Our “Usher in the New Year” celebration results!

Posted on January 15, 2012 by gettinitpegged

Every year we have a little bit of fun in our Gettin’ It Pegged! Yahoo Chat Group, where we celebrate the closing of the previous year’s accomplishments and look forward with anticipation to the New Year.  We have a few categories to that our members participate in to earn drawing entries for prizes.  We also play a couple of games and just plain enjoy each others’ company.  🙂

This year’s prize categories included:

Loomy To-Do Progress List: This is a place for listing all those projects that we have hanging around on our looms and just can’t find their way to being completed…yes, UFOs! (Un-Finished Objects)  For each UFO that was completed during 2011, the loomer receives an entry into the drawing.

Let me tell you a little more about this category…

These items on this list are the forgotten ones, the difficult ones to master, the ones we just don’t want to get around to doing, lol.  So to be able to mark these items as completed is an amazing accomplishment.  We had listed in the group TWENTY SIX completed items in the UFO database for 2011!  Great job,  Gettin’ It Pegged Loomers! :D

The winning randomly drawn name in this category is:

Kelly Jones!

Kelly completed 4 UFO’s this year!  Yay for Kelly!!! I need to also mention that she complete the top number of loom knitting Christmas gifties for 2011 (described in the below category), at the grand total of THIRTY SEVEN!  Her friends and family are so lucky to have her as their loomy Santa!  😀

Countdown to Christmas at the Clique 2011: This is where we get to plan our loom knitting projects that we intend for holiday gifts.  It helps to see them all in one place, organized and easily refreshed with our progress.  For each completed gift in 2011, the loomer received a drawing entry.

Let me tell you a little bit more about this category…

As a group we had a total of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE projects finished and given as Christmas Gifts in 2011!  Soft fluffy things make great gifts, don’t you think?

There were a total of three winning numbers randomly drawn in this group:

Jennifer Tavernier!

Jennifer worked like a crazy woman this year and managed to complete a total of THIRTY SIX loomy gifts this year!  Isn’t that terrific?!  I so much enjoyed hearing her updates about her wild ride of holiday looming, all accomplished in a very short time frame and squeaked in-between her very hectic daily life schedule. 🙂

Debbie Gill!

Debbie completed a total of SIX loomy holiday gifts this year…her family and friends are blessed indeed!  Way to go, Debbie! :)

Jenny Stark!

Jenny’s completed number of Christmas loomy goodness this year was TWENTY TWO items! …and these are just her loom knitted goodies, as I know that she also completed quite a few gifts that were created with crochet.  Whew!  That’s a lot of fibery gifted goodies!  :)

These ladies deserve a long and loud round of applause for a job well done!

Here are the five prize choices that you all get to choose from.  I’m going to list them here and whichever of you is the first to claim an item in the comments of this post  gets to keep  it. :)   (a second choice would be nice too, in case the first has already been claimed) (…then of course, I’ll need your addresses emailed to me privately at Bethany@Gettinitpegged.com… thanks!)

1)  a Hard Copy of Loom Knitting for Little People!

2) a Digital PDF Copy of Loom Knitting for Little people!

3) an adorably fun Loomy Coffee Mug!

4) this 2 Cool 4 Stix Tote!

5) a copy of the companion tutorial DVD to the book, LKLP!

ps…if more than one of you would like a digital copy of LKLP, or the DVD as your prize instead of the other items, just let me know…I’m cool with that. 😉

Party Game Winners:

We played a rousing game of LOOMY BINGO this week…so fun! 😀  We had three lucky winners:

Kelly Jones was our first winner
June Legault was our second
and Jenny Young was our blackout winner!

Yay for all of these lucky ladies! 😀

We also held an exhilarating SHEEP HUNT right here at gettinitpegged.com.  There were three fluffy little sheep hidden in the pages of this site.  I thought I hid them pretty well, but it only took these eagle-eyed gals a total of 17 minutes to find them all, lol!  Leave it to people who loom knit as a hobby to notice the little details.  I bet they’d be terrific at finding a needle (especially a yarn needle, lol) in a hay stack too! 😉

Big Hurrahs for:

1) Stacy Jozwiak!
2) Jenny Stark!
3) and Kim Jones!

