Verily...

I've mentioned a few times that I like to participate in swaps, and yesterday I was very excited to recieve my parcel from the Shakespeare swap I joined *grins* Stupidly, I didn't take any pictures of what I sent to my recipient, but I do have lots of pictures of what I received!

Everything was wrapped and had a relevant quote from Shakespeare on it *smiles*

The first thing I opened was this cute hat. It's supposed to be a floppy style I believe, although I do have a particularly tiny head so I might need to find a way to tighten the brim!

Lots of goodies - A book on the flora and fauna used in Shakespeare's plays which is really interesting, some very lovely caramel filled chocolate, a peacock feather shawl pin, some gift tags with literary quotes on, some kool aid (yay) and magnetic Shakespeare poetry that I can't wait to play with *grins*

Yarn goodies - 3 balls of Knit Picks City Tweed DK, in a gorgeous tweedy teal colour, and 2 balls of Knit Picks Essential in purple. 

But that's not all - my sender also made me a really beautiful shawl. I haven't managed to get a decent picture of it, but it is almost black, with subtle hints of purple, and beautiful matching beads in the lace part. It's gorgeous, and beading is something I haven't tried, so it's extra special to receive something I wouldn't have made myself *smiles*

I haven't signed up for any more swaps for the time being, I think I may have overdone them a little at the beginning of this year. But then I get beautiful gifts like this and think maybe I should do a few more *laughs*

Lucky Me... Again

It was my birthday yesterday *grins* I'll give you more details tomorrow, but I wanted to post about the 2 awesome packages I got to finally open...

I mentioned in the last 2 swaps I have participated in, that the lovely people sending to me had put something in the parcel for me to open on my birthday. Firstly, Karen had sent me a card with a couple of things in, as well as a squishy present:

Beautiful New Zealand sock yarn, and a card with a cute ceramic button, sheep notepad and a kiwi bookmark (in case the clues didn't give it away, the parcel came from New Zealand! I love that there is a kiwi bookmark in there!)

And the lovely Tink sent me a birthday card that really made me laugh, and 2 gorgeous sets of buttons, that are awaiting the perfect project to really show them off:

I feel so lucky to have met such amazing people through knitting, blogging and Ravelry. None of these gifts were part of the swap, or expected, they were just thoughtful and lovely things that some wonderful people decided to do. And I'm going to stop now before I become all gushy!

Blog Hub Swap - final day!

Last day, and I'm sad that I have no more parcels to open, this has been such a fun swap *grins*

I was particularly intrigued by this package, because the last thing on the list of must-be-included-items for the swap was "a local delicacy". Well, this package was flat, so I had no idea what it could be!

Then I opened it and read the note, and it all made sense. You see, Tink lives about an hour away from me, and made the very good point that anything she can get where she lives, there's a pretty good chance I can get where I live too *laughs* So instead of sending me something that wouldn't be unusual or exciting, she sent me this:

You might recognise the image from my sidebar - a while ago I came up with the idea of dusting off my unused cookbooks and actually making some of the recipes (which reminds me, I haven't done one for ages!) Well, Tink decided to join me in my challenge, and has made some gorgeous sounding recipes from her books.

So, in honour of the challenge, and the fact that today's gift should have a food theme, she made me a mini cookbook of some of her favourite recipes that have come out of the challenge. I was blown away by how thoughtful and sweet this gift is, and must declare that I wish to internet-marry Tink right now *laughs*

Thank you, I love it.

I have been so lucky with this swap. I've received some amazing presents to open, so thoughtful and perfect for me, and I hope everyone else participating has had as much fun as I have.

Blog Hub Swap Day 6

Today's parcel was an interesting shape, and I was very intrigued to tear it open and find out what exciting things Tink had picked out for me to open next *grins*

3 little vials of... Wiltons Food colouring *grins*

I've had loads of fun dyeing yarn with Kool aid, but as mentioned in the note, people also use Wiltons colouring (and I have seen some amazing results with it). Apparently you can actually buy this stuff in the UK, at Hobbycraft, which I didn't realise.

So now I have red, blue and purple to play with, and I can't wait to get some bare yarn and give them a try *grins*

Blog Hub Swap Day 5

Day five... Only 2 more presents to open after today :( I'm enjoying this far too much to stop *laughs*

So, today's package had 2 wrapped pieces, a big one and a little one. Interesting...What were they?

