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JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores are sponsoring a crafting for Charity contest. This contest allows you to use your creativity to craft and design, and your passion to support your favorite charity at the same time. Your crafting skills can win a $1500 JoAnn gift card for you and your charity has the opportunity to win a cash prize.

Start crafting August 15, 2010 and continue through October 30, 2010, purchasing your supplies from your local JoAnn Fabric and Craft store.  You must enter online at the contest entry site. Additional information and rules are here.

If you need inspiration, JoAnn’s website offers free patterns and ideas to get the creative juices flowing.

Once you have purchased your materials, start making your donations to your favorite organization. Entries will be judged on creativity, quality & functionality of the item for the chosen organization. The top 5 entries will each win a $1,500 JoAnn gift card.  Your charity can win one of three prizes ranging from $15,000 -$50,000.

Submit photos of each item you have created and donated. The more you craft and give, the better it is for the cause that’s closest to your heart..

Starting November 7, 2010, and through December 4, 2010, you can vote at Joann.com® for your favorite charity. The three charitable causes receiving the most entries will become Craft for a Cause finalists.

In the Detroit area, there is a long list of JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores available. Click here for the current flyer.

If you have a blog or wish to promote this contest, banners and ads are available for your use.

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• Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores Promotes ‘Take Time to Craft A Memory’ In Celebration of National Craft Month (eon.businesswire.com)
• Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores Presents New Inspiration for DIY Brides (eon.businesswire.com)

Debbie’s current project is sending out a call to all her caring, generous readers to pick up their needles and crochet hooks to join her in making items to help infants and children in need across the country. Debbie feels that this initiative is worthy of our time, talent and yarn. Debbie’s project is called Knit1, Bless2. The national charities supported by this effort to help these precious, needy children will be Project Linus, Newborns In Need and Binky Patrol.

As part of Knit1, Bless2, Leisure Arts is making Knit Along With Debbie Macomber, A Charity Guide For Knitters available from March 1 to May 1, 2010, at LeisureArts.com at a special price of $12.50 ($4.45 off the regular retail price of $16.95. Enter Coupon Code DMACB.) The collection includes patterns and information for a variety of organizations. All of Ms. Macomber’s  proceeds from her licensed products, including the Leisure Arts Knit Along series, go to charity.

To join in this project, you need to sign up at Ms. Macomber’s  webpage, Knit1, Bless2.  There is a special tag that you need to print out and attach to the garment, allowing you to designate the charity of your choice.  The projects need to be completed and mailed in by May 31, 2010.

It will be very interesting to read about the final tally of items gathered by this project.  Ms. Macomber has a database of 75,000 fans gathered from book signings and those who have signed her guest book at her website.

Here is a fun video about the creation of The Truly Terrible Horrible Sweater. . . That Grandma Knit.  The pattern is available for free at Ms. Macomber’s website.

Ravelympic logo by zzwhitejd

Today the Winter Olympics start in Vancouver, BC.  and the Ravelympics will start at Ravelry.

What is the Ravelympics you ask?  The event is online at the social knitting  website called Ravelry.  The website  started out with knitters and has evolved to include fiber fanatics of all kinds – spinners, weavers, crocheters and pattern developers, not to mention all manner of suppliers including yarn manufacturers and magazines.

Ravelympics is two weeks of focused, intense personal & team challenges to tackle while watching the Olympics.  Ravelryites picked projects to start or complete, joined groups and posted projects.  The fun begins with “casting on” at the opening ceremonies of the games and ends when the torch is  extinguished.  This mad group is composed of over 8,711 participants from around the globe that have one goal in mind – to complete the projects they  posted while watching world-class sporting events.

By the time this is over there will be a large mass of projects completed, personal goals achieved and hopefully Gold medals for America!

The featured instructor will be Susan Glinert Stevens aka fleegle in ravelry circles.  Susan  will teach the fleegle heel as well as the purl less in-the round garter stitch. Susan’s classes will be on Saturday, March 20.

Patricia will also be there, and I’m sorry I don’t have a last name.  Patricia loves to knit socks and her classes will be about sock knitting -Colorwork – learn Continental/American for 2 hand colorwork and making a heel sampler.

