Presents in the Post

Such an exciting day yesterday. The postman brought me not one, but two packets.

Remember the dreadful knots and fragile state of the final skein of Blackberry Ridge laceweight for Rosy Fingered Dawn? Well, I e-mailed them and explained the problem, not really wanting a replacement (since I'd already struggled with all the extra yarn ends the knots entailed) but just in the spirit of letting them know so the problem could be addressed. (It drives me bonkers at work when people complain after they have eaten (or not) their dinner. Tell me about it and I might be able to help, don't tell me about it and there is no chance I can help. Unless my crystal ball is back from the mender's.) I had a very nice, very prompt reply offering a replacement skein or, if I had "plowed on" (don't you just love that quaint US way of spelling?), another skein of something else and would I like to choose? Well, I had "plowed on" and so I chose a skein of silk/wool blend in the Willow colour.

That arrived:



It's very pretty. I haven't wound it into a ball yet so I don't know about any knots. I don't know what it's going to turn into. I thought about "Ene's Scarf" from "Scarf Style" and when I dug the book out discovered:

"YARN
Blackberry Ridge Lace Weight Silk Blend (75% wool, 25% silk; 350 yd [320 m] /2 oz [57g]): Willow, 2 skeins". So that would be half a scarf, then.

I also got a parcel from UKnitty. I had an honourable mention in the competition to prove "I'm not slacking, I'm supporting the cause" and because of that I had four skeins of Rowanspun 4-ply in a lovely teal colour. Many thanks. Here is my first (faceless) "Knitted Babe" holding said yarn:



Included with the yarn was an example of the rare red Bounty bar, a truly inspired touch. There is no picture of that, for I am afraid I have destroyed the evidence.

In want of a decision on the next shawl, I have been concentrating on the Babe:



Here she is, reclining on the Ab Fab throw in her underwear. In fact, I still need to put some elastic in the waistband of the French knickers, otherwise she is in grave danger of losing them completely. She needs more hair, too. I think maybe a fringe? Most of the clothes and accessories use what is called "fingering weight" yarn. I think this is equivalent to our 4-ply. Well, that threw me into confusion. I don't have any 4-ply. That was my first thought. Second was, "Oh, no! I'll have to go to my LYS." and third was to have a root through my stash. Of course I've got 4-ply. There's pink variegated (from the entrelac socks); plain pink (ditto); any number of tiny balls of sock yarn (variegated and not); some wool/cotton in purple and fuchsia (no idea what the plan was there); lots of Shetland 2-ply jumper weight that I think will do (left over from the Wendy Fearless Fairisle); I think two strands of laceweight would also do the trick (any amount of that clouting round the house); and of course there's lots of yarn left from the RFD kit, which I still can't think of as lace-weight. All in all, I've probably got enough yarn to knit the nameless babe a full wardrobe.

I've surely got enough yarn to knit a whole stableful (if that's the correct term) of Babes. They even have their own website and there's a "Babes' Blog", where there are very many Babes of all descriptions. My Babe hasn't got a name yet but I'm sure she's going to tell me who she is very shortly.

Now for a bit of silliness:

Kate needs:

- more than a glad bag of coke for an evening.

- a shave.

- to get outta here.

- to be brought to her knees.

- to trust Angel.

- to go back to working at the diner.

- to be genuine.

- a kidney.

- help.

- to be involved.

Saw this originally on Wendy's blog. Want to play? Just Google "(your first name) needs" and post the best 10 (or don't bother posting - just laugh quietly to yourself.)