There was an adorable mug with cocoa and an appropriately sized whisk.

Little chocolate snowmen

Lip balm

Fun stationery

Some handmade stitch markers!

Oh and this? Yeah it’s not much just some yarn handspun by Velvet! She says there’s round about 263 yds there and it probably weighs in at light fingering. I will definitely have to find something cozy to make with this.

Thanks Velvet for putting together such a great package!

Lovely Lisa Souza in colourway Aww-tum! This is gorgeous and I can’t wait to knit it up into something awesome for myself Plus it has so much yardage I may make two pairs of socks for myself (or more!) or I may try to make some long socks, like the Pembrokeshire Pathways knee highs.

Cute Sheep project bag It’s currently holding a lace scarf for myself that I should probably pick back up and knit on some more.

Ice cream cone pen.

Jelly Belly jellybeans

A hand set from Burt’s Bees. Love the cuticle cream. I don’t think I could ever have enough of that.

Sorry again for being so tardy in posting this swap package! July was such a crazy time for me. This whole summer was just nuts!

1. State your name and favorite holiday song.
LittleWit. Hear the Call – it’s a piece we sang in the children’s choir at my church written by our choir director. Of the more widely known variety, my favorite song is Oh Holy Night. What can I say? I love the Christmas church music. Ok I was reminded that I deeply love A Mad Russian’s Christmas by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This is the song that makes me want to run off to join the ballet. It’s a truly marvelous song. I loves it.

2. What is your favorite color?
Green, orange, brown, earth tones and jewel tones

3. Do you have any special holiday traditions?
This is my first year in my home with the boy so we’re going to try and make some of our own new holiday traditions. Growing up we always made candies to be given out as gifts to family, teachers and my parents co-workers. The boy and I are planning to start that up again this year.

4. What is your favorite holiday memory?
My favorite holiday memory. Hmm. My mother was a staff nurse while I was growing up so every other Christmas she had to work so we celebrated in the evening. One year when I was probably about 6 (which would have made Mr Ban about 4) he and I decided to go ahead and open our presents as soon as we woke up. Didn’t even bother to wake up Dad and well Mom was at work. Dad woke up to us under the tree with our gifts. We were young enough that I don’t recall getting in trouble. We were stopped and the rest of the gifts were opened when Mom returned from work. That was also the year my Uncle C gave me a mouse bell. Once I get a fancy Curio cabinet it will go on display in there.

5. Any allergies we should know about?
Amoxicillin

6. What crafts do you do – knit, crochet, spin, dye, bead, quilt, etc.?
I knit as well as dabbling in spinning, dyeing and I am beginning to get into quilting now as well. Oh and I magically crocheted a chain for a provisional cast on the day before Thanksgiving. Go me!

7. Any sorts of fibers you particularly love or hate or are dying to work with?
I don’t hate working with anything in particular. I do however love merino and merino loves me.

8. What weight of yarn do you prefer?
Sportweight is my new favorite. I am also finding many more uses for worsted weight yarns. I should probably not get any more fingering weight for awhile. Although I do love it’s siren song the fingering weight bin is overflowing and I am currently fascinated with knitting things quickly!

9. What are your favorite knitting accessories? (i.e.: stitch markers, row counters…)
I love, love, love my stitch makers from AMG. The green one’s that look kind of like Jolly Ranchers. Other than that umm I can’t think of knitting accessories that I can’t live without that don’t already have. Oh! I am trying to decide on whether I want stitch holders.

10. Do you subscribe to any crafty magazines?
I subscribe to Craft. I am on the fence about subbing to VK and IK. I buy both each month but I am reticent to sub to IK because their magazine seems to contain less items that I want to knit.

11. What do you collect aside from fiber-related things?
shot glasses and fabric now. My new goal though is not to start any new “collections” because well then I will have to find a spot to put it!

12. Favorite candy, chocolate (dark, white, or milk), tea, coffee, other treats?
Swedish fish, caramel, white chocolate (dark won’t be eaten and milk will be given to the boy), I don’t drink tea or coffee. I do however drink lots of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate with a bit of Hot Damn! Schnapps mixed in.