2 awesome books *grins* The note that accompanied these said that Tink saw these and immediately thought of me. And how right she is! The essential foreign swear words is so funny (and although I don't swear on my blog, I am a little more sweary in real life!)

As for the "Picturesque Word Origins" book, it's amazing. I have quite a few posts that demonstrate just how much I love words, and reading about their origins is fascinating to me. I love this book, thank you so much Tink!

Of course I can't post about this cool book without a few extracts for you *smiles*

Escape: originally meant to slip out of one's cape
Monster: comes from the Latin monstrum - a divine omen of misfortune

Remorse: originates in the Latin remordere, meaning "to bite again"
Subtle: from the Latin subtilis, meaning "woven fine", was applied to delicate fabrics

Blog Hub Swap Day 4

So, this morning I got to open day 4 of my swap packages *grins*

I guessed that today might be the patterns, based on the shape of the parcel, but there's another flat one waiting for day 7, so I'm very intrigued!

I was right about today though ;)

The note with these said that I have expressed a desire to knit socks that are a little more interesting than the plain ones I have been making until now, so Tink hunted through Ravelry to find some interesting patterns for me *smiles*

So I have 3 new pairs of socks to make, and I didn't have to hunt through the many, many pages of patterns to find them myself ;) I particularly like the pattern on the right of the picture, "little minx", really interesting texture that I'm excited to try out.

Even better, I still have three days of packages to open *grins*

Blog Swap Parcel 3, Finished Objects, All Sorts of Excitement!

Day 3 of the Blog Hub Swap, and the shape and feel of my parcel indicated that today was yarn day *grins* And yes, I did give the parcel a squidge before I opened it! So, I won't keep you in suspense, here's what Tink picked out for me...

Candy Skein yarn *much grinning* I wanted to try some of this yarn for absolutely ages, but haven't bought any thanks to my stashbusting plans. Of course yarn received in swaps is totally allowed, so I was super excited that Tink sent me this! It's one of my favourite of Tami's colourways (although they're all gorgeous, so it's hard to choose!)

Talking of Tami... On to the Finished Objects (do you see what I did there? *laughs*) I have 2 to share today, both of which were submitted to Nerd Wars but both also happened to be projects I wanted to make anyway ;)

First up, my Impala Treads fingerless gloves (Impala is my team on Nerd Wars):



And a better picture of the colour, plus a close up of the pattern:



Pattern: Treads
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Fez, kindly sent to me by Laura
Modifications: Made them longer to make the most of the gorgeous yarn!
Other: I love these! They're so warm and cosy, and had some interesting pattern details that I really enjoyed *smiles*


And project 2, my Demonic Omen Hat (name is again a Nerd Wars reference!):




Pattern: Hurricane Hat
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted left over from making boyfriend's hat
Modifications: Longer brim and shorter patterned section (mainly because I got the measurements the wrong way round *laughs*)
Other: Love this yarn, so squishy and soft!


It's Friday, you know what to do by now... Visit Tami's, Natural Suburbia and Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Have a great weekend  

Blog Hub Swap - Day 2 plus Some Yarn Dyeing

Day 2 of the Blog Hub Swap (you can find day one here) brought a new parcel to open. But first, I thought I would take a picture of the wonderful brightly coloured pile of presents:

Doesn't it look festive?! Tucked in there is also a white envelope with strict instructions not to open it until my birthday next weekend. Intriguing *laughs*

So, what did day 2 bring?

An absolutely gorgeous notebook, accompanied by some pink pens and some utterly cute mini-highlighters *grins* The message accompanying this said "because I know you love stationery as much as I do!" Yep, Tink is right there, I do love stationery *grins* I have a weakness for notebooks especially ;)

By the way, if you want to see what I sent to my swap recipient, she's blogging about it over here at Tanya's Blog.

In other news, my mum and brother came to visit me at the weekend. My brother requested that I make him another pair of socks, because the ones I gave him for Christmas were so good. Well, how could I refuse?! I grabbed the yarn that I had used before, which isn't the most attractive to begin with:

Mum and brother were quite keen to try out some yarn dyeing, so I grabbed some Kool Aid and off we went *laughs* It was lots of fun, especially as they'd never tried anything like it before. And now we have a much nicer looking yarn:

*grins*

Blog Hub Swap - Day 1

I know I don't ever post twice in one day, but after posting my WIP Wednesday post, I had something else to share...

