I gots a package!!!!!

I love swaps… they are awesome ways to meet new people and the Malabrigo swap by far has to be my favorite one…. everyone is so nice and we all spoil each other so well!! This package was made lovingly by one of the best stalkers of all time, Jacqui722on Ravelry.

I got so much awesome stuff!!! I got 4, yes FOUR skeins of aquarella minas which is gorgeous and chunky and so lovely! I have no clue what to make with it at the moment but for now I’m content staring and petting it! Edible wise, I got lindor truffles (Yum!!! I love those things! So rich, so creamy, so good), pop rocks (Another fun treat I love… I’m so going to share with my neices since they’ve never experienced the crackling goodness!), tea in those to go water bottle packets which is awesome because those are all I take with me to work and I’ve never seen this kind and they look so good! Bookwise I got a hilarious and lovely book by the Yarn Harlot! I love this book, just glancing at it so far I’ve already giggled quite a few times! There is a really cool circle notebook, Kookaburra Woolwash (which I’ve always wanted to try!!), awesome soap that smells so good (It is Kiss my Face olive and honey soap), a lovely smelling cucumber melon candle (which is now lit in my room XD), some Burt’s Bees Hand Salve (which I so needed because I’ve been spinning silk lately and my hands are so dry (because I wash my hands all the freaking time (nursing habit)) and the fibers stick…I used some and it totally helped!!!) Lastly, but definitely not leastly are my needles. (Aside: is leastly a word?) I got a set of 16 inch 10.5 circular needles from knitpicks!!!! I love their needles and I have only like one other set of 16 inch needles so these will definitely be used in the next couple of weeks!!! Thanks so much! And finally, she made me a home made set of knitting needles that are about a size 8 she said. They have a pretty polymer clay top that is blue with sparkles! They are sooooooo pretty and thoughtful and I’m definitely going to use them and add them to my new pretty knitting needle collection! Thank you so much for the awesome package!!!  

Now for the photos….first the whole package:

Just the yarn:

Everything but the yarn (I took this because in the other picture you can’t see my uber awesome new homemade knitting needles!):

Irony…

I made a post how I never win things and then one day I win something and within a week I win a blog contest. How ironic! I won a neat contest over at FineMartialFiber’s blog…Since I came from Ravelry though I had an option of getting yarn for a prize and she sent me some gorgeous yarn that my cat loves as much as I do! Thanks so much!!! Oogle at the goodness:

Malabrigo Swap part one…

This is my package I got from the last swap!!! I totally never posted the pictures and didn’t even post for three months! How not cool is that! It was lovingly given to me by IdaW from Ravelry…. and here is my original post about it:

Ok, so here’s what I got: two gorgeous things of malabrigo worsted one in Polygala (I’ve never seen this color ever and it is so perfect! It is a pinker purple and the variations in the skein are lovely and sigh so nice) and another in Purple mystery! (They go together so perfect and I love purple mystery! This purple mystery is a darker one than the ones I have a home…uber rich and so great next to the polygala!) I got bubble wrap! (Ok…so she used it to wrap and pack but still… I love bubble wrap and that in and of itself is great at relieving my stress right now XD). There is a magnetic notepad with and adorable sheep on it that I’m so going to use for planning my fiber things! This huge bag of cranberry black loose leaf tea that I’m so excited about! I love iced tea and love trying new types so this is great! It smells good too! There is a super cute mug that has a cool design like engraved on it. It feels really neat (I’m such a tactile person!) and lastly but not least, the most gorgeous knitting needles I own and love! They are in a lovely cotton case that is really cool because it has a little hanger on the back so until I get my knitting stuff completely moved in and organized in my room they are hanging up in my bedroom on my wall so I can show them off and gaze at them and then when I have time to knit in about a week, I’m so busting out a project to use them! They are 10.00mm and a lovely dark wood (I don’t know wood names but they are gorgeous). They have owls carved in the top which is like, the coolest thing ever! The owls are about an inch tall and they have such great details in the feathers, the claws, the face, etc. Truley an amazing piece of artistry! What a great one of a kind pair of knitting needles!! Plus, they are a great size for me… So pretty!

Ida, Thank you so much for the lovely present that came at the best time! I really needed something to get my mind off of my test for a while!

My I am a wordy gal! And now the long awaited pictures:

And a close up of the knitting needles:

Ida, thanks again so much!! By the way, I’ve been using the needles to make a blanket out of bulky scraps! It is so much fun!!

Its a good bad day…

Today was the last day of my three days off before the schedule from hell… which is why it was a bad day. I’m quite depressed that for the next few days, my life will be sucked away by work…Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday I have 12 hour shifts and lately none of us have been leaving till about 9:00 in the morning making it 14 hour shifts… so sad. But lets not dwell on this… instead, let us bask in lovely pictures that I promised I’d put up… I think I’ll split this post as well to make it not as long.

Here are some batts I made… now, I’m quite proud of myself for actually making these and I’ve actually spun up the crazy weird one this morning really fast…it came out cool! It is screaming to be a scarf…but I don’t have pictures of the yarn since it is drying right now so the colors are off…

This first one was an accident…that ended up pretty. I passed it through the drum carders 4 times in the end. The first pass I loved but I thought I should blend it more….then the second pass I didn’t like as much so I figured, heh lets blend some more! The third pass was a lovely silvery blue mass but the batts weren’t quite the same shade so the fourth pass blended them all together to get equal colors… The have silk, bamboo, wool (merino and mystery, mainly merino), glitz, shimmery nylon stuff, alpaca, llama, tencel… Some was hand dyed by me, others commercial dyed, others were handdyed from others…. I can’t wait to spin it. It is 4.5 oz of shimmery goodness…the pictures really don’t show the colors well, but what do you expect from a non picture taker like me?

 

The next is an eclectic 4.25 oz lovely crazy batt… I just picked random bits of junk from my stash…probably the same ingredients as the one above but didn’t pay attention to colors nearly as much…it was either going to be a disaster or lovely. As of this evening I decided it is lovely. On my wheel, I spun 130 yards of a single thick and thin that is sparkly, shimmery fun and the colors are just woah… so out there! I love it!

 

This one is a baby batt from the leftovers of that carding session…and look, I can spin on a spindle still! I split the baby batt into thirds and partnered it with some complementary scraps from Funky Carolina I got off etsy… (I totally thought I forgot how… ignore the randomness of the yarn on the spindle, I ended up making it two ply and it is an even worsted that is soft fluffy and twisted evenly…although I do need to spin the rest of it…)

                               

Lastly is this colorful beast… it was another experiment but this one is actually getting mailed to someone else (sending as a part of the swap)… It is chock full of merino, alpaca, wool (of the mystery variety), multiple colors of glitz (hehe), that shimmery nylon stuff, tencel, silk, bamboo… And once again it is a mixture of hand dyed by me and other artists and some commercial dyed stuff… it is quite interesting and at 3 oz, it should be a nice addition to the package!

 

Haha! I’ve officially made a post with pictures related to knitting so yeah!