Cost  and complete schedule for the weekend can be found at the website.  There will be Door prizes, contests and giveaways!

CALL Tom @ 706.246.0152 to make reservations.  No registrations taken after March 12.  Must be paid in full by March 12.  Accepts:  Visa, Mastercard

This is a large gathering of fiber-arts enthusiasts (knitters, crocheters, spinners, and fiber lovers),  growers of natural-fiber-producing livestock and vendors of the materials and tools associated with each.  This is a  true showcase for one of Dutchess County’s first (and still viable) industries;  the Sheep and Wool Family Festival is now in its 37th year at the fairgrounds.  Sheep, llamas and alpacas will be on display, with craft and fiber artists presenting the wonders of wool and sheep related items. The show is family orientated with activities for all ages,  including a pumpkin chucking contest, a Hay Maze,  cooking demonstrations, and Border Collies showing off their shepherding skills.

This year the workshop schedule includes Lily M Chin, among a host of other wonderful fiber artists.

Link s you may be interested in:
General information
Index of events

This year the Book Sigining and lecture events will feature Clara Parks, Lily M Chin and Kristen Rengren, the author of Vintage Baby Knits.

Also featured is The New York State Make it with Wool Contest. This contest  will be held Saturday, October 17, 2009 from 10am to 2pm . The Make It With Wool prizes are sponsored by the NYS Sheep & Wool Festival.  Contestants must select, construct and model their own garments.

Stitching in public has become a hot trend and seeing groups of people working on needlearts projects in coffee shops, restaurants and other unusual places is becoming a regular sighting.

Stitch n’ Pitch will be at the Detroit Tigers vs. Tampa Bay Rays game held Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 1:05 p.m. Grab your needles and yarn and come cheer for the Tigers while you embroider, needlepoint, knit, crochet or cross-stitch with other creative people like you!

The Tigers have reserved a special section of seats for the Stitch n’ Pitach participants. The seating is in sections 210 to 215 for this special event. Tickets are only $15.00. To purchase tickets at this special location, go to the Stitch n’ Pitch website and follow the links.

Also, as part of the “Every Kid Every Sunday” promotion, all kids 14-and-under can enjoy the following:

• Back to School Backpack sponsored by DMC

• Pre-Game Kids Take the Field presented by Big Boy

• Kids Day Bicycle Giveaways (4 per game)

• Free Rides on the Carousel and Ferris Wheel presented by Red Robin

• Interactive baseball Card Game “Pack Attack!”

• Post-Game Kids Run the Bases presented by Pepsi

• Face-Painting

Locally, tickets are available at City Knits in Detroit and Mount Clemens.

On Friday, the 7th of August at 12:15 p.m., the knitters started knitting, following the Guinness World Record rules. The Guinness World Record rules were that the attempt must be made by knitters knitting for 15 minutes, using “traditional needles” which they define as “two needles”. This means that every person that participated used two needles, and not circulars or four needles.  The attempt was a success.  The record was broken, but no official word yet.

There are many blogs detailing this event, and also a video from K2TOG at The Oregonian.

If you answered yes to the above questions, you might be interested in attending the [tag]Squam Art Workshops[/tag] events to be held June 3 – 7, 2009 and September 16 – 20, 2009 at the [tag]Rockywold-Deephaven Camps[/tag] on Squam Lake,  located in central New Hampshire For more information about the area, please check these links:
Squam Lakes Association
Squam Lakes Chamber of Commerce

There are many  classes to choose from that include: painting, printmaking, journaling, doll making, writing, knitting, sewing, photography, crochet, sculpture, felting and some classes that combine several of those elements into one workshop.  Both sessions follow the same format: there are three days of workshops.

Both sessions have 3 days of  classes, June’s sessions will focus on textiles and September’s classes will focus on visual arts and writing workshops.

There is a very long list of classes, and a very long list of teachers for the June sessions. There are still spots available for the June session ; downpayment of $350 is needed.  Registration and cost information is found here.

