I received my socks from qdgirl. They are quite beautiful and so soft. I absolutely adore them (really...not just saying that). They are a little big around my ankles, but in thinking about this; I don't think it's her fault. There's a whole long, boring explanation but the short of it is that I think my ankles were swollen when I took measurements of my feet, but as it's winter and I don't really notice my ankles, etc much during this time I didn't think about it until after the fact and some super tight socks were fitting more loose. I also completely failed to send any sort of measurement correction to her, so I can't really blame her. Regardless of this I'm sure I will get a lot of wear out of them!

Speaking of the sock swap, my socks for her are just about complete, but I hit a snafu this weekend and hurt my wrist. So annoying. I'll have to say too; already having my yummy socks I'm hoping the ones I make will be up to par; having never intentionally made a pair for someone other than myself (my first pair ended up being a gift). Our sizes are different, but I'm going to give up my secret. I'm totally relying on Sensational Knitted Socks. Completely, following the instructions for where her size falls. I've heard that Schurch is not good with negative ease (didn't hear that until I was completely done with the first sock) but as my swappee's feet are fairly different in size there's no way to really gauge that. All I can do is hope and complete the socks.

Ok, this is going to be a huge post. I still haven't gotten this whole small posts thing down. First, I want to talk about my wheel. There's a story behind how I got my wheel, but I'd rather not go into it here. Let's just say a very special person gave it to me, and it'll be a wonderful reminder of her.


Meet Nona. She's a Kromski Minstrel in the walnut finish. She's brand new, and is just beautiful. I haven't really gotten spinning down, but I'm working on it. Nathan has even taken a liking to it, and is quite interested in how it works. I need to invest in some non-animal fibers for him to learn as well.

I did tell the story on Knittyboard, and also asked for assistance in my first fiber purchase. True to the knittyboard style of generosity Laurie from the Black Lamb sent me some fiber to get started. She sent some south african fine wool, fine kid mohair, white alpaca top, lincoln top, and some light blue superwash merino pencil roving. It's all so nice. As directed by Laurie I started with the south african wool, and, yeah, it's getting there!
I think, ultimately, I just need to practice more.


I also participated in the Knittyboard VD super fast super secret swap. I sent out my dose of VD last week, and Kris seemed to really like it! I got VD in the mail yesterday, and couldn't wait to rip right into it. It came from MayerLove on the board, and she sent me some great VD! I got a great handmade card, and some really pretty handspun.


I got another package in the mail yesterday too. It was from my secret pal Vaarsuvius from SP8 on Knittyboard. I mentioned in my questionnaire that I like to read Order of The Stick and my SP has run with it (thus the name of Vaarsuvius). It's a lot of fun. My package had a lot of goodies in it. Wrapped up for VD with pinks and reds I got a cute card, some candy hearts, a big Reese cup heart (let's pretend it's not already half eaten in the picture) some pretty green Koigu, and a button. A very interesting button. A limited edition, only handed out at a couple of conventions with a certain webcomic artist button. Hmmmmm...


I'm excited to see where this goes, and I'm really wanting to know who they are, but I have a long time for that! I'll just have to focus on spoiling my downstream in the meantime.

Since I'm talking about all the things I'm involved in I'll say that I'm working diligently on my Sock Swap partner's socks. I'm definitely slower than some people in the swap, but I'm getting there. We've decided to keep them secret from each other, but I think they're very pretty, and coming along nicely.