A little while ago I joined the Blog Hub swap 2012 (the Blog Hub is a fab group on Ravelry for bloggers). This morning I had to pop to the post office to pick something up, and lo and behold, it was my swap parcel *grins*

I opened up the package to find a postcard telling me who my presents were from, Tink of Master of a Thousand Things *grins a lot* I was really excited by this, I've mentioned before that Tink is my evil twin/alter ego, so I'm very impatient to find out what she picked out for me.

The theme of the swap is that you send 7 individually wrapped presents, which get opened one per day and generate a week's worth of blog posts. According to my postcard, I am to open the packages in a specific order.

So, today I opened package one...

Three funky dishcloths *grins* The message inside the present said that Tink knows I hate knitting with 100% cotton, and she'd noticed me mention to someone on twitter that I had no handknit dischcloths of my own, so she decided to make me some. Very clever stalking ;)

Even better, the colours are awesome - a purple one (her favourite colour), a fabulous green crocheted basketweave one, and an orange one (my favourite colour). And the orange one even has an "N" on it *smiles*

Excellent day one Tink, thanks! I can't wait to see what I get tomorrow :)

Lucky Me :)

Last night I got home (shivering, man it was cold!) to find a parcel waiting for me. A swap package had arrived, and you know how I enjoy swaps!

This swap was based on the theme "head, shoulders, fingers, toes" and the aim was to make something for your recipient from stash yarn in one of the theme categories and include a warming soup recipe. I sent my swappee the cowl made from Manos Silk Blend yarn that featured in a previous WIP Wednesday post (I forgot to get a proper photo of it before I sent it off though, d'oh!)

The person sending to me (not the same person I sent to) sent me all sorts of wonderful things.

The postcard indicated that the lovely Karen who sent me the parcel is from New Zealand. And the white envelope at the top of the picture contained this lovely desk calendar (that is making me want to go to NZ right now!)

The purple parcel contained my swap gift, from the shoulders category... A beautiful scarf:

Made with New Zealand yarn, in one of my favourite colours *smiles* I tried to get a good picture of me wearing it (which I am doing right now!) but the colour is much truer in the picture above.

But the sweetest thing in my parcel is the gold package and a second white envelope. Karen noted that she'd seen from my profile my birthday is in a couple of weeks, so she sent me a special extra parcel as a birthday gift. How lovely is that?!

Of course I now have the agonising wait until I open it (if I manage to wait of course *laughs*)

ps, there's still time to enter my giveaway ;)

Sock Monkey Swap

A little while ago I posted a picture of the sock monkey I had made for a swap...

Well, I got my parcel in return *grins*

I got a whole lot of monkey themed goodies; a monkey pad, bookmark, fabric, apron, facemask... Plus 2 skeins of Lang Jawoll yarn in black and brown and a fold up shopping bag in a lovely bronze colour (my mum swears by these little bags). And, of course, the awesome sock monkey (oh, also, not pictured is a cute little "grow your own monkey" thing that you put in water and it gets bigger - not pictured because I got excited and put it in water before taking the photos *laughs*)

One of the things I like most is the apron. I made boyfriend an awesome batman apron for Christmas last year and he wears it all the time. But I never got round to making one for myself. Well, now I have a handmade apron of my own, and it has monkeys on it ;) And I got extra fabric, so I can make something else for myself too. I'm thinking a chef hat *grins*

But the coolest thing in the swap was the monkey:

Yes, he is a Malcolm Reynolds Monkey (from Firefly/Serenity, if you don't know it - and if not, why not?!)

Check out the holster, with a ray gun inside. It even has a button closure. So clever. The embroidery on his chest says "I aim to misbehave", the fabulous quote from the film Serenity, and he has a pendant with the ship's logo on it.

And because I think he is so very cool, check out the back for a better view of his brown coat with a hole for his tail, and he has hair...

I love how much work my swap partner put into this *grins*

Woe is Me

I am sad to say that I am feeling very feeble :(

I actually only have a cold, but for some reason I become utterly pathetic when I have minor illnesses (such as colds)

As a result, I am unfortunately incapable of coming up with anything fantastically creative or even particularly interesting to post about *laughs*

So I shall leave you with a picture of a sock monkey that I have created for a swap on Ravelry. For anyone interested in joining swaps (which are lots of fun, as I posted about here and here), the best plan is to join a swap group, even if you've missed the deadlines for the latest one. That way, you'll have notice of any new ones that pop up.

I'm a member of a couple of groups, A Swap in Time which does seasonally related swaps along with a few others throughout the year, and The Odd Ducks, a group for swaps that don't really fit anywhere else (which is where the sock monkey swap came from).