Another bonus, if you are a member of the [tag]Raverly[/tag] website, the first Ravelry party in New England will be at the SAW on Saturday, June 6th.  The party. is open to all Ravelers and friends, not just participants of the Workshops

Held over four days, Magda Sayeg, founder of [tag]Knitta Please[/tag], and Sydney artist [tag]Denise Litchfield[/tag] will transform the front entrance and foyer of the National Gallery.

Knitters are invited to help create squares of knitting for the coverings.  Denise Litchfield -  Grrl + dog writes about this event at her blog.  This event is part of Knitta Please a festival of events from July5 to 12 , which celebrates the final week of the exhibition Soft sculpture.
Knitters are invited to help create pieces that measure 10–20 cm wide and 140 cm long, which will be stitched together by volunteers to create coverings for 6 large concrete poles -  10 meters high, that’s over thirty feet.  Each pole measures 140 cms or 55 inches in circumference. That means your piece has to be that long to fit around the pole.  Make sure your piece is no higher than 20 cms or 8 inches.

Any color of yarn, any type of yarn and any technique is accepted! The wackier the knitting the better.  Use your imagination – recycled plastic bags, ribbon, whatever!

And, just to make it more fun -Denise Litchfield will send you special commemorative hand made,  one -of- a- kind knitted bling  just for sending a knitted swatch

You need to start knitting now and send your items to arrive by July 1st.   Takes about 10 days to mail to Australia from the US.   Just email Denise at grrlandog@bigpond.com to commit.

Include a small note stating your name, location and age (optional) because each knitted strip will have a small label stating the maker’s details.

Sock Knitting has created many new designers – at least based on the amount of entries with this contest.  The [tag]Think Outside the SOX[/tag] co-sponsors devised 26 amateur categories to stimulate knitters creativity. Each category was judged by the sponsoring company, and each winner was awarded a $500 prize. That created 26 chances to win (21 yarn-specific categories and 5 non-yarn-specific categories)!  The voting for the KniTalk catagory was done by knitters who logged into [tag]Knitalk Community[/tag] and at [tag]Stitches West[/tag].  The winners are featured in a future edition of Knitters Magazine and in a new sock book published by XRX Books.

This picture is the Grand Prize winner Betty Salpekar of Woodstock, GA. Betty was in the audience at the Student Banquet. She received her $6000 check from XRX Publisher, Alexis Xenakis to a standing ovation.

There also was a 27th category… setup just for the Pros in the industry. This non-yarn-specific catagory was judged by [tag]Cat Bordhi[/tag], [tag]Lucy Neatby[/tag], [tag]Sandi Rosner[/tag], and the Knitter’s Magazine editorial team. And the winner was awarded a $500 prize.  All the winners were announced at Stitches West in California. These judges also determined the winners of the Knitter’s, KnitU, XRX Books, and STITCHES catagories.  The Queens of Socks themselves made a video to discuss how they determined the winners and the fun they had handeling all the entries.

The sponsors of this contest are: [tag]Skacel[/tag], [tag]SWTC[/tag], [tag]Mountain Colors[/tag], [tag]Regia[/tag], [tag]Universal Yarn[/tag], [tag]Unique Kolours[/tag], [tag]Cherry Tree Hill Yarn[/tag], and [tag]addi Turbo by Skacel[/tag] – (not to mention [tag]Knitter’s Magazine[/tag], KnitU, [tag]STITCHES Knitting Expos[/tag], and [tag]XRX Books[/tag]) who donated over 21,000 in prizes in 27 categories.

And what great designs the amateurs created!  Click here for all the pictures of the winners.  Click here for a slide show of all 293 entries. One of the category winners was a 10 year old, Elizabeth Brook Shelor, Meadows of Dan, VA.  A future designer, I’m sure!

The reason I am excited about the winners of this contest is that six of the winners were from my home state – Michigan! The [tag]Michigan[/tag] winners are: Terri D Gogolin, Milan, MI who won two categories; Janice Talkington, Lake, MI; Linda McGibbon Beaverton, MI who won two categories; and Tanya Thomann, Berkley, MI who won the KniTalk catagory.

Way to go ladies!