Holy Shit.

I decided to walk down to the apartment office while Mosterette was napping to get some card thingy for our new washers and dryers in the community laundry room. I walked in and the awesome lady behind the desk asked me if I had a package. (apparently, between far-away relatives and obscene amounts of interwebs ordering, I get a lot of packages.) I said I didn't think I had a package, and she said, " (insert last my last name here), right?" "Uh, yeah..." "I'm pretty sure there's a box for you back here..." She wanders into the package closet, and comes out with a box for me! It's too small to be the box that my grandma sent me (full of YARN! More on that at another date, though), so it MUST be the box from my Favorite Color Swap pal! SQUEE! I rushed back to the apartment, and tried to calm my nerves enough to take a picture before tearing in to everything: The card was super cute, and had a great little message from Tami inside: After reading the card, I carefully took out the tissue paper and folded it up (yes, I'm one of those people. I save tissue paper and re-use it.), and this is what I saw: I immediately went for the roving, pulled it out, and fondled it a bit before moving on to the TON of other goodies. It's such awesome roving! I need to spin more... Oh, and I don't now if you guys can tell, but all the goodies were wrapped in this great stitched paper. I tried really hard to save it, but then I got all crazy and paper was a-flyin' in all directions. There was so much goodness in that box! It really made me smile. Here's the first round of goodies: From the bottom left: A bath puff, flower pen, reed diffuser (I've been lusting after one of these FOREVER. How'd you know, Tami?!), orange bell pepper cutting board, note cards (WOOT!), photo frame, yummy orange popsicle scented lotion, bath salts (with bergamot! One of my favorite scents!), and a little felt watering can and maracas for the Monsterette. (Which, by the way, she TOTALLY loves. anyone who knows my kid knows she loves to make "music".) Are you overwhelmed yet? Because at this point, I was! Can you believe there's more? Again, from the bottom left: Awesome stitch markers, star-shaped post-its, Cadbury dairy Milk chocolate bar (my all-time favorite chocolate. EVER. Oddly, one of the bars she sent didn't make it to the photo shoot. Hmm.), The awesome roving, SWTC Bamboo yarn (I've been wanting to try this stuff forever!), Panda Wool sock yarn (isn't is gorgeous?! I've been wanting to try this, too!), orange point protectors, and a Critter container that I've been lusting after for a while. The other thing that didn't make it into the photo (I was browsing though it while I ate my chocolate bar) was the Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave book. This ROCKS! This should definitely jump-start my sock knitting. I've been lusting after sock books for a while, but couldn't justify it, never knitting a pair of successful socks. Oh. My. God. Seriously, this was one awesome package. Tami, you totally rock! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Sock Knitting and Goodies

Now that the wedding shawl is done, I can finally start knitting what I want to knit! a few days ago, I cast on for the Aquaphobia socks with the rockin' yarn I got from Sarah at Perfect Day Yarns: I love this yarn! It's nice and soft and smooshy, and the colors are great. They work wonderfully in the pattern, too! The pattern itself is really nice. Not too hard, but definitely not boring. I picked it because I didn't want to do a plain stockinette sock, but didn't want something too complicated, either. I have a knitting plan, too, to avoid the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome (for my non-knitting readers, this is when you've knit one complete sock, and then lose interest before you have a pair). I split the skein into two even balls of yarn, and plan to knit the first one up to the heel, knit the second just past the heel, go back to the first and knit up to the toe, back to the second and complete the sock, and then knit the toe and finish the first sock. hopefully that'll help! Oh, I'm using the KnitPicks Harmony dpn's that I finally received, as well! I really like them, they're great to knit with. I've been taking extra care to make sure I don't break any- my big fear is stepping or sitting on one and it snapping. I picked up some roving while I was up in Durango: A little out of my color comfort zone, but for some reason, I really like the colors. something about the smoky, cloudy greys and the bright, citrusy green... The roving is a 100% new Merino pencil roving, made by Zitron. Soft and smooth, I'm excited to spin this up! Mostly, I love it because technically roving isn't yarn yet, so it doesn't break the yarn diet. Woo! I also got some pretty sock yarn for my FCS3 pal, but no pictures...Maybe a sneak peak later.

Hubbster Thinks I'm Nuts

I was printing off some magnets of the Monsterette for my sister today, and had some extra room on the sheet. I decided to make some fibery love magnets for myself! Here's what I got: They make me giggle, and I love them! Especially that llama. He looks so lovable. Sheep you tomorrow!

Valentine's Goodies

The Hubbster has always gotten me awesome gifts. I know the people at the LYS swoon over him, simply because he buys be knitting goodies. Good ones, too! He's very educated, and even can buy me yarn for a specific project. He'll even look through my ravelry queue! This Valentine's Day was no exception, and he wonderfully picked up on my new obsession of spinning. Look at this: This, my friends, is eight ounces of some super lush alpaca fiber. The color is jet black, and all natural. Ooooh, it is so frickin' soft. I want to wrap myself in it and roll around and drool. Awesome. I can hardly wait to spin it up! He also got me the new One Skein Wonders book, which is awesome. Lots of stuff in there that I want to make! It's a signed copy, too. How awesome is that?! My Hubbster rocks my face off. Isn't he great? More goodies are here, too, and I have a finished object to show off! Tomorrow...