05.25.05

Holy Freakin’ Moly

Posted in Knitty Secret Pal, Yarn and Tools at 12:52 pm by Rachel

It was like Christmas morning at my house yesterday after I came home from work. I knew I would find my second Secret Pal package waiting for me, but I had no idea what I was in for. I’m still in utter shock. I mean, not only were the gifts outrageously generous, but it was like I’d gone and picked them all out myself! For a moment my mind got all kooky and I started thinking that perhaps my secret pal is myself in the future, sending gifts to the me of the past. Sounds like an interesting plot for a light science fiction story, doesn’t it? Anyway, my point is that the gifts were dead on. I think my secret pal is inside my head.

To start with, I opened the Fed Ex box and slid out…a bag. Like, a real bag. Not a plastic bag, or a paper bag, but a really nice black, zippered, handled bag that is so versatile that it could be used for anything (but guess what I’m going to use it for?).

I opened the bag and reached in. The first thing I touched was a HUGE skein of amazing, beautiful, subtly variegated blue/gray wool. From Italy. I am not making it up when I say I’ve really been wanting to work with yarn just like this for a while now.

Once I could finally tear my eyes and fingers away from the wool, I quickly became overwhelmed by the amazing array of goodies in the bag. First, a skein of eyelash yarn in blue and green. Super soft and fluffy. Seeing this right after the wool made me instantly think “kitty bed!” And what do you know? I pull out a copy of the pattern for a kitty bed. But there was also a pattern for the wonderful Booga Bag, which of course threw me into a fit of indecision. I think I’m going to go with the kitty bed this time, but I’m still wavering. The wool would work wonderfully with both patterns.

Know what else would work wonderfully with both patterns? The three sets of knitting needles my Secret Pal sent. Two sets of double-pointed (how did she know I really needed to increase my DPN collection?) and a set of circulars, all in bamboo — my favorite kind of needles! At this point I was truly beside myself.

But there’s more. A skein of Mission Falls 1824 cotton, which I adore (and am devastated that it’s discontinued). I immediately thought “baby hat.” Well, out of the bag comes the beautiful book Last Minute Knitted Gifts with a page bookmarked — a page with a pattern for a baby hat made with Mission Falls 1824 Cotton! Does anyone else find this eerie? (It goes without saying that there are many other fantastic patterns in that book, which has been on my wish list for a while.)

My readers must be thinking, there can’t be any more, can there? I mean, there just can’t possibly be any more.

Guess what folks, there’s more.

A set of darning needles, which will come in quite handy since the ones I have weren’t really meant for knitting projects.

Two chocolate bars from the same place as last time; I am salivating just typing about them.

A Dan Brown CD audio book — I have been dying to get an audio book to listen to while I knit! My mom has been doing this quite a bit recently and I have been thinking I need to follow her lead. My SP made that mighty easy!

I have been saving the best for last. I don’t know where my SP found such a perfect gift for me: RED SOX POINT PROTECTORS. Yes. Point protectors. Which I needed. But these are in the shape of red socks. As in, the World Champion Boston Red Sox. At this point I was completely delirious.

Secret Pal, thank you so, so much. You have no idea how much you absolutely made my week. All day today I’ve been thinking about your wonderful gifts and my fingers have just itched to get home to start playing with/eating/listening to my many new toys. I’m really floored by your generosity.

Here is one horribly crappy picture. I really need to take an individual picture of the point protectors, which must be seen by all and worshipped. Readers will also be seeing photos of these wonderful gifts being transformed into finished objects. (Oh, by the way SP, I’m just about ready to start using the Debbie Bliss alpaca silk for a project rather than just snuggling up to it in bed every night. Okay, I don’t really do that, but not because I don’t want to.)

Thank you a million times over!

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