In honor of my upcoming birthday (#42), I'm announcing the second annual birthday contest to help out Interim House. This is actually the third round, but after the first was over, I shifted the contest to my birthday.

Edited Paragraph Details about this contest follow. Details about IH are included in the first contest post, but I recommend that you read this post first, because it explains more about why I'm supporting IH.

It's simple! Between now and noon (ET) on August 8th, send a package to Interim House, including - please - a postcard from your area, then send me an email telling me that you sent a package. Please include a picture (or a link to one) of the assembled goods (and who referred you, if that's the case (you can't refer yourself)). My (spam-proofed) email ends with @gmail.com and starts with crazycatladymel (just switch the order and pop 'em together).

Please, please, please spread the word! Don't think of it as lowering your chances of winning. If you're meant to win, you will! To sweeten the pot: If someone enters and says you referred them (and you entered too), I'll put your name into the basket twice. Feel free to grab the button (you can even use my bandwidth) and link to this post*. I'll do up to 4 referral points per person, so you could have up to five chances to win. Of course, you need to enter yourself for this to work! Absolutely EVERYONE qualifies, no matter where you live or if you won last time.

Sometime after noon on the 8th, I'll put all the names into a basket (including the referral dups) and draw the winning name. I'll be working on the prize between now and then, and will post updates. Guaranteed: a tote bag of my design. (Updated: I'll make 2 totes. The grand prize winner will get their choice, and more, and a runner-up will get the second tote. Some of my totes are in Flickr, with the "bag" tag.)

They're always happy to get partial balls of yarn, and feel free to include them; however, for this contest, if sending yarn please consider sending complete skeins**. An assortment of accessories and tools would also qualify. Please send what you feel led to; however, if you need ideas, I'd consider sending things like circular needles, darning needles, etc. Everyone seems to be working on shawls, blankets or felted bags right now. For the latter, zippered lingerie bags would be a great addition.

A great thing that more than one person has done in the past is to put a kit together, with everything needed for a project: yarn, needles and pattern. Most of the women that come into the program start out as beginners, but some of them progress really quickly, so they can use virtually any kind of project (cotton washcloths, felted bags, lace shawls). If you're a sale-watcher, watch for clearance items like tape measures or yarn. If you're a knitter/crocheter, then you KNOW what to get (anything!).

Send stuff to:
Kathy Duffy, Social Worker
Interim House Inc.
333 W. Upsal St.
Philadelphia PA 19119

ETA: You can keep track of updates via this link, or looking for "IH_Contest" in the tag list on my side bar. I'll post about developments, update about prizes, etc.

*You can take this string of code and paste it in your LJ or blog:
<p align="center"><a href="http://crazycatladymel.livejournal.com/269166.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://home.comcast.net/~crazycatladymel/IH_contest_button.gif"></a></p>

**Please do not send ratty or stinky old yarn. It's totally fine to send on a style of yarn that you have in your stash but don't care to knit with (e.g. fun fur or acrylic for yarn snobs), but not cool to send crap that no one should have to knit with. (This has never been a problem. I'm just trying to cover all the potential bases.)