Thank you, Cathy!

My partner for the From the Heart swap on the sockamanic sockalong list was Cathy. What a wonderful sense of humor she has! See in the back of the photo? She sent me back the air I sent her! (I had joked that her gift was a box of air...maybe you had to be there!)

Anyhow, much of this is hard to see, so let me tell you what's in there. MOST importantly, KOIGU. Mmmmm. Black Koigu. If that had been all she sent, I'd have been happy. But in addition, she sent me.... a Tulip Sox pattern to go with the Koigu (I'll post a photo of them when I've made them, though it may be a couple months before I get to this project. But she made the pattern for me, so I'll get to it sooner rather than later.)

Then there's chocolate to go with it - Tronky (crunchy wafer filledwith hazlenuts an chocolate filling) and Godiva Dark Chocolate with raspberry.

Did someone say chocolate?

Right.

Where was I?

Oh, yes, sticky pads. There can never be enough sticky pads in a person's life.

To the left of that is a giraffe bookmark. I have no idea where she found such a thing! It's precious!

And then there are two wind-chimes - a lovely dragonfly one and an especially musical one with a butterfly and on the bell are some hummingbirds. Really lovely!

To the left of that is a nice long beaded necklace with both a safety cutter and a pair of small scissors. They are absolutely perfect - both lovely and solid. What an incredibly useful gift! And they come with a matching eyeglasses chain. Did I ever mention that I wear glasses?

But wait, there's more...

She sent me not only a lovely dragonfly dishcloth, but she also sent the pattern so I can make more in many different colors!

And she sent me patterns for a Noah's Ark with animals. Check that out. It's amazing! Lions and tigers and giraffes and elephants and... oh, my! And she sent me the giraffe Zoo Animal Finger Puppet pattern from the Chester Zoo. I can't even begin to tell you how adorable that puppet looks like it will be!

She ALSO sent me several different project and inventory sheets. And she put all the patterns and sheets in sheet protectors for me!

She also sent me a very cute little love bear, who is sitting on some of the heart bags she packed the wind-chimes and bookmark in.

Next to the love bear is what I think is supposed to be a Connecticut airplane lollypop. It might be a dragon. It got a little bit crushed in shipping, but I'm sure it will taste just fine!

That lollypop is sitting on top of a pile of coffee - more of which is also packed inside the giraffe tote along with a packet of hot chocolate! Now we have to decide if we're going to drink the coffee or save it for trips. Often enough, we go on a trip and with there was more coffee for the coffeemaker.

Oh, and did I mention the card? Yes, she even sent me a card.

Well, I'm quite overwhelmed by all this. Thank you very, very much.

Thank You, Correction and Answer

My first order of business is a belated public thank you to my SP9. I made sure to send off a thank you as soon as I got the package, but I didn't get the photos out of my camera until just now. My pal was Beth, and she really, really put a LOT of effort into paying close attention to my wish list and likes. She also must be psychic ... I've been meaning to get myself a stack of little sticky notes forever, and I never seem to get around to it, so here they are and my problem is solved. She got me the Arrogant Worms' album Dirt, she got me the Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules, and even got me the only non-chocolate candy I can't resist, SweeTarts. And she got them in heart shapes! I didn't even know they came like that.
Plus, she got me a bar of lavender soap - mmmm! A really nice ornament, the fun light-up knitting needles (they're really neat...I just love gadgets!). Plus she got me some lemon hand soap from Trader Joe's especially for kitchen use. Did she know we had just run out of soap in the kitchen? Did she know I've never been in a Trader Joe's? AND she MADE me a dishcloth. I love dishcloths, and can barely stand to knit them myself, because I don't really enjoy knitting with cotton. And finally, she got me a wonderful dragonfly card. I adore dragonflies.

Then there's this:
I just finished knitting the pair of socks I started with the yarn she sent me in the first package. That's right, I didn't even take a picture before putting them on. They are soooooooo soft. Ultramerino 4. Mmmmm. I feel SO spoiled. THANK YOU!!!

Now, for the the correction. In an earlier post I had incorrectly identified the pattern I was making above. It's the "Fancy Silk Sock" from the Nancy Bush book, Knitting Vintage Socks.

And finally, to answer Beth's question to my last post, these squares are between 4 1/2 and 5 inches. It's not that I'm a saint and will put them all together at once, though. I suspect I'll make a scarf first and then maybe expand on it over time. I've only made a little more than a dozen pairs of socks, so I'll surely be without enough yarn to actually make anything for a very long time. And I'm going to have to sew them together as I go, or I'll lose them, just like I've managed to mis-place about half my leftover sock yarn already!

Now one thing I did was figure out how to make this pattern in a diamond pattern. I took a picture before ripping it out and going back to squares. But I really enjoyed figuring this out.

Right now I find myself itching to try out new textures. I'm having a good time with it, and as you can see, I actually do finish something once in a while!