Contests, Giveaways, and Drawings

Contests

My local yarn shop is doing a series of contests over the summer with the winners (and a random voter!) winning sweet, sweet yarn. It is $60 for the winner and $30 to the winner of the voter’s drawing. What a great promotional idea, right?? Anyway, the first contest is a knit monster. Ooooooo scary. No, they’re actually pretty cute. 🙂 You can vote for your favorite monster on their Facebook page here or on Nancy the owner’s blog here. Folks are allowed to vote once through each venue. Don’t forget, that’s two entries to win $30 of free yarn!!

And my own shameless promotion… my monster is #11 – Mr. & Mrs. K2tog and I if you are a KT customer I would sure appreciate your vote. 😉 Don’t forget you have to “like” Knitted Together on Facebook in order to vote on their page.

Mr. & Mrs. K2tog

Giveaways and Drawings

Let me start by saying I have always been a fan of giveaways and contests. Sign up for “this” and get “that” free. (Though more often it is “…have a chance at getting that free”!) Every year I go to the Iowa State Fair and enter the Varied Industries Building with sign-ups in mind. Hot tub? Yeah, that’d be sweet. A set of fancy pans? Of course! A new lawn mower? Why not! Or so my thinking goes… I even have an email specifically for companies, contests, giveaways, coupons, etc. 🙂

That being said… I have never won a drawing. Ever. For anything. Ahh, persistence… I will not give up! Haha.

Anyway, that brings me to the real meaning of today’s post. I found a post on Ravelry where crafters (namely knit, crochet, and yarn folks) can list their sales, blogs, contests, and promotions. Yippee!! I spent most of Saturday morning signing up for April contests and then bookmarked the page for future reference.

You will find the post in the “Needlework on the Net” forum. There is a new post every month or so titled, “Sales, blogs, contests or promotions? Post here! (Month Year)”. A lot of the bloggers ask you to do one of many things with each item being an entry to their giveaway. Here are the most common requests:

• Comment on the blog by answering a question
• Follow their blog, Twitter, Etsy, etc
• Pick a favorite item from their Etsy or Ravelry shop
• “Like” their business/shop on Facebook
• Tell others about their giveaway, contest, etc.

Again, great promotional idea, huh? I also got a great idea from Crochet My Love Designs on Ravelry. She posted a new pattern and put a link to her Facebook page in the pattern’s description. She then told potential buyers that a “Like” on her Facebook page would earn them a free pattern! Woo hoo! I love all of these promotional ideas and am excited to try them out when K1 Sew Too is a little more robust. If I am going to have a lot of people viewing my pages and work I want to be able to “show them what we’re made of”, so to speak!

Alright, so here are some of the drawings I entered in the last couple of days. Perhaps I’ll win one… Perhaps…

• Blog – A yarn giveaway! And some cutsie pictures. Mmm…. yarn!
• Blog – Winner gets pretty dishcloths, chocolate, soap (the kind I use!), and chap stick.
• Blog – Winner gets one of three patterns. There’s a really cool shawl/jacket and a nifty hat/cowl as well.
• Blog – The first ten to post get the materials to make a military doll. Even if you don’t win the yarn there is a free pattern for said military doll. Cute. And it’s meant to be made for soldiers and/or their families. Who doesn’t like a good cause? 😉
• Blog – This contest was to win some BEAUTIFUL yellow yarn. The contest is over and I didn’t win… but the yarn is still gorgeous and I have added a new, cool company to K1 Sew Too’s likes on Facebook.

Well, that’s about all I have for now. I hope you enjoy the drawings, giveaways, etc listed. Is there a special place you go for great deals? If so, please share!

Wonderful Day

So today was the fiber festival. I didn’t end up selling anything, but I gave out quite a few business cards and people really seemed to like some of my hats. I think most of the folks at the festival were knitters and crocheters looking for snazzy yarn so it was nice to get a couple of compliments. I considered it a success because it was fun and I was able to do some networking as well.

After the festival mom and I went to the local (Winterset) fabric store to browse. Want to take a guess what was on sale? Yarn! HA. Apparently they usually don’t sell yarn, but their magazine had leftover kits so they had all kinds of yarn. I think my best deal was Cascade 220 Superwash, which is normally $11, for only $5. After browsing for too long there we went to the local yarn shop, Heartland Fiber. Of course, they had sale yarn there as well – 50% off, too. I sure got some nice deals today… Mirasol Hacho for $4 was another steal…

Of course after all the (trying) to sell and shopping we had to eat! What was the name… I forget the name, but the local cafe next to the yarn shop has very good burgers. We also ordered a tray of onion rings and were accidentally given (in addition to the onion rings) fries with our burgers. No extra charge! It was some great food and since we didn’t order the fries I was able to bring mom’s leftovers home to my hungry husband. (I say hungry because he is always hungry for something good. lol)

So after this fun day of yarn with my mom I returned home. And what do you suppose I returned home to find? My dear husband did all of the dishes, vacuumed, did a load of laundry, and ironed. Holy freaking cow. He is the best. I really do love the man.  He even ran 4.5 miles this afternoon.

Overall, it has been a super great day. I had a great time with my mom, enjoyed the festival with Elaine, got some great deals on yarn, and have a super sweet husband to come home to after a long day. What is the sweetest thing your husband or significant other has done for you? I quite enjoy hearing love stories… Feel free to comment with your own.

Heartland Fiberpalooza

Well, folks, I think I may get to check another goal off my list come this weekend! A family friend has a booth at Heartland Fiberpalooza and has been granted permission to let me sit at her booth and bring some of my items. (I don’t have enough items for my own booth yet.) I have been feverishly making bunny fridgies and other small items to try to sell. I think by Saturday I’ll have some fridgies, a felted frog (he’s not felted yet in the pic below), three hats, a scarf, and one headband. Plus whatever I can finish tomorrow. 🙂 Either way, I’ll have some business cards and should meet some nice fiber folks! You should come if you have $3.00 and some spare time! I especially invite all yarn enthusiasts as there will be a lot of yarn vendors at the show.

I hope to see some of you there!

Finished items for Saturday's Heartland Fiberpalooza

Bunny fridgies for Saturday and my pre-felted frog