Recently in stash Category

Like my spoiler from x- Mas Swap Anja and Tsea I took part in the Knitters Treat Exchange too. This Swap was hosted by my Secret Pal9 spoilee Isobel and sweensie and the aim was to spoil another knitter. One should send yarn for a small project, a magazine, something pampering and a delicious treat and some small assecoires. Since the 5th of May I have been waiting for my parcel and now today my postwoman finally arrived with it.

"You have mail from Pennsylvania!" , she said and I immediately understood what it must be. It also became obvious, why it had taken so long.

From upstairs, looking out of the window, I first thought it must be something from Amazon and I found it very weird, why I should recieve a package from amazon since I hadn�t ordered anything.

I was able to controll myself and keep the parcel closed for quite a long time, because I used it as an extra motivation to finish my daily (and not so daily) tasks, one of which it was to iron Rons longsleeved business shirts with an outside temperature of 31 degrees celsius. jeez.
To make sure I have a photo in case I loose controll early, I first took a photo and then went on with work.



Finally the best about it could take part: the unwrapping.
My spoiler was the nice Karla from the beautiful Pennsylvania, who really put lots of thoughts and efford into the parcel. Ok, my questionaire was very clear and my wishlist too, but she also put a lot of other ideas into it. I recieved my beloved Simply Knitting (which is published in Great Brittain, in other words had to cross the Atlantic ocean twice which surely made it even more expensive ) which had a little pattern booklet with home assecoires as a free gift. One of the patterns is from a person I quite admire and have personal contact with, Claire from missbell.uk.
I also got a pattern for a lace shawl named "lily of the Valley", which absolutely isn�t my taste, but hey - I have a mother and two grannies, right? ;-)
The parcel also contained a noteblock that sticks and has a cool pattern, locking stitch markers and a chibi needle case from Clover from Japan. I�ve had them on my wishlist since the start of Secret Pal 9 last year and put them on because I�had seen them in an issue of Simply Knitting.
The pampering treat that Karla sent, was a bottle of "skin Sin" the gorgeous bodylotion from Lush (expensive). As delicious treats she sent delicious handmade cookies and some Chai tea from Twinnings of London because she was unsure if I�d like the cookies and because she likes Chai tea just as I do. I have now 3 different Chai tea sorts in my tea cuppboard. :-)

But the best in the parcel were a lace needle from addi turbos which measures 1,50metres and is 3,5mm strong. And above all this incredible yarn. The yarn is a Laceweight Merino - Tussah silk blend and just "my" shade of darkred. It is the thinnest yarn I�ve ever had and is wound up in a unusual form, which I�ve seen at several irish knitter�s blogs and at Theresias but it�s my first one in this shape.

Karla had the idea of me knitting the lace shawl from the pattern with the needle and the yarn (in her accompaning letter she gave me several advices for lace knitting) but this pattern really isn�t just my taste. But I think the idea itself was nice and so at least I am going to knit some lacy toe socks from this beautiful yarn with the pattern from a November Simply Knitting issue, which I have also sent to Tsea. I think the yarn is nice for the toes and not too thick and apart from that it is very smooth and comfy and with that silk content it is ideal for summer.

I have asked my friend Yaga from Switzerland a favour, she is going to buy some less than 2mm dpns for me. I very much appreciate that, because I bet that those needles will suit that Laceweight yarn better.

Thank you dear Karla for this great goodies, everything absolutely suits my taste, and the cookies too, don�t worry.

Thanks also to Isobel for her caring guidance and the immense efford she put into this swap.
I am going to take part in the second round around October too.

Today a parcel from the USA arrived. Like Aileen I took part in a swap too, which was swap - bot based. This swap saidf that we are to send something from the stash that will be more usefull for another person. Of course one should ask the partner what his likes/ dislikes and allergies are.

I got my parcel from Sandy, who lives in North Carolina. The parcel was full of uncommon fibres, and even though not all of the colours were exactly my taste, I loved it.
But hey, I have friends, parents and my boyfriend, right? The parcel contained 6 stitch markers from Meredith by the company "yarn paradise", which were inside a white organza - pouchie.
I found a great posctcard with some fibres and some balls and skeins of yarn.
The olive green balls (which look grey on my picture, but in reality are light olive green) and the darkred ball have a cool and firm touch. The fibre is hemp, and we don�t really get hemp firbe here. The lightpurple ball is baboo fibre and I already know what I am going to do with it. The darkblue skein is linen, the lightblue skein is pure merino wool and my highlight has the name "koi pond" and is the orange- red skein. That are 50g pure silk. Thank you, thank you, thanks, dear Sandy. You have made me really happy and brought joy to my life with all those great gifts.

