I wanna make you some socks!!!!

Raffle time!!!!

I have the extraordinary honor to partner up with some awesome folks in the crafting world to bring you something amazing and fantastic! Check out this all-star lineup:

• Black Market Wool (@rijelviolet)
• Sea And Lake (@seaandlake)
• Pick and Throw (@befadee) 
• and Candy Skein (@candyskein)
• Oooh... and me, too! (@socalmeaghan)

This is Part 1 of a 3-part reveal coming to you over the next couple of weeks but THIS PART of the reveal is your opportunity to win a custom-fit pair of hand knit socks designed and knit by yours truly.

If you're fortunate enough to win, you will receive a pair of socks out of the colorway Emerald Bay dyed by Black Market Wool. This is an exclusive colorway so you're gonna want to get in on this!

We've decided that instead of a plain old giveaway where you post to win and gain us more followers, we're going to do a raffle. Do you love animals? Do you want socks that will fit your feet so perfectly you'll never want to take them off? Do you want to know how to enter to win??!?!??! Well, here are the deets:

To get in on this and win a pair of socks, it's $5 per entry. I know what you're thinking, what the heck? You guys just want my money! Well, we do... but we won't be getting it at this time. Instead...

Your $5 will be going to RedRover. They are a nonprofit organization in Sacramento, CA that rescues and helps animals in need. They help with natural disaster relief for pets and even provide grants for people who are no-income or low-income to help cover costs of seriously injured pets.

So, if you want to participate AND help some unfortunate pets, head on over to http://www.redrover.org/, hover on "donate" at the top of the page and click "make a donation." Here you'll be able to make your donation. As it was said before, it's a $5 minimum donation. Feel like donating $10, your name will be entered 2 times, $15 - 3 times, $20 - 4 times, $25...you get it, right? Yep, FIVE times your name would be entered for the raffle.

Now, the important part: Once you've donated, you will receive an email back from Red Rover. The email will have your address (which I will need to be able to ship the winner his/her beautiful socks), and the amount donated (which will be needed to put your name in the raffle). Forward this email to: pick.throw@gmail.com Stephanie and Rijel will be monitoring this email and adding your names to the list for the raffle.

We'll be selecting our winner next Thursday, July 3rd, just in time for the holiday weekend! And your yarny goodness socks will be shipped to you no later than the last week of July.

Oh, and one more thing! If you donate AND respost our image on Instagram using #magicloop4lives (cuz we're saving the lives of some pretty needy animals) you'll get ANOTHER entry into the draw. So go get your wallets, give up ONE fancy schmancy coffee this week and make a difference in the lives of some animals (and for your feeties)!

Stay tuned for our second and third reveals coming soon. Happy knitting!!!!

Winner Announcement - Turn It Up To 11 MKAL

Well - my trip to Scotland was awesome but not quite as awesome as coming home and seeing how many of you finished your socks. 33 of you amazing KAL'ers finished and posted pictures of your socks. I'm absolutely blown away and am so glad you seemed to have such a good time with it. I feel like I have a longer list of folks on my "friends" list, even though I may never meet any of you. Thanks for taking this journey and making socks with me.

Ok, so let's get down to the winning! I have 4 prizes to give away to our winners. These winners were chosen randomly with a Random Number Generator online and associated with a list I compiled. I did my best to keep it in order of submission. You can see the list in the Discussion Board. I was able to add one final name to that list last night.

So, without further ado, and simply in the order in which the Random Number Generator spat out numbers, our first prize, a skein of "Barbie Girl" from Black Market Wool, goes to... *mental drum roll*...

@thathookerjess (A FIRST TIME SOCK KNITTER!!!!!!)
Here are her finished socks (her first ever hand-knit socks... knit anything if I'm correct...)

And here's what she's gonna get in the mail lickety split!

Moving right along, our second prize, a free pattern from Knitsomniac Designs goes to... duh da da duuuuuuuuuuh: @hnd_kntra!!! Here's a picture of her oh-so-pretty socks in the "Sensible Heart" colorway (yep, she was a kit-owner too... lucky duck!). 

Our third prize ALSO goes to a kit owner (remember, random generation here, folks), the lovely @aclui and here are her socks in the "Knit Me Up, Buttercup" colorway: 

She'll be getting her very own hand-crafted project bag from an other SoCal'er, Sarahinajar (same name on Instagram). Woot! 

And last but certainly not least, our final prize, a free pattern of the winners choice from MY Ravelry Store, The Unapologetic Knitter, is... KNITTERSUE123!!!! And here's a shot of her finished socky-goodness!

Thank you all, so much, for knitting along with me and working through all the dreaded MATHS to get such nice-fitting socks. I hope you'll continue forward knitting lots of socks that fit... or anything, really. The skills you learned here for taking gauge will translate to anything you make. 

Just as a heads up for those of you who DIDN'T get kits when we started (I know... they sold out in like 12 minutes or something), Rijel over at Black Market Wool, will be re-releasing these four colorways to the public this coming Saturday, June 21st. As a reminder, here they are: 

"Carey"

"Tweeter and the Monkeyman"

"Knit Me Up, Buttercup"

"Sensible Heart"

Please go support Rijel - not only are her colorways a ton of fun, but she is too. You can find her on Instagram and follow along with her knitting escapades and see her adorable FIANCÉE (woot!) and her ridiculously cute pupsters, Ella and Heimdal who are often patient (if not overly gracious) models of Rijel's knitwear. 

And speaking of Rijel, Black Market Wool has it's first anniversary coming up. She's got an exclusive colorway being released to celebrate, which will come in a kit with a sock pattern designed by... well... by me! I'm pretty excited about it. The colorway is "Like Nigel but with an R" and the pattern is "Chevron Schmevron". This pattern will be exclusive to the kit until July 25th so if you want the pattern you'll have to snag the kit (and accompanying yarn of awesomeness). 

Ok, enough bragging! 

I've had a request for instructions on adapting toe-up to top-down socks, or vice versa, and I'm not ignoring that request. It's something worth delving into and once I have some time to put together a good approach to this, I'll likely host another KAL to get those skills honed up. 

In the mean time, if you ever have questions about fit or adjustments, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'm all legit now and have a proper email address so you can email with questions anytime to meaghan@unapologeticknitter.com.

And for all of our winners, please email me at this email address so I can either send you your winnings, or put you in touch with the person who will provide it for you. 

Thanks again, lovelies! Happy knitting!