I dare you.

I dare you to make these.



Double dog dare you with whipped cream and cherries.



Behold, Carassius, the Socks of the Kissing Fish.



I will send a skein of yarn to the first person to make these and send me a picture of both completed socks. The colorway doesn't matter, although I would recommend a light-medium solid or semi-solid. Beads or no, doesn't matter. 

They're kissing goldfish, who wouldn't want a pair of these? They could represent you and your sweetheart, they could represent you and your little one, they could represent your real life Carassiuses. (Carassi?) 

Your time begins now: 8:37 pm on Sunday, January 24th. If you don't already have a copy of this pattern (which is amazing, painstakingly edited, with charts and written instructions), you can get one here.

GO!

The winner.

The winner is actually me. I am the winner for having such creative customers! Yay! I get the one of a kind skein of yarn!



Good night.






I am such an endless tease. I can't help it.  I was born teasing people. I can't turn it off, I've tried. Well, I can turn it off when needed, but it makes me froth at the mouth slightly.

I'm going to start with the honorable mentions in the Name That Stocking contest. The honorable mentions will each get a $5 gift code to use on whatever they like in our store. :D

Honorable Mention #1:  Adopt a Skein. I love the ideas of all of these parentless yarn babies needing homes. Deb, I'm going to send you a gift code! Great idea!

Honorable Mention #2: Instock and Ready to Rock. Kristin, I love the way this trips off the tongue. It's really fun to say: try it. I'm sending you a gift code too!

And now for the winners. I combined two ideas to come up with something I am tickled with. I really liked Jennifer and Victoria's suggestions and decided on:





Carpe Yarnem: Seize the Dye

I'm excited! Great ideas, Jennifer and Victoria! Since I have two skeins from this batch, I will send one to each of you! I will also keep using exclamation marks! They convey emotion!

We will have our first Carpe Yarnem stocking soon. I will announce it ahead of time so you will be able to program the alarm on your cell phone.

Now, I'm going to get all motherly and lecture y'all for just a moment. I don't want these stockings to turn into a competition and have everyone arrive with their claws out, hissing at each other.

Don't make me turn these stockings around. I will then be left with no choice but to be creative all by my own self, and I'll keep all the yarn for me. OK? OK?

OK.

Carpe Yarnem! Seize the Dye! Coming Soon! Exclamation Point!

Confirmed!

However shall I choose?

There are too many funny and wonderful options!

I went through every single one of your suggestions and compiled a list of the possibilities.

Then I slept on it.

If you want the real truth, what really happened was that I went upstairs to label vast quantities of yarn while watching Project Runway, and then I fell asleep ten minutes later.  (Don't tell me who won. Seriously.)

But I do think it sounds better to say that I slept on this important decision.

When I woke up, I looked at my list again. Then I started Googling. I had to scratch off the names that I liked that were already taken by other people and books.

Then I bought a bunch of domain names.

Then I added a bunch of ridiculous stuff to this confirmation screen picture to amuse myself while I'm waiting for the coffee.



You wouldn't begrudge an old Yarnista some Photoshop frivolity in the five minutes it takes for the coffee to brew, would you? I promise I will work every waking minute for the rest of the year.

I have it narrowed down to three different concepts.  I will decide between them today! I will! I will!

Now I have to go finish labeling the vast quantity of yarn that is going to be shipped today.

Yarn is usually better when labeled, I've found. People prefer it that way.

I could just continue to sit here blathering on, or I could label yarn. You pick.

That's what I thought, too.

See? Kindred spirits, you and me. 

Soon!

The contest is now closed, and I will make a decision soon, I promise! I am having a great time reading all of these.

In the meantime, here are some yarn pictures to tide you over:

Alpine Spruce:



Greener Pastures:



And Mountain Cathedrals:



February's club picks!

I want to give you this.

So today, I was just



You know, like every other day. Sittin' around. Doing nothing except rocking in the ol' rocking chair and admiring the view.

And I thought to myself, "Self, you oughtta give away a skein of yarn."

And then I answered myself.

I said, "Self, you are correct. I shall see to it at once."



I love it when I listen to myself.


This skein is not just any old skein.  It has magic in it, old magic. Creative magic. The magic of Creativity.

Sometimes the mood strikes me to make something new and different. I often have to ignore my friend Creativity, much to her chagrin.



But sometimes I can't ignore her. She begs and stamps her foot and sticks out her lower lip. She beckons, and I am helpless but to follow.



This is a one of a kind colorway. It is part of a small dye lot, and can never, ever be recreated. I didn't write down the recipe, I didn't follow my usual methods, I just dumped and mixed and tasted until it was right.



Here's what I'm thinking. Sometimes, I will let Creativity have her way. I will make special colorways that have never been seen before and will never be seen again. Colorways like this:



And once in a while, I'll put this never-to-be-seen-again colorways up for sale, just for fun.



This will let me be creative and will let you get something extra special.

I already have about 25 special creative skeins ready to rock. Instock and ready to rock, just the way they should be.

But I want to have a name for these special stockings, so I can say, "Super Duper Creative Yarn Stocking Tomorrow!" or, "Wednesday will be a Special Spectacular Skein Stocking!"

This is where you and the giveaway meet. If you can give me a name that I like for these stockings, I will give you this skein of yarn:



It's Adorn Sock. It will never be seen again after this Awesomely Amazing -- or whatever I end up calling it -- stocking that I'll have in the near future.

Here are some ideas that I have so far:

Serendipity Skeins

Batch of the Day

Yarn du jour

Something along these lines.  You leave a comment with a suggestion. If I pick yours, I'll send you the yarn.

To clarify, this isn't a suggestion for the name of the colorway, you're suggesting a name for the ongoing series of stockings I have planned with one of a kind colorways.

I will take suggestions until 7:30 pm Eastern tomorrow, and will choose something tomorrow evening. Feel free to enter as many times as you like, I need all the help I can get.

Help! Creativity will wait for no woman!