in my favorite way (sharing fiberlicious love!) but, borrowing a page from Sarah-Hope, I’d like to throw a party that helps others as well.

Here’s the scoop: Instead of just being a comments ho (not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course), I’d like to invite you to join me in supporting some truly worthy causes. And by doing so, you can win some AMAZING prizes!

What AMAZING prizes, you ask? Take a look:

The gorgeously beautiful, limited edition, not-quite-yet-available-to-the-general-public-as-of-today (it is anticipated to go on sale on the BMFA website tomorrow, April 30th) “Knitters WIthout Borders” Socks That Rock yarn in lightweight!

i bought this at BMFA Sock Camp, where a portion of the purchase price already went to support Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières), one of my favorite charities. (I ran out of yarn room in my suitcase, so fellow Camper Lisa kindly mailed this skein home to me with, ahem, a little more yarn perhaps for company. Thanks, Lisa!) By the way, what looks purple there is more of a black in person; blame the photographer, not helped very much by post-snow gloomy skies.

And the organizer of Knitters Without Borders (Tricoteuses sans Frontières) (knitters supporting Doctors without Borders) herself, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, has a new book out — perhaps you’ve heard? A signed copy will go to a lucky winner! She’s inscribed it, “Knitblogs Rock”!

Next for another lucky and generous winner, another Doctors Without Borders special colorway hand-dyed yarn, this one a sportweight merino superwash (331 yards, 4 oz) from The Unique Sheep, mmmm:

Again, by the creation and prior purchase of this yarn, a donation has already been made to Doctors Without Borders, so a win-win situation! And I can tell you, this yarn is nice and squooshy, just awesome.

(In case you think I’m utterly insane, I, um, still have another one of these for myself of all of the above. But I’ll share the yarny love!)

We need to break up the red theme a bit, so here’s some gorgeous and (since Jess on Ravelry made Twisted Fiber Art yarn Jess’ featured yarn selection) virtually impossible-to-get Twisted Fiber Arts yarn.

“Portal” colorway, in “Arial” superwash merino fine fingering weight yarn base.

The swatch is Meg’s photo of it knitted up.) (Meg of Twisted Fiber Arts is putting a new website up in the near future, I’ll keep you posted. We Twisted addicts are certainly excited!)

Now here’s a prize that should really get your attention:

An absolutely drop-dead gorgeous skein of Wollmeise!

Pfauenauge (Peacock) colorway, medium intensity, an incredibly generous put-up of 150 g (574 yards) of superwash wool. (And, no, I don’t have another one of these. I’m not that lucky.) No color enhancement whatsoever, the colors really are that intense. This is definitely a “Wow!” in person. Or maybe a “Whoa!” (Or “Wo!”)

How, you may ask, could you, you, YOU have a chance (or 20!) to win one of these truly and unutterably exciting prizes?

Easy!

Donate to any of these charities with a knitting connection (and actually, they have a connection with the prizes as well!)

1. Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières/MSF), a cause near and dear to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s heart and mine too. Suffering does not respect borders, and neither should healing. I can’t go and help at this point in my life, but I honor and support my colleagues who do. Donate here. You can email Steph and let her know you donated too, and your donation will go into her running total sometime, and occasional prizes are drawn, apparently. (I keep forgetting to tell her about my donations, myself; oh, well, c’est la vie!)
2. Knitters for Knockers, a team of Richmond, Virginia knitters which is Racing for the Cure for breast cancer on May 10, 2008.  One of my fellow Sock Campers, Lou, is on the team. Fabulous prizes there too! Donate here.  One out of 8 American woman, it’s estimated, will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. My 39-year-old cousin died of breast cancer several years ago, and her younger sister’s cancer was then picked up and treated early, and she’s fortunately doing great. But this cause is near and dear to my heart, and the hearts of many. The money all goes to breast cancer research, early detection, and reaching underserved women. (The latter also near and dear to my heart: I see people struggling without adequate health insurance daily, and my cousin had felt a lump for quite some time, but didn’t get it checked out due to lack of insurance and her assumption that it was nothing.)
3. The House That Yarn Built, an initiative by Christy for knitters to support Make It Right (rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower Ninth District in an environmentally responsible fashion). Read about it here (or let Brad Pitt tell you about it on the Make It Right website), and donate here. (Connection with the prizes? YARN!) Another opportunity to double-dip, there’s prizes to be awarded for donating there too; why not? Represent Knitting and help get the most devastated area of New Orleans back on its feet with a House that Yarn Built!
4. Just added!  Norma* reminded me about The Red Scarf Fund of the Orphan Foundation of America, whom we tend to think about in the fall/winter when red scarves have been knitted for the Red Scarf Project in the past.  But The Red Scarf Fund supports the young adults who have ‘aged out’ of the foster care system year-round by providing for emergency needs of OFA students such as medical bills, housing, transportation, as well as supporting OFA programs in general.  Über-knitterly, and a great cause. Donate here (right side of page).

*On that first blog post on April 29, there was a Magic 28 sock using Norma’s pattern, too!  Too funny.  Neither of us are sock knitters, though.  Nope.

So, the FINE PRINT details: Every $5 donation will get you one chance to win. More money, more chances in the virtual hat. The Blogiversary with a Cause ‘raffle’ will run from now until midnight CDT on Sunday, May 11, 2008. Unbribeable internet random number generators with no interest in yarn will select the lucky winners on Monday, May 12, 2008.

To enter, email me at hitherandyarn at gmail dot com (you know the drill) and, on the honor system, let me know the amount of your donation.

Donate early, donate often!

It’s all good.

P.S.  And you may certainly free to leave a comment too!  I never said I wasn’t a comment ho!  I only said I wasn’t JUST a comment ho, as I recall.

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.