FIVE STAR Pal Award

I'd like to emphasise that this award is in no way meant to encourage you to be overly generous with material gifts in your parcels. In fact this award is a 'one-off' to reward people who were fab pals in ISE4 for any one of a few different reasons. I'd also like to reinforce that award is a special button for your blog and a mention on the ISE4 blog. ISE doesn't have the resources to give out physical things.

So remember that you can also nominate your pal if you saw that they spent a lot of TIME on their scarf or if they spent a lot of energy maintaining contact with you. They needn't have sent you a huge parcel of goodies to be eligible. I'd also like to invite you to nominate someone else's pal if you thought that there was someone who deserves a mention. Please feel free to nominate yourself if you put in a lot of effort and you're uncertain if your pal really appreciated you. Also, if you haven't received your parcel yet, you can nominate your pal whenever it arrives if you want to.

The overwhelming feeling that I get from participants is that the things they enjoy the most about this exchange are forming a connection with their pals through great communication and receiving a scarf that was thoughtfully knit for them. It should be all about generosity of spirit not $$.

The only things that would exclude a Pal from getting the FIVE STAR PAL award are: not having thanked their pal for their gift or not having played by the rules and posted to the group blog as required.

So having said all that, I'd like to give everyone who posted to the group blog, sent their scarves off to their pals on time, thanked their pal for their scarf and generally played nice, a beaming smile, a pat on the back and a GOLD STAR.

This is not the FIVE STAR PAL Award but it is the GOLD STAR Award that you all deserve for making this so much fun, making the blog such good reading and such a good resource for scarf knitters.

It's self policing. Don't give it to yourself if you know deep down that you don't deserve it. And you know the drill: save it to your own server and put it on your blog if you like.

Happy Knitting :-) Sharon aka the stripey tiger

The ISE Blog has moved!

OK this is the moment you've been waiting for:

Sign ups for the Fourth International Scarf Exchange (ISE4) are open!!

Last scarf exchange was very busy. This time we are capping participation at 200 because that is the largest number we can manage to take care of properly.

It will be 'first in best dressed' so be quick.
If you miss out don't despair, we will wait list you - there may be some drop outs.

So be quick! Head on over to the new ISE4 blog to see what's happening.

If you want to know what it is all about check out The History, How to Play and The Rules - links are also in the side bar.

New Things New Exchange

Scarf Exchangers, Keep your eye out for changes to the blog! We are going to have a face lift!!

The new team is almost assembled and will be accepting sign ups soon. In the meantime why not cruise the scarf pattern links and get planning.

Apologies to all. In the change over to the new blogger, my profile was up in the top right corner of the blog for a while. I didn't mean this to happen and it seems to be gone now! (I don't know about you but I was OK with the old blogger this new one is full of odd little quirks. )

ISE 4 UPDATE

Happy New Year!
Are you wondering about ISE 4???
Well here I am to tell you a few details.

Our founding hostesses, Celia and Cyn Cyn both have big new commitments this year and so all of us here at the International Scarf Exchange will have to do without them. Celia has a brand new baby boy and Cyn Cyn is up to her eyeballs in studies for her doctorate.

So there's going to be a new team. I helped out last year and thoroughly enjoyed the whole exchange so I'm taking over the reins for now. Keep your eye on this blog for announcements about dates and new team hostesses. You never know, there might even be a blog facelift just for fun.

The ISE blog and email address is staying the same (isehostesses at gmail dot com) so feel free to contact me there if you have any questions. Don't email for sign ups just yet. We will get to that in a week or two. Everyone has been removed from the blog now so this should help if you are planning a blogger upgrade.

Happy Knitting everyone!
Start thinking about your scarf!!

Cheers - Sharon
aka Stripey www.thestripeytiger.blogspot.com

To those who want to be removed...

Please email the hostesses, rather than posting to the blog. That just causes problems for everyone who is subscribed through Bloglines (or other blog aggregators).

Remove Me Please...

I'd like to be removed from this blog so I can update as well. Thanks so much!

Deborah W.
My blog is www.needleanddistaff.blogspot.com. Let me know if you need other info. :)

me too..

Could I also be removed from this blog?

Cheers,
Ginge

Please remove me

Please remove me also so I can update...Thank you...Please let me know when I have been removed.

~Courtney

REMOVE ME

Can you please remove me from the ISE blog, I cannot update my blog because of this blog. Thank You. Pennie at www.extremeyarn.blogspot.com

Belated Thanks to Vik!

Many belated thanks to Vik for this lovely scarf that arrived a couple of weeks ago. She combined 2 of my favorite colors (chocolate brown & turquoise) into a densely knit scarf that looks like it was woven instead of knit.

Thanks - if the weather "ever" returns to normal winter here in Chicago I know it will be used a lot. :)

Thanks to the hostesses for coordinating this fun exchange. When I signed up for it I didn't realize how work craziness this fall was going to impact my ability to participate - thanks for being patient.

Happy New Year Everyone!

-Amy Artisan

It's Here

Thank you so much Morgan . It is finally here.
I have received two scarves ( dropped stitch , I believe ) from my Ise 3 pal today.
From reading your blog it seems like you have had alot going on in your life lately, I am surprised you had the time to knit!!! Best of everything to you and thank you again for the package!

When You Least Expect It

My scarf arrived Saturday from Kathy. I don't know if Kathy has a blog or not and she didn't include the specs on the scarf but I wanted to share it with all of you. It is a heathered brown, alpaca I'm guessing, and a friend in the know believes the pattern might be "Ruffles" from Scarf Style.

Thank you, Kathy! And thank you, Cynthia!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

An angel for Christmas!

My scarf finally arrived today thanks to Bettina who was my angel as my original pal let me down. The shawl is the swallowtail one from Interweave Knit Fall 2006. It is made of the softest alpaca in an aubergine colour. I love it! Thank you so much Bettina for being an angel!

A Package Worth the Wait

What did I find in my mailbox last night but my ISE3 package! It is from Bonnie in Costa Rica. Not only did she send me a great drop stitch scarf in some of my favorite colors, but she also included some Costa Rican coffee, a change purse, a pair of earrings handmade in Costa Rica, a yummy martini recipe and a skein of the yarn gone bad. Poor Bonnie had a mishap with this wonderfully soft alpaca when she was making my first scarf. However, I am just thrilled with this package and can't thank Bonnie enough. Thank you Bonnie!!!!

Here is a close up of the scarf detail:


Thank you so much to all of the hostesses especially Sharon, my hostess with the mostess. I really enjoyed this (my first exchange ever) and especially enjoyed seeing everyone else's scarves and packages. Bring on ISE 4!

Elaine