Thanks Angela!

This is the really cool parcel I just got in the mail today from my friend Angela on Ravelry.
Here's my first item out of the box:  an awesome market bag! 

This bag is so cool, it's made of rectangles, and actually looks like it's somehow knitted together without seams.  I'm going to have to ask Angela how she did it.  My friend was visiting when I opened it up, and I thought she was going to try and leave with it!  She kept holding it and turning it around and around, checking it out.   I barely got to hold it, until I got her to take a photo of me holding it!  :)
Inside the bag was amazing blue yarn, with changing shades!  How does everyone else score so well in finding these shades?  I'm so spoiled! Angela could have easily ended it there and I'd be a happy camper.  But wait, there's more...

 

These blue stitch markers she gave me are a perfect match to my new yarn,
it's like yarn jewelry!

She didn't just spoil me, she also spoiled my kids.
Here is one of the books she gave Emma. 

There was also a Princess ABC sticker book, which Emma loved pointing to the letters she can name.

Evan got a cool Hot Wheels emergency vehicle, which is interesting to him because we had to call 911 the other day to help a nearby car collision.  We were first on the scene, and it was our first time calling 911.  Ok, I'll fess up - I actually called them when I was 6 years old to see if it really worked.  It did, and boy, did I ever get in trouble from daddy!  The kids also got sticker books, tattoo stickers, and water balloons!

Next out of the box were more goodies for me:  A shiny pair of scissors for my projects, a package of summer themed buttons (Emma and I played a matching game with the shapes already), some dpn holders, and wooden dpns.  Looks like a lot of them, eh?  That's right, I got spoiled...

I got so many dpns that I could make a peacock with them!  Angela was paying attention when I mentioned how I have gone from a one-at-a-time project knitter to a several-WIP's knitter.  This means that I would run out of dpns often and have to either finish a WIP to use the needles again, or get some stitch holders for my WIP's.  Now I can do lots and lots of fingerless mittens on the go!  One WIP in each purse, yay!

Poor Evan, thought these were for him.  In my defense, he already has a cool pair of camoflage slippers I bought him at a bazar last winter.  Now I have my own, and they are quite comfy! They are a darker blue than the camera is showing.

Last but not least, Angela was so kind!  She heard I had started a free beginner's knitting club at my local community centre, and donated this set of needles for their use.  Now that's paying it forward!
Thanks for all the goodies!

Learning to Spin at Joseph Schneider Haus

The Joseph Schneider Haus is a museum in downtown Kitchener. The staff dress up in their historically accurate clothing in a Georgian frame farmhouse built by one of our area's first pioneers, Joseph Schneider, back around 1816.  This is one of my favourite childhood field trip destinations as a child, and is not to be missed if you live around here.  It's a good tourism catch too, and very affordable with admission costing only $5 for a whole family!  That's for a guided tour, and these historians really know their local history!  Every week is a different theme which teaches about various aspects of what life would have been like back then. 
Last week's theme was Wool Processing.  I was lucky enough to hear about it on Ravelry, and was so thrilled!  I went over with a friend on Saturday, and was determined to finally learn how to spin, as they were to be giving demonstrations.  It was fantastic!  For a special treat, they had live sheep there in the front yard who were visiting from a local farm.

The little blue guy in the front is the flat traveler our family is hosting for a few weeks.  His name is Kyler, and he has traveled here from British Colombia.  All the people in Kitchener who have met Kyler have been very friendly to him, and he seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit.  We exchange these little characters and show them around our city, then send them home with souvenirs.

Here is me and my awesome friend, who was nice enough to put up with my yarn obsession, and didn't once during this trip threaten to send me to Knitters Anonymous.  Of course, I don't think I was actually knitting during this trip (though I probably did have a little project in my bag). 

After learning about how the Schneider Family would have sheared their sheep and washed their fleece, we were shown how they carded the fiber (forgive me if I forget what exactly the fiber is called at this stage).  The staff were so nice!  I actually got permission to participate with them, so here is a photo of me carding for the first time!

