All posts by Jackie E-S

Jackie E-S is the owner of HeartStrings FiberArts, a showcase for her growing roster of original pattern designs. As a certified master knitter and teacher, Jackie continues to share her love of knitting and knowledge through design and publication of skill-building pattern instructions, and conducting workshops, programs and demonstrations. Her interest in the fiber arts extends beyond knitting and spinning to include weaving, dyeing and all needle arts. She also enjoys contract bridge and music.
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Winner Announcements for “Vote Your Favorites: Top 14 Finalists to Begin 2014”

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The votes have been cast and the results are in to determine the front-runner standings for viewer’s choice favorites! The first 5 in the Top 14 to Begin 2014 are —

1. Flared Lace Smoke Ring

Flared Lace Smoke Ring

2. Flames of Fall Stole

Flames of Fall Stole

3. Thinking of You Scarf

Thinking of You Scarf

4. Filigree Lace Ensembles

Filigree Lace Ensembles

5. Bitty Beady Christmas Tree

Bitty Beady Christmas Tree

You can check out all the detailed standings for Top 14 to Begin 2014  and read comments here.

As promised, everyone who entered went into a random drawing for  choice of their pattern from the Top 14 Finalists. Ta Da … We have a winner … I am pleased to announce the winner: Rose Fu who has selected Swags of Lace Crescent Scarf as her prize. Congratulations Rose!

Swags of Lace Crescent Scarf

Thank you so much to everyone who voted their favorites and made comments. It is helpful to me in so many ways to know what you like, what you are looking for, and what you want to see more of.

I hope you enjoyed looking around and reading the comments, too, as much as I did.

Top 14 to Begin 2014

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Vote for your favorites in the Top 14 Finalists to Begin 2014

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Vote Your Favorites: Top 14 to Begin 2014

Taken from the ‘demand rating’ reported by Shopatron, this is the top 14 list as 2013 ended and 2014 begins. I hope you enjoy seeing the top favorites your fellow knitting friends are interested in.

Are your favorites included? Maybe it’s something you already have, and then you know you are in good company. Or maybe it’s something you’ve missed seeing in the past. You can click the pictures to find out more information and download a free cover sheet for any of the patterns.

Win a Prize … Of these “finalists”, which are your favorites?

Please vote for your favorites below by clicking the “heart” to the upper right of patterns you love. You have up to 10 votes in case you it hard to decide which ones you love the most! Then also leave a comment to complete your entry to win the prize.

As a thank you, I will do a random drawing at the end of the voting period (January 31st) for your choice of one of these finalist patterns to the winner. Be sure to include an email address where I can reach you (the email will only be shown to me as the admin, it will not be publicly displayed).

Note: You must vote as well as comment to qualify for the prize. Voting for more than one favorite does not increase your chances of winning — the extra votes are just to help you avoid struggling in choosing just one. Thank you.

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I would love to hear what you think as that helps me focus new designs for the types of patterns you really like.

Please share your ideas at the HeartStringsFiberArts Facebook page or the Ravelry HeartStrings group.

Or you can write me directly. Looking forward to hearing from you. What you say and share counts!

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January Giveaway at KnitHeartStrings

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Did you hear about the January giveaway over at KnitHeartStrings? The prize  is a set of delightful Waffle Weave Towels.

To go along with the theme of January’s even-count filet lace KAL at KnitHeartStrings, I found these delightful Waffle Weave towels at Ulster Linen to award to a lucky winner at the end of January 2014.

Hearts and Cats at Play towels

One towel has a design of Red Hearts (what could be better for Valentine’s Day?!). The other towel has silhouettes of Cats  at Play banded by a coordinating red stripe.

These are top quality 100% cotton towels with the designs woven in (not printed). Very absorbent for use as kitchen towels, you can also add delight to your meals and interior decorations by using them atop serving trays or side tables. They are a generous 20″ x 30″. And of course are machine washable and dry-able to make your life easier and leave more time for knitting.

KnitHeartStrings Giveaway for January 2014 - Hearts and Cats at Play towels

How to Be a Winner

Want to win? Get on over to the KnitHeartStrings site to read more and enter. The winner will be drawn at the end of January 2014, so don’t wait too long and miss out.

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Cooking

John’s Triple Chocolate Rummy Cake – yummy chocolate decadence

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chocolate decadence for the holidays

John is a terrific cook, although seldom makes desserts (which is good for both of us since otherwise they are just too tempting, lol).  The holidays do deserve  special treats, though. So he always looks for an opportunity to make this Triple Chocolate Rummy Cake to take to holiday parties where we can share the calories and yumminess. John shares his decadent recipe here —

Ingredients

1 box devils food cake mix

1 – 3.9 oz box instant chocolate pudding mix

4 large or xl eggs

1 tsp instant coffee

1 C sour cream

1 stick of unsalted butter (melted)

2 Tbsp Hershey chocolate syrup

12  oz pack of semisweet chocolate chips

1 tsp real vanilla extract

1/4 tsp real almond extract

1/2 C (or a touch more – it’s the holidays after all!) Myers dark rum

Process

Mix all ingredients except cake mix, pudding mix and chips in a bowl until well blended.

Mix pudding and cake mixes in a larger separate bowl and stir to combine.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix until just combined.

Fold in chips.

Put the batter in a well greased (I use basic cooking spray) baking dish or other container for cooking.

Heat oven to 275 degrees and cook for 80-90 minutes but check it with a tooth pick after about an hour.  When pick comes out clean it is done.

Once it cools for 15-20 minutes remove carefully to a cooling rack.

John's Triple Chocolate Rummy Cake

p.s. Have you seen John’s recipe for Bison Burgers?

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December Giveaway at KnitHeartStrings

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Did you hear about the December giveaway over at KnitHeartStrings? The prize  is a  special one-time kit to make a beaded version of Lace Doily Beret.

Although the pattern does not specifically include instructions for beading, there are ideas and help for placing your beads to make your own 2-color bead embellished creation over at KnitHeartStrings in the article Beading the Lace Doily Beret. You can see an example in the photo above of how pretty the beads look when embellishing the outlines of the swirl petals of the beret.

What the prize kit includes

  • 150 yards Tilli Tomas Artisan Sock 90% superwash Merino/10% nylon in the color Huron (extra yarn has been included in you want to upsize the beret to a slouchy hat)
  • Miyuki size 6/0 glass seed beads 10g each of 2 colors: #1827 Amethyst-lined Aqua AB; #274 Amethyst-lined Crystal AB
  • Printed autographed pattern

There are more than enough of each of the 2 bead colors to play around as much as you want in making your own version of a Beaded Lace Doily Beret.

How to win

Want to win? Get on over to the KnitHeartStrings site to read more and enter. The winner will be drawn at the end of December 2013, so don’t wait too long and miss out.

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