Well, what an exciting weekend it was! The auction page went live on Facebook at midnight on Friday and ran until 9am Monday morning with bidding consistent throughout the weekend. I had rather stupidly organised to do our Autumn Happy Hound Day on Sunday so I had to pack up the car and travel over to Surrey on Saturday, after having spent several hours in front of the pc answering questions about lots and making a few amendments to the posts.
To say that I have never spent so much time on my phone and iPad is an understatement! the notifications of bids were frantic and the last 10 minutes were so exciting!!
So - I know you are all waiting to see the total, especially if you entered our little Facebook and Instagram competitions yesterday - but please be patient, as I take you through my pick of the lots - the ~TOP 10~ of the 150 that were sold.
In at 10 - This fluffy beauty, knitted by Isabelle Best in a Bergere de France yarn. So very soft, this will delight the dog it is destined for when curled up in a cosy bed!
In at 9 is this lovely chunky tweed multi grey ribbed number - I had to prize it off Georges back! It was knitted by Debra Bikerdike in a machine washable yarn. Perfect for country or city strolls!
At 8 is another whippet jumper, knitted by Amanda Tennant - a last minute entry, it arrived just days before we went finalised the entries, knitted in our soft donegal yarn in the popular cable pattern. This will be loved for many years to come!
In at 7 is another one of my favourites - featured in last weeks Pick of the Lots blog - knitted by Jacki Hough in soft pastels, the whippet who gets this one will be as happy as Boo looks in this photo!
The last of the lots reaching £55 is in at 6, one of the greyhound jumpers - I featured this lovely, knitted by Barbara Malley, it is soft and stretchy and will adorn a gorgeous leggy hound on a sofa sometime soon!
OK ~ onto the top 5 - you are excited now aren't you! stick with it, all will be revealed very soon!!
At 5 the bidding was frantic on this one, and I know why, it is a beauty! Lovingly knitted by Beverley White it arrived in a box with several others, the quality of the knitting is amazing and this one is from my book. It is Bruno's Toasty Twisted Rib Pattern so, very special to me. Some whippet is going to treasure this one!
At 4 is one of 4 blankets to get into the top 5 - this one knitted by Janet Smallridge was delivered to me in person when Janet was on holiday in our neck of the woods along with a couple of jumpers - I loved the colours chosen and the knitting is beautiful too! Some hound will be snoozing under that very happily soon!
At 3 the next blanket, knitted by a new knitter Virginia Perez, who embraced this project with all her heart - I nursed her along and with the help of my video tutorials and exceptional taste in yarn, she produced this amazing blanket - Virginia be very proud because it was loved by our bidders it too, reaching double it's starting bid!
At 2 another amazing blanket - knitted by Louise Godfrey, who has two beautiful whippets who are very happy to model her knits, always melting my heart! She is a great photographer too, and has already started knitting for the next auction in February! Louise was a fantastic contributor to this project, another relatively new knitter who has the most amazing natural talent and great taste in quality yarn!!
So, in at number 1 - if you were bidding you might have guessed that this one would win! it reached an amazing £82 with many bids. Knitted by Sue Southgate, a local lady who has a lovely greyhound Woody. We met one Sunday and chatted about my project, she had heard of it and wanted to help, and help she did! I gave her some yarn to knit a greyhound jumper and she provided yarn for several snoods and this amazing blanket. When she delivered it, I was a bit shocked as I had not ever seen it knitted in one colour, but I loved it, and so did you as will the generous winner of this lot.
SO - THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR-------THE BIG REVEAL-------HOW MUCH MONEY DID WE MAKE????
dah dah dah - THE GRAND TOTAL, assuming all lots are paid for, IS AN INCREDIBLE £4,104 !!!!!
I am still in shock, and I know that Erika and Johnny from Whippet Up, my co hosts, are too. We have decided that as we have raised so much there will be enough to give a some to another worthy charity, with the majority going to Galgos del Sol as we always intended. We hope you don't mind if you have spent your hard earned pennies on any of our lovely lots.
So, there you have it, months of knitting, organising, guiding knitters, photographing, cataloging, loading and query answering - would we do it all again? OH YES !!! my knitters are ready to carry on, and we hope to do another auction in February, so, if you didn't get lucky this time, try again in the next one!
Debbie x
