Wow. Just wow. I had hoped that I wasn't being too skeevy, asking to share my Knitty SP gifts with my sister. She has had a rough road this year, and it just got tougher after the SP round started. I was lucky enough to be matched up with an extremely generous SP that did not mind sending some things to my sister, too.
She sent my sister a whole package to herself, and says there is another on the way for me - really, too much, I'm thinking.
I am really just overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of the gifts for a new knitter. Two projects, a felted bag and hats, to try knitting in the round and fulling. Lots and lots of the yummiest yarn, Elsebeth Lavold's AL Chunky, in night sky - poised at that moment of blue-violet before the sky tips to black. And bi-colored Cascade 220, in black and plum. Not to mention, top-of-the-line knitting needles to make the projects - Crystal Palace DPNs and Addi Turbos. And the notions, perfect for a beginning knitter and fills in the gaps in my collection. Now that two of us are ransacking the needles, we really needed a needle sizer, which I don't have. Not to mention, we are both about to be embarking on project where gauge actually matters! And the measuring tape - that is the one item that we have been stealing back and forth. (Also, my nephew has been getting a kick out of measuring his body parts - silly boy.) Rounded out with a bottle of Eucalan.
I already have designs on begging my sister to knit me one of the cabled hats. Plus, I'm sure that she will enjoy the turnabout of being the magnanimous one lending out her needles - the Addis would be perfect for a small fair isle knitted bag that has been percolating in the back of my head (okay, really stagnating at swatching in the sidebar). One thing I've discovered, fair isle is a bear on DPNs.
We are working on an extra package downstream, since there is a budding knitter in the family there, too. Somehow that feels the best way to repay our SP (until her identity is revealed, that is!).
And in other news, I am keeping my fingers crossed that our crises are exponentially decreasing. This weekend, we only had a cat throwing up blood, and a trip to the emergency pet hospital, and I escaped with 2/3 of my paycheck intact. And I counted it a good week, relatively speaking. Pics to follow of the shawl that was started at the vet's.
Additional spotlight on the AL Chunky, 50% wool, 50% llama, 100% buttery softness:
The actual color shades a bit more towards violet than seen in the photos.