Secret pal Revealed

I received this delightful package in the mail yesterday. It's a tea cozy, and what a perfect time of year - I can't wait to make a pot of tea, and I can never find a cozy; a dolphin bracelet; sample teas; and a postcard. My wonderful secret pal is Chrissie from Singapore. Her blog can be found here . I can't wait to read her blog, and get to know HER as well as she's gotten to know ME. Thanks so much, Chrissie!

Pals, Shawls, and Other Stuff

My secret pal 9 gift-ee, Brooke received her official secret pal reveal card, and now knows exactly who I am! I've had a great time with her, and hope she feels the same.

She was also the inspiration for my latest obsession with knitting shawls (Yes, I have a great many momentary obsessions. Doesn't everyone?). The shawl that she knit for her mother is just beautiful, and can be seen here . It's the Stora Damun from the book Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle. I want one. I really, really want one. We will ignore for the moment, shall we, that the technical requirements to create this shawl are far, far beyond my skill level. We will ignore the fact that I don't have the necessary yarn to create a shawl. Also ignore the other projects that I am still working on. Diligently. And to seemingly no effect. Those who have become familiar with my methods will realize where this is going. Uh-huh. Yup. You know it.

A Little Tech Info, and Knitting News, Too

I neglected to mention that the pictures in the previous post were taken with my new Canon Powershot SD600. Compared to the images from my cell phone, these pictures are fantastic. The color is true-to-life, and the clarity is much better. I'm very pleased. I don't need to email them to myself; I can just use the memory card, or the USB. I love this camera!

I'm STILL knitting away on the Muench Touch Me Cable Scarf, and the mohair bias scarf from my secret pal. Who emailed me that she is sending me a little knitted somethin' somethin' with her reveal. Hmmmmm. I wonder what it, and who she, could be?? I also happened to comment on my secret pal gift-ee's page, and that very, very smart girl picked up on the fact that I was her secret pal. It's a few days ahead of the reveal that's in the mail, but I figure that's okay. I've really enjoyed getting to know both, can't wait to find out who my secret pal gift-or is, and hope that I can remain friendly with them.

I know a lot of people are looking forward to Secret Pal 10. I'm not sure that I'm going to sign up to participate; I have a lot on my plate in the coming months. I think I'll just sign up as an angel. On the other hand, I do so enjoy the process of trying to figure out who my gift-or is, and finding that perfect thing for my gift-ee.

Show and Tell

This bag was made with Paton's wool in red & black. It was based on the booga bag pattern, but made wider. I have NO idea why it came out so short. The thickness of the felted wool is amazing. The bag? Not so amazing. How practical is that? Not!



This bag was also made with Paton's in True Blue & Real Teal. The colors are amazing. It's also based on the booga bag, and didn't turn out so freakish as the red and black one. I'm very happy with the way the handles twisted together, although they could have been longer.




This scarf was made in Dale's Svale in the lilac colorway. It took ten skeins. It took ten skeins because in my brilliance I decided that a scarf knit in the round was a brilliant idea. Okay, I won't be doing that again! That said, I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and the way the stitches seem to tilt on the bias. I hope the friend I made it for likes it. I didn't seam the ends together, I merely tied the fringe through a stitch on each side. Cool, huh?

Knitting Club

My local library has started a knitting club. Group. SnB (shhhh). Thing. They are offering two meetings per month; the first Saturday and the third Wednesday night. I attended the first meeting this past Saturday. It was great! Only five people came, but two were very experienced knitters, two were not so experienced knitters, and me, who I guess is not a very experienced knitter, either, but I can cast-on, knit, purl, and cast-off. The one woman couldn't cast-off, and the other woman couldn't purl. But it was neat helping them, and talking about knitting, yarn, knitting on the internet, and just chatting about nothing. There aren't any other knitting groups near-by, so I'm really hoping that this takes off. Keep your fingers crossed!

Happy New Year 2007!

Here's wishing everyone a very happy, healthy, prosperous 2007! Barring that, here's wishing everyone a not-too-miserable 2007. Slainte!