2016 Indie Design Gift-A-Long

The time is now for the 2016 Indie Gift-A-Long!

This giant knit-a-long and crochet-a-long is one of the most highly anticipated annual events on Ravelry, and this year it will be bigger and better than ever!

The first part of the GAL begins at 8:00 pm (EST) today... and continues through November 30th at 11:59pm (EST). It is a GIGANTIC Pattern Sale with over 335 Indie designers discounting thousands of designs by 25%. Use the coupon code: giftalong2016. 

Once you have your patterns, join the Indie Design Gift-A-Long group where you can sign up and participate in the amazing 6 week long Gift-A-Long. GAL fun begins at 8:00 pm (EST) today... and continues through the end of the year, December 31, 2016 at midnight (EST). There will be eight KAL/CAL's with games, contests, and tons of prizes, that will help you breeze through your holiday knitting with all of the joyful companionship that Ravelry has to offer!

I now have 14 knitting patterns for sale on Ravelry and all of them will be 25% off through the end of November with the code: giftalong2016. 

Ready, set, gift!

LINKS

My Gift-A-Long Sale Patterns 

Indie Design Gift-A-Long Forums 

Thread Listing All Participating Designers

Indie Design Gift-A-Long

It's that time of year again... time to cast-on holiday gifts... or at least to start planning them. And I know a great place to start!

TATU Socks

The 2015 Indie Design Gift-A-Long on Ravelry began last evening. A group of over 300 knit and crochet designers are offering from 5-20 patterns each with a 25% discount through midnight (EST) next Friday, November 27. There are over 5000 patterns on sale!

You can browse by designer in the Participating Designer Thread.

Or, you can check out these Gift-A-Long Pinterest Boards:

Hats and Head Things
Cowls, Scarves and Neck Things
Shawls and Stoles 
Sweaters and Other Garments 
Hand and Arm Things
Feet and Leg Things
Baby and Kid Things (except toys) 
Toys, Home and Miscellaneous Things
Crochet Patterns

After you get all of your patterns and your gift knitting plans in place, don't forget to join the Indie Designer Gift-A-Long group.

There you will find some amazingly lively and incredibly fun GAL-2015 KAL/CAL's with tons of gift knitting support, some really fun games, lots of friendly chatter, and thousands (yes, thousands) of prizes! The fun goes on and on every day until the end of the year 2015!

Ready, set, GIFT!

Ravelry 2014 GAL Update

For a larger image with zoom:  http://i.imgur.com/QG9WVZs.jpg

My last post was my announcement of the Ravelry 2014 Indie Design Gift-A Long.  The promotion began in mid-November with a nine-day 25% discount on 3822 independent designer knit and crochet patterns.

The promotion continues to the very end of December... There is a whole lot of fun to be had!...  There are many games and contests with thousands of prizes!

11,512 patterns are eligible for everyone to use for the ongoing Gift-A-Long KAL/CAL.  You become eligible to play and win in the games (like Name That Designer) just by entering the KAL/CAL!  See the Ravelry Indie Design Gift-A-Long group rules thread for all the details.

I am blown away by all of the work that has been done by those who have organized this event.  Shown above are some statistics (larger image: http://i.imgur.com/QG9WVZs.jpg) that were compiled and graphed by a Raveler named 80skeins.  That last link is to her designer page on Ravelry, but if you have time you should take a look at her Worldwide Blog Tour: AroundtheWorldin80skeins.  She has already interviewed and posted about indie designers in 25 countries.  The posts are very interesting and the photographs are amazing!

I am thankful for the Group Administrators/Organizers, alextinsley, KnitEcoChic, ninaknits and Simone77.  These links are also to their designer pages.   

If you like Pinterest, check out this page with links to GAL 2014 Pinterest Boards.  This has been a wonderful time to get to know many great designers and their work!
       

Gift-A-Long Update

Just a reminder that the first part of the Gift-A-Long promotion on Ravelry will be ending at midnight tonight.

There are approximately 3000 patterns for sale on Ravelry with a 25% discount, all using the same coupon code "giftalong".  Here is a link to a very important thread where the approximately 160 (indie/independent) designers have declared which of their patterns are included in the Gift-A-Long.  These are considered "participating patterns".  I am on page 2 of the thread, right here.

