11 December 2005
Over the last three months I've been thoroughly spoiled. I've also been thoroughly slack in not posting about it.
... and now having had a couple of clues (and with the help of google, who sees all and knows all), I can fairly confidently guess that my secret pal is the lovely Madeline of Mad Knits (I hope - please tell me if I got it right), who, in a lovely coincidence, won some yarn as a result of a competition set by the pal I was spoiling, the incredibly talented Uknitty. Such a fabulously small world.
Anyway, on to the goods. A couple of months ago, the first package appeared and contained:
A copy of At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much, by Yarn Harlot Stephanie which I immediately read cover to cover, laughing, cringing, vowing to never do that, and reading bits out over the phone to people to try and normalise my newish found obsession.
A fabulous mix-cd called Music to Knit By containing lots of artists who I'd either heard of but not heard their stuff, or heard some of their stuff but not that paricular song, and more amazingly, there's not a single song in there I dislike. Fabulous stuff, and someting I've listened to lots in the intervening time.
A bar of lovely Lindt chocolate, which, unsurprisingly, didn't last long.
A pair of lovely scented candles (which are currently, along with some other non-scented candles, providing non-overhead light illumination following the death of my desk lamp).
Why I didn't take pictures of any of this at the time I can't actually say. Most unlike me. Anyway. All of the contents, although unphotographed, were and are very much appreciated.
But the fun didn't stop there... oh no... there was more...
A few weeks later, package number 2 arrived, all beautifully wrapped (like number 1 had been).
In it were:
Some handmade stitch markers (which were very photogenic)
and also very pushy, pushing themselves in front of the two balls of Artesano Alpaca Inca Cloud Yarn in beautiful deep purple and a box of cat tongue shaped belgian praline chocolates.
The alpaca yarn is so lovely that I had it resting on my bedside table for weeks so when I missed hitting the snooze button on the alarm every morning my fingers would find it and I'd not feel quite so grumpy when waking up.
Then yesterday morning, while still mostly asleep, I answered the door and was handed parcel number 3, and once I'd managed to get my eyes open and my hands to answer commands from my brain sufficiently, I opened the jiffy bag to find yet more beautifully wrapped parcels.
Then a little while later, when I'd woken up a bit more, I took a picture
... then woke up a little more yet, and managed to unwrap them, which revealed them to be:
A "Knit Bits" daily calendar, which will be fabulous for my desk at work.
A cute little japanese style pocket mirror and comb
A stick of Scottish Rock (which made me giggle and also feel a little nostalgic)
and a skein of Colinette Point Five yarn in colourway 90 - Venezia.
Now, I've looked at Point Five in various places, and it hasn't really grabbed me before... but let me tell you something - this stuff grabbed me, big style.
So much so that within minutes it had become transformed from a skein into a centre pull ball:
... and then a couple of hours later, it had become knitting:
From being someone who'd never knitted or thought seriously about knitting a shawl before, I found myself creating a shawl as I went along, without heed to pre-conceived wisdom or anything as pesky as a pattern.
I've since frogged it and am re-knitting it having developed a better pattern for it while I was knitting it, and am on the hunt for another skein (or perhaps two) to complete my masterpiece*.
So thank you Madeline for being such a fabulous pal, and putting up with me being such a blog-flake. I really appreciate the time you've taken to pick such appropriate and inspirational gifts for me over the last few months, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know you now I know who you are**.
* this may or may not be the actual case once it's done, but for now I'm calling it a masterpiece in the hope that positive reinforcement will work its magic.
** and obviously I'll be really embarrassed if I've got it all wrong.
Yep, you got it right! I'm so glad you enjoyed the parcels and especially the CD. Your photos are great!
Umm...I have a question, but ummm, it's a secret...
Once when I was, oh, about 12 years old, I used to do a bit of (very simple) knitting. It's all forgotten now but...
...I quite fancy starting again.
So - can I ask a suggestion on how to begin?
Madeline: Woo-hoo! My google-fu wins again :)
Tom: At the beginning, of course. A very good place to start :)
Meme Tag!
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... the online home and (not very) alter(ed)-ego of Ann McMeekin, a recently freelance Web Accessibility Consultant.
... passionate about many things, most of which will turn up on this site at some time or other.
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