Today I went to have a little party with my parents, Ron and my granny and because of the damn heat problem it took place at my parents�flat. The day was made fine by a great strawberry tart, self- made apple strudel, self - baked pizza from my mum, looooooooooooooots of great presents (a warm feather blanket), some knitting of the first sock and shopping. I bought myself a new pair of cuddly boots, a pair of darkbrown/purple cord trausers, some tins of honey (Avocado and Mango honey, they didn�t have more of my beloved chestnut honey), a pair of bedshoes, some magazines, 2 sheep keychains, instant tea and some small things for my spoilee. Plus I went to take a closer look at "my" wool shop at the ancient part of K�penick where I went regularily when I lived nearby. I was incredibly lucky to meet the owner herself, because she moved away to West Germany some months ago. She fell madly in Love with a boy there, moved to him and just occassionaly drops in to make sure everything is all right. She still is hunting for my lana grossa "bingo" yarn and told me, that she was to the shop where she hopes to find some a lot of times by bus but always arrived during the shop�s luch closing time. She promised to try and go there by bike. The shop in K�penick now sells even addi DPNs (5mm and very thick wooden ones), they have a new range of felting wool in nice colours, and more beads than ever. I hoped to finally find some really bulky Aran- like 100% pure new wool which should be coloured, and they had some kind but it was only wickyarn. What a bummer. Instead the owner recommended a sock wool from Austermann and seemed happy when I told her that I managed the boomerang - heel. I bought one ball of this sock wool called "step" and the colour is called blackberry (in fact there are some shades grey and raspberry). I also bought a half high knitting nelly which can produce strings twice so thick than before, a pipe of G�termann beads (the colour is something copper/bronze like) and a scented candle with tangerine scent. The shop owner told me that she liked these scented candles because they weren�t causing headaches. wowowo, what a great day!

Uhm, I was to Berlin again. The main reason for this was, that we have neither heat nor warm water yet (the company has delayed delivery three times) and my parents suggested that I could taka a bath at their flat. Wow, washing my hair, take a shower AND bathing. This was really a pleasure. The blackberry bath bomb from lush I used was excellent for this occasion. Inside the bath ballistic there was a little piece of paper with a speech balloon on it saying "BOOM BOOM". ^_^ This company has really a good sense of humour, not bad. But before joining the bathroom for the next 2 hours at the afternoon, I went to a wool and yarn shop at the new part of K�penick (this is the place where I lived and where my parents are) at the main street there. Usually you get explainations of knitting things if buying something there. After having tried to call a friend of my parents�, Sabine from the feinstofflich - shop, it was obvious that she wasn�t in and I couldn�t visit her to show me the boomerang - heel. So I decided to go to this wool shop and try there. The owner was totally distressed with her latest
delivery, phone calls and the bookkeeping and the other saleswoman left the shop soon after I entered, to go to the doctor. The owner said to me that she�d be pleased to explain that heel to me, I just need to wait until 1 p.m. (I was there since high noon and should be back at 1 p.m. for lunch with my parents) I somehow managed to spend the time there (hey, it is a yarn shop - enough to touch, look and read) and decided to buy a certain darning cotton for daddys pullover (I was asked to buy this by my mum), wool for felting, a booklet with knitting projects and some wool for my spoilee. Then, at quarter to 1 the shop owner came to the cash desk so that I could pay my goods. She then said that I should pay 6 Euros because it would steal 1 hour of her working time. I first thougt she�d be joking, but it was true. I was quite angry, because I expected her to tell me this in advance. I don�t pay any money if it can work out another way - just had to be patient. She could have been so good to tell me that she takes money for this *grrrr* If I knew I wouldn�t have waited such a long time. She somehow tried to pitch this to me. I should go without the goods I bought but take the explaination insted. Pah! Going without the goods... When I finished bathing and everything included, I helped my mum to prepare some
things for the banitza she was going to bake for me. (banitza is a typical bulgarian filo pastry filled with sheep cheese, butter, spinach or leek or combinations of these). After this we all three sat down with a good yogi chai tea with milk and honey, some cake and I read out the instruction for the heel from my book to my parents. I hoped that they would be able to understand or imagine how this should be done but they weren�t. So I was picked up by my boyfriend Ron and went with him to a friend of mum�s called Achim to get a radiant heater. I hope that our new central-heating boiler will arrive soon, we� ve been waiting for 2 months now.