I Smell Coffee!!

On my way out the door the other day there was a box for me down in the vestibule.  I opened it up to find:

A beautiful ball of yarn from my Magic Yarn Ball Swap

The group has be planning and hiding and wrapping for about 2 months.  The gist:  you hand wrap the skein into a ball, all the while hiding little (or not) treats inside.  Depending on the price of the yarn and goodies, some people got tons of little things, or just a few big things.

Here's what I sent out to dovely:

Lots of little goodies

Wrapping it up

I of course didn't think of taking pictures of things before or during wrapping up.  But here's what I sent:  a group of stitch markers from my soon to be shop (each wrapped individually for more things to open), a Bridgewater candle, a Soap Rocks soap, a mini Camille Beckman lotion, needle connectors/tip protectors, row counter, jeweled notebook.  I think that was everything.  I was able to put extras in because I got a couple things at the card store (yay employee discount!).  

Back to my package.  Here's what BlueLatitude sent me:  

The yarn is from Fearless Fibers in the colorway Feel the Love.  It's 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon.

As soon as I opened the box I smelled it:  yummy coffee aroma wafted up at me.  Unfortunately, I had to wait until the next evening to unwrap the ball and find it.

There's someone hiding in my yarn!

As you can see, I started getting bored unwrapping the yarn so I had a little photoshoot with my sheep.

Finally got it all unwrapped and balled up (more on that in a bit).  The coffee (smells delish) is Outpost Rost Coffee Organic Bay View Brew.

Yay for coffee and yay yay for it being organic!  Sweet :o).  My swapee is from Wisconsin and I guess cheese wasn't going to ship well in the yarn.  I like coffee more than I like cheese so it's all good with me.  The yarn is so so amazing feeling and the most perfect blend of reds.  I think Gillian (BlueLatitude) was hoping I'd knit some socks (and I did queue some from Ravelry) but I think this ball of stubborn wonderfulness wants to be the Land of Oz Shawl.  I had been so excited about making a purchase from Flocks of Yarn that I didn't take the time the check gauges and totally intended my Malabrigo Lace for that.  I'm not a shawl or lace knitter so I can't even explain what I was thinking for that.  I do have a project for the Malabrigo but my Oz Shawl has been waiting to be made.  I haven't decided yet though.  Any thoughts?

Back to the Fearless Fibers yarn...  What a bitch!  I officially don't like sock yarn.  Between this skein and the Knit One Crochet Too I used for Tijah's argyle hat I'm a little put off.  Maybe it's me.  Maybe it's the ball winder.  But I just could not get this stuff to stay on the damn winder!  It took me forever to get it wound and it's still not wound in as tight of a ball as I would like.  

There's my little sheep friend snuggling up in the loosely wound ball.

I actually think it's the ball winder.  I feel like the piece the yarn winds around is so thick that there's always such a big hole in the middle of my balls.  Guess ya just gotta make do with what ya got right?

Before today, I was going to use naming the little sheep as part of my birthday giveaway (hint hint- coming up so keep an eye out).  But I decided to name my little sheep friend Rebekkah.  I was listening to some Stitch It Podcast episodes (I've been listening from old to new marathon style) and Meghan kept saying the name Rebecca and it just stuck.  I like my spelling because it's traditional but with a kick (the extra "k").  I love this name.  So now I have a little sheep named Rebekkah.  Funny though, when I was trying to figure out if this was actually a spelling of the name I googled it and was sent here.  The name means "to bind."  Ha.