FAQs

I am sure you have a question – hopefully we have an answer.

In fact… here are the answers to some questions that have already been asked. (If this doesn’t answer your question… leave us a comment. We’ll try to get you an answer ASAP).

If you’re a Sponsor or Prize Donor — you may be more interested in the answers to these questions.

Click here for the glossary of specific terms (acronyms).
Here’s the list of questions (click to go to the answer):

What’s this about blogging ?

Does [this project] count for the Seasons of Lace ?

I’m already in [fill in the blank KAL]/yahoo mystery group. Can I use that same lace here ?

Do we have to use Lace-weight ?

What’s this about Ravelry ?

Where should we post our pictures ?

How do we get pictures to show up in our blog posts ?

Why do we have to identify our projects by yardage if we’re not competing in the yardage contest ?

Will we have to play nice ?

Do the Lace Mavens get to compete for prizes ?

Participants who donate get an extra chance to win a prize — but what prize is it that they’re getting extra chances for ?

So who will be judging those judged competitions ?

So how can I get one of those cool icons next to my name?

I’ve registered for the competitions, do I have to register for the blog too?

I registered for the blog, what’s this about registering for the Season? Do I have to do that EVERY season?

What is the deal with the “categories” and “tags”?

I have registered for one of the Competitions – can I still win a raffle prize?

What’s this about blogging?

We encourage all participants to post their progress there. We also encourage you to post on your own blog. If you do have your own blog, feel free to cross post relevant chunks on the Seasons of Lace Blog. There is even a chance at a prize for blogging here consistently. After all, it is you , the members, who will make this Season of Lace the best it can be. The only catch is — you can’t win a prize without posting on the Seasons of Lace blog. (it’s easy — no knowledge of html needed).

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Does [this project] count for the Seasons of Lace?

If what you’re knitting or planning to knit is something that you would identify as lace knitting for any other purpose, it counts as lace for this event. However, we will have a hard time buying that a three row lace cuff on a sock makes that sock a lace sock.

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I’m already in [fill in the blank KAL]/yahoo mystery group. Can I use that same lace here?

Using this lace for some other KAL (or vice versa) is just fine with us! However, if you’re competing for prizes, you need to knit it within the time frame of this Season.

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Do we have to use Lace-weight?

Nope – not at all. The Hemlock Ring Blanket , for instance, counts as lace, but uses worsted weight yarn. Some seasons, we even have a special Raffle Class just for folks using heavier yarns.

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What’s this about Ravelry?

We have a Ravelry Group We also encourage all participants who are Ravelry members to post progress there. However, posting there won’t help you win prizes here.
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Where should we post our pictures?

We have a flick’r group. Put progress and finished object shots there (for pulling into your posts here, and to post on Ravelry). Or, put them up on any other photo hosting site. As much as we’d like to, we can’ t host all of your pictures.

How do we get pictures to show up in our blog posts?

There’s a lovely page with all sorts of great information on creating posts. You’ll find it here .

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Why do we have to identify our projects by yardage if we’re not competing in a yardage competition? Because shawl that consumes 2400 yards of yarn has WAYYY more stitches in it than a scarf that only eats 400 yards.  We try to combine raffle entries in ways that make sense, and it seems unfair to make the 2400 yard project knitter compete with the 400 yard project knitter for prizes, when you get “raffle tickets” for every project, not for every yard.

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Will we have to play nice?

Yes. Snarking — will not be allowed. Life is too short. Lace is too lovely. Feel free to complain (politely, succinctly, and even constructively) about a badly written pattern, but don’t bash people or their finished lace.

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Do the SoL Mavens get to compete for prizes?

Yes. But a SoLMaven only gets to compete if one of the other Mavens or one of the many members of this group nominates nominates her lace for one of the prizes. SoL Mavens enter category raffles just like everyone else but…SoL Mavens will only qualify for random prizes if we have accumulated so many prizes that we’ll be doubling up on random prize offerings.   Accordingly, the Lace Mavens are likely to be fondling the prize yarns obsessively until they have to be mailed off (okay, not really, but we’d sure like to).

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Participants who donate get an extra chance to win a prize — but what prize is it that they’re getting extra chances for???

First, let’s be clear Donors do not get extra chances for the competitive prizes. Those are judged (or have specific rules about how to win). Donors get extra chances to win one of the Random Joy prizes. In addition to the randomly drawn prizes for each of the Knitting Participation Categories, we’ll have a few Random Joy prizes. Every participating member of the Seasons of Lace has one chance at a Random Joy prize — even if you never finish a single project (you do have to post about something though, which is why progress posts are good). Prize donors get an extra chance to win a Random Joy prize.

