Don’t Miss the Design Contest!

The superhero mask design contest is still on, with a deadline of July 15th! We’re looking for the perfect superhero mask for Ana to wear with her gorgeous new costume shown in Issue #2!

The guidelines are available online, and the contest entry form will be posted by the end of this weekend. We’re really looking for a great mask for our budding super-heroine, so check out the details and start designing! The contest entry fee is a $5 tax-deductible donation to Heifer International to give sheep to needy families in developing nations.

We will also have the mask design entries at Sock Summit in Portland in August to show off the amazing skills and talents of our fans.

New Postcards!

Last month, I published the Secret Identity Mask as a free downloadable pattern in our online store and in Ravelry. At the time, the pattern could also be purchased as a postcard, if you really needed a hard-copy version of the pattern. The postcard featured a photograph with the pattern notes on the front and the pattern itself on the back (where you’d normally write something).

Well, we had issues with the postcard version of the pattern. The post office’s processing stamps ended up on top of the pattern and obscured it. So, it wasn’t a very good postcard. As a pattern, it’s fine. But as a postcard, it was not working, and I pulled it out of the store after the first customer complaint.

Enter, the re-designed postcard, featuring artwork by Marc Olivent!

Marc’s taken the pattern ideas and drawn some fun characters to inspire your secret identity mask-making. Additionally, the entire pattern now fits on the front of the postcard. That means you can buy these postcards in packs of 6, write a note on the back to a friend, and mail them off like a real postcard! Or, if you have a swap buddy or secret pal (like a Secret Santa), you can buy a single postcard, add a Gift Message and address, and your postcard will arrive with a Santa Cruz, California postmark, and whatever message you’ve chosen to send! Remember, adding a gift message to any order in our shop is completely free– gift subscriptions arrive at your recipient’s house with a card and your message.

We remaindered the postcards and donated them to the Phat Fiber box this month, so some happy Phat Fiber recipients should be getting a great little pattern that uses just enough yarn to use up some of the samples in their boxes! If you Phatties want to send a little love on to a friend, stop by the shop!

By the way, if you’re thinking about entering the design contest, the Secret Identity Mask pattern is a great way to learn how to make a superhero mask that you can adapt into your own pattern. The pattern is licensed under the Creative Commons license and you are free to use it as a template for your mask in the contest.

Shout Outs

All of our shout-outs today fall into the Cool, but Unrelated category, but I still want to share them with you all, because they are, well, COOL:

Comics and knitting instruction. Actually, a lot of Fun and Fancy Knitting Stitches is dedicated to knit-related comics and cartoons.

A knit-heavy dance show in New Zealand.

John Glover, who played Lionel Luther in Smallville, is a knitter.