13. Do you enjoy handmade soap and body products?
Yes I do. I do however have some sensitivities to scents so I greatly prefer subtle scents or fragrances.

14. What is your favorite winter sport/past time?
Hockey! I am also loving sitting in front of our fireplace (with a fire going!) knitting and watching movies with the boy.

15. What is your favorite holiday movie?
The Night They Saved Christmas and Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

16. What is your favorite: flavor, flower, letter, number, film, artist, scent?
Caramel or Vanilla, Lilies of most varieties, E, 13, The Boondock Saints, Christina Aguilera and Ysolda, Jasmine Vanilla

17. Anything we should *not* get for you?
Amoxicillin.

18. Do you have a blog and or wishlist that are not linked on Ravelry or listed in the GoogleDoc?
My wishlists are linked in my sidebar. I also posted recently on other gift ideas for the boy, feel free to look at that.

19. Anything special you would like your partner to know?
I sound picky but really I am easy to please. I can’t wait!

Cory’s modeling again – water bottle cozy

Description: Water bottle cozy
Pattern: Lacy Yoga Bags by Alison Green Will in the small size
Yarn used: 1.72 skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic in Colorway 3872 (100% mercerized cotton) 50g (1.75oz)/ 108 yds (100m)
Care Instructions: machine or hand wash, dry flat
Needle Size: US 7 (4.5mm)
Modifications: none, since my initial modification didn’t work out.
Finished Size: Small bag size
Date Started: 9/5/2008
Date Completed: 9/14/2008
Notes: This bag is pretty nice and I would totally recommend making one. It’s cute to boot.

full shot of the bag

I love the detail in the bottom of the bag.

The top of the bag has an eyelet row for the icord straps and has a turned hem. I quite like the technique.

Thank you so very much for my wonderful gift. I hope to start using it all soon. Especially those socks the next time I go on a business trip! (Someday I will have to tell you all about me doing yoga poses at a wedding reception to try and stretch out cause my knee was bothering me…)

Tuesday I mailed my swap partner’s package and it should hopefully arrive today. If she happens to be reading my blog here’s a teaser…

Note, not all items are included in this image!

1. a. What is your name?

LittleWit but my friends call me Jocelyn

b. What is your quest?

To find a galaxy far far away.

c. What is your favorite color?

Probably go bobcat green. However I am a huge sucker for jewel and earth tones.

2. When is your birthdate (year optional)?

Feburary 09, 1982 – the year MTV was born.

3. Do you have any special birthday traditions?

The only tradition I have is one that I want to stop. I would like to have people actually show up to celebrate my birthday. Oh and my mom always made us fun birthday cakes in whatever shape we wanted and we got to pick from her cake decorating books.

4. What is your favorite birthday memory?

Hmm. All time favorite? I don’t think I have one. However I did love the birthday where my friends in Baltimore took me out to dinner and we got the waitress to sell us a slice of her homemade peppermint cheesecake. It was de-lic-ious.

5. Any allergies we should know about?

As long as you aren’t sending me amoxicillin I should be ok.

6. What crafts do you do – knit, crochet, spin, dye, bead, quilt, etc. etc. ?

Knit, spin, want to dye, will start crocheting eventually, have some quilts planned, I sew and I like to do woodworking and may start again now that I have a garage to work in.

7. Any sorts of fibers you particularly love or hate or are dying to work with?

I love some Rio De La Plata – Santa Maria however it’s discontinued and I have 2 or 3 skeins of it stashed away.

I don’t so much hate anything or maybe I do but I don’t remember what it is. I have some distant memory of an ew I won’t work with that again…oh that’s right, it was STR medium weight but it’s because I was feeling someone else’s knit up sock and I didn’t like the fabric. I think someone else showed me a not as blah feeling one. Ok I was reminded me that I am not a huge fan of lots of mohair content cause if it is a pain to frog or tink I will whine and inevitably run out of yarn.

