This year's adventure

Dear Donk,

Before we get ahead of ourselves with the new adventure, let's announce our fabulous 2008 Grand Prize winner with 43% of the votes:

May/June: Wrap Skirt, Julia of denverbrunette

Congratulations Julia! Your project was so grand that 39 people voted for you out of all 90 votes. You're very popular. Although, I hope you're the nice kind of "popular" instead of that kind of popular that makes people want to hit you with their cars in the high school parking lot, but whatever - you still win!

Ah, and for the prize. Please send your mailing address to me at finnyknits AT gmail DOT com so that I may send you a year's subscription to CRAFT: magazine.

We do love our CRAFT: so much and hope that you will, too. All year.

Funny thing about CRAFT: magazine though, I love it so much that I also follow their blog. You know, the craftzine blog? The very same blog that posts, like, 20 amazing projects from around the web every day. The very same blog that distracted me from a lot of my 2008 sew~along projects so that all of a sudden I was working into the night to get my ~along projects finished because I diverted so much of my time to making drop neck shirts from my old ugly Tshirts.

Yes, that blog. The one that's one of the very first I click on in my Reader to see what project shall snake my attention this weekend.

That blog that will be our 2009 ~along "book".

What? No real book? Oh yes, people, we've done away with the book this year. Because the economy is in the tank and our craft shelves are full of books and no one likes clutter and also there's inspiration to be found elsewhere.

Specifically, on The Internets. (So glad this grammatical phenomenon will be gone soon.)

This year we're taking our ~along online. All the way online. We're going to do what we know while still being creative and while keeping our credit cards in our wallets (or in the wall safe, depending on who you are).

We are going to ~along with a blog.

OH YES.

But not just any blog. The craftzine blog.

But, but, but that blog isn't just sewing! It's got all kinds of other stuff that doesn't involve getting out my fancy new machine or threading a bobbin or slicing my thumb off with the rotary cutter!

We know. BUT DO NOT PANIC.

The plan is this:

Every month Kelli and I will choose 1 sewing project and 1 other project from the craftzine blog's previous month for the current month's challenge.

Everyone will scatter to their respective corners and craft an amazing project and post it to our 2009 CRAFT:along pool, the CRAFT Flickr pool and/or their personal blogs.

At the end of the month, we'll choose a winner, award a prize and announce the next month's project from the previous month's craftzine postings.

Sound like something a crazy person might say? Well, yeah.

But for example - take the January projects: (Yes - that's this month. These are your projects.)

Sewing project: Men's Hoodie
Other project: Baking! Lemon Drop Cookies

When you've decided which you'll do (or do both!), go ahead and make them awesome, post photos to the two pools (you want extra exposure for your awesomeness, do you not?) and maybe blog about it ALL BY 1/31/08 and then await the monthly contest winner and next month's project announcement.

COULD IT BE EASIER?

Perhaps, but whatever - this seems fun. And we hope you agree. We hope you're ready for a new year and a new ~along and maybe ready to make something other than an apron with your skilled hands.

Join us, won't you?

xo
Finny

PS. We have a new badge for 2009. No book, but we have a badge. Go fig.