I Love You Baby!

(Image heavy, sorry 56k users)

Just a little while ago, I was sitting on the chaise, quietly enjoying a book. Now, I'm hopped up on raspberry chocolate and yarn fumes--because I got a package from my secret pal!

As Brak (the cartoon character and not my SP of the same name) would say, I'm as happy as a bag of wigs!

Look at this treasure trove: There's the afformentioned chocolates, some pomegranate white tea (I recently discovered white tea and love it--It's great hot or iced), even some bacon treats for the pupmaster! The valentine red yarn up there is Knitpicks Shine Sport, a soft soft soft cotton blend that is easy on the hands. My brain's already busting with ideas for this yarn, as it is a perfect match to my (almost finished) embroidered stockings:

Just an aside: while embroidery is cool, I don't see myself taking it up full time. The stockings turned out beautiful, but it is fiddly work. Makes my teeth itch.

Here's where it gets kind of spooky. One of the first things I unwrapped were two skiens of Dale of Norway Hauk, in black and natural. Immediately, I think "Yes! A pirate hat to go with my pirate mittens!" You know, the pirate mittens from Hello Yarn:

Immediately after that, I opened a mysterious looking rolled up package-- a manila envelope containing, yep--

--the We Call Them Pirates hat and mitten patterns. Brak, you read my mind. And by the way, thank you for the copy of the mitten pattern as well. My brothers think they are insanely cool (as cool as knitting gets for preteen boys anyhow), and my original pattern has been, well, too close to the coffeepot a couple of times.

Gabby says thank you too. Here's her thank you face:

Also sent, but not pictured (because I put it straight into the CD player for the photoshoot), was a CD of Brak songs from when he was a character on Space Ghost. Pure comedy gold.

A great big thank you to my secret pal!!!

Curriculum Minutiae

Right now, I'm involved in a secret pal exchange with some of the lovely folks on knitty. If you've never done one before, it's a pretty neat concept. I'm having a lot of fun planning out gifts and surprises for my downstream pal, but I refuse to say any more about it, because she is a smart one and I don't want to be too forthcoming with the clues just yet. My upstream pal is just a hoot, she's already sent me a cute (and mysterious)
card, and I have a feeling that something wicked my way comes. Signing up, we filled out pretty detailed (read:endless) questionnaires, but that was mostly about our likes/dislikes. So, I thought it would be entertaining for Brak, my wonderful secret pal, to learn some interesting and not-as-interesting things about me.

My posting ID, one-skein-wonder, actually has some significance behind it. I can do a lot with one skein. Somehow, I have magic powers that multiplies yarn like loaves and fishes. Its been documented; ask the owner of my LYS. See those socks up there (Ignore my cankles please)? Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, safari colorway. Logic would tell you one skein does not a pair of socks make, but I went and done it anyway. Actually, I had quite bit left over, I could have made them longer. Lesson learned.

I am an utter klutz. When I was little, my dad enrolled me in ballet with the hopes that it would make me more coordinated. I enjoyed classes and even got rather good at it but still routinely walk, eyes forward, sober as a judge, straight into the side of a door instead of through it.

My guilty pleasure is medical dramas. Oh yes, I watch Gray's, E.R., House...but secretly, my favorite is M*A*S*H. Okay, more of a comedy than a drama, but it's been on longer than I've been alive, so there you go.

I am of course a compulsive yarn hoarder, but I am also a bit of a guitar hoarder. Having a boyfriend who also plays guitar does not help matters much. Our bedroom is sort of a stringed instrument containment unit, with cases under the bed, behind furniture, and leaning against walls. Believe it or not, we actually play pretty much all of them too. I was going to post pictures, but I forgot to take them, so just imagine a really nice 1969 Gibson SG here. I call her Betty.

I like playing music, so predictably, I like to listen to a lot of music. Actually, I like all music. I can't even use the qualifier "...except for rap and country" because there are artists in both categories that I like a lot. So I am either really open-minded, or I just have horrible taste.

When I was four, I rescued a mouse from one of our barn cats, and the mouse bit me. He was overwhelmed with gratitude I'm sure. Fortunately mice do not generally carry rabies.

In fifth grade, I managed to run myself over with my mom's car (see "klutz" above).

Hope you enjoyed that Brak! Next time, a new comic and a parade of finished objects!