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So who will be judging those judged competitions?

The final answer has not yet been determined. But as of today, you have the Mavens (ShadowDancer, and Whichy), and …. whoever we round up during a given season.

So how can I get one of those cool icons next to my name?

The images are Gravatars you can go to their website and sign up for a gravatar. It is a free service, all you need is a picture to upload to their site. Make sure to use the same email address that you use for commenting and you used for your Author profile on the site.

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I’ve registered for the competitions, do I have to register for the blog too?

YES! You need to register and post about your projects on the blog. We don’t need much, but a few pictures here and there and some text, so we can see that you are *actually* knitting something.   Since you can’t post on the blog without registering for the blog, you have to register for the blog.

At minimum please show us something from when you start your project, and a finished project. Also remember the raffle prizes, Competition Knitters are still eligible for raffle prizes, so posting about your projects makes it more likely you’ll win a prize.

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I registered for the blog, what’s this about registering for the Season? Do I have to do that EVERY season?

In a word, yes.  In order to qualify for any of the raffles, you need to have registered for the current season.  While you only have to register for the blog once, you do need to register for each season by that season’s deadline. Why?  Well, when our sponsors ask us how many people we have participating we like to give them realistic answers.  Additionally, when our sponsors offer us discounts, they mean for those discounts to be available to the current participants, not anyone who reads the blog, or even anyone who has ever played here.  Thus, only the current participants are able t o see the discount codes — and we can only know who is currently participating if you register for the SEASON.  And finally, only current season participants are eligible to win Random Joy (or any other raffle) prizes.

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When there are competition for Most Small Lace Items and Most Yardage, does the yardage I knit while knitting items for “Most Small Lace Items” qualify for the “Most Yardage” competition?

Nope – they need to be separate, otherwise, someone might be able to easily sweep both categories  You are more than welcome to knit for both competitions, but you can’t count one project for both competitions.

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What is the deal with the “categories” and “tags”?

Categories are largely to help us mods track everyone’s progress. They help us make sure that we don’t miss giving someone a chance at a raffled prize for their eligible projects.  So please make sure that you choose the right posting category when you post about your project.

Tags are up to you and can be anything you want. They should be one word or a group of words; each tag should be separated by a comma. Tags help other readers and search engines find your posts by subject.

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I have registered for one of the Competitions – can I still win a raffle prize?

YES!! Two ways! 1) Just by posting on the blog you are eligible for any of the Random Joy prizes. 2) Assuming your competition knitting falls into any of the classes that we have set for the raffle prizes, just post about your project and mark it with the appropriate posting category and you are all set to go.
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Glossary

KAL – Knit Along – What we are doing here, a group of folks who are knitting together for some specific purpose.

LYS – Local Yarn Shop

SoL – Seasons of Lace – that’s us!

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Supporters FAQ’s

FAQ’s for Discount Sponsors

FAQ’s for Prize Donors:

Can you explain the ad process for prize donors?

When and how will the prize I donated be awarded?

How  does  my donated prize  get to its winner?

What do you do to encourage people to shop with your prize donating sponsors?

Can you explain the ad process for prize donors?

For every prize donor, we post an “ad” in the Prize Closet. That ad consists of:

1. Your 450 x 100 or 468 x 90 banner (if you’ve sent us one), which will link to your website.
2. A written description of your prize or prizes, which will include your name (and/or your business name), and a link to your website.
3. A photograph of your prize, where possible.
4. A statement indicating the number of seasons you have supported Seasons of Lace.
5. Once your prize has been awarded, the ad will also include relevant information about who won and what for.

We also post a variation of that ad on the blog, announcing your prize.

In addition, we post 140 x 200 ad that links to your website in the side bar, which appears on a rotating basis with the other sponsors for the current season.  Again, you supply the jpeg for this ad.

We also add your website to the links list.  It will be in the Current Prize Donor section during any season in which you have donated a prize, and if you have ever donated a prize, it will remain in the Past Prize Donors section until we change the structure of the blog.

Finally, for each prize donated, we post another variation of your Prize Closet ad on the blog when we announce it’s winner.

Finally, we do our best to make sure that your sponsorship has also been announced on our Ravelry Page.

When and how will the prize I donated be awarded?

