My yarn swap adventure surprise has arrived!
I stopped off at the post office today after work and was totally surprised to find a package waiting for me!
Let me step back here. You may have read that I organized a yarn swap on Ravelry’s Blog Hub group. I know crafty bloggers are often looking for inspiration. I was thinking about something MC told me when I was stressing out about a project for one of my Pet Product Design and Marketing classes. He reminded me that sometimes the teacher might try to focus you on a specific creative project outside of your comfort zone to stretch you and develop your abilities. I know many knitters and crocheters have pretty defined ideas about which projects they can/will make as well as what types of yarns they want to use. And thus, the idea for the swap was born. What if we sent someone else a skein from our own collection and they had to take on the creative journey of creating something with it?
My own personal fear was that someone would send me Pomp-a-Doodle, which gives me yarn nightmares. (What to do with those “pomps”???) Unlike the other participants, since I organized the swap, I already knew who my partner was (but I acted surprised nonetheless!). My partner is Lou, aka happymousefairy on Ravelry. She has a lovely blog called Knitted and is a fellow WordPress user.
Lou hails from the U.K. and I was immediately impressed by the pageantry of the package.
Note that all of the messy stuff is on the American side of the package.
Even the tracking labels look more impressive across the pond.
"God save the Queen. We mean it, man!"
I couldn’t wait until I got home, so I pulled out the scissors from my crochet kit and carefully opened the package in the post office lobby.
Lou used a plastic bag which worked out for me since it was pouring rain outside when I left the post office.
Mmmm, pretty yarn stuff.
I admit that I chose to swap internationally because I was hoping to receive some kind of super awesome yarn that I haven’t seen in my local yarn shop. Lou definitely delivered, with this beautiful skein of Araucania Ranco sock yarn. I do find it somewhat amusing that this yarn started off in the Americas – Chile, to be exact – then traveled across the seas to England into Lou’s home, only to make the journey yet again to get to me in New York City.
More pretty colorways on the back.
The yarn has some hints of purple (my favorite!) and has a really lovely hand painted look. Lou also sent me a really cute card.
You're welcome!!!
Look how tiny and cute the card is next to the skein of yarn!
As for what to make, I will probably need a few days to think about this. My immediate thought is maybe a hat and something to match. I do have that famous sock goal, so that is another possibility. For now, I will just be happy to look at the yarn and admire the beauty of the hand painted colors. Thanks Lou!
What a wonderful post, Marie, and I agree that the journey is part of what is so great about this swap. Lou did right by you — the yarn is lovely — and I can’t help but see a pair of socks in its future. Since you have a sock goal, I think you should fulfill part of it with this “gift” of a yarn you haven’t worked with before. Maybe with a cable design?
Here I am, talking about pushing our own boundaries artistically and of course I want to make a hat
. But you’re right Evelyn, instead I should be making some Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks!
I’m delighted you like the yarn I chose to send you
I love your post, and it’s made me think about things in a different way. To save clogging up your comments I’ll have to blog about it instead at some point soon…
I had to follow your link to pomp-a-doodle as I’d not heard of it. Um. Yes. That would be a challenge to receive!
I’m looking forward to seeing what you end up making with the Araucania, have fun
Thanks again Lou! Pomp-a-doodle is loved by some though and I even have two skeins at home – I’ve just never successfully engaged it for a project
. I just think we all need to push our boundaries a bit.
Happymousefairy has some kind of really nice stash.
Will look forward to the FO blog post.
I know, her taste is great. I’m so happy to be the recipient!
[...] this post at that. I am happy to say that Marie has already received the skein I sent her, see here, and I need to blog about why I chose that particular one. However I’m having interesting [...]