A Hundred Ravens Giveaway!

I totally blanked on posting about the giveaway A Hundred Ravens hosted last week to support the release of the "Layers and Links" hat, but I am thrilled to report that the person who won is a person who has been super supportive as I have learned to be a knitting pattern writer.

If I remember correctly, we "met" (only corresponded over the internet, texting & Facetime so far...haven't yet has the pleasure to meet in person!) when she knit from my "Sock Monkey Hat" pattern and did some adorable modifications like putting little earrings on the ears & using curlicue i-cords for the ties.  I commented on her project page saying how much I liked her hats, and she wrote me a very kind note about how much she liked the pattern.

Since then, she has cheered me on, helped to test knit a lot of patterns, set me straight on crochet (she's a crocheter, I'm really not!), and just been an all-around awesome person to bounce ideas off of, share new projects with, and chat about things yarn-related & not.

So when she texted me last week with an excited "I won the yarn!  I never win anything!" I couldn't have been happier.  I hope you love the yarn, Kelly!

I was also very happy to see so many familiar names in the yarn giveaway thread.  My hope in approaching these yarn companies about sponsoring a giveaway is not just to get them to supply prizes for knitters who are paying attention to my patterns (although that is a huge perk!), it's also to share our audiences.  Most of these yarn companies have larger audiences than I do in their Ravelry groups, their Facebook business pages, and on Instagram, so I know they are probably exposing more new people to my work than I will be able to expose to their yarn.  But to my happy surprise, I bet I recognized at least 40% of the people in that prize thread, so maybe I'm able to send more eyes their way than I realized!

Speaking of social media....if you don't yet follow me on Facebook & Instagram, now would be a great time to start doing that.  There are quite a few more giveaways planned over the course of this eBook release, and I will definitely post about them on those two sites.  I *might* manage to get a blog about them up, but you will definitely hear about it on the other two sites.  (Although Facebook does not show each of my posts to every person that "follows" me there.  Though you can do your part to see more posts of mine if you "like", comment on, or "share" my posts that you do see.  (Facebook's algorithm shows you more posts from the pages you interact more with.)  Instagram though, will show you every post I make.   And if you don't have accounts on either of those sites, you can always find out about the giveaways in the Trappings and Trinkets Ravelry group if you check in there pretty often!

Thanks again to A Hundred Ravens for their generosity and general awesomeness (did I mention that they're still running a 15% off sale so the people who didn't win could snag a rainbow set at a discount?)...and congratulations again on your win, Kelly!