A great big giant thanks to my
Hot Cocoa Swap partner
Kathy! My package came on Saturday and it's all wonderful. I had so much fun opening it all up. She spoiled me a lot! It was a great surprise on a cold, snowy, windy day.
Told you Kathy spoiled me! Look at all of the wonderful, thoughtful things she put in my package. Two different kinds of hot chocolate, two different kinds of marshmallows- all fancy and gourmet. A fun card and dice game to play with my kids, a hot cocoa pot holder and towel set with really cute stitch markers pinned to it. An entire package of dark Dove chocolates (I won't have to share them since no one else at my house likes dark chocolate- good thinking Kathy) Dove is one of my favorite chocolates, the only better ones seem to be hard to find in this country... There's also a great mug to drink my hot cocoa in, some knitting goodies, alpaca yarn, and my Winter Blah Buster Buddy- a really cute and cuddly hand knit cat.
Here's the cocoa/non-knitting stuff. Dark chocolates, peppermint hot cocoa, more hot cocoa, two kinds of gourmet marshmallows, card game, cocoa pot holder set (with the stitch markers) and a really cool mug. Kathy had a bit of a heart theme happening with the package- chocolates, marshmallows, and stitch markers. The mug is the perfect size, and the ribbed design at the bottom reminds me of knitting, the ribbing at the cuffs of a sweater or a sock. I tried the peppermint cocoa yesterday- yum! I'm drinking the other kind (the fancy kind where you melt little chocolate shavings in warm milk) right now in my new mug with vanilla marshmallows in it. I was nice and shared my heart marshmallows with my kids. Between my leaving them out while I made a trip to the bathroom and the three hungry monsters, they're all gone! But they sure were good.
The knitting stuff. The rather sneaky and quite thoughtful Kathy read on my blog about my disappearing then reappearing broken knitting needle gauge. Now I have a new one! The little sock point protectors are so cute and no knitter can ever have too many tape measures. I can never seem to find one when I need one! Look at that yummy yarn. Baby Alpaca DK, two skeins in a really great purple. It's so soft, and once again being sneaky Kathy figured out that I have a love affair with alpaca. Now to decide what to knit with it. A nice pair of gloves for myself maybe, a hat, who knows? Right now I'm just going to squeeze it and love it.
Here's my Blah Buster Buddy. Isn't she sweet? I love the soft tweedy yarn she's made of and she has a great embroidered face. Plus she came wearing a cool tag that looks like knitting on one side and says it's knitted by Kathy for me on the other side. She's hanging out with the new mug and some yummy cocoa. I think she wants a cup of cocoa, but chocolate isn't good for kitties, is it? I'll find her a nice bowl of milk. Oh, Kathy left it up to me to decide if she was a boy or a girl and what her name is. I guess she was shy and didn't want to tell Kathy. Well, she told me that she's a girl and that she likes to be called Purl. You can tell she was made by a knitter for a knitter. My daughter says she should be called Rose, so she has a middle name too. Purl Rose the girl kitty. I think she'll be happy at my house because it's very kitty friendly. So far she is a little bit shy, I hope Chloe and Mushu don't teach her their naughty tricks! Maybe I'll take her to work with me tonight since Lesley has given us all a little bit of homework to do with our buddies.
Kathy even tucked a reciped for cocoa pancakes in the note she wrote me. On a cool knitting themed note card, of course. Even the box had a knitting stamp decorating it. Everything came wrapped in tissue paper and was ties with all kinds of cool ribbons and ric-rac, very cheery and fun. I have to thank Kathy bunches for sending me such a nice, thoughtful swap package. It was far above and beyond the "requirements" of the swap. Everything inside is wonderful and I love it all. I hope everyone else was lucky enough to get a partner as great as she was.
Thank you Kathy!!!
Those would be my feet in the socks that Dawne knit for me in a really nice color of Lorna's Laces. How can you go wrong with Lorna's laces?
Here's part of the whole out of order photo thing. My Knight Bus socks are finished, been working on them forever. They're soft, squishy and warm.
OK, here's the picture I wanted to be first. The entire contents of my swap package from Dawne. Have I mentioned how awesome she is???
Broken down a bit so it would be easier to see, here is half-ish of the package. A box of many teas in cool little colorful pyramids (yum), some Burt's Bees hand salve which she even went so far as to consult with the people in the shop it came from to make sure I wouldn't break out (no rash- yay) She sent gifts for my kids, Hersheys Kisses, which sadly did not live long enough to be photographed, and a cool Canada Rocks puzzle for each of them. Plus the book A Field Guide to Knitting, some really cute point protectors that look like a hat and a glove, a cute little sheep button, a set of four Harry Potter bookmarks- one from each house, and chocolate. That's not even all...
The next half of my treats. Two different sock knitting patterns, a really cute sheep tape measure- the black one even! Some Tussah Silk for spinning, some really awesome roving from Spunky Electric, gorgeous sock yarn from Sock Pixie ( I can't wait to get it on my needles) Last but not least my very own hand knit socks! Look at the little label she made for them...plus she sent along the rest of the yarn in case I should need it. Even the note card she wrote on is beautiful!
My awesome socks- which I wore on Saturday of course!