This spinning wheel is a replica of what the family of this house would have used.  I was thrilled to be given a quick lesson, and even more thrilled that they allowed me to give it a try for myself! 
I thought the foot pedal would be as easy as a sewing machine's foot, but I was wrong.  It was not easy for me to get it in to a rhythm, and then when I would have to stop to get my yarn twisting right I'd have to start the pedal going again.  But it was so much fun!  She even had a drop spindle for me to try. 

Look at me!

Spinning, all by myself!

It was so nice of my friend to come along and take photos - I'm sure they'll be making their way into my scrapbook!

And check this out!  This is called a Walking Wheel, because they would stand and walk back and forth in front of the wheel while spinning.  This was a No Touch item, but we did get permission to stand in front of it.

Now that I've given it a try, I have a much greater appreciation for hand spun yarns.  I already adored them, but I'm glad to have a new understanding of just how much work goes into a lovely hand spun yarn. 

I was so tempted to get myself a drop spindle when we left.  What a great trip!

Summer Swaps

I meant to mention this in my last posting, but I had already yapped enough for one post.
I usually don't knit in the summer, switching to scrap booking.  My friend says I do it backwards - that I should be knitting for winter in the summer, but I like to knit winter stuff in the winter.  It makes me feel cozier, but then no one really gets much time left to wear the things I make for them since they finally get them at the end of winter.  So this year, my goal is to finish the winter knitted gifts by the end of fall.  I haven't done much of it yet, to be honest, because I'm having too much fun knitting things for my swap pals in the summer swaps I've been participating in.  I'm also making a really cool Bri Bag for myself.  If I do a good job of it, I'd like to make one for others as well.

I had been participating in a yarn De-stash swap in June, but was unable to send out my parcel by the cut off date due to the mail strike.  So instead of selecting yarn for my partner from my stash, I ended up buying some nice for her online and buying her a pattern from her Ravelry Wish List.  I selected for her the Montego Bay scarf, and it looked so nice I will be adding it to my own list of patterns I'd like to try out.  I even bought some yarn for it, but I might not get to it till the fall.

We had secret partners for this swap, so I didn't know who's turn it was to spoil me.  Turns out it was Rosa, who sent me a great package!  She got me lots of goodies, including things I've had my eye on but didn't mention.  She must have Swapper's Intuition!  Here are some pics of us discovering the contents of Rosa's swap package.

Here is Emma shaking the card up and down to make the googly eyes go all googly. 
Shown to the left is a special dessert treat Rosa sent for us to make together. 
This will be fun, as my kids love to make pudding!

And here is a photo of the actual card.
 See the cute little eyes?

For the pattern, this was a perfect fit for me!  I've been wanting to knit this one ever since I first saw it on Ravelry.  I don't know if I've actually added it to my queue list yet or not, but I can't wait to get it started.

And guess what?  The perfect yarn for this Girlfriend Market Bag arrived along with it!  I'm going to LOVE knitting this bag, and will post pictures when it's all done.  Such nice yarn, eh?  I haven't seen any of this yummy stuff around my neighbourhood yarn stores.  Maybe I'll have to put in a request...

Now for this swap, all that was required was yarn and a pattern.  Rosa went above and beyond, sending me lots of goodies to go with the yarn.  Here are some the extra goodies she spoiled me with:
inside a pretty little sachet were 2 lovely pearl stitch markers, 6 cool looking triangle stitch markers (they will fit nicely on my dpns), and 2 awesome boots that I call my knitting socks.  I tell the kids they help keep my needles warm when I'm not using them.  These socks come in so handy, you can never have enough!  I wish they would make mini ones for my dpns - I have those green and purple cone shaped ones, but they aren't as fun.

Another goodie I've been dreaming of, that I was spoiled with, is this absolutely amazing tool from Knit Picks.  It's an emergency fix keychain for when you accidentally drop a stitch.  When you are out and about, and haven't brought all your knitting tools with you, this comes in very handy!  I just saw this one on our Happy Blue Year group discussion thread, and thought to myself how neat it would be to actually have one of these.  And now I do!  Yay!

