Mystery box

I got a package in my mail box the other day from the Loopy Ewe.

It kind of threw me off for a moment--I didn't remember ordering anything from there recently. But then I opened the package and found this:

A pair of sock blockers! There was also a note from Sheri or one of the Loopy Elves to let me know that the blockers came from my Secret Pal, Gabrielle.

Thanks, Gabrielle! (I didn't get your blog address, so I can't link to you) Now I just need to get back to knitting some socks so that I can try them out!

Thanks again!

Giving Thanks

I checked the mail right before I left home on Wednesday night. I love it when there's a key in my mailbox--it means there's a package for me! Wowza, was there ever! It was from my secret pal, full of fabulous things.

I even liked the packaging. Check it out--the box is patterened inside! The tissue paper was lovely--chocolate browns and shades of blue from kind of a slate gray to indigo.

Inside, there was lots of fun stuff: A skein of Trekking XXL in Burgundy and Chocolate. I've been wanting to try out the Trekking yarn, but haven't seen a color I liked until this one!

A lovely reddish Lantern Moon project bag. This is one of my favorite colors (can you see my couch in the background? It's almost the same color!

A package with soaps, lotion, chapstick, and a sewing kit and a thimble. The brand is called "Plain and Thimble"--great name!

And a great multicolored journal-type book (the cover is striped, and the pages inside are the colors of the cover). I don't know what I'm going to write in it yet, but something will come to me, I'm sure.

Thanks, Secret Pal!!

Secret Pal 11 Questionnaire Answers

Sorry that this is late!

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I prefer mostly natural fibers, although acryllic does have its place. It's not a big place in my life, but my first three sweaters (I'm on my 5th) were acryllic. I still wear one of them.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? Nothing really, at the moment. I made a roll to hold my DPN's and I think they're actually in there right now. The circs are hanging off my lamp because I haven't found a nice way to store them yet.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I've been knitting for about 17 years or so (gosh, that sounds SO LONG!) I didn't do much with it for a long time, and have only been serious about it for the past two or three years. I think I would say I'm an advanced knitter. There are a lot of things that I haven't tried yet and a lot of things I don't really know how to do, but I'm not afraid to try.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? I do, right here.

5. What's your favorite scent? I like the smell of cinnamon and other spices, as well as Citrusy smells.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Heavens yes! My favorite candy is Reese's Peanut Butter cups .

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I'm a spinner--I bought my wheel in February. I used to cross stitch a long time ago, but I haven't done that for years. Not since I started knitting again.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) My computer does play MP3's. I LOVE world music in different languages, whether I understand them or not. I also listen to a lot of classical and instrumental music, and I love Disney cartoon soundtracks.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I think my favorite colors are darker reds like wine and burgundy. I like any flavor of purple. I like chocolate brown and pink and chocolate brown and light blue. I'm not really a big fan of olive greens and yellows, although I like the brighter colors. Now, having said that, I'm in the middle of knitting a cardigan in an olive green color. I think it will be pretty and I'll like the end result, but I'd like the process a whole lot more if the yarn were a pretty heathery purple!

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I have one roommate and 2 cats.


11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? Yes to scarves, hats, mittens, but not ponchos.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I've always got a sock in my purse. It comes in handy when there are odd moments with nothing to do but wait for someone or something somewhere. I've done lots of things, sweaters, bags, slippers, lace, hats.

13. What are you knitting right now? A purse-sock, as always. Twisted Yoke Cardigan from Interweave Fall 2007, Mystery Stole 3, and I've got Scheherezade hibernating somewhere.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Yes, please.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? I prefer circs for most things, and I like the metal needles. I'd like to get the KnitPicks needles, but I haven't had the money for it yet (espeically since I already own needles in most of the sizes I ues)

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Yes to both.

17. How old is your oldest UFO? I think I've frogged most of the things that I haven't liked, so my oldest UFO is probably the Scheherezade Stole.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Probably the Winter holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's)

19. Is there anything that you collect? Stationary and stickers and pens. Yarn, too, of course.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I think the books I want are all in my Amazon wish list. Someday I'm going to bite the bullet and actually subscribe to InterweaveKnits.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? I can't think of any at the moment. I'd like to learn more about the hows and whys of some techniques, like figuring out once and for all which way ssk and k2tog go. I always have to look it up!

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I'm definitely a sock knitter. I wear a US 7 shoe; my foot is 9 inches long and 9 inches around at the ball.

23. When is your birthday? December 3

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID? Yes, you can find me as Prinsessje. (That's Dutch for "Little Princess"

Look what came in the Mail!

This was on my doorstep when I left to go back to work on Thursday. (I may or may not have been a leeetle late getting back to work...)

This was inside (you can't see it all in this photo, but I can't upload photos of everything that was in there in one post).

Thank you, Thank you, Secret Pal!!!

I can't believe how much was in this box: a book called "One Skein Wonders," two balls of alpaca yarn , some wool/silk yarn, cotton sock yarn, ribbon yarn, a container of wool wash, and a little container of something called Wool Wax. It's a lanolin cream and I LOVE it. There were also six balls of roving (two light pink balls of merino and the pink and grey and the other two pink balls are Corriedale). Enough for a sweater, I think. My secret pal gave me some ideas of where to find more if I want to make a solid pink sweater, but I may use the grey/pink for a stripe or a yoke or something. I guess we'll see how it spins up.

What I want to know is how did she know that I really wanted to make a pink sweater? Did I say something about that somewhere?

