And there's more...

You remember that delicious box of yarn that Vikki sent me for the UK Swap? Well apparently that wasn’t enough, because look what arrived in the post on Thursday:

– Yay for Debbie Stoller (to whom I’m eternally grateful for my 15 minutes of fame) and some oh-so-cute stitch markers – I keep picking up the blue ones and saying ‘SOooo pretty’ to myself, but then my eye is caught by the bunny ones and I’m distracted ’ SOooo cute’. Thank you again Vikki – and again, your timing was perfect – I was utterly flattened by hormones.

I’ve been making references to crocheting slugs, and people have been asking me – it’s for this (and for more inspiration see here). Anyway, here’s my contribution:

(Rosie – I’ll put them in the post… )

I really ought to stay in bed...

Yesterday was one of those days. I woke up at 4:30, feeling shattered, and couldn’t really get properly back to sleep again. Perfectly correct words in my head were transformed into garbage by the time the reached my lips or the whiteboard, I ended up leaving work later than I wanted, so had a mad dash to get home in time to put my bike away before going to get the children from the After School Club. So far, so run-of-the-mill, ordinary tedium and frustration. It only started getting seriously annoying once we got home from French Club. Firstly I realised that I’d left my book at the house where the French Club is held. This was a disaster! I was on page 513. I’d just learnt that he had proposed… (I’m reading Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley – a very strong contender for my favourite book of all time.) So I tried to phone M-G to check the book was there. Then I found my phone messages – first one for my father who had been staying, second one from our dentist’s receptionist to tell me that someone had phoned her saying that they’d found my purse. My immediate reaction was that that was ridiculous, I hadn’t lost my purse. But then I looked for it, and it wasn’t there, and it wasn’t there either, or there… So I phoned the number I’d been given, and John went out after dinner and picked it up for me, fully intact, nothing missing, and it’s clear from our account that no cards have been misused. It must have fallen out of my bicycle pannier on the way to work – and Mr C must have found it within minutes. Hurrah for honest people! (I believe that most people are honest, it’s just that we feel the effects of the dishonest ones more keenly.)

So with all that palaver I didn’t set off in time to get to the KTog 5th birthday party as it started, which had been my plan. However I did make it there and I did crochet a slug

UK Swap parcel

It’s arrived! And with perfect timing – I will confess to having started to get just a little bit antsy, but in fact my upstream pal timed it perfectly – John and I are both feeling rotten this weekend – he’s migrainy, and I just feel rubbish – if I could describe my symptoms I’d feel a bit better – mostly I feel utterly wiped out, but I feel like that all day – and I’m on the iron tablets now – shouldn’t I be beginning to bounce?

So what better time to have the postman arrive with a box of goodies just for me?! (And being Saturday I haven’t had that tedious getting home from work and finding a card and having to wait until I can get to the depot thing, which is exciting, but rather frustrating too – extra points for timing pal!)

I’ll stop the wittering and get to the good bit:

That’s a bit crowded isn’t it – have a closer look and drool with me:

– two balls of the most wonderfully soft Italian yarn – Tonalita from Trendsetter Yarns – the colours are wonderful – for a miracle the pic is fairly true.

– lovely lovely fibre for spinning from fibrespace – absolutely my colours, thank you. And some silk hankies – I’ve had one play with silk hankies, and am so pleased to have the chance to have another go – they’ll take a lot more drafting than I dared last time!

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Wild Cherry (pretty, pretty!) and a lovely knitting card with a very sweet message.

A butterfly notepad (“Mummy, I never had a butterfly notepad – you’re soooo lucky” – Ruth), a smelly soap – bergamot and geranium – the whole box smells gorgeous – and the soap comes from Arran Aromatics – very appropriate for a knitter, and a black sparkly pouch with 5 bamboo 2.5mm dpns – I keep taking them out and stroking them – it’s good for them, right?

Two skeins of semisolid 100% cashmere in red from Wild Fire Fibres – only problem is that I’ve run out of words on everything else to say just how wonderful this is – it’s utterly pettable, and my only problem is going to be deciding what to make that will do it justice.

So who is it all from – we..ell – she hasn’t revealed herself, but based on the fact that the handwriting on the mailing box matches the writing on the cashmere labels (I spent ages checking ‘E’s and ‘S’s and ‘M’s etc… ), two of the items come from Wild Fire Fibres, and I know that the person who runs that is a UK Swapper, AND the note came on a Knitterella card – and I know that the person I’m thinking of received a packet of Knitterella cards in her UK Swap parcel, my guess is that it’s… drumroll… Vikki (and how embarrassed am I going to be if I’m wrong!) Thank you so much – it’s a truly perfect parcel and I love it. (Oh, and as if that wasn’t enough, apparently there’s more to come – I am SPOILT ROTTEN! )

PINK cakes

Yesterday I suggested to Ruth that we should make a cheesecake (anyone who knows me from the Ravelry Games forum will not be surprised – I’ve demonstrated something of an obsession there… ). She agreed, provided it could have pink icing. When I explained that cheesecakes don’t have icing she was extremely unimpressed. Since “extremely unimpressed” is something of a forte with Ruth, and the whole point had been to find something to do together, I conceded and we made fairy cakes with pink icing. Except that for once I had a brainwave, and instead of using food colouring I found some berries in the freezer, defrosted a handful and used those instead. The resulting icing was PINK (and delicious)

Oh, and I have an FO to report – I finally made myself a felted bag with SWTC Karaoke (left over from my Sunrise Circle Jacket):

The flowers are made with merino from Texere that I spun up myself.

I’ve been enamoured of Language Log for a while, but this post from today has to be one of my favourites: