November 23rd; Mail call

I walked in the door from work and discovered the kitchen table covered in packages, most of them weighing down the newly arrived art for the living room (mildly NSFW). I swapped out the packages for cookbooks and hurried to open them all up.

First was a package from Knitpicks replacing the cable that broke. Thanks knitpicks! Second was a package containing vintage knitting and crafting magazines that I had swapped for. The new issue of Interweave Knits arrived too.


Most exciting was the box from the knittyboard secret pal I'm participating in. The idea of this one is that you gift from what you have on hand, with minimal outside purchases. It seems to me that this leads to spoiling your downstream more extravagantly than SPs where you are to spend X amount. I know my upstream certainly went all out for me. Ohmigod.

Okay. I've been receiving recipe cards in the mail all along, which has been neat. And today this big box comes. So. Check this out. These are the packages inside the box. It took three tries to get my cat out of frame


On top of the box there's a letter, a story really, which tells the story of Alfie, the little frog in Denver. Alfie is lonely and wants a friend. He thinks of all the things friends can do. Eventually he mails himself to me! The packages are all matched up to bits of the story. Pants read the story aloud to me and I opened each package as we came to it.

This is Alfie:


And these are the rest of the things in the package (notice cat creeping into frame again):


I am beyond spoiled. This package contained, in order of opening them:
- Alfie, the frog who wants a friend
- Cookie cutters and a cookie cook book
- Hot chocolate mix
- Three boxes of fancy chocolates
- A fantastic guide to home decorating from 1950
- A project bag
- Stitch markers
- Two hanks of Noro Kureyon Big (Not sure what to make. Something felted, perhaps?)
- A ball of Opal sock yarn
- A hank of Sheared Bliss Fibers own handspun in a lightish fingering weight (I think maybe a scarf or shawlette)
- 4 ounces of Sheared Bliss Fibers wool roving, dyed with Black Walnut and cochineal.

Which leads me to the conclusion that my spoiler is the one and only ShearedBliss (or visit her etsy shop)! Thank you, Angela!

Alfie has found a home with the Thrifty Critter:


Once I got him away from the cat, who loves him in her own way...