Knitting Sandwich

cancer-hating gnome

lindsey and her family have a tradition of saving wine corks and writing on them the names and date of the people who drank the bottle.  when my friend laura sent a bottle of malbec to meghan and i for our post bc3d celebration, i knew the cork, from such an auspicious occasion, had to be memorialized.

and not just with names and date... a momentous occasion like the bc3d needs a tad more flair.  the korknisse pattern (rav link or pattern) immediately jumped to my mind.

so now this gnome lives in omaha with my sister and amazing cancer-hating teammate as a reminder of our 2011 journey.  and hopefully as an adorable inspiration to sign up with me again in 2012!

-melissa

ps - i've finally gotten all three days blogged over at the cancer-hating blog, so pop on over if you'd like to see pictures and read about this year's bc3d.

for your shopping pleasures

first up, the amazingly talented and generous claire has donated five of her fabulous photos as prints in the cancer-hating etsy shop.

she is offering two of each five photos as 10x10 prints.  they are all up in the cacner-hating esty shop.  go check them out quick before her flickr contacts snatch them all up!

and secondly, i have taken the etsy plunge.  introducing my handspun yarn shop, girl+sheep.

i'm really excited about this new adventure, and i'll invite you to come on over to girl+sheep and check it out!

a big thank you to everyone for even considering coming on over and checking either - or both shops out.

-melissa

springtree road yarn raffle!

the wonderful and talented maya over at springtree road has generously donated a skein of her amazing yarn for a cancer-hating raffle!!

(photo credit: maya henderson)

details are, as always, over at my cancer-hating blog!  hop on over if you'd like to learn more...

and, as always, thank you to each and every one of you for all the support you continue to give me and team breast intentions as we fight the good fight to find a way to end breast cancer!!

-melissa

lily's second yarn!

here is lily's second skein of handspun: 24yds of thick&thin bulky weight:

when i asked her what she wanted do make with this skein she said she wanted to auction it to raise money for the cancer-hating like heather did.  (talk about being a proud mama, oh how i love my sweet sweet girl!)

so that's what we're doing - please hop over to the cancer-hating blog and place a bid on lily's yarn!    (we'll ship anywhere in the world! bidding is open through saturday 07.23 at 7pm central time!)  thank you!!

-melissa

it's a cancer-hating handspun yarn auction

over at my cancer-hating blog i'm running an auction for an amazing skein of handspun yarn donated by my talented friend heather.

it's 315yds of 100% bfl 2-ply fingering weight yarn - opening bid starts at $25 and 100% of the winning bid will go directly to my bc3d fundraising campaign.

please consider hopping over to the auction post and placing a bid.  you won't be sorry, my friend heather is an amazing spinner and this yarn is mind-blowing!!

-melissa

crafting for a cure

let the old town art fair's loss be YOUR gain!  if you were unable to make it to mankato last weekend to attend the fair, i've brought the fair to you through the wonders of the interweb!

i've set up a shop on etsy to sell the remainder of the goods.  100% of the sales will go to the bc3d.  so go shop and hate cancer!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mlmartense

-melissa

it's a cancer-hating yarn sale!

lots of good stuff for sale - hop on over to my cancer-hating blog for more details!

-melissa

coaster kaleidoscope for the cure

along with a couple more sets of boobsters i decided to crochet up some sets of stripy coasters for the art fair as well.

and i'm telling you - stripy coasters are my new favorite thing in the world!

so much fun to play with color.

-melissa

crochet cushion for the cure

i've learned a new skill: how to crochet hexagons!

as with most of my crochet skills, i learned from the amazing tutorial on attic24.  i can not say enough good things about lucy's tutorials - they are very well written and have so many detailed photographs, it's hard to go wrong!

i took my hexagons and created a cushion.  i plan to take the cushion to the art fair and hope it will raise lots of money to help fight breast cancer.

and even if it doesn't, it was still a lot of fun to make!

-melissa

jackets for jars

i don't know if i mentioned this before or not, but the first saturday in june is the old town craft fair and i have a friend who has a booth, who is kindly letting me share some of the space with her.  every item i sell will go directly to my breast cancer three-day fundraising.  this is all very exciting, but means that i need to get a-crafting so that i'll have things to sell.

enter the jar jackets!  

i've had this pattern (by lucy of attic24 - rav link) in my queue for a while now and it jumped out at me as a perfect sweet and quick project to whip up.

right before the art fair i plan to get a bag of potting soil and fill them up with sweet little flowers.

this was a fun project - i loved playing with all the colors, i think i'll have to eventually make some more for me to keep.  they make perfect flower holders, pencil holders, knitting needle holders, toothbrush holders... honestly the possibilities of what they could hold is endless!  

-melissa