My little sister made this bag for my socks to go into while they're in my purse. It's made of an old silk shirt that I used to wear and lined with some fabric that she bought to make a quilt. I really like the bag, but I may ask her if I can have her make another one just a bit bigger. I don't know if a brand new, just-wound ball of sock yarn will fit in this one. Maybe she will if I offer to make her another pair of socks in exchange...
I went to a friend's house this weekend, and she wears the same size shoe as my sockapalooza spoilee. As I feared, the sock was too big. WAY too big. As in about two pattern repeats too big. So RIIIIIP! It's going much faster now that there are fewer stitches in each row. I didn't have any scrap yarn with me this weekend, so I learned how to do the figure-8 cast on using the magic loop. Now I'm slightly paranoid that they're too small, but I'd personally rather have my socks a little too small than a little too big. Negative ease, I think they call it! :-)

SP10 Questionnaire

My answers to the SP10 Questionnaire are up and over at my "100 Things about me" page!

Merci beaucoup

I was so excited about my spinning last night that I forgot to say THANK YOU to my fabulousa Secret Pal, Viv. Thank YOU! I've had a lot of fun this go-round and I'm already signed up for SP10.

Here's a recap:

By the way, do you see that soap up in the first picture? It's gardenia soap and smells wonderful. I thought you might like to know that I gave in, despite my misgivings, and bought a gardenia plant.

I'd been looking for something green to put on my end table, and it was very pretty. It has lots of buds on it, hopefully it will bloom!

Thanks again, Viv. You've been a wonderful secret pal!

Long and ramble-y. You've been warned.

Look what I received in the mail on Saturday! Thank you Secret Pal! I'm looking forward to finding out who's been spoiling me so well these past few months!
There's a skein of Alpaca fingering weight yarn and the Fall 2006 Interweave Knits, which included an insert on scarves. I've never really looked at a knitting magazine before. I might have to look in to buying one or two more. The patterns in this particular edition are pretty nice. I really like that sweater on the front. I wonder what other colors would look like...

wait...I'm not allowed to start new projects until I finish the ones I'm working on!

Speaking of WIP: Here's a shot of Eris, from the last time that I worked on it, on Saturday.

I've finished the edging on the front left side, and am working on the front right side. It's actually a very clever construction: every other row (and occasionally more often) a stitch is picked up from the body and knit together with a stitch from the border. Not only does it look really nice, it also means that I don't have to bind off stitches at the bottom! Yay!

I did make a boo-boo, though. I can't remember (I need to learn to write things down as I work) whether I used US 4's or 3's to make the cardigan's collar. I'm using 3's for the hem, but the cables look smaller then the ones on the collar. This is how it's supposed to look. I hope that it doesn't matter too much. And I ought to have done the cabled raglan increases so that the cabled waist shaping would match. But I didn't notice that option until I was getting ready to start the waist shaping. Oh well.

I've been rather social the past few weeks, as far as fiber hobbies are concerned. One of the LYS's here in town has just started having an open knit night on Wednesdays. I went the first night, and there were three of us there: one of the owners, and another girl and I. It was fun. I do knit in public sometimes, but I'm always the only one. It was nice to have other people to talk to about what they're doing. I also went last week, and there were seven or eight people there. It was fabulous! People talked about going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and about yarn habits and projects they want to do and things they're learning.

This coming Friday, I think I'm going to go learn how to spin. I tried a drop spindle once, and it was kind of fun, but I think I'd like to try a wheel, too. I always thought it would be so cool to have an antique-looking spinning wheel sitting in my living room, pretending to be a decorative item, but actually knowing how to use it!

Oh, no, just what I DIDN'T need!

Okay, I really don't mean that. I got a LOVELY package from my Secret Pal today. Thank you, Secret Pal!!! But it's going to get me in trouble. Get a load of these goodies:

There are notecards (I love stationary and paper products!) and some Gardenia soap that smells HEAVENLY, and some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a great pink color.

So now I'm in trouble. First, I told myself this afternoon on my drive home from work (before I knew that there was a package waiting in my mailbox) that I really should stop casting on for new projects before I finish ones I've already started. Case in point: I'm not done with the Bristow cardigan I started this summer, I really ought to redo my roommate's cousin's hat before cold weather sets in, I just started Eris a few weeks ago, and I've yet to cast on for the second Chocolate Raspberry sock. But I'm dying to try Melanie's Scheherazade shawl.

So guess what I did tonight. Yup.

Lest you think "Oh, that's not so bad," let me tell you what I did while standing in line waiting to vote yesterday morning. Yup.

(No, I didn't do all that while standing in line. I'm not that good. I just cast my red yarn onto the provisional crochet chain.) I'm using some laceweight 100% wool I bought on eBay that had been recycled from a commercial-made sweater. I really like how this is turning out so far. The yarnover eyelets really show well, but the solid portions of the shawl are still relatively opaque. I'm using Susan Bates 2.75mm (US#2) This is one of my first forays into lace knitting, and my first stole.

And then there's this Gardenia soap. Do real Gardenias actually smell like this soap? Dear secret pal, do you realize that my thumbs are itching to be green and I'm trying to hold them back? I don't really need a new hobby. And my cats eat plants. I just potted some spring bulbs in a planter on my back porch the other day and told myself that was it. But man, oh man, if Gardenias really smell like that soap, I might have to buy a plant. And from what I hear, they're VERY VERY finicky!