Whereas I am a comment whore and

Whereas I have received more than 1000 comments since this blog’s inception and

Whereas I am immensely grateful for every comment I get and

Whereas I am declaring today Knitting Interrupted’s official Delurk Day,

I am happy to announce a comment contest!

Say hello via comment by 10/13 at 11:59. You’ll be entered into a random drawing for this lovely skein of Yarn Pirate in the June Bug colorway.

(from the Booty Club)

Every comment I’ve ever received on all posts since January 22, 2007 will be entered into the drawing, so if you’ve never commented before, now’s your chance. Anonymous comments and those from family will not be eligible (sorry Mom and TAS). I will select the winner by random integer generation and make every good-faith attempt to notify by email, as well as make the announcement in a blog post on 10/14/2008 at 9 am. Winner will have one week to claim the prize. After one week, I will draw a new winner.

Thanks to all my regular readers, and those that pass through.

I turned the heels of the toe-up tigers this weekend.

The pattern I was using was from the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits article by Ann Budd. She has you do the YO method of short rowing but frankly, I just couldn’t grasp that. Something about doing the YO just hurt my brain, so I thought I’d try the wrap and turn method. I found that to be cumbersome and confusing as well.

So, I got my Google foo Google-fu on and found this post from nonaknits about Japanese short rows, but seriously? When you are knitting socks, do you want to have 9 million little stitch markers cluttering up your heel? Heck, socks are supposed to be a portable project.

Anyway, it was around the time that I was putting on the 8,999,999th little stitch marker that I realized all you’re doing to close the gap between turns is a M1 increase and then knitting it together with the turned stitch. That’s what all of those methods are about. So, I figured I’d just do that and forget about the stitch markers, or doing YOs or wraps and turns. Guess what. The heels look great. Well, maybe not great, but they sure are good enough.

Anyone out there ever do a short row heel before? What is your favorite method? Take my poll and leave a comment (be sure to include your email address). You could WIN a set of 5 lovely hand-crafted-by-me stitch markers! The winner will be picked by random number generator on September 1st, 2007 and notified by email. Good luck!

***Update 8/14: I will announce the reader on the blog and we’ll work out contact information at that point.***

***Update 8/15: A clarification: Only comments left on THIS post will be entered into the contest for the drawing. I figured I’ll probably post at least once more before the 1st of Sept.***