Continuing the materialism...

here's my latest parcel from my Secret Pal! Who is GREAT! :-) Look what was in it! She had given me instructions in a card as I had to open them in a particular order, I will explain a little further down!

Here's a cute cat magnet (now on my fridge door) and a cool frog bookmark and At Knit's End from my Amazon wishlist! The blurb on the back is so funny.
Do you ever...

• experience palpitations when passing a yarn shop (well yes, especially as it's so rare to actually find a decent one over here!)
• sneak new yarn purchases into the house (er, yes. In fact I've had to get the postman sworn to secrecy too!)
• utter the words "just one more row"? (hang on. Doesn't everyone?)
• plan your vacation around yarn store locations? (Erm. Read my post about the Lake District back in June...)
• secretly scope out new spots to store your stash (well yes, but there aren't any!)

if you answered "yes" to one or more of these, you are at risk of becoming an obsessive knitter! (well, that's only me and a few other people then.)

Then there are chocolates (have stored these in my tummy for safe-keeping) and a chicks with sticks notepad - so cool! :-) Wonder if you can get things like that over here?

And then onto the yarn! My SP had arranged these parcels in order as an "educational" package. You see, on the SP6 questionnaire I'd put that I wasn't sure what Lion Brand and Red Heart are, but was assuming they're cheap and acrylicky.

So package #1 was a ball of Red Heart in multicolours! My SP says she understands if I throw it away but I'm sure it could be used for hats or something (after all, not everyone can wear real wool on their heads). She said she gets it at Wal-Mart - can you imagine buying yarn at a supermarket... I quite like the idea of tripping off to Waitrose and picking up some wool at the same time! Then package #2 was some Lion Brand sock yarn called Magic Stripes. As my SP said, she can't really see what the issue is with Lion Brand, and neither can I. This looks very similar (same composition too) to Regia or Opal sock yarn. Nice colours too. My verdict on US cheap acrylicky stuff - it's much better than the cheap acrylicky stuff available over here! Oh, and Lion Brand is now stocked in the UK - here.

And then onto the "real" yarn in package #3!


Isn't this gorgeous? It's handpainted laceweight yarn from Schaeffer Yarns, in beautiful colours! My SP said I could use this to make socks, if I wanted, but then, in package #4 were two lace patterns, so I can have my first go at lace! She says there is enough yarn here for one of the patterns, so I'm going to have a Big Think and decide which to make. The patterns are: the Reversible Lace Cables Scarf and the Pillared Archways Scarf. And I like both! I suppose I could make one with the Schaeffer yarn, and then look out for some more laceweight at Harrogate if I decide I like knitting lace. At the moment I just want to get going with this delectable yarn, but CHRISTMAS PRESENTS MUST COME FIRST. Somebody please remind me I said that!

THANK YOU SECRET PAL - YOU'RE A STAR!

Oh, and I know various people have tagged me with various memes, and I promise I'll do something about them soon!