You lucky and very observant ladies get to choose from the prizes below.  The same deal applies as with the prizes above.  Be the first to claim a prize in the comments of this post and the prize is yours!  (Please provide a second choice also,  just in case your first has been chosen. 😉  I already have all of your addys, so no worries there.)  

   

1) one full and one only slightly used (lol) skein of sparkly blue Bernat Ping Pong yarn!

2) one full skein of Charisma  Loops & Threads in camouflage yarn!

3) a copy of the companion tutorial DVD to the book, LKLP!

4) your choice of any individual pattern at the Gettin’ It Pegged! Artifire Shop!

4) I will have several sets of really cute peg markers (which unfortunately I don’t have pics of yet 😉 )  paired with a laminated Kitchener Stitch Pocket Guide!

ps…if more than one of you would like a  peg marker set, a copy of the LKLP companion DVD, or a choice of a gettinitpegged pattern as your prize instead of the other items, just let me know…I’m cool with that. 😉

Alrighty!  Wasn’t that fun?  Thank you so much to all of you wonderful loomers who have joined me over this last year.  I’ve been so honored to have loomed along with you and am very much looking forward to seeing what kinds of fibery fun we can cook up for 2012!  😀

Happy Looming to you all!

Bethany~

Posted in Contests, Crafting, Goals, Holidays, Loom Knitter's Chat Clique, Loom Knitting, Loom Knitting for Little People | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

…a look back through 2011 at Gettin’ It Pegged~

Posted on January 5, 2012 by gettinitpegged

On this first week of the New Year, I thought it would be nice to wrap things up with a little bit of summation of how the year went and what was trending here at the blog. 🙂  Won’t you join me for a little peek into what went on behind the scenes and what ended up being your favorite loomy things throughout the year of 2011?

(Note: all the following numbers may differ slightly from the WordPress Info I released on New Year’s Eve…I think this was because they gathered the info well before the actual end of 2011.)

  • Total site views for 2011: 168,902!  This is up 24% over last year, as compared with a 16% rise in site views from 2009 to 2010…Cool! 😀
  • Most looked at page: Freebies with 51,131 views
  • Most looked at post: Mitts for Megan with 3,616 views
  • Most downloaded freebie pattern: Mittens, with 5,766 downloads
  • Most purchased Peggin’ Pages Pattern at Artfire: Bethany’s Booties!
  • Tied for the second highest purchased Pattern at Artfire: ‘lil Tykies & Chunky Slipper Socks!
  • Most frequent commenters at the site: Jolene Utterback Torgler (57!!!), Jenny Stark (26!), Jeannette Pirkle (23!), Linda Jones and Kelly Jones are tied for fourth place (15!).  Thank you so much to all of you for your extra support and encouragement over 2011… I can’t tell you how much it has meant to me in the day-to-day struggles over laziness vs. writing on the bloggie, lol!  You are all so dear to my .

Over the last year, we have walked through many things together…

(Just click on the links to read the original posts about the subjects mentioned.)

You read about our field trip to the Madrona Fiber Festival and my eldest daughter, Emily’s first introduction to spinning.  She has gone on to spin all kinds of different types of yarns, as well as trying her hand at dying them!  She even started her own Etsy shop, TidBit Yarns!

You sent cyber hugs our way when we lost our kitty, Gus, after having him as part of our family for 14 years.  You once again sent condolences after our Chester-Bunny of 8 years, followed our Gus so he wouldn’t be lonely.  You waited with bated breath (lol!) over our pain and series of antibiotics troubles with finding just the right kitty to join our family, and then gave us congratulations and celebrated with us over the addition of the official two new members of our family, kitty siblings adopted from the Humane Society: Penelope & Xander.

