To Becky, With Love

[In which I get the best sock swap pal ever, gush enthusiastically, tell seven things on demand, and fail to follow instructions]

When I first got myself involved with the Hogwarts Sock Swap, I went to one of those sorting links and got myself sorted, just like I'm supposed to. Then, about a week later, it dawned on me that I probably could've skewed the results to get a color combination that I'd really like.

I started worrying, a little bit, that I'd get ... bumblebee socks that I'd always want to hide under long-ish jeans, much like some of the socks I've knitted for myself. After all, there have been plenty pictures posted that I haven't liked the looks of much at all. There have been a lot of nice socks, if only they weren't in black and really dark bright yellow.

Meanwhile, I have been watching pictures go up on the Hogwarts sock swap blog that I do like. There was this one post of a washcloth that I thought was really, really cool. And the same knitter posted that she'd mailed her package, which, as you can see, was absolutely lovely. I found myself hoping she was my pal.

Then I got tagged for the seven things meme by Becky. And I poked around on her blog a bit and I found the socks she knit for her swap pal and I thought, "Gosh, I like those a lot." And I also thought, "Look! She's the same person as knit that really good-looking dishcloth!" And then I thought, "Oh, she can't be my pal. She posted not-anonymously to my blog."

So while I was taking my sweet time looking for seven bloggers who hadn't already been tagged for the seven things meme, that beautiful package was winging its way through the mail ... to me!



A part of me didn't want to unwrap it. Wrapped packages are so attractive, don't you think? And Becky got all this properly-colored tissue paper and ribbon and made such a beautiful package out of this!

But I felt a timely thank-you was most important, and ripped the lovely wrapping to shreds to find this...



No socks? Well, I hadn't unwrapped quite everything. Look at this stuff! She sent me two different kinds of SweeTarts. I must live in the wrong part of the country or something. I've never seen chewy SweeTarts! (They're good!) The bowl is a 7-quart Good Cook Bowl. Don't worry, I will use this! Ghirardelli 60% Dark Chocolate mmmmmmmmm! Chili-pepper (perhaps jalapeño?) and spice sticky notes and a magnetic shopping list. Clover Bamboo double-pointed needles, 7" long size 2. I'm thinking I'll make a hat on those. Out of sock yarn. The coveted dishcloth itself! And...a skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Watercolor! Yes, yes, YES!

But wait! the SOCKS!

Not only are these beauties MINE...



But they fit PERFECTLY!



If your monitor has washed-out the yellow like mine has, Becky used a slightly paler-than-required shade of yellow. I think I might have asked for that, but I don't remember clearly. I really, really like these and will NOT be hiding them under long jeans. The stitch pattern is really nice, too. Just a little texture that goes really nicely with the yarn.

Becky gave me the ball-band from the socks. She used Louet Gems, which not only meets my stringent requirements for being machine-washable, but I have heard a rumor that this is the yarn used to make that gorgeous hand-dyed line we know as Koigu.

She also sent a little note saying this was her first sock swap. Becky, you knit great socks, and I am not worthy.

So here are my seven things:

1/ I am the only child of two only children.
2/ My father's parents were born in the town in Germany (Hameln) where the story of the Pied Piper originated. I still have relatives there and I visit once in a while. My German is atrocious.
3/ I do not own a television, and I actually found a man who also does not have a television. He's perfect for me in so many other ways it's as if we'd been raised to be together.
4/ I'm right-handed, and when I was a kid, for fun, I taught myself to write with my left had. This came in really handy when I broke my right collarbone in high school and couldn't get my right arm up on a desk for six weeks.
5/ Mental illness runs in my family. Sometimes I feel very guilty about being ok.
6/ I still haven't graduated from college.
7/ I own two different models of Hybrid cars. One is the Honda Insight, and the other is the Hybrid version of the Honda Civic. Both have manual transmissions, even though most hybrids are automatics.

As far as finding people to tag, I'm not doing so well. A lot of people on my blogroll have already been tagged, even if they haven't answered the tag yet. I noticed that Dave declined to even participate, in the most clever way (scroll to the bottom of the post)! So here's an open invitation to anybody who'd like to be tagged - you're it! If you'd like it to be official, let me know and I'll come on over and tag you! The rules of the meme are that you tag seven people and list seven things about yourself. Well, it's easier than the 100 things meme, eh?

So...I'm going to go back to weaving the ends in on the socks I'm knitting for this sock swap. Too many ends. Waaaaay too many ends.

Time for another chewy SweeTart. Mmmm.