Now for the last picture, I present to you my son Evan, who is teaching me how to wear my yarn buns like Princess Leia.  Thanks again Rosa, for spoiling me completely!  Hope you had fun de-stashing!

Summer is On!

I have to admit, this summer is way busier than I expected it to be.
I figured most of my clients would be taking turns going away, and I wouldn't be busy enough.  Wrong.
The number of people wanting me to watch their kids for the summer surprised me, flattered almost.  A few people had to be turned down, as I'm careful not to go over my numbers.  But this blog is not about work, so here I come with the newest on my knitting adventures...

Last week I got to visit 2 local yarn stores in one week!
This first one is Shall We Knit, in Waterloo.  This so far has been my favourite yarn store.  Ok, so it sort of counts as a new store.  They had previously been set up in New Hamburg, a nearby town.  Now they have moved to Waterloo, they have a larger store with much more yarn than I had seen at their old location.  My first time there, I embarrassed myself so badly that I don't think I'll be able to go there again without a bag on my head.  See, I had been waiting and waiting to go there, and every day when I'm finally done work they are usually closed.  Or when I am done before they close, my hubby is still at work so I can't leave the kids at home.  This was one of those days, and I really wanted to get some Noro yarn for my swap pal in the US (the machine washable one).  I love how it changes color so nicely, and it's pretty much the only yarn I can get my hands on here that will do a striated color change, aside from one sock yarn.  So I packed up my kids and went to the yarn store.  They are usually fairly well behaved when shopping, except that they love to ask me to buy them this and that, etc.  I had a special trip planned for the kids, and we were just going to pop in here first on our way.  But while we were in the store, my children suddenly stopped behaving.  They kept interrupting me when I was trying to question the staff, and my daughter kept wandering off when I was in the middle of reading a yarn label.  Twice she reached their sink and sampled the soap (she loves to wash her hands).  They were not impressed.  In fact, even though I spent over a hundred dollars there (which I likely wouldn't have spent so much without the kids there, but I couldn't think straight), they seemed very impatient with me by the time I was ready to pay for my purchases.  They also seemed relieved when I left the store, and didn't bother to even say 'thanks for coming', or 'come again'.  When I said that next time I will come alone, they barely even acknowledged my comment.  I felt so embarrassed.  If I didn't have my mind set on getting something special for my swap pal, I would have gladly left without purchasing anything.  I don't usually let my children get away with poor shopping manners, and the rest of their special trip was cancelled.  I thought a few minutes at the yarn store would have been a great pick me up, as it usually is.  This time, it actually felt worse having gone there.  The only good thing was that I was able to get a fantastic yarn and some nice goodies for my pal.  As well as some yarn to make her special project with (which I forgot to take a photo of).  Now I'm not sure what kind of a reception I will get next time.

A few days later, I had the opportunity to go with a friend (no kids this time) to a spinning demonstration downtown, so while we were there we hit the Kitchener Market where I got my first glimpse of Yarn Indulgences.  That was a nice pick me up.  We had a great time at the spinning thing (more on that later), and visiting the market was a great experience!  What a perfect name for the store!  And I have to say, the staff there were very friendly and helpful.  I picked out some buttons for my button swap, and some yarn for a scarf I hope to make.  Fantastic shimmering yarn!  It was sunny out, too, just what I needed.  A perfect morning - spending time with my friend, learning to spin, and discovering a new yarn store.  The afternoon went just as well - I spent the rest of the day with my family doing things our kids chose.  A wonderful day.

Waterloo Park

I haven't been here since last summer.  You'd think with it being just a short drive away, I would go here more often.  I really should.  My kids love it, and the pace is so nice and relaxing.  Just walking about, letting my kids explore, and when I bring my camera I take a few hundred photos.  After taking that little photography course last winter, I should have been taking photos every week to not forget what I had just learned.  But after a windy photo session, I noticed my aperture was stuck.  There is something catching in the gears.

