The Best Thing about a Postal Strike

Is that all your packages arrive at once! Here at last is my Fall Felted Bag from my partner Penny Here's the HUGE bag she made for me and it's full of goodies! Question is, will my laptop fit inside?
You bet it will and Penny has sewn in an extra pocket on the inside which is exactly the right size for the mouse! Well done Penny, it's a really great, useful bag, thanks a million. But wait, Penny sent more...
The dark yarn you can't quite see is Hacho 100% Merino which is SO soft, Regia Bamboo and a thick single from DuraSport with some Canadian Kool-Aid for dyeing with. How fabulous is this? But wait there's more...
Clods (apparently addictive so I haven't opened them yet!) Cadbury's Dark Chocolate and some handcream(Penny, how did you know I had just finished my last tube?) And a really pretty beaded bag - isn't this lovely? Inside is a necklace and a pair of earrings which are beautiful but can I take a decent picture of them? No of course not. I'll keep trying though as you deserve to see them - they're great.
So thanks to my new friend in Canada who sent me a wonderful package that was definitely worth the wait. I love it all and don't worry I won't be giving any of it away Penny!!

Oh yeah, the worst thing about a Postal Strike? Is people who buy something from you on eBay (or via your website) in the middle of a Postal Strike and then complain that their parcel hasn't arrived..... Messages vary from ' bk not arrvd...problem? thnx' (I kid you not, people really do use text language to complain.) to the longwinded letter of meticulous complaint spanning several paragraphs. It's been impossible not to write sarcastic replies beginning with 'Yes, there's a problem - it's called a Postal Strike, it's beyond my control.' or ' You may not be aware but we have been having a series of Postal Strikes.....' I'm at the end of my tether with them and I don't think I can bear to write anymore replies.

Off to try and finish my Tilted Duster....

SP11 First Package - How Lucky am I this week?

How I hate the Royal Mail - first they kept me and my Knit1Tea2 package apart for far too long and today I found out that they have also been 'storing' this fantastic hoard for me until they could get off their striking rear-ends for long enough to deliver some mail.....



My SP11 Pal is in Seattle - ooh Grey's Anatomy - and I have another clue as to her identity but I'm not going to try too hard to follow up on it as I don't want to know who she is just yet... Her package has a pink theme so here we have pink hand-made stitch markers, pink grapefruit soap and cherries covered in chocolate (they won't last long as cherries are my favourite fruit).



Next we have Loony Boony in very pale cream. SP11 says it's for Hanami - I have it on my Ravelry queue - I'm gonna have a hard time choosing which of my queue projects to do first!

But wait, there's more. I had said I wanted a pale pink Hanami to match the Japanese Cherry blossom so SP sent some hanks of undyed yarn and some Jaquard Dye in pink!! Now I can't decide whether to dye the yarn pale pink, dip dye the yarn so it's pink at one end and cream at the other or even to knit the Hanami and hand-dye the finished stole.... Decisions, Decisions....

And finally something I never thought that I would get to call my own - a SIGNED copy of this.
And it isn't just signed, it's dedicated TO ME by the Yarn Harlot herself. Wonder how early I can go to bed so I can read it?

Aren't I a lucky girl? Thank you, thank you whoever you are!

Knit 1 Tea 2 Package Arrived

Finally the Royal Mail is not on strike and manages to deliver some post.... My KnitOne TeaTwo package all the way from the US.

Here is the all important tea - I have never tried Black or Green Tea so those will be first to try next week. The Yorkshire Tea is packaged just a few miles away so it has been all the way to the US and back again!!
Next we have an ENORMOUS mug with beautiful flowers on it - definitely a real mug size, there is a rabbit tape measure, sheep magnet (my youngest has stolen it already!) and two bars of chocolate which I've never seen before. The chocolate will have to be hidden before the kids see it.
And if all that wasn't enough, then I have all natural soap and chocolate orange lip balm, a lovely card with an Owl on it and some hand made....wash cloths? They are far too soft to be coasters so unless Katie emails and tells me I'm wrong, I have decided that they are washcloths.

Why is it that Digital Cameras can't take decent pictures of anything red? This is Koigu (I have never seen it in the flesh before so I'm so pleased to have this yarn.) The colour on here looks purple and lilac but the actual yarn is shade P859 and is Dark Red. I didn't even use the flash and the camera still got it wrong. I'll have to try to edit the photo manually.

Anyway, a huge thank you to Katie who sent me all these lovely things and made a dismal Saturday much easier to bear.

Fall Felted Bag Exchange Weekly Topic

I may be too late on this one, but here we go....

As of this weekend, the season has officially changed on the calendar - but what makes Autumn feel like Autumn to you, and why?

Firstly, these - Autumn Bliss Raspberries. I grow them as bushes behind my garage and this is the first year I have had a full crop. They start Fruiting in September and will carry on until the first frosts come. If I'm picking these it must be Autumn.

I freeze them for puddings - cheesecake, cakes and crumbles. I make them into jam and cook them with sugar to make a sauce for my eldest son's Ice Cream.

There is also a large Damson tree in the garden which produces far more Damsons than I can use. This year I gave lots away to other people and there were still masses left.

And finally I also have one of these....

A Pear tree. I bought it when my eldest son was born in 1998 and it is planted in a very large pot so we can take it with us whenever we move house (three different places so far). Some years it produces nothing and others it is laden. This year was a good year and I will be poaching the pears in syrup and then freezing them. They get put into crumbles with Blueberries (I grow those too but they have finished fruiting by the end of August) or smothered in dark chocolate sauce. Nigella has just done a recipe for Pear and Ginger Muffins, so this year I will trying those.

For me, Autumn means fruit picking, jam making and freezing. Every day gets a little bit colder and every morning gets a little bit darker.

A Public Apology

I would like to write a public apology to my Secret Pall 11 Upstream pal for not blogging at the required level of 4 posts per month. My son has ADHD and is very ill at the moment - his meds are not working, my husband has lost his job so we have no salary to speak of and bills to pay. Please forgive me for not posting - Blogging is currently the last thing on my mind....

I am knitting though - in the spare moments I have. I was knitting a scarf for my downstream SP until I found out she doesn't like purple - project now on hold. I am knitting a Felted Bag for the Fall Felted Bag Exchange and it is almost ready to send out but of course I cannot blog the bag until my partner has received it. My favourite project of the moment is the Norah Gaughan Tilted Duster from Interweave Knits Fall 2007. I am using Drops Alaska in Dark Red and have completed the bodice and sleeves. When I can find the camera and charge the batteries - I will blog a picture of it. I got the yarn from this website and they were absolutely fantastic - not only is the yarn very reasonably priced but I got the yarn the day after I ordered it. FANTASTIC CUSTOMER SERVICE - if you are in the UK then please visit Scandinavian Knitting Design for DROPS and HP Love yarns.

I need to go now as it is 22:30pm and my son is still awake upstairs singing at the top of his voice. He is going to wake up his Brother and Sister in a minute!!