A little brightness to cheer things up a bit

So the previous post was lovely muted greens, greys and blues. Well, how about this to brighten things up a little ...

Amazingly gloriously purple isn't it? This fabulous creation is from the International Scarf Exchange, from my lovely secret pal Rhonda.

But I'm getting ahead of myself ...

My parcel arrived earlier in the week, but due to the fact that the Royal Mail delivers to my street at 1045am (I mean, who is in then?) it veered off before it got through my door and went to stay with some other parcels in the Sorting Office. Unfortunately the sorting office is not in a nice part of town, so I had to wait until it was either light (unlikely at this time of year) or husband was available for driving duties before i could go and get it. but when I did ...


ooh, the dilemma. It was wrapped in christmas paper, and said happy holidays - should I wait until December 25 to open it?

nah! of course not! And look at the many reasons why I should have ripped open the packaging

... gosh, I am lucky aren't I? A loverly skein of Manos cotton yarn in the brightest of all reds, some delicious sounding herbal teas (to calm me down when I get too excited about my knitting - yes, it does happen), and look, look, some Bertie Botts every flavour beans - ISE5 pal you are marvellous. I still haven't found these in the UK, so I was so pleased (yes, I know, small things amuse small minds - hee!) - these will be saved until I spend time with my little (well, 25) brother, and then I think a game of jelly bean russian roulette might be in order ... earthworm flavour anyone???

You can't really see (unbelievably it was too sunny for photos. Mind you, it was also below freezing) but I also got a gorgeous little bird stitch marker, which is now helpfully marking the middle of my Kiri shawl, and a very cute ceramic sheep.


Oh, and I mustn't forget this lucky little chap

But now to the scarf, and what a scarf it is. It is in a gorgeous soft silky yarn, which drapes amazingly, and I absolutely love the viney lace pattern. In fact, I think lace patterns in thicker yarns are fast becoming my favourite thing, so Rhonda, you must be a mind reader. I could effuse about this beautiful object all day, but I have knitting to do, so I will go and wrap myself in it and leave you with a gratuitous scarf shot. enjoy!

ISE5 news!

So I got an email a little while ago from my ISE5 pal, saying that she might post my scarf out in the next couple of weeks. Now, is it just me or is that the most exciting news you have ever heard? No? just me then.

It got me thinking about sending my pal's scarf soon too, once I have finished blocking it (turned out that half of the scarf is longer than the other half if you know what I mean - I knitted until I had 50g left and then started from the other end, but I guess there must have been less/more than 50g in the skein. Sigh. Still, it shouldn't be toooo noticeable, unless my pal reads this blog!)

This is not a picture of the scarf I hasten to add. I would not be that stingy! This is the sample I knitted when panicking about the disasters that could happen when blocking a silk/wool yarn in a hard water area. But it all turned out ok, as is the real thing.

It'll be in the post today I think. Hooray!

International Scarf Exchange 5

Roll up, roll up for the 5th International Scarf Exchange. I (in my infinite wisdom and manic enthusiasm) have signed up to be a co-hostess on this exchange, and so I thoroughly encourage anyone reading this blog to sign up asap.

The basic idea is that you are allocated a swap partner, and knit, crochet or weave them a scarf. Someone else will return the favour for you. It is (as you might have guessed) an international swap, so you may find yourself swapping with someone on the other side of the world.

You have until September 19th, 2007 - 8:00pm central standard time (Canada) to complete the following questionnaire and email it to isehostesses @ gmail . com (eliminate the spaces) with Sign me up in the subject line. There are only 200 places, so you'd better be quick!

Head over to the ISE5 blog for more information

Questionnaire

1. Name:
2. Email (for pal):
3. Email (for hostess):
4. Blog:
5. Mailing address:
6. Colours (like):
7. Colours (no like):
8. Fibres (like):
9. Fibres (no like):
10. Allergies:
11. Look [(like) ie: lace, geometric, colourful...]
12. Look [(no like) ie: asymmetrical, granny squares, too many different colours together...]
13. Length:
14. Holiday Celebrated:
15. Do you want a pal with a blog?
16. Anything you would like your pal to know about you that they can't find out from your blog?
17. Would you like to angel someone who doesn’t get their scarf?