So here's the monkey I made, which will have a whole load of other goodies packaged with it and sent off to America...

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to whimper and sneeze a lot ;)

Magic Balls

I think I mentioned a little while ago that I'd taken part in a swap through Ravelry, and that I'd enjoyed it enough to sign up to another one... Well, I received my parcel from my swap partner yesterday *grins*

This was a "magic ball" swap, where you wind the yarn with little presents tucked inside for your swapee to discover as they unravel it. Such a fun idea :) I've parceled up the package to send to my recipient, and was very excited that mine arrived already.

This is what greeted me as I opened the package, with a lovely note from Rachel in Ohio, thanks Rachel :)

2 balls to unwind *grins*

I love the colours she chose, very me wouldn't you say?! In with the note was the label for the yarn, from etsy, along with a little stitch marker. Apparently, when she ordered, Rachel told the seller I liked orange, and this little stitch marker got made especially for me.

So, being the impatient person that I am, I had to get unwinding right away ;) I roped boyfriend into helping with the first ball, and rewarded him with dinner before I got to the second one *laughs* Lots of cool presents appeared as I was unwinding, but to save you a photo montage of the entire process, here's the final selection of goodies:

How lucky am I?! I got:

• A cute red notions bag
• Bag of buttons
• 2 bags of gummy butterflies
• 2 fabric quarters
• Package of various jewellery findings (excellent, I needed more of these!)
• A vial of pretty orange beads
• Incredible neon stripy socks
• 2 strings of beautiful beads

I love everything Rachel chose, in fact, I am wearing the socks to work (with a skirt, to fully show them off!) and can't wait to use the beads and findings to make something pretty. Here's a close up of one of the strings of beads (and the fabric), look how gorgeous they are:

Thank you Rachel, you really put together a cool package for me, and I'm excited to send mine off to its recipient - I hope she likes it.

Work In Progress Wednesday Number 9

Subtitled: I really should cast on something that isn't orange!

I haven't worked on my green top at all this week (well, 4 rows, but I don't think that counts). Sooner or later I'm going to have to admit defeat and give up on the damn thing!

Second Zauberball sock has been cast on and is now just past the cuff:

I've decided to call these my "sunset socks" thanks to Kathleen's comment on Friday about the finished one being "crazy-sunset-beautiful". That description really made me smile, so sunset socks they are *grins*

I've also been working on my blanket. Not sure what possessed me to knit a blanket in DK weight, in July! I think it'll be a small blanket *laughs*

There's one more colour to add, which is a very dark chocolate brown. I love the pattern, although I'm not following the dimensions of the blocks exactly, I'm just doing what feels right to me... As usual ;) I really like how the colours are working together so far, so I'm excited to make more progress *smiles*

Remember that swap I joined on ravelry, well, the market bag that my swap partner made for me is serving as an excellent blanket yarn repository ;)

It keeps it all together, and means that I can just about fit all the rest of my stash in the appropriate drawers *laughs*

For more wonderful Wednesday's, as ever, head over to Tami's.

Summertime Swap

I got home yesterday to find this intriguing parcel waiting for me:

Hmmm... As I hadn't ordered a teapot I was very curious *laughs* The label on top indicated that it had come from Germany, which gave me a bit of a clue. You see, I don't know anyone in Germany, but I had signed up to a Ravelry swap, with participants from across the world.

Open opening the package, my guess was proved correct!

You see, the parameters of the swap are:

• A skein of yarn
• Your favourite cake recipe
• A handmade item
• Various other goodies, on a Summertime theme.

My swap partner sent a fab parcel, with this amazing sock yarn. 

It's called DrachenWolle - check out the awesome dragon on the label (I didn't get it in shot, but the steam from the dragon's nostrils forms the shape of a sheep)!

The colours are so summery, they remind me of pansies... See:

So, very happy with the yarn choice, but that's not all that was in my package. I also had this lovely handmade market bag. It is actually bright red, but my camera doesn't pick that up properly. 

Plus, all these goodies:

Body gloss, lip balm, some sweet treats, a heart shaped stone, a necklace, a floating candle (in the shape of a flip flop!) and cute flip flop shaped stitch markers *grins* How cool. 

My swap sender was quick off the mark, deadline for posting out isn't for a good few weeks - I'd better get on with mailing mine out now!

I'm really loving the fun of shopping for a swap, and finding exciting parcels waiting for me at home, so I've signed up to another one *grins*