I’m knitting a sock (very very slowly, due to severe tendonitis-arm-hand-pain attack) in the gorgeous yarn my SP10 sent me.

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Clay. Oh, so earthy and so wonderful! It’s really sort of… late summery colors, or even autumn, and I considered waiting until… well, late summer or autumn to knit it. But she is a GODDESS and balled it up for me so I didn’t have to, and that sealed the deal. The very springtime/summery colorway (Daffodil? Something like that) that I purchased for myself was still in skeins. And there was no way I was going to mess with balling it up when I had a perfectly yummilicious yarn sitting there ready to knit.

Note to self: it would obviously be worth your time to invest in a ballwinder along with your beautiful swift. Really. You can spend $40 and make your life easier.

Anyway. On that note - my entire SP10 package for May is heavenly. And my pal outdid herself, really. She sent me an AUTOGRAPHED copy of No Sheep For You (drool drool - though granted, if the little “Your book has been autographed!” bookmarky thing hadn’t fallen out when I was flipping through pages, I never would’ve realized it, because I just went straight to the patterns!), and a delicious smelling soap that looks all earthy and mysterious, and some very lovely incense from a Japanese company.

There were two skeins of yarn in the package, but only one is show in that picture.

And that was not the end of my mail. Just the end of that package. The same day, I also got some other happy things that I ordered, including yarn for my spring fling pal (it’s on its way Monday!!), a cute pincushion, and happily, yarn from elann.

Some of that yarn is shown here, in a swatch I’ve begun (also on hold due to pain) for the Lacy Kerchief Scarf out of Interweave’s Holiday Gifts magazine.

Also, in other news, I finished Mom’s lavender sachet! I changed the pattern, deciding to do a lovely triangle instead of a 4″ square, which was neither as cute (I thought) nor as fun. This has the worst seaming job ever. Have I mentioned that I really have no idea how to seam?

Yesterday, I ended up a closeout sale at a quilt store. I bought lots. This first is for a quilt. The fabric line is called Almost Poppy, and I’ve been drooling for over a year. The only fabric that doesn’t go is the coral polka dot stuff, but it ‘matches’, even if it isn’t from the same line.

This, I picked up for a gardening apron:

And lastly, I picked up some charm squares in Moda’s “Sonnet” line. Love it.

I also got a few patterns. I wish I’d had the money for lots, lots more. As it is, I borrowed from Mom…

Anyway, I got my garden all planted at last, and now I’m just waiting for my muscles to stop spasming in pain so I can knit freely again. Hurry up, arms! Hurry up!

I finished my gingerbread man apron! Huzzah! And here it is, in shining glory. Ignore the headless body - that would be me, in all my shapeless glory… I swear, it’s the apron that makes me look like that, but I’m no supermodel in real life. As for headless… well, you would’ve chopped it off, too, upon seeing just how bad the photo was to begin with.

And here, a closeup of the apron fabric, which is sooooo cute.

Moving on, I’ve also taken some pictures of my quilt blocks. I’ll consider this sort of a WIP Friday deal, since it’s now after midnight, and thus, Friday. And it is indeed a work in progress, though the progress might be slow, and I’m 2 blocks behind schedule. It’s for a quilt block of the month class dealie, using the gorgeous, if pastel, fairy frost fabrics. Enjoy.

And one last photo - this is of a quilt my mother just ‘finished’. Okay, so she’s not actually finished yet, but she’s not going to do the actual quilting of the thing herself - it’s her first quilt, and she wants to be sure it’s done right, so she’s taking it to someone to get the thing quilted together. This is the before-it’s-quilted-together photo. I love it, by the way. I’m begging for it for Christmas, but I’m not sure she’ll cave. ;-)

I got some better pictures of the stole up at last! Reminds me that I really need to set up a photo album here, but… ach well… eventually.

Here’s the new stole pics, anyway:

That’s a crooked photo, as you can tell, but it should be better to see! It’s quite long - four feet or so unblocked? Something like that. And below here is a closeup of the edging, which I swore the entire way through would just not work the way it was supposed to. I was convinced it was all messed up and mistakey and everything else, but guess what? It was fine. A little irritating to knit, if you ask me, but gorgeous just the same. Aside from the center medallion, the edging is my favorite part of the stole.

Moving on, Secret Pal 9 has officially begun! I’ve been in contact with both spoiler and spoilee, which is great! Heh. Even sent my spoiler a coupon for $5 off to Adagio on request. :) I’d send one to my spoilee as well, as she drinks tea, but I’m sort of afraid that my name will show up on it as something other than Secret Pal, and it’s really much too early to ruin that surprise! So… actual tea it will be. ;-) I’ll give her a coupon to buy her own at the END of the swap, perhaps. [PS: if anyone reading this wants a coupon for some Adagio tea - $5 off your order - just drop me a line in the comments and I’ll email you one.]

My spoiler and spoilee both sound very friendly! I’ve exchanged several emails with the latter, and while it doesn’t seem we have a lot in common on the surface aside from a love of knitting, I hope to learn much more about her. And I hope to learn much more about my spoiler, as well. :)

There is an incredible number of people taking part in this swap. There’s no way I could possibly go through and look at everyone’s blog, so I’m afraid I won’t even try. But I do slip over to the participants list to check out one or two every now and then at work, just to read something new! :)

In other news… not much. I fear I’ve got a cold (thanks A…) and have been reading Nora Roberts’ new trilogy (The Circle Trilogy), which is good, and of course, I’ve been working. Went to quilt class Friday. Took A with me and Mom, but she was sick (again, thanks A) so she spent the whole night out of it. Quilting was good, though. The class sucked, but then, it’s not much of a class so much as a “pick up your block” club deal. I should take pictures of my finished blocks and post them, I suppose. *muses* Yes… But I got some gorgeous flannels for wintery pillowcases, and a Halloween quilt pattern that I just LOVE (need fabric, need fabric…) and… some stuff I needed at Pamida (the dinkiest store on the planet), and some groceries.

And somehow, I still have no food. Imagine that.

I seem to have caught swapping fever on Craftster. Hah. But I’ve been in a creative, I want mail sort of mood. Even though I’m broke off my ass. I just finished making a crochet roll:

[insert pic here]

for the 2006 Wishlist Swap… where I unfortunately haven’t been chosen. Damn. I guess I’ll consider it a good deed?

I’ve also signed up for the following swaps:

DIY Kit Swap
I’m swapping two soapmaking kits for a visual journaling kit and an altered book kit! Huzzah!

Summer Bag Swap
I’m making a messenger bag, and will be recieving… something good, hopefully!

iTunes Shuffle Swap
Making 2 cds of (close to) 50 songs for my partner, along with a deco’d up case of some sort.

I <3 Coffee/Tea Swap (the <3 is a heart, for the uninitiated)
I'm swapping a bunch of coffee/tea goodies!

Little Visitor Swap
This is sooo cool. You send out a stuffie to your partner, and you get your partner’s stuffie in the mail. Then you take her stuffy around town and take pictures of it and make it a little accessory (hat, bag, skirt, whatever) and send it back about a month later with some souveniers. And you get yours back with all the same stuff! Like the travelling gnome, except, cooler than a gnome, for sure.

So yeah. *cough* I’m in the midst of swap heaven. I believe I’ll be making the stuffie I’ll send on its trip. Gotta get busy with that - I send off on July 12th!

Also, must sew up two quilt squares. Need to do that ASAP as quilting is on the 7th. They’re cut out, at least. That’s a start. Will have to get some pics of those, too.