As the sale comes to an end, I want to remind my readers of the second part of the promotion.  There are hundreds of prizes to be won!  Many are patterns (electronic prizes), but there are also a great number of physical prizes.  For a chance to win the prizes, you need to select one of the participating patterns (see the "link" above), and enter your project by posting in an appropriate KAL/CAL thread.  (It does not matter when you buy the pattern, before or after the sale period are both OK, but the pattern does have to be a participating pattern.)  Another wonderful place to browse participating patterns is at the Gift-A-Long Pinterest Boards.

Just by posting in one of the KAL/CAL threads, you will have a chance to win random prizes.  There are some games going on, as well.  After you finish a project, post (one time only per each FO) in the Official FO thread (with a photo if possible).  Each FO post is an entry in one of two large prize drawings, I believe that they will be on December 1 and then shortly after the December 31 end of the GAL KAL/CAL.

I am very grateful for a chance to be a part of this promotion!  I cannot express how amazing it was to watch those who organized this (in about a week) setting it all in place.  Fantastic amount of work!  The Pinterest boards are lovely.  (Volunteers had to pin each pattern individually.)  The prizes are all organized into lists and ready to be won.  Oh, and did I forget to mention the advertizing help... images for posts and ravatars, and those great transparent tags with instructions on how to layer them onto a photo.  I think the fact that the group has 4 administrators and 25 moderators indicates how much work is still being done to make the KAL/CAL's a lot of fun for everyone.  Please consider joining in the group and the GAL KAL/CAL's!  Post those FO's for more chances to win!

Happy Holiday Knitting!  Happy Holiday Gifting!  
   

It's Gift-A-Long Eve!

OK, Okay.  I do know that today is a real holiday.  Happy Halloween to one and all!

I would like to announce to all who knit or crochet that today is also Gift-A-Long Eve!

You may well be asking, "What is 'Gift-A-Long'?"

To jump start holiday gift knitting & crocheting, a group of over 150 designers who offer self-published patterns for sale on Ravelry, have joined together in a promotion named "Gift-A-Long".  The first phase of this promotion starts tomorrow with thousands of patterns being offered at 25% off after applying the coupon code "giftalong".  The official dates for the discount are November 1-15 (with most designers using GMT).  I am one of the designers, and all three (wish there were more) of my self-published, for-sale patterns are included.

 

Clockwise from top:
Two by Two by Two, Version 1
Jemma Cowl
Two by Two by Two, Version 2 (Both versions are included in one pattern.)
Fingering Weight TATU Socks (Four sizes included.)

There are soooo many wonderful patterns to pick from!!!  I now quote the group page for the "Indie Design Gift-A-Long" group:

"Prepping for the holidays as only fiber folks can, with special deals from tons of indie designers!

What is Gift-A-Long? It’s a multi-designer promotion to help you kick your holiday gift-making into high gear!

Put plainly, from November 1st until November 15th any pattern listed in the “List of Participating Patterns” thread is 25% off when you use the code “giftalong”.

Once you’ve got your Gift-A-Long patterns, we encourage you to join a relevant KAL/CAL! (For instance, if it is a cowl, please join the cowl KAL/CAL.) KAL/CAL participants are eligible for lots of lovely prizes (check out the Prizes thread for details) but you gotta post to win!
KAL/CALs will run until December 31st, plenty of time to knock out all your holiday knitting and crocheting.

On your mark…get set…. GIFT!"

Did you get that second part of the promotion?  Using any of the patterns offered in the Gift-A-Long (GAL) promotion, start a project (link it to the pattern page) and post about it in a relevant KAL/CAL thread on the group's discussion board.  There will be contests, and random prizes will be awarded to anyone who posts about their GAL projects in those threads.  When you finish a project made from one of the GAL patterns, post about it in the FO thread (one post for each FO, and one FO per post).  There will be two major giveaways (with hundreds of prizes) for GAL FO's: one in the middle of the GAL KAL/CAL and one after the December 31 ending date.  Please take a moment to join the gift-a-long group, where you can learn of any updated information.

Surprise!  Tomorrow is here!  I wrote this post a few days ago.  Then I learned that the organizers wanted all participating designers to keep it quiet until November 1.  Then I learned that November 1, 0:00 (midnight) GMT = October 31, 8:00 PM EDST.  So, (while I may be a bit late with my Halloween greeting;-) -- I waited to post this until now to be able to say:  The sale has just begun!  Here is a link to my post in the "List of Participating Patterns" thread.  From there you can begin your pattern browsing.  Enjoy!