While we do award a few prizes during the season (typically Random Joy prizes and/or Support Your Sponsors prizes), the vast majority of the prizes are awarded at the end of the season, beginning the day after the season ends.  This means that it will be days, and may be weeks, between the end of the season and the day you receive notice that your prize has been awarded.  How can that be?  It’s the process of awarding prizes.

End of season prizes are awarded for raffles, judged competitions, and the Viewers Choice Award.

For the raffles, we cannot determine how many participants we have until after the last post of the season.  Once the last post is in, we manually identify the number of entries (and the identities of the entrants) for each of several categories.  We then use a random number generator to determine the winners in each of those raffle categories.  We also do some minor adjusting, so that no one person winds up winning too many prizes.  Of course, this is not always immediate, since everyone involved in assembling the information does this on a strictly volunteer bases.

For the Judged Competitions, we take nominations from the viewers for a few days, and then put up a poll identifying all of the nominated posts/projects for each of the Judged Competitions (e.g. Lace on Display, Lace on the Road, etc.).  We give the members a period of time to vote, and then combine their votes with the Judge’s votes to determine winners.

For the Viewers Choice competition, we take nominations from the viewers for a few days, and then put up a poll identifying all of the nominated posts/projects for Viewers’ Choice, and give the members a period of time to vote.  That period is extended where necessary until we have at least 2/3 of the seasons participants voting.

How  does  my donated prize  get to its winner?

We handle prizes in two ways:

We prefer having our prize donors maintain the prize until it has been awarded, at which time we e-mail you and the prize winner, to be sure that both parties know what prize what won, and by whom, and to ensure that both parties can contact each other.  We then allow you and the prize winner to work out details like shipping addresses (and, where relevant, yarn colors and such).  Thus, you ship (or email) the prize when it has been awarded.

In some circumstances, prize donors give the prize to the Prize Maven at the time of donation.  In that case, the Prize Maven ships it out when it’s awarded.

Back to Supporters FAQs

Discount Sponsors

Can you explain the ad process for Discount Sponsors?

What do you do to encourage people to shop with your sponsors?

Can you explain the ad process for Discount Sponsors?

For every discount sponsor, we post an “ad” on the Sponsor Page. That ad consists of:

1. Your 450 x 100 or 468 x 90 banner (if you’ve sent us one), which will link to your website.
2. A written description of your discount offer including the dates for which the discount is valid,  which will include your name (and/or your business name), and a link to your website, as well as a link to the Discount Code Page, where we put the discount code you provide that will enable our members to receive your discount.  Note, that we do not include the code on the page that everyone can see.
3. Where your discount offer is for a specific yarn or pattern, the ad will include photograph of the relevant yarn or pattern, where possible.
4. A statement indicating the number of seasons you have supported Seasons of Lace.

We also post a variation of that ad on the blog, announcing your discount.

We also post a copy of the ad on the Discount Code Page, which is accessible only to those members of the blog who have registered for the current season.  That ad consists of:

1. Your 450 x 100 or 468 x 90 banner (if you’ve sent us one), which will link to your website.
2. A written description of your discount offer including the dates for which the discount is valid,
   which will include your name (and/or your business name), and a link to your website, and the  discount code you provide that will enable our members to receive your discount.
3. Where your discount offer is for a specific yarn or pattern, the ad will include photograph of the relevant yarn or pattern, where possible.
4. A statement indicating the number of seasons you have supported Seasons of Lace.

In addition, we post 140 x 200 ad in the side bar that links to your website, which appears on a rotating basis with the other sponsors for the current season.  Again, you supply the jpeg for this ad.

We also add your website to the links list.  It will be in the Current Sponsor section during any season in which you have donated a prize, and if you have ever donated a prize, it will remain in the Past Sponsors section until we change the structure of the blog.

Finally, we do our best to make sure that your sponsorship has also been announced on our Ravelry Page.

What do you do to encourage people to shop with your sponsors?

Among the raffles we run each season is a special raffle designed to encourage people to support our sponsors by shopping at their websites, knitting their patterns, and using their yarns, needles and stitch markers.  To qualify for this raffle, a member needs to post to the blog demonstrating that they are using a sponsor’s wares (pattern, yarn, book, needles, stitch markers…), including a clear picture of the relevant item, and a link to the sponsor’s web page.  For every such post, the member gets an entry for the Support Our Sponsors raffle.  The members are discouraged from trying to qualify multiple times using the same materials.

Depending on the total number of prizes available in a given season, we run this raffle a minimum of twice per season (once in the middle, and once at the end), but as often as we can.