As far as dying to work with – I sometimes have a desire to work with all the “trendy” yarns that people always rave about but then I never have the desire to spend money to buy them. I am for real dying to work with some true gossamer weight yarns a la Gossamer Webs.

8. What weight of yarn do you prefer?

I am drawn to fingering weights but I am trying to focus on making things in larger weights because yeah they aren’t really that much larger and they knit up faster!

9. What are your favorite knitting accessories? (i.e.: stitch markers, row counters…)

I don’t have one? Make a believer out of me?

10. Do you subscribe to any crafty magazines?

Nope. But I really should.

11. What do collect aside from fiber-related things?

Dust, shot glasses, t-shirts and fabric that I never sew with

12. Favorite candy, chocolate (dark, white, or milk), tea, coffee, other treats?

Hmm…swedish fish, white chocolate and kernel popcorn.

13. Do you enjoy handmade soap and body products?

I do enjoy but please no scents.

14. Are there any scents you love or hate?

Scents must be very subtle because I have a super sensitive nose.

15. What is your favorite: flavor, flower, letter, number, film, artist?

Flower – Orchids and Lilies (Bleeding hearts are growing on me and lily of the valleys – oh wait that’s a lily).

Flavor – Margarita, Jimmy John’s Vito, Mango, Raspberry, Peppers oh I dunno I like to eat, I have lots of favorite flavors.

Letter – E (Exercise E! – this separates the weak from the strong AND you know it’s a pop culture reference from my childhood!)

Number – 13

Film – Boondock Saints.

Artist – I don’t know that I have one.

16. Anything we should *not* get for you?

Snake bite kit, I already have one.

17. Do you have a blog and or wishlist that are not linked on Ravelry or listed in the GoogleDoc?

I have a Loopy Ewe wish list linked in my side bar and an Amazon wish list linked in my side bar.

18. Anything special you would like your partner to know?

You are all special people in my heart. Anything I get will be fun and I am totally looking forward to this.

Lookie here…we have a bag. What could be inside?

Hmm it appears we have some goodies…white chocolate and yummy yarn.

A picture of all of the spoils.

The white chocolate is from Trader Joe’s. A superb choice because I love white chocolate (and can’t eat very much milk chocolate sans peanut butter). I may try to melt the bar to make chocolate covered pretzels. Yum! The yarn is the lovely Alpaca Blend from Mountain Colors that I featured yesterday. I still haven’t decided what to make with it. Any ideas?

This bag was handmade by the lovely Selvedge. Notice the very cool pockets on the inside. Now I have a new project bag to tote around and set in the mud!

Oh you wanted details?

Your package is en route. I sent it USPS Priority Mail so you should have it in your hands this week. I hope you enjoy it. Have a great day!

Love,

Your Sekrit Pal

I knit. No magazine subscriptions at the moment but I buy Interweave Knits everytime it comes out. Which reminds me I need to go get the Winter issue… All my pattern books are on Ravelry

I enjoy most colours – most especially jewel and earth tones. My stash should give a good idea of the colours I like – pay no attention to the yarns inherited from my Grandmother

No food or fiber allergies but milk chocolate and dark chocolate upset my stomach. Nuts are not my friends. White chocolate is a guilty pleasure as well as white chocolate covered pretzels and anything with peanut butter in it. No coffee or tea for me I am boring and love water I also like to cook and try new things, however I do not like broccoli, asparagus or brussel sprouts. In case you were wondering…

Aside from knitting/fiber related things, I also collect shot glasses and other odd trinkets that catch my eye. I also pretend to sew, however there might be a slight backlog in items to be sewn… When I do find time to read I tend towards women’s studies or military history books both fiction and non fiction.

Oh and my next two fiber related skills to learn are spinning and cables. Someday I hope to figure out what I screwed up with Intarsia

If you need a spy, contact the boy through my e-mail, just put his name in the subject and I will assume it has something to do with the sekrit pal exchange (clarification on address or something ) I have also added my amazon wishlist to the spreadsheet.