Thankfully, Nikon has a 5 year warranty on their lenses.  I kept putting it off, but I finally went to Henry's on Friday to see if it was as easy as they said to send away my lens.  Even though I didn't purchase it there, I brought in my lens and my receipt.  They filled out a form on the computer, printed me off a shipping receipt, and away it goes.  Hmmm, wait a minute.  What about the postal strike?  I didn't even think to ask them how they are getting it to Nikon to be fixed.  I wonder if they have a private service, or if it will be in limbo until the strike is over?  I guess I'll have to wait and see.

So I brought my zoom lens to the park, which means no portraits of the kids in 50 mm.  But still good for brushing up my rusty skills.  Here's a couple I think came out alright.

We thought it was very amusing when the swan came this close to us.  A little too close for comfort, though, as I remember the last time a swan chased us for our corn bread!  We no longer snack while watching large birds.

March Side Swap

It's arrived!  Now that I know my partner has her parcel safely delivered, I can post this without risk of revealing her package before it got there in the mail.

This is a photo my little ones helped me take of the parcel we sent out to one of our friends on Ravelry.  This was for the March Side Swap theme, Anything Goes!

The children helped me wrap the items up and put stickers on them all.  We used spring stickers, of course.  The fingerless mitts and coffee cup cozy I knitted myself.  The other items were selected based on careful consideration and the children saying "Pick that!".

The kids especially liked the spring themed items we chose, like the chocolates wrapped in Easter Egg fashion, and the spring fabric bags we used to place goodies in.  The spring scarf I saw in a local shop and thought right away how it would be perfect for a spring swap.

It was a fun swap.

March Side Swap - Anything Goes...

Here is Part 2 of the previous post.  I'm sharing with you some of the photos I took from the swap parcel that arrived from Frances for me.  She was so kind, even adding goodies for me to share with the kids!

Evan was out with Daddy, so it was just Emma and I to unwrap all these fun things.

 

Here is the group shot of the second have of the swap goodies in the box.  Frances is very talented at packing - it was like a Mary Poppins bag of never ending goodies! Wow! Something for everyone, too!

For me, an awesome pattern for fingerless mitts, which I will be putting on my queue list.  I have to give her credit, Frances really did her research.  I guess she must know how much I adore fingerless mitts!  Bonus points for doing your homework, Frances!

  Frances also gave me a knitting magazine, see that amazing sweater?  It reminds me of one of my favorite yarns, Moda Dea, that was discontinued only after I had just discovered it.

Evan and Burk will both like checking out this book on how to draw cars and trucks.  On top of all that, Frances sent us her state quarter to add to our quarter collection. 
We were missing this one, so thank you for contributing!

Something else that will be enjoyed by all of us is the illustrated story book about the countryside, which is local to Frances.  I will also enjoy reading the local magazines Frances included for me to learn more about her area.  I really appreciate all the thought Frances has put into this swap.  It really shows.  I'm quite impressed.

Here is Emma checking out her own little Mary Poppins bag.  I wondered why the bag was so heavy...

inside it was a bag of Hershey's mini chocolate bars (the kids were very excited to share these!),

2 packs of crayons, and tons and tons of stickers!  Emma is in the photo pointing to her favorite ones.

She then got to work and promptly decorated the bag with as many stickers as she could put on it.

I thought it would have made for a great little project bag, but clearly Emma has her own plans for it.

The bag now holds her crayons, stickers, and some coloring pages inside it.  She likes to carry it around.  I'm glad it helped cheer her up, especially after having a fever most of the weekend.

Here is Emma showing me how to zip up her purse.  The zipper on it is special to Emma - she's never seen such a cool zipper pull.  She was so impressed that she could open and close it all by herself.

Now she's ready to shop.

Thank you so much, Frances!  You really spoiled us!!!

My little assistant

Here is Emma opening a parcel we just right now got from the mail man. I didn't even have to chase him down! He came right to my doorstep!

Emma had a rough time opening it up, as it was well taped.  I got out the scissors and gave her a hand.  I saw on the box that this was from Frances, but I was a little confused as I wasn't her partner in any current swaps... but wait, could it be?  Is Frances my secret pal in the March Side Swap on Ravelry?   OOOH!  So fun!

