….but I still don’t know who you are!!!

On a day when I needed some cheering up another parcel arrives from my wonderful pal in SP10 - here it is

As the weather here has finally decided it’s summer and after weeks and weeks and weeks of rain today the sun is out, so I decided to take my parcel out into the garden. After all- it has travelled to me all the way from Fort Lauderdale in the Sunshine state so it probably would like a bit of sunshine to make it feel at home right?

The first thing I saw was - pink!

and then - can you believe it? - this!!!

How cool is that! What a greeting!!! So this wonderful box

opens up to reveal this

Dark chocolate (my favourite) and the tea-cup is so fantastic it has a little motto printed around the inside of the rim “simplici.tea - n. the appreciation of life’s little moments while drinking tea”, that is sooo me. You’ve got me nailed SP

Next out of the box was a postcard, a fantastic Florida/Finding Nemo fridge magnet and all these gorgeous little pink parcels

which opened up to become this

Where do I start? Well - from the left: Fort Lauderdale postcard, 2 skeins of Knit Picks “Bare” superwash wool in Natural and loads of Kool Aid to dye it with (the Knit Picks yarn is sooo soft), a fridge magnet with Dory saying “hellooooooooo there from Florida” (so cute and I love Finding Nemo), tea-cup & chocolate, pattern for Chuck’s Cabled Sock by Eunny Jang (been drooling over these for a long time), Knitting on the Road (this book has been on my wishlist for such a long time), Skein of superwash merino from Wooly Boully “Neopolitan” (good enough to eat), and the wonderful box with the “Fabulous” key chain.

The one thing that wasn’t in here? My SP’s name - who are you????? I love you!!! Thank you so much.

Off to make a cup of tea, eat chocolate and sit in the garden flicking through Knitting on the Road….

Update: She has revealed herself as Sarah from Florida check her blog!!!

technorati tags:SP10, swap

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I have started not one but two, yes two, lace projects this past week. I decided at the very last moment to sign up for the Mystery Stole 3, the first clue was posted on Friday and I joined up on Thursday.

For anyone who doesn’t know about the Mystery Stole this is a knitalong where a new “clue” is issued once a week. Each clue is the next chart instalment so you start knitting with no idea of what the finished stole will look like. Each time the designer picks a theme for the stole and one of the “games” is to try to guess the theme as each section is unveiled.

I had been looking at this knitalong a couple of weeks ago so knew the materials included lace weight yarn and beads. I had in my mind the remaining 3 skeins of cobweb mohair from Natural Dye Studio from the 5 I bought some time ago, 2 of them having become the melon pattern shawl I knit as a wedding gift a few weeks ago. I knew I had some seed beads in a metallic pink/purple that would go perfectly with that yarn. However, when I read the materials list fully I realised that the yarn requirement was for 1200 yards and each skein of cobweb mohair is only 200 yards so I only have 600 yards….hmm rethink.

Well, I bought 7 skeins of lace weight yarn from Posh Yarn last week so some of that could be used……I had 3 skeins of 2ply Cumulus (that’s the blue in the middle) so I could get some beads to go with that….

…except the Mystery Stole instructions say that the theme would be best served by knitting with white or black or grey yarn……so back to the stash…

….where I found 3 balls of Patons Fairytale 2ply in white remaining from the last baby shawl I knit. I also had a bag of clear seed beads so I was away. This is the progress at the end of the first half of clue 1 (which was 2 charts) which I had completed by late afternoon on Friday

Obviously unblocked but this looks like it’s going to be a pointed end to a stole - I have knit the remainder of clue 1 now but no photo yet as it’s been raining and dull all weekend (which is why so much knitting has been done).

Whilst waiting for the MS3 clue I decided on Thursday night that I could not resist the call of the Posh Yarn I’d bought and so I cast on to knit a triangular shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I cast on at 9pm on Thursday and knit through House & Shark so 2 hours later I had this

and here is a close up of the pattern - which is the Cherry Leaf pattern

the yarn is Eva 2ply from Posh Yarn in “Houri”. I looked up the meaning of Houri, in Islam it apparantly is a beautiful maiden who awaits the devout Muslim in paradise (please feel free to correct me any muslim readers out there!!!) They are described in the Qur’an as “purified wives” or “spotless virgins”. Apparantly the most appropriate English translation of the Islamic term Hur’in would be “Companions pure, most beautiful of eye” - I hope that my shawl lives up to the name.

It is certainly sensual being silk and cashmere and so light it slips through your fingers. As the weekend was so miserable I got loads done on this shawl and it is now up to 14 repeats so only one more to go before the edging starts!

technorati tags:lace, shawl, poshyarn

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