Gifty goodness and a finished object

I have received another fabby package from my wonderful Secret Pal (who I think is teasing me, but more on that later…)! Here are some yummy pics.
First up here is a pic of everything in the package. I have lots of goodies 😀

There is yarn – a lovely handspun 100% wool natural fibre bundle of goodness. The colour is a jadey tealy colour, and I have 420 yards of it! 😀 Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Hope you can see the colour properly, as it is a lovely strong bright one, that doesn’t quite come out on the first pic, so I shifted over to the window sill to get better light.
This is a fabulous set of stitch markers, handmade by my pal, with I for increase and D for decrease on them 😀 What’s more, the hoops to put on the needle are of a decent size, in stark contrast to the ones you can buy here. I’d love to make stuff like this – pal, when you reveal yourself, you need to teach me 😉

She also included some very tasty Japanese sweets (Meiji brand for those in the know 🙂 ), and some Japanese notions – Clover sewing needles with a little case, some ends for converting double pointed needles into single pointed (although I can see it being handy when I’m knitting something in the round that nearly fills the needles and stopping the stitches coming off the end), and last but not least, a fabby ceramic sugar keeper, which will be going straight in the biscuit tin to keep the crackers and Ryvita crunchy 🙂
Thank you secret pal! I love my package, and can’t wait to thank you properly! And you are very cheeky for posting the first one from the US, but this one from Cumbria and Dumfries… Ahhhh! I actually only noticed because my friend has sent me a parcel (which as yet hasn’t turned up 🙁 more than a week after it was posted), and actually thought it was from her when I saw the UK stamps. 🙂 When I find out who you are, you better have some good pics on your blog of your trip, whichever side of the water it was on 😉
Ok, next up, and also secret pal related, here is a pic of my first of many One Skein Wonders 🙂 I was, as you know, going to make full length sleeves, but ended up getting too impatient, and just lengthening them a bit. I’m not sure whether I should have made a size down, but this goes nicely over my heavier t-shirts as well as the skinnier ones. The pic is terrible because of the angle it is taken at, but you get the idea 😀

This was soooo easy to knit up – even the ribbing at the end was quicker than I expected. A week of very sluggish knitting is pretty good for this I think 🙂 I’ve bought some Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora yarn to make another as a gift, because it is the perfect gifty knit! Thanks for getting me the pattern Pal 🙂
I’ve been getting on with the bolero, and have seamed the first sleeve in to check the fit while I’m in the middle of the second sleeve, and now I’m not sure what I think of it. It’s ok, just not that exciting. Admittedly I tried it on with my scruffy too big cords on and the same t-shirt as in the above pic, which is hardly girly bolero wear. And I also know that the edging will add another inch of length. I’ve tried on boleros before and thought they were ok on me, so launched into this project with that in mind, and the fit looks right – a little big like many people have found, but fine in general (a size smaller wouldn’t have worked at all). I might take a pic later to ask everyone on Craftster what they think. Or should I finish the final sleeve and see how it looks before the edging is made? Hmmmm. Not sure… I’m feeling very rotund today, so I probably hate everything on me right now! I’ll do something else for the rest of the day and leave it aside to rethink it later.