Contest #2 Winner!

The winner for October Birthday Swap "Best Pal" is Priscilla!

She has won a lovely prize which I will be mailing off to her tomorrow. She was the winner of the contest by capturing 33% of the vote. You can see a breakdown of how the votes went by going to the voting button below, and clicking on the image of three little bars in the bottom right hand corner. Congratulations to Priscilla and everyone be sure to go and post comments to her blog.

This is the second to last post about the October Birthday Swap this year. I have a little something penned for tomorrow so check back then!

Vote Here for "Best Pal" Contest

Here is the way this contest works. All 24 members of the swap can vote for one of the six nominees listed below. Please make sure to take time and read what their pals said about them here, and if you can take a look at the blogs of the nominees to see what their experience with the swaps were. Then you may cast your vote through Tuesday, October 28.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Blogger can sometimes be a real pain to deal with. Most of the free poll tools out there are written using scripts Blogger can't use. Therefore, I chose one that works, but you have to scroll down to see all six choices available to you! There are two little downward pointing arrows in the lower right side of the voting box below and when you hover over them, the box scrolls to the bottom choices.





Have fun! On Wednesday, the 29th of October, the person with the most votes wins! Also, if you have any problems, questions, or comments, email me at spknitter at gmail dot com!

And the nominees are...

Here are the six nominations and description statements for the October Birthday Swap "Best Pal" contest. Read them and then vote in the next post.

1) Lacey nominated Priscilla
Lacey wrote, "Priscilla sent me a wonderful gift. She recognized that I needed a pattern to knit some mittens, and sent a great pattern. She made sure that my package was not only on time, but it was early. Another reason that I would like to nominate Priscilla, is because of all the charity work that she knits and crochets for. She has made so many hat, mitten, and scarf sets for the salvation army, and her list for donating for charities grows. It seems that that is all she crafts for. The fact that she works with so much speed, and all for others really impresses me."

2) Tara nominated Kate
Tara wrote, "She did her research well sending me Noro yarn - which I had confessed to wanting to try - in a blue, green and purple colorway - all colors I said I liked. She sent me a knitting book - since I mentioned enjoying reading. She sent a Boston cookie - which was one of the most scrumptious cookies I have ever had. And she sent tea - another addiction of mine. And it was all beautifully wrapped!"

3) Dorothy nominated Mary Lynn
Dorothy wrote, "We were in the October Birthday swap and she sure deserves to be called the best partner a person could have. I am still reeling from shock over how appropriate her present was. Grin as I have said earlier I love lace and getting over 3,000 yards yes you read that right OVER THREE THOUSAND yards of the most luscious chocolate laceweight silk yarn had and still has me dreaming of chocolate shetland shawls or orenburgs or just ohhhhhhhh maybe even to try weaving with it ... As you can see she did not stop at the silk but added 2 skeins of Knitpicks Shimmer in the Stained Glass colorway (YUMM) and one of their shawl patterns. Stitch markers and a row counter and even the needle I would need rounded out the package. How neat can you get?"

4) Priscilla nominated Lacey
Priscilla wrote, "Lacey was a terrific swap partner. She kept in touch with me throughout the swap, and she totally spoiled me with her gift. The 6 bars of chocolate and one small package of Russell Stovers alone earn her best partner status in my eyes! But it didn't stop there. She also sent me 6 skeins of yarn and various other goodies. And she packaged it all in a beautiful bag that she sewed herself. This was my first swap, and Lacey made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I feel very fortunate that I have gotten to know her."

5) Susan nominated Tonya
Susan wrote, "Tonya was an excellent pal. She covered all bases with her gift! Anyone who includes Milano cookies and Koigu yarn has true knitters heart! Everything else was great too. Please consider her for the contest."

6) Bev nominated Michelle
I just want to say that I felt Michelle was an extremely thoughtful and creative partner. Like many of the other pals, she put together a gift that was beautifully wrapped and lovely. She thought outside the box about ways to put a smile on my face and make my day a very special one. For the fiber gifts, she delighted me with sock yarn, which is my favorite thing to knit, and a cool sock keychain. She tickled my sense of humor with a kitschy towel, and touched me spiritually by helping me to keep in mind women affected by breast cancer and by including a token of feminine divinity, which has a very special meaning to me. She also commented on my blog and sent a few emails, letting me know she wasn't just in it for the gifts. This allowed her to really get to know me and my interests. Lastly, she allowed me to connect with her by turning the yarn I sent her into this stunning creation. I cannot say enough good about her!

Contest #2 "Best Partner" Open for Entries!

Contest #2 involves a little more participation from all of you. This is the "best partner" contest. We can all participate in this if we want.

If you thought you had a partner who went above and beyond the call of duty, who really made your birthday special, then I'd like for you to email me a few sentences about why you had the best partner and I will post it to the October Birthday Swap blog. If you choose you could instead post it to your blog and then email me the link. You can be creative and/or wax poetic. Have fun with it!

Either way, if you want to submit your partner for the contest, your submission should be emailed to me by midnight, November 23, 2006. That is this Thursday! I will post the list of nominees to the blog, with your submission about them or a link to your submission about why they should win. At that point I will post a poll so that everyone may vote on who they thought the best submission was. Voting will be open until Tuesday, October 28, and all the participants, even those who did not submit for the contest, can vote. The winner will be named Wednesday, November 29.

If you have any questions email me or comment here!

Contest #1 Winners

The first contest in conjunction with this swap was the "Postage Confirmation Contest." I had previously asked for you all to send me your postage confirmation information during the swap and then following the swap I gave you a few extra days to email me in case you'd forgotten. I chose two winners, one international and one within the US. I put your names into a hat and used the very scientific flying fickle finger of fate method to choose winners.

The winner of the US draw was:
The winner of the International draw was:
Congratulations to Lacey and Susan. Gifts will be winging their way to you this week!

Thanks for the Wishes!

I'm really thankful that you were all so patient while I was sick and I am now in a good shape to do the two closing contests. Posts regarding this will follow!

Postponing the Close

Hello all! Things went very well this swap and I'm happy we all had such a good month. I do know that by today I was going to announce the winners to the Postage Confirmation contest. However, I have been very sick with a bad stomach bug, so I really haven't given it any thought yet, plus we still have some gifts on their way. With that being said, I'm pushing the timetable back by three days. This means that if you haven't sent me your postage confirmation numbers by this point you can still send them to me until Wednesday at midnight when I will choose a winner. Let me know if you have any questions or problems and I'll be back to this when I hopefully feel better in a day or two!