Picking winners

Today is the day for picking winners! I am thinking now that it would have been simpler to use one of those random number generators, but I like to encourage family participation, so I asked Teddy-Face if she would help me with the giveaway winner selection.

Teddy-Face was very keen, and excitedly followed me outside with my big bowl of bits of paper (don't ask me how long it took to fold all those bits of paper up, and there was no family to be seen at 7.30 this morning when I was beavering away). I also think it would have been better to choose a less windy day - it would have saved me chasing around the garden after bits of paper. (I also had to stand on the winners to prevent them from being carried off.)

Teddy-Face must have misheard me at first - I think she thought that I had said 'rabbits', as she burrowed in the flower bed for a moment, but then she set to, stirring all the bits of paper up nicely.

Do I smell biscuit?

I was not quite sure that it would work, as Teddy-Face has a round little face, perhaps not so good at daintily picking out pieces of paper as the Naughty Dog with the long, pointy, trouser-nipping snout, but when I suggested that the latter helped in the task, she hid under the kitchen table as if I had told her that I was about to get the mop out (she doesn't like mops or vacuum cleaners, which is why don't use them very much in my cottage, not wanting to traumatize the Naughty Biter, of course).

Are there any more in there?

But my secret weapon was a few dog biscuits (Senior Light, of course, we don't want Teddy-face putting on any more weight) tucked in underneath the paper pieces. You might just glimpse them at the bottom of the bowl.

Oh dear, all gone!

As you will see, Teddy-face became slightly distracted from the winner-picking task, as she rooted around for the biscuits, but when she had satisfied herself that there were no more Senior-Light to be had, I noticed that she had done what I asked and tossed out a couple of pieces of paper into the flowerbed.

Blowing in the wind

So we have two winners! I was so overwhelmed by the response (I really didn't imagine that I would have so many entries, or so many new followers) that I decided it would be fair to make up two prizes, in different colourways, just to even out the odds.

And in case you were worried about the waste of paper, you can see that I was reusing old bits of knitting calculations (Karen is not 276 years old, I was just struggling with Peggy Sue's stitch count).

So congratulations to Karen L R and Harmony & Rosie: please could you email me your addresses so that I can send out your parcels.

Traces of the struggle with Peggy Sue

And commiserations to those of you who did not find Teddy-Face's favour this time - but I will be doing another giveaway quite soon, so I hope that you will all come back again and join in with that.