Challenge Met, Package Recieved, and A Question Answered!

Challenge Met:

OMG - I'm way, way behind on my posting!

But I've made lots of yarn!!!

:O)

I've been having lots and lots of fun spinning. Needless to say, I feel much more confident with my spinning skills. Not perfect, mind you - I did have a nasty tangle when I was plying the two balls of singles together, but nothing I couldn't get over. I wound up wasting a wee bit (we'll just ignore that), and now have four hanks of 2-ply yarn in a wonderful green drying on coat hangers in my bathroom. I'd say I probably have about 250 yards and I'm thinking the final, knitting project will be the Unoriginal Hat. Since the Yarn Harlot is responsible for getting me into this spinning madness, I might as well knit one of her creations with my creation!

I'm also about to go upstairs and spin MORE stash fiber! Now that I'm feeling all confident and stuff, I think I need to see how my Lisa Souza Superwash Merino Top will spin up. The colorway is Bird of Paradise, and I've got 4 ounces of it as well (I started with 4 ounces of the above-mentioned green, but wasted A LOT with my newbie spinning skills!). I'm betting I can get at least 300 yards. I'm even going to go for a bit of a finer yarn this time, so maybe I'll get even more yardage out of it!!!

Package Received:
This week, my lovely Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap (5) pal, Andrea/Fleur sent an owl with my package. It is, of course, to DIE for!! I absolutely LOVE the bag(s) and all the goodies she put in!

Here's the overall shot of the package, unwrapped and already drooled on (sorry):

And here's a closeup of the star - the bag!!!

I plan to be very careful with my lunches, and use this as my lunchbox! I love the shaping of the front tab, and those gorgeous glass buttons! I also love that she made me two little trinket bags as well. One even has turtles (yay!) on it! They're perfect and I'm definitely going to be using the bigger one (which, by the way, has gorgeous glass beads on the handle) to carry my obligatory sock project when The Boy and I go on our cruise next month!

Also included were some Clover size 3's (2 of them for the Socks on 2 Circulars trick I find so amusing), a teacher's apple paperweight, some teacher post-its, TWO sock patterns and a Patons sock pattern BOOK, a knitting magnet, a bumble-bee tape measure, and TWO kinds of sock yarn - a Patons in traditional Ravenclaw colors - very much like some Regia I used to make socks for a previous pal. Needless to say, I love it! And also a honkin' skein of LionBrand Sock-Ease in pretty-much Ravenclaw colors. Who knew there were so many colorways out there with HP-themed color schemes???!!! Oh, and the cutest little bobble-headed turtle you ever wanted to see!! I do love turtles!

Thanks so much, Andrea - you did a great package!

And finally - A Question Answered:

This is the 4th or 5th installment of the Secret Pal 12 questions, of which, I've answered pitifully few. Sorry. I've been pre-occupied!

1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday? I must have water of some sort nearby. Preferrably the beach, and I need to be able to see it often - preferably from my bed! I do go to the Outer Banks each year, but really love water I can actually get into (the ocean is a bit rough where we go in Avon, so we usually don't do much more than get our feet wet!), so Miami Beach was a really nice treat, as are the beaches on the islands. YUM!

2) Where is one place you’d like to go? I've been wanting to go back to Italy very badly lately. Right now, my sister's current living situation has me wanting to visit places I'd never have thought I'd be interested in going (think Russia), and I will probably make the trek over there next Spring Break or Summer. I'm also getting very anxious for our trip to Canada. Even though it's the same continent, I'm anxious to see the rocky nature of the ports and places there, compared to the more sandy nature of our water towns here in the mid-Atlantic. I've had a bit of a taste of this in my life, since my grandmother's house was on Lake Champlain in Vermont, but it will be different being on the actual coast and waaaaaaay up there!


:O)