The Almost Final Thank You

At the end of the Secret Pal swap, you're supposed to say who your secret pal was.

My Pal did everything right - right down to including a card in the last package with her blog address and her name. Which I promptly misplaced.

I also sent an email a couple of days ago to the address that she's probably not checking any more in which I pointed out that I am a complete idiot.

So, here is my thank you to my still no-thanks-to-me secret Secret Pal.

Oh, sometimes I just hate being me.



Isn't that a beautiful package? I think it's beautiful! That picture shows a pair of Regia Silk in color 0184, some beautiful Lana Grossa Meilenweit bosco in 3513, some scrumptious Hill Country Yarns Instant Gratification sock yarn (100% superwash merino) in a colorway called cowboy, and finally 3.4 ounces of Freckle Face Fibers 100% blue faced Leicester in a colorway called caravan. This just might get me to learn to spin - with the boring plain wool I got with my spindle first and then this. It's really lovely.

Secret Pal 13 signups start October 15. I was a horrible pal this time around. I think I'll sit the next one out, since I'd have to keep up with it during the holidays, which I don't do well to begin with. I'll be following along, though!

Overdue Photos - Thank You Secret Pal

I generally have a rule for myself. I may not use anything from my secret pal packages until I've taken photos.



That's an absolutely unbreakable rule for candy.

I thanked my SP for the package off-line and promised photos.



Well...it was 6 balls of yarn, not a scarf and 4 balls of yarn.

Really. She would not have stolen from me the pleasure of knitting that scarf. The yarn I turned into Harlot's one row scarf is two skeins of Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) on size US11/8mm needles. That was lovely yarn. It made great airplane knitting. I almost finished the whole thing flying one way from Hartford, CT to Las Vegas, NV.

The other lovely yarns are Patons Kory Socks and something I'd never seen before - Debbie Mumm Traditions. Debbie Mumm appears to be the JoAnn Fabrics house brand, and it looks like it's meant to be a Noro knock-off. Um, Noro is nice stuff, but I've never gotten my hands on any Noro that was as soft as this. (Oooh! An excuse to go fondle a skein of Silk Garden! Nope, not as soft.) And this is superwash. I like it!

Thank you Secret Pal!

A Thank You Is In Order

First of all, thank you for all the kind words about the loss of my sweet cat. She got so sick so quickly that I'm still sort of taking it all in.

And last week I was a complete basket case. I realized how bad it was when I had a discussion with a co-worker in which I said I'd check on something and when someone else came to me to check the same thing the very next day, I suddenly realized that I had completely forgotten about it within five minutes of the original conversation. However, I'm happy to be able to report that I do not appear to have done anything stupid to the database. This is consistent with my skill-set. Wake me up at 4:00 a.m. with a nasty technical problem and I'm fine. Ask me to leave a coherent voicemail to tell people that something went wrong ... I find that extraordinarily difficult.

So you can imagine my confusion when I got a package from someone in Utah early in the week. "I don't remember ordering anything," I said to my sweetheart in a bewildered tone.

"Is that from your Secret Pal?" He remembered that I still hadn't found out who my Secret Pal was this round.

This pal had a special touch. She had sent me a couple of cheerful e-cards just to say hi and when she did they were really welcome. I had needed to be cheered up just when she'd sent them. Something had happened so she had been unable to complete the swap by the designated end, and I'd sent her an email to let her know that I hadn't asked for a savior. She hadn't abandoned me - she had even already sent me a package. Life had just intervened, and with her timing, I figured she'd contact me when I really needed a hug.

Wow. Talk about timing.



My amazing pal was Valerie. Above you see that she sent me some Hoops & YoYo post-it notes, a fragile little giraffe, some SweeTarts, a ladybug wind chime, a magnetic list pad, cinnamon whipped honey and vanilla whipped honey from Cox Honeyland of Utah, and a nice big skein of Rumplestiltskin Happy Feet Sock Yarn in exactly the perfect colors! Everything in this package actually has some sort of connection to something meaningful in my life or is just something I really like.

Thank you, Valerie. Thank you very much.