Scavenger Hunt Swap arrives!

When I saw a Priority Mail box perched on my mailbox, I knew I was in for a treat. I opened the box and it was full of brightly wrapped and tagged packages.

Here are the scavenger hunt categories:

• Local: Texana Coffee: "A toasted pecan flavor with a hint of smooth vanilla caramel". The flavor sounds perfect. The beans smell really good.
  
• Round: Stitch markers. Frieda says "as suggested in Cat Bordhi's book". Since I intend to get her new book, these will be great for trying out her techniques.
  
• Hard: Darning needle case. It's a beautiful hardwood case on a key ring. My darning needles currently live in a cracked plastic pill bottle.
  
• Green: Frieda-made project bag. This is really nicely done and definitely a step up from my quicky bags. Pretty print, too.
  
• T: Tasty treats. Oh, yeah. Ghiradelli Squares in 60% cacao dark chocolate with caramel inside. This is the San Francisco treat, not Rice-a-Roni.
  
• Funny: Fabric with knitting chickens. This is a riot. I love whimsical fabrics, especially knitting-related ones. I'd not seen this before. I'm going to scan one of the chickens and make it into an icon, probably for Flickr. Frieda also sent a coordinating blue/gray fabric. You know it's going to be another project bag.
  
• Yummy yarn: Yarn Pirate "Solstice" sock yarn. Oooh, it's biffle. Isn't that what Lime&Violet call Bluefaced Leicester? I've been wanting to try it. The colorway is great: dark blue to denim-y blues to lavender.
  
• Extra: KnitPicks "Bare" for dyeing: There were only seven categories. I got this because Frieda though I'd like to dye it. I just dyed my last skein of Bare last week and expected it to be a while before I could even think about getting any more.
  

Thanks, Frieda, for a lovely treat. Thanks, Carly, for coordinating such a fun swap. I'm determined to play in the next one, too

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some coffee to brew.

Sock Knitter's Tote

day111
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

Several people asked me how I make these, so I wrote up some instructions.


Note: Making these can be addictive. I designed the bag to be reversible. If you've got a fabric stash, you can spend many happy hours picking pairs of fabrics to use for the bag.

Am I Unreasonable?

Here's the story: An online yarn shop gets an order for two skeins of sock yarn (two skeins required for two socks of this kind of yarn). When they pull the skeins out to ship them, they see that the skeins and from different dye lots. If you were the person in charge of this particular task would you:
-email the customer and ask if they wanted not-matching dye lots? -or-
-send the yarn out with a little note saying that if the customer didn't like the match, they could send the yarn back and they'd send skeins that matched. Eventually. After they reordered it.

Am I unreasonable to expect the first option? You know I'm whining about this because I got the second option. I'm sending the yarn back and requesting a refund. I don't know what their policy is on refunds but I don't care because they screwed it up. The yarn was a semi-solid color, so the difference between the skeins was noticeable. And it was for a swap! I wasn't going to disappoint a swap pal with something that can be controlled.

The good thing that came out of this was I got some totally different sock yarn from a totally different online shop. There's no dye lot problem because the skein's got plenty for two socks. I had to order some for my pal and some for me both. I HAD to order two. There was a minimum order requirement. And I wasn't sure which colorway would be best for her, I had to have two to compare. And it was on sale. And I've not seen this kind in any of the three LYS within 20 minutes of here. See, I'm very reasonable.

::several days later::The shipping was refunded both ways along with the cost of the yarn. I still think it could've all been avoided with a simple email, but oh well.

Scavenger Hunt, unwrapped

Since Karrie, my downstream partner in this swap has her stuff, here's what I picked:

• Something round: Lindor truffles
  
• Something local: A sock project bag I made myself
  
• Something green: A chocolate frog, wrapped in green foil
  
• Something smooshy: The pick-your-own category. Dream in Color Smooshy yarn
  
• Something hard: Double-pointed knitting needles
  
• Something related to the letter T: It's a tape measure shaped like a sheep*. You pull the sheep's tail to get the tape to come out.
  
• Something funny: You want fries with that? stitch markers (also home made).
  

*Note to the person who sent me a tape measure just like this one. This is a totally different tape measure. I liked mine so much that when I saw this in a LYS, I had to get it for this swap.

What I've been up to lately

I dyed three skeins of yarn today. Two of them are for swaps and one's reserved for the Sock Knitter's Pentathalon. Well, it'll be the first pair anyway. It's a wool/silk blend. It's mostly a denim-y blue with little bits of a couple of other colors.

I went to Only Ewe on Sunday. They had a big sale, but I was very good. I only got yarn for a swap, plus yarn to make another pair of felted clogs. I have a pair that never shrank down enough that I've been wearing anyway. There are many holes in them.

I've got two competition/knit along type things. The Pentathalon starts March 1. I signed up for Sock Wars III, but that doesn't happen until May. My plan is to knit something with the extra skein of TOFUtsies I've got around here somewhere. It'd be nice to get a feel for one's weaponry before the War begins.

I told myself I wouldn't sign up for any more swaps for awhile, so why am I working on FIVE of them?:
Sock Knittin #2 (Swap-bot): Theme is embellished socks. Almost ready to send.
St Patrick's Day Sock Yarn Swap (Swap-bot): Almost ready to send.
Knitter's Holiday/Spring (Ravelry): I need to get to work on this one.
Sock Knittin #3 (Swap-bot): Theme is cabeled socks. No partner yet, but it's nearly ready to go.
April Showers Sock Yarn Swap (Swap-bot): No partner yet, but progress has been made.

I have managed to work some knitting in. I'm making Bayerishche socks. The yarn's more of a minty color than what shows in this pathethic photograph. The pattern would show up better in a plain yarn rather than this Koigu, but there's no way I'm going to frog it. The pattern's not difficult, just tricky to get started.

Scavenger Hunt

scavwrap
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I mailed the scavenger hunt package yesterday. I didn't want to give anything away, so the unwrapped version of this will have to remain, ummm, under wraps. Five of the seven things are fiber-related. I made two things. I hope my partner enjoys them all. It was fun coming up with them.

Can't Stop the Signal

If the words
Firefly: Season 2 make your heart skip a beat, click here immediately.

What does Firefly have to do with knitting? To me, about four dozen Jayne hats and possibly Wash's sweater.