Here is the first view upon opening my mystery parcel.  Right off the bat, I can see it's packed to be discovered in layers.  :)
I do like to unwrap things.  Emma was thrilled, too. 

We have a nice spring themed card from Frances with a hand written note inside, a post card from her area to add to our postcard collection, and a really cool slogan sticker that I have on my fridge door.  "Beware of the sleep deprived mom!"  It would look equally good on top of the coffee machine.

Next is a group photo of some of the things I opened. 

I had to take 2 group photos, as this is the most stuff I've ever gotten in a swap, and it all wouldn't fit together.

Lots of goodies! 

Here is a cute little bunny broach for Emma to wear on her sweater.  She tried it on her pajamas and checked it out in the mirror, then told me to try it on, too.  It's adorable!  I wonder how small the needles were for this?  Emma then asked me about the spring stamp. 

 Next to become unwrapped was a treat from Lantern Moon... I love their notions!  I have a rosemary wood cable needle from them that is amazing!  This was a package of handknitted flower stitch markers, in such fresh spring colors!  Emma right away asked to have one.  I showed her how they like to hang on mommy's knitting needles to make my yarn pretty.

Here is not one, but two skeins of Blue Ultra Alpaca Berroco yarn!  Nice an squishy, too!  I wonder what it will become?

Even some new things to discover... like the delicious honey with nuts inside it.  It's supposed to be good drizzled over ice cream, so I'll be getting some ice cream at the store this weekend.

 That's not all... I'll have to do a second post to propery share the photos.

Lantern Moon Flower stitch markers

Ice Cream honey treat

Spirogyra going well...

I'm so excited! This is the perfect pattern to compliment the gorgeous yarn that SnazzyB hand dyed for me.
I can't believe just how well this pattern is going! Look how far I've gotten already! It's like the stitches are just flowing over the needles! I love this yarn! I love this pattern! I thought it would be much more complicated than this. And this was the pattern I chose for my birthday, only I couldn't find the right yarn for it. The beautiful yarn I bought for my birthday at the LYS was not the right gauge - one skein too large, one too thin. They will both be lovingly used in future patterns, of course. But I can't say enough how happy I am that I finally get to knit this pattern!!!!

Casting On for Spirogyra

Here is my long awaited cast on photo for the Spirogyra fingerless mitts I'm knitting in the Happy Blue Year March KAL group. Don't worry, I have until May 15th to complete it.
This pattern is by Lynne Vogel, and will be my dream mitts. I expect to have a few challenges, but it'll be worth it.

Cluster Maps view counters

Who's reading your blog?  Cluster Maps has a cool app that lets you see how many hits you get from different parts of the world.  Don't worry, it doesn't give away any info like your specific location or things like that, just what country readers are viewing my blog from.  Which is really cool.  I like to see my stats now and then, and find it really interesting when people farther away are reading.  I don't have too many regular followers, which is ok by me.  It's good to have a few friends to keep up to date with.

But I do wonder sometimes to myself, do people find my blog by mistake?  Do they google something that makes mine pop up instead of someone elses?  I've read lots of great yarn/knitting blogs, so I know mine is nothing that will win a blog award or anything like that.  But if people enjoy reading it, that's good.  I do wish people who are popping in for a visit would write a comment to say hi though. 

So check out my latest Cluster Maps numbers:

United States (US)	167
Canada (CA)	78
Germany (DE)	8
Russian Federation (RU)	8
United Kingdom (GB)	7
Sweden (SE)	7
Peru (PE)	2
Belgium (BE)	1
Netherlands (NL)	1
France (FR)	1
Hong Kong (HK)	1
Taiwan (TW)	1
Turkey (TR)	1
India (IN)	1

Once I had someone reading from Australia, but no more.  :(
If anyone does read me from Australia, and happens to know my old school friend Morgan Reynolds who last I heard lives in Mila Mila (or is it Milla Milla) please tell her hello for me.  After I moved we lost touch.  And she's not even on Facebook!  It's been 13 years since I last heard from her... and I'll bet I'd break my back if we were to have another wrestling match (we pioneered girl's wrestling back in the day).  Too much info? Just pretend you didn't read that then. 

