What a wonderful secret pal I have!

I feel so spoiled and loved!
I received package #2 from my Secret Pal 7 and it just made my day! Her note was so sweet – especially this excerpt:

bq{font-style:italic}. “I am enclosing some skeins of Cashmerino for you to make something for Kamryn … this way I can pretend I helped.”

In my book there is no pretending, that is helping greatly! I am so excited to get more of my current FAVORITE yarn to make something else for “my FAVORITE little preemie princess”:http://kamrynlily.com that I can’t even express it fully I am sure!

There was also chocolate/caramel goodness! (how did you know that is one of my favorite combos? I don’t think I mentioned it anywhere.)

And there was a kit with some great ‘revitalizing’ products based on plants – Love them! Who would imagine that someone with my life would need revitalizing! < / end sarcasm >

And then MORE fiber goodness, this time for ME – all ME! I have looked at (online, since I haven’t found a LYS that carries them) “Mountain Colors”:http://www.mountaincolors.com/ products and oohed and ahhhed over the colors ever so many times. I have read how wonderful their fibers are, and yet I’ve never seriously considered indulging myself, though I have dreamed, oh, I have dreamed. And Voila! A GORGEOUS colorway of Mountain Colors “Mountain Goat”:http://www.yarndex.com/yarn.cfm?yarn_id=1347 is the _piece de resistance_ in this package!

THANK YOU Super Secret Pal!
Now feast your eyes on all this goodness everyone:

p=.

And now, no where near as exciting, some project progress updates.

For “Kamryn’s”:http://kamrynlily.com mommy’s shrug, I have the cuffs and am about 6 inches or so up the sleeves . This “pattern,”:http://www.interweave.com/knit/interweave_knits/web_projects/Shrugs_instructions.pdf from one the editor’s of “Interweave Knits”:http://www.interweave.com/knit/ starts from the cuff and works to the center of the back on both sides, and then is grafted together (which I am of the party that doesn’t mind grafting in the least, at least so far). I’m doing them two at once, or trying to, and found a little tip to share. To keep track of which side I am working on I slip a big stitch holder through the middle of the one I am not working on, and latch it up around the needle (photo on that later if anyone would like to see exactly what I mean) so that I know which one I am NOT working on at the time. I also, after a bit of confusion, decided to do full pattern repeats before switching to the other side, instead of 2 row switches. It just provides less confusion for my jumbled brain, but still keeps them going at the same tension, and length, basically.
Of course black yarn does not photograph well, especially this slightly fuzzy yarn, but there is a cute little cable going up the middle of the sleeve. Since they are on the same circ, the one on the left is showing the wrong side and the one on the right is the right side (of course).

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And I’ve also started a gift for a dear, childhood friend that has a birthday in a couple of weeks. It’s something I haven’t made as of yet – a wash cloth. I have decided that I love/hate knitting washcloths. I _LOVE_ how quickly they knit up, but the lack of give in knitting with cotton? Notsomuch. Here it is, about half way complete. Hopefully the finished photo will show the design better.

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I’m off in awhile to knit with ‘_the gals._’ “Mom,”:http://livinglakeside.com “Sister,”:http://www.thelightofdawn.com “Kim”:http://dkunruh.com/peanuts and I are going to do some serious sock-knitting today at Mom’s. I’ll be casting on for my March Sock-of-the-Month and trying out another new type of heel. Mom ordered a set of 2 DVD’s on sock knitting from “Knitpicks”:http://www.knitpicks.com that we are going to watch and hopefully get an even better idea of the whole sock _concept_.
Sister and Kim are knitting their first pair of socks!

Have a great weekend!