intention yarns : reveal

Wendy D. Johnson (WendyKnits to most) is a terrific knitter and designer.  I use her Socks from the Toe Up book as my basic sock recipes and have admired many of the shawls and sweaters she has blogged about.  Her newest Shawl is the Japanese Garden Shawl and it is, as you might imagine, as stunning as all her other work.

This isn’t just a shawl, however.  Until the end of April, all proceeds from the sale of this shawl are going to the American Red Cross to help with their relief efforts in Japan.  That makes this shawl more than just knitting.  There is Intention going on in both pattern and project, and it’s something we here at IY can really get behind.

In order to help WendyKnit’s efforts, we’d like to give away a copy of the pattern.  Please leave a comment on this blog entry *with your Ravelry name* by Sunday March 27 at 9pm EST and I will gift one commenter a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.  Please also add the shawl to your queue and click “add to wish list” so that I can easily gift the pattern to you.

It seems that when faced with a crisis, knitters come together to help as best they can.  Now, more than ever, it’s clear to me that all our Intentions have love at the core.

photo by Starley2 (flickr)

The Intention Yarns blog train is scheduled for Saturday, March 12.  That’s this Saturday.  Have you written your blog post yet?  I’ll be sending out email reminders to those who said they’d participate.  No worries if you haven’t signed up yet – there’s still time!  Just drop me a note here or by email (revealATintentionyarnsDOTcom) and you can hop right on.  I will be posting about my Focus socks as well as my plans for the newest Limited Edition Intention.  I have it wound into a center pull ball, but haven’t begun knitting yet.  Soon, I hope.  Today’s task is to pick out (or design) a pattern.  There are just so many great choices!

Speaking of the next LEI, it’s about to be launched.  I’m just waiting on one more extra for the packages to arrive.  The yarn has had its photoshoot, is all reskeined and pretty.  I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

This does mean, however, that Focus is going to be retired.  It’s my goal to have one LEI going at a time to avoid confusion on my end.  I have a limited number of skeins left – if you’ve been thinking about purchasing a skein, I’d do it now.  I’ll be removing Focus from the shop on Saturday, March 19. That gives you just over a week.  I love this colorway and would like to offer it again, but it will be months before that can happen.  Why wait?

As spring arrives here at IY Central, expect that things will be moving a bit faster.  There will be more LEIs.  I’ll be adding a new Intention to the core seven.  there may be a knit-along.  Downloadables are coming.  Patterns will soon be available.  If you’d like to stay on top of everything that’s happening, be sure to sign up for the mailing list.  I send out a newsletter about new things just before I blog it for the entire populace.

I’m hoping you are enjoying the sunshine we haven’t seen much of.  Happy Intentioning!

Several people have commented or emailed me saying that they’d like to join the IY blog train.  GREAT!  I’m so excited.  Here are some more details for what this is going to look like.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask them.

If you haven’t signed up yet but would like to play along, please do!  Just drop me a comment or email so I know that you’ll be participating.

rachel_titiriga via flickr

The big idea: On the same day, several people post a blog entry about what they are (or will be) making with Intention Yarns.  Below each post is a hyperlinked list with all the participants’ blog addresses so your readers can click from your blog to the next blog in the train and so on.  It’s a fantastic way to see what we’re all doing (and it gets you new readers, too!).

When it’s happening: Blog train will take place on Saturday, March 12.  That’s when all the posts will go live and the linking will begin.  You don’t have to wait until then to write your post!  Write it, add pictures, link patterns to Ravelry … then leave it in your drafts.  Email me and give me the web address so I can hook you up to the train (revealATintentionyarnsDOTcom).

Where it occurs: Your blog, this blog … other Intentioners’ blogs.  Your own little bit of the internet where we can ooh and ahh over what you’re creating with IY.  You don’t have to worry about anyone but yourself – I’ll email you a cut-and-paste-able list of everyone’s web addresses (already hyperlinked) so you don’t have to worry about a thing!  You can just sit back and watch your traffic and comments pour in.

I’m so excited to do this!  If you don’t want to participate but are curious, I hope you’ll be back on March 12 to ride the train.  I hope to do this again later in the spring so you’ll have another opportunity to participate. Until then – happy knitting!

Photo courtesy of -Tripp- via Flickr

I’ve been sending a lot of skeins of Intentions out into the world lately and that makes me very happy.  I love imagining what each skein will become (and sometimes people send me pictures, which makes me ecstatic).  Very often, though, I never see these skeins again … and I want to.

So I’ve decided that in March I’ll be hosting a blog train.  A blog train is a really neat idea where on a specific day a group of participants blog about the same thing. Then they all link to each other so that readers can get to all of the blogs and read everybody’s posts.  It’s an awesome way to be inspired by others and to drive more traffic to your blogs.

This might sound complicated, but really it’s not.  If you think you might like to participate, please leave a comment below or email me (revealATintentionyarnsDOTcom).  All you need to participate is a skein of IY yarn and a blog.  You don’t have to have DONE anything with either.  I’d be interested even if all you tell me is what you’re planning with your yarn – and I’m never going to judge how long it’s been since you last blogged.  I promise.

So who’s going to join me on this ride?  It’s going to be awesome.