Tuesday, November 22, 2016

It's gift-a-long time!

It's that time of year again - time for the Indie Design Gift-A-Long on Ravelry! This is a knit-a-long/crochet-a-long which lasts for six weeks, and the idea is that you make holiday gifts from patterns created by participating independent designers.

There are a lot of fun components to this virtual event. Firstly, there's a sale period, when lots and lots and lots of patterns will be 25% off with the coupon code giftalong2016. And I do mean lots and lots and lots: each of the participating designers - and there are 335 of them! - will be offering this discount on between 5 and 20 of their patterns. So we're talking thousands of patterns eligible for this 25% sale.

And then there's the a-long itself, which runs even longer, and which includes games and contests (with prizes)! You can find out lots more at the FAQ for the event. [link removed for safety as it goes to Ravelry's website]

This year, for the second time, I will be one of the participating independent designers. Twenty of my patterns will be discounted during the sale period; all my paid patterns will be eligible to win prizes; and you can knit any of my patterns, free or paid, to participate in the craft-a-long in general.

But of course, there are 334 other designers besides me involved in this event and oooh, but there's loads of talent in that group! I'm certainly going to be taking advantage of the sale period to buy some patterns I've had my eye on for some time, and I'll blog about my haul later after I make my purchases.

But there's one pattern in particular that I just happened across this past weekend while taking a look at my fellow designers' work. It immediately caught my eye and, frankly, stunned the crap out of me. Check this out:



Right? Right?!? This is the Roses and Ivy throw blanket, by Julie Yeager, and OMFG if that isn't one of the most stunning things I've ever seen. I don't even care that it's crochet and that my crochet skills are laughably limited; IT MUST BE MINE.

Have you been hunting through the design offerings of this year's gift-a-long? What amazing patterns have you found?

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