You got to see my youngest daughter, Megan’s talent be introduced for the first time on the world wide web… her Dailey Occurrences comic strips have been a big part of her life over the last couple of years.  She has really be working hard to improve her art and ability to bring humor to life through them.  I believe she is gearing towards her own online comic book site! 🙂  Too Cool!

You’ve seen new projects and crafty pursuits throughout all of 2011:  (just click on the pics to go to the original posts which mention them)

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…and last but definitely not least…

You walked with me, lent your ears and support during the efforts of  designing, writing, editing, more writing, more editing, and finally releasing the book, Loom Knitting for Little People!  From the first announcement of it’s theme, why I loom the way I do, the grand opening of the official Kickstarter Book Launch, the introduction of the involvement of KidKnits in the book, a little chat with me via video about the participation prizes and some of my favorite projects, to the final announcement that the book launch goal had been met!  You waited patiently for your books and prizes to be delivered, despite the few little mishaps along the way.

What I haven’t shared with you yet is that through all of our efforts with the book and patterns at gettintipegged, we were able donate $820 to ShowHope.org to help care for orphans in need for 2011!  That is awesome!  Give yourselves a pat on the back, because YoU DiD GrEaT! 😀  It definitely couldn’t have been done without all of you!  I have high hopes that the numbers will only increase for the year 2012.  Keep spreading the word and it will grow. 🙂

Thank you so much for looking through the past twelve months with me.  Boy, were they full!  I can’t believe all those extra things were created while still knitting the projects for, writing and publishing a BOOK!  This completely and absolutely amazes me!  It took me looking back to see just how much was actually accomplished, and boy does it feel great!  I am so privileged and honored to have walked the last year’s very full days right alongside all of you.  You make me feel very hopeful going into 2012…hopeful that we can be inspired do even more to help others through our loom knitting craft, as well as bless those around us with love in every stitch.

Humbly and gratefully yours,

Bethany~

Posted in Blogging, Book Progress, Charitable Donations, Crafting, Dailey Occurrances, Dailey Occurrences, Family Fun, Gettinitpegged Gear, Goals, Holidays, Kids Crafting, Life, Loom Knitter's Chat Clique, Loom Knitting, Loom Knitting for Little People, Looming Patterns, My Favorites, Peggin' Pages, Pets, Reminiscing | Tagged | 10 Comments

Our New Year’s Eve Expedition…

Posted on January 4, 2012 by gettinitpegged

…to Poulsbo,WA!

I’m oh-so glad we decided to go exploring, as it is such a whimsical little Norwegian built town.  It was originally founded in 1885 and is just dripping with historical landmarks and Scandinavian charm.  We all had a terrific time discovering little shops and quirky items not normally found in the usual variety of shopping expeditions.  I even found some terrific vintage wooden buttons that will be just perfect for the Blanket Sweater! 🙂

Here’s a little slide show of our adventure:

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Speaking of that Blanket Sweater project…I let hubby in on the secret and once I had it off the loom to have it’s first fitting, it turned out he didn’t really like the style.  It was too bulky for him.  He said it was like wearing a rug. (what?!) I now have personal experience  with the Boyfriend Sweater Curse. *sigh*  I think it was more along the lines of this proposed mechanism than any worry over a break-up, though, lol: “Delusion. The knitter imagines incorrectly that their significant other likes them, and is not disillusioned before knitting the sweater and giving it to them.”  Yep.  That would be it.

All is not lost, though, because as coincidence would have it, I LOVE bulky (yet oh-so-soft and absolutely nothing rug-like about it!) things to wrap up and keep warm in and even though the colors aren’t necessarily what I would have picked out for myself, I think this will be just the thing for little ‘ol ME!  ;}  Men…what are you gonna do?

I hope your first week of 2012 has been shaping up to be everything you’ve dreamed it would be!  More on the official wrap up of 2011 coming soon…just wanted to show you how my little family spent New Year’s Eve this year.  Did you do anything special you’d like to share about…?

Bethany~

Posted in Family Fun, Holidays, Just Because, Loom Knitting | 5 Comments