Onto more knitty things, then?

I got more mail today, 2 small parcels, in fact.  I love getting mail in dreary weather.  Grey skies today, with snow that melts when it touches the ground.  Cold.  Brrr.  Good thing I have those new mitts to wear.  :)

Today I received my first Ravelry Round Robin swap.  It's a little different than the other swaps.  You get the parcel, choose something inside that you like, then put something else nice in that someone else would enjoy.  I don't think it includes things like chocolate though.  It's knitting related items.  Here is a photo of my first Round Robin swap parcel.

And here is a photo of the new parcel I will send out, with the new items I've traded in.  Can you see what I took out?

I took out an adorable miniature tapestry carpet bookmark, that Emma keeps trying to borrow for her dollhouse.  It fits perfectly to scale in there, LOL.  I also took out the mini zippered pouch, as it will do nicely for a small notions bag for one of my WIPs.  My goal is to eventually have one mini pouch/bag for each of my WIP's, so I won't have to search for one to take with me when I grab a WIP to stuff in my purse on the way out the door.  I also took the 4 adorable heart shaped buttons.  I think it will be used for something I will knit for my toddler.  Not sure what, yet.  I replaced these items with a little pack of beautiful stitch markers - I know there are already some lovely stitch markers in the parcel already, but I had already bought these to go in before it arrived, and think someone would like them.  I also put in a package of book labels, as I thought this was a good trade for the bookmark. 

I added a knitting themed emery board that I purchased at my LYS, which is fun looking to me.  And my favourite item, which hopefully will make someone laugh, is the humorous sheep birthday card.  You'll have to wait till you get yours in the mail before finding out what it says on the inside.  I thought it was funny.

I hope these items will be claimed by someone during the round robin, we shall wait and see...

Winter Lingers into Spring

We've had our first spring shower in April, which was so refreshing.  It melted the little bit of snow that had come the night before.  But it didn't last.  Only two days later and the snow is coming back again.  It got cold, too.  I don't mind the rain when it is warm enough to walk through, or the snow when there is enough to play in.  I also like it cold enough that I have a good reason to wear my winter gear.  Yes, I do love my winter accessories.  I love my toques, scarves, and most of all mitts! 

I ended up getting an extra surprise in the mail from my swap pal Alix.  She sent me a hand knitted pair of fingerless gloves, and a craft activity for my boy to play with.  I love these mitts!  I keep showing them to anyone who I chat with during the day.  That brings my total collection of owned knitted fingerless mitts (not ones I have made, they are always given away) to 4 pairs.

I'm so glad I got back in to knitting swaps.  It's so fun!  Thank you very much, Alix!

Part 2 Beat the Winter blues

What a beautiful circle of colors here, from my ravelry partner Tsita in the Beat the Winter Blues swap.  Yes, I volunteered to be paired up with 2 partners for this round, so everyone had a partner to swap yarn with.  I've arranged these items into a circle for the photo, as I found they each had something that blended to the next thing.  The yarn that changed color from green to blue, then the blue Cascade yarn (I've never got to own a skein of Cascade yet, so this week has been full of yarn spoiling for me), then some beautiful postcards for my postcard collection with cherry blossoms and a blue sky... and so on.  The postcards are awesome!  Lots of attractions from Tsita's area to read about.  I hoped for one, and she didn't disappoint.  I had seen the world's tallest man at a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Niagara Falls during our honeymoon, but I didn't realize he was from that area.  Cool!  I also didn't realize he only lived to the age of 22.  That was sad, his poor wife.  The chocolates even fit in the with color scheme here, as Tsita spoiled me with Godiva truffles, some of which were mint chocolate with green wrappers.  And in the top right corner you will see a cool looking blue flower, which is the music CD Tsita made for me.  Tsita is also making me a custom dream catcher that she will send to me when it's finished - she is so talented!  I am always amazed when I see how many talented people I see on ravelry.

