hand eye crafts

The Knitters' Chick prize packages were just taken to the post office, so, winners, be on the lookout!  It will be another day or two before the Knitters' Hunk prizes go out, as I keep finding little goodies to drop in them. . . Again, thank you all --- it was fun, as it always is!

For the Inaugural Knitters' Chick contest: Dame Maggie Smith. Never in doubt, really --- at least not to me.  From the first round, people were loving her.  And who can blame them? Lorette nominated Dame Maggie, and will be receiving the Knitters' Chick Grand Prize. Bridget nominated runner-up Meryl Streep, and will be receiving the Runner-Up Prize. If you are interested, the final vote count was 69% for Smith, 31% for Streep. And the 2012 Knitters' Hunk, coming from way  behind earlier in the day is Liam Neeson. I had honestly thought Benedict Cumberbatch was going to win --- his margins of victory were always so big.  But the Liam Lovers among you came through, most of all Camille, who has won the Grand Prize.*  The runner-up package goes to, would you believe it, Lorette ! She sure knows how to pick 'em!  Final margin: Neeson 55%. Cumberbatch 45%. So, the reigns of Maggie and Liam begin, and we'll all meet again here next year...

The time is here!  Choose your favorites to reign over Knitterdom for the next year!  Winners will be announced tonight after 9 PM Eastern.  Thank you all SO much for your enthusiastic involvement and support. GO! The 2012 Knitters' Chick should be: The 2012 Knitters' Hunk should be:

Nearer and nearer the end of the contests grow.  Are you nervous?  Frightened?  Intimidated?  Sad?  Well, I certainly hope you're able to vote, because there are still some blank lines on the brackets that need filling in.  Your decisions here will fill out the Knitters' Chick Final Four;  today's  victors will join Maggie Smith and Rachel McAdams. Your votes for the men will fill out the Knitters' Hunk Final Four, winners joining Stephen Colbert and Benedict Cumberbatch.  Which means the Semifinals are tomorrow, and the 2012 Knitters' Hunk and Knitters' Chick will be elected Monday! Pair Eighty-Seven Pair Eighty-Eight Pair Eighty-Nine Pair Ninety

We are so very close to the Final Four!  In fact, we should have them in place by tomorrow.  You can spend part, if not all, of your weekend, deciding whom should wear the Knitters' Crown! Speaking of knitters --- as of right now, five people are still in the running for the Hunk grand prize, and four for the Chick prize.  You know who you are, because you know who you nominated.  I hope. As for yesterday, Emma Watson, Johnny Depp, Rachel McAdams and Benedict Cumberbatch all moved forward. And as for today, just to set everything up evenly: Pair Eighty-Five Pair Eighty-Six

Liam Neeson, Stephen Colbert and Alan Rickman won yesterday, and are, therefore, in the Quarterfinals.  The tie between Jeremy Irons and Tom Selleck was broken, and the victor there gets right back into the action today to fill out the Final Eight.   In other pairs: Pair Seventy-Seven Pair Seventy-Eight Pair Seventy-Nine Pair Eighty

I hope you all are having as much fun with this as me.  I say that at some point every year, probably, but I do mean it.  Your comments are terrific, and your options are getting more difficult, wouldn't you say? We aren't quite down to the final eight women in Knitters' Chick.  There were eleven votes cast for both Rashida Jones and Emma Watson, so we'll be revisiting them again soon,too.  Waiting for them in the Quarterfinals are Rachel McAdams, Anne Hathaway, Maggie Smith, Samantha Bee, Meryl Streep, Gillian Anderson and Rachel Maddow.  If you nominated any  of them, you are still in the running for the Chick Grand Prize. Remember, no voting over the weekend. Now.  On to today: Pair Sixty-Nine Pair Seventy Pair Seventy-One + Pair Seventy-Two

I hope everyone had a relaxing Labor Day.  We had some afternoon thunderstorms which made the animals pretty scarce, but it was an okay day. Not a whole lot of voters yesterday, but those who did turn out moved Samantha Bee, Paul Rudd, Alan Rickman and Hugh Jackman ahead.  Let's see who'll join them, shall we? Pair Fifty-Eight Pair Fifty-Nine Pair Sixty Pair Sixty-One

(ETA: I have no idea whatsoever why these links are popping up in my text.  I've tried to get rid of them, to no avail.  Pay them no mind.) So, I've been running the Knitters' Hunk contest for five years. My children have expressed little to no interest in it ever, usually only bringing it up in conversation when they couldn't think of anything else to say. It was Briton's idea, heartily seconded by Hannah, to include women in the competition.  And, boy, have their attitudes changed.  Briton checks in every day on the results, and always has possible explanations for who did and who didn't win.  As we rode to Atlanta yesterday, Hannah kept coming up with more contest ideas.  She and Briton were talking about how they hate that the tournament is going to be over soon, and that they don't want to wait another year.  So, don't be shocked if I come here with some, um, original ideas for more tilts. It will take us three days for us to get throug...

Don't know what the Vegas bookies' odds were, but we have made it successfully through our first week of Knitters' Hunk / Knitters' Chick.  The voting turnout has been tremendous --- thanks to all of you who are getting involved.  And there is more yet to come! In fact, later today, I'm going to sit down and do a little math to see if having 4 pairs a day might significantly speed things up a bit.  There are still 28 first-round pairs between the two competitions, so we're looking at a couple of weeks no matter how we go.  Those of you who've been through all this before, what do you think?  First-timers, what's your opinion? Let me re-emphasize that as long as someone you nominated is still in the tournament, you are still in the running for the grand prize.  If I'm remembering correctly, there's only one person who's in imminent danger of elimination, so everyone is pretty much on equal footing. If you've missed a day, or j...

Pair One Pair Two Pair Three

Every year, this is the point of the Knitters' contest that makes me a wee bit jittery.  The brackets are all filled ("WHOA" is all I'll allow myself to say about some of the match-ups that the Fedora of Fate came up with), I've got at least the first day's photos ready to go. . .  The only thing left is putting the actual poll on the blog and opening it up.  However, significant  problems with polls in the past have stayed with me.  And this year, we're going to have to go with a weird split-screen-y-type thing. But I want it to start!  I want you to see who everyone else nominated, and I like watching people get all psyched about it.  This year, you've responded very, very nicely to Knitters' Chick, so I'm interested to see how that goes. And I'm starting to think about prize packages and maybe random fun giveaways, and what a tiebreaker could be if we need one. So, check back here either very late tonight or very early...

All of the nominations are in: 60 men will vie for Knitters' Hunk, 32 for Knitters' Chick.  The interesting part is the construction and filling out of the brackets.  This is done precisely as a tennis or basketball tournament is, with seeds placed first, then the rest of the match-ups made strictly by drawing names out of hats. A word about seeding: KH seeds have always been the previous years' winners.  So, this year, Sam Neill will be the #1 seed, Alan Rickman #2, Johnny Depp #3, and Hugh Jackman #4.  But I'm in a bit of a jam with the women.  Three women were nominated more than once, so I could use them as #1, #2 and #3.  But what about #4?  Should she just be chosen at random?  Would that be alright with everyone? I never post the brackets, because I think it's more fun to be surprised each day by which match-up is being voted on.  There'll be some math involved, as I try to determine how long it will take to get to the Finals. ...