Giveaway Day #6: Happy Birthday to ME!

The day I've been waiting for! My Junebug Day. Of course I have a giveaway today to celebrate my own birthday and it's a good one!

The yarn for today's prize is Zen String Lotus Toes in Calliope. This is 485 yards of superfine Merino Superwash, and it looks to me like it would be good for socks or gloves worked on a size 0 needle or for a lace shawlette worked on larger needles. Apparently, I've chosen another yarn from my stash that is extinct--I couldn't find any online.

The winner also receives a Mirth T-shirt and a size D ChiaoGoo bamboo-handled crochet hook. Don't be misled--it's not only crocheters who need crochet hooks. They come in handy for knitters, too. They make great tools for picking up dropped stitches, as well as picking up stitches for any kind of edging, and of course, for crocheting edges on your knitting. Really, though, you could also use this hook to learn some crochet, like to make a Clockwise Cap, which is really quite easy. If you really don't know a single crochet stitch (which is a real, actual stitch...single crochet) then check out our free Mirth Learn to Crochet Cowl!

(Well, of course I'm going to plug some of my own patterns. It's my birthday, so I figure I have license. I try to keep that sort of thing to a minimum, but let's be honest. I want you to buy my patterns! I think they're some of the best. Yes, I'm partial. Please indulge me--at least today. Chuckle.)

Remember the guidelines for this contest. We're still trying to reach 50 followers and more here on figknits and 100 fans on the Figheadh and Mirth Facebook pages, so see if you can help us out. Thanks!

Instead of listing other people who share my birthday today or talking about when I was born and all, I wanted to share with you one of the best presents I received this year. It was actually a joint present. My husband's birthday and mine are only ten days apart, so we sometimes treat one another somewhere between. This year, however, my daughter Natalie and her boyfriend Jesse did that for us.

Last weekend Fred and I took a wonderful overnight trip down to Astoria, OR, and when we returned, look what was waiting on our patio!

 Here's the back story. I had been talking with Nat and Jesse about surprising Fred for his Father's Day/birthday by building him a raised bed. Fred and I have been talking about doing some raised bed gardening for years, but just have never gotten around to it. Well, instead of waiting around for me to find time to help them, these two industrious folks went to Gray's Lumber and bought the materials and with the helpful advice of the good folks there, brought it all back here to our house while we were gone and built the thing on our patio. They also gave us some soil and amendment, and some carrot seedlings they had grown, along with a watermelon seedling and a pumpkin seedling. What a fantastic combo both birthdays/Father's Day gift!

 This past week we cleared a section of the back yard, yielding two bins of sod/moss stuff.

 We set down the raised bed and readied the ground next to it for some new mulch.

 Then we went to the Tagro-getting place for some middle dirt fill and then put a few bags of all-purpose potting soil down before adding the special mix Nat and Jesse got for us.

Then finally it was time to plant the carrots, watermelon, pumpkin, some chard starts that Nat and Jesse were given by one of their community garden neighbors (yes, they have their own raised bed in a community garden), and just yesterday we added some marigolds and a couple of tomato plants.

We're gardeners! And big thanks to Natalie and Jesse!

I am kicking back today and enjoying my favorite--some cherry pie that Fred made for me (I'd much rather have a birthday pie than a birthday cake) and doing some purely indulgent reading and knitting. For dinner I will be treated to Fred's famous lasagna. Life is good.

I hope you are enjoying today as much as I am, I truly do.