Thanks for such an excellent package, Tsita!  This sure helps in beating those winter blues!  And all in good time, too, as we still have plenty of snow on the ground.  Hopefully not too much longer, though...

Snazzy's scrumptious yarn!

Look at this fantastic new yarn that arrived in my mailbox today!

This yarn has been specially hand dyed for me by my ravelry friend, Snazzy B.
She knew how much I liked working with colors that gradually change, and how hard they are to come by around here, so she went to work at making me this one of a kind yarn.  Snazzy was even nice enough to ball one skein, so I could get to work on them right away.

I know just what I'm going to do with it, too.  I may need to tweak the pattern a wee little bit if my gauge is off, or I could just use the right needles.  Yeah, that would be better, wouldn't it?

Aren't they absolutely gorgeous?  That's a photo of the pattern which I will cast on tomorrow... I'd love to do it tonight, but hubby says it's date night.  He didn't like it last time I brought yarn to the movies.

Beat the Winter Blues arrival!

Here is my beautifully anticipated package from SaucyMinx. Isn't it lovely?

Perfect for the weather this week.  I could almost think it snowed just so I could appreciate the timing of my parcel's arrival that much more.  We have plenty of snow outside still, as we got over a foot of snow this week after having had green lawns last week.  But that's Canadian Spring for you.  

I would have liked to take better photos, but my camera is out of service right now, so I've used my phone to take the photo.  Almost everything is in this picture.  Alix sent some extra treats for my kids to eat, so those treats are gone.  They were thrilled!  I read the card to them before opening the rest of the package, so they knew something was for them.  Then they got all antsy, ha ha ha.  
Look at all these goodies! 
Alix sent me so many things, I don't know how she managed to pack them all in the box - I had to take out the cracker jacks in order to fit it all back in the box... yum yum!  I haven't had this kind of treat for years, it was nice.  She also sent me some premium Belgian dark chocolate, which is safely hidden in the fridge. 
The real candy, though, was the yarn.  Alix totally spoiled me.  Not one, not two, but three different kinds of yarn was I given!  The first was two balls of Sirdar CHUNKY Denim - I love chunky yarn!  I'm looking at it, thinking it would make a great little bag;  I will have to look up what kinds of purses I can make with this, or perhaps another eReader cozy for my Kobo.  Next was this really cool kind of yarn that I've never seen before.  It not only changes color, but it also changes slightly in thickness and in pattern going from solid to stripes here and there.  I can't wait to knit it!  It's called Aldente, made in Italy.  Then there's the icing on the cake... something I thought about splurging on for myself, but decided I might have to wait until next March for it.  Well, it looks like I get to be part of Malibrigo March, after all!  Alix sent me a skein of malibrigo Kettle Dyed pure merino wool - it's sooooo soft and squooshy!  I love it!  Thank you for the yummy yarn, Alix!
To make sure I would be able to use my yarn whenever it called to me, Alix also gave me two different sizes of large circular knitting needles, and one chunky crochet hook.  Now I am well supplied to try on some new patterns!  Emma has her little hands on the crochet hook in the photo, checking it out.

The other things you will see in this parcel here are a Lilac Mist scented candle, which reminds me of the lilac tree we stop to smell on the way to the park in springtime, and a Sonoma bar of natural lavender soap.  I would grant bonus points for this item (if there were a points system) because this soap company donates 5 bars of soap to people in need for every bar you buy.  www.cleantheworld.org is their link, if you want to check it out.  The butterfly decorated note paper is so beautiful, and it comes in its own case that is shiny with a gold-like edging around the patterns.  Very pretty.  Alix also included for me a set of blue patterned greeting card set of blank cards for me.  Now I can try out card-making with some of the spring stamps I got.  I'm sure Evan would like to do this with me, as he is very creative and loves to do crafts and art.

I've been spoiled!  Thanks for everything Alix, I appreciate all the lovely things you've sent me.  I will send you photos of my finished objects when I'm done knitting with the yummy yarn you sent me. :)

That's all I can write for now, as we are going to turn off our lights for Earth Hour 2011 and chat in the candle light together.  Happy Earth Hour!