I’ve had lots of encouraging comments about my Christmas blogging marathon, a post a day for the virtual Advent Calendar until Christmas Eve, thank you all very much!  (And if you’ve just discovered what I’m up to, scroll down to end of this post and find Day One’s crafty wrapping ideas…)

Today is all about my celebratory Giveaway for my 5 years living on Planet Penny, and I’ve deliberated long and hard to think of something everyone can enjoy,  whether you are a maker, or someone who just appreciates what is made.  So the prize is ready made, and part of it is the Advent Calendar make for today.

Having spent so much time with my Rainbow collection of yarn I thought it would be good to celebrate that with colourful tree decorations, so I have made some mini balls of yarn complete with tiny knitting needles.

These look lovely on the Christmas tree…

…but are far too pretty and colourful to hide away for the rest of the year. Can you imagine them strung on a line adorning someone’s crafting corner, or hanging round the edge of a lampshade perhaps?

They are simple to make if you want to do your own.  I used a small polystyrene ball as a base and glued the yarn on to start with.  Then you just wind round carefully until the base is hidden and the ball is the size you want.  Glue the tail back on itself to form the hanger.  The needles are made from cocktail sticks with beads on the end and pushed through the ball…simples!

But you can win your own if you enter the Give-away  Prize Draw!

The next part of the prize has to be needlefelt don’t you think?  It’s been so much of what I do.  So this too could be yours…

..a little Christmas Mousie…

And finally, I’d like to include a book, and this time there’s a choice.  It could be a copy of ‘Knitting on the Road’…

…if you are a knitter.  There are some beautiful and unusual patterns from around the world…

Or if sewing’s more your thing, there’s  ‘Zakka Style’…

This has some stylish and unusual designs which are very appealing…

…or if you or  someone in your family would prefer to snuggle up with a good read you could choose this…

…which will be signed by the author, Thomas Taylor,  just for you.  I know him quite well!  (You can find out more about Thomas, the book and how we know each other from this post)

So to recap, the prize is –

• 14 hanging ornaments – mini rainbow balls of yarn with knitting needles
• a Christmas needlefelt mouse with hat and bell
• And a choice of one of three books

And what do you have to do to have a chance of winning?  I didn’t want to make things complicated so all you have to do is follow me in some way.  You can subscribe by Email in the little box at the top of the left hand column.  If you do that already there’s also the choice of Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.  And then just leave a comment on this post or any other of the Advent posts to let me know so I can add you to the list.  You only have to do one thing, but if you sign up for more than that you get more chances!

If you sign up to follow me on any of the other sites, please let me know via a blog comment so I don’t miss you off the list! 

This will run until after Christmas to give every one as much of a chance as possible to take part and I will make the draw via a Random Number Generator in the week between Christmas and New Year.  In the meantime, do call back and find out what happens next on the Crafty Christmas Countdown Calendar!

See you soon…!

P.S.  Don’t forget to call over to Handmade Monday  to see what else is going on in the crafty world!