My Secret Pal Keeps on Rocking!!!

First of all, I'd just like to thank everyone for their good wishes on my birthday and also for all their kind words and encouragement regarding my Olympic knitting. It, and the TLC from my DH (which included at one point reading out the 28-row edging pattern to me whilst I rested my aching shoulder against a cushion and knitted) got me through. DH now knows most of the knitting abbreviations! How neat is that? I don't think he's going to become one of those new age men who knit though because, despite all my assurances that he'll love it, he's not convinced. I've also made some new knitting friends through taking part in the Knitting Olympics and have added to the amount of interesting blogs I like to visit.

I, and quite a few others I think, discovered that we were able to find the self-discipline necessary to stick to just one project during the Olympic period and we could also be much more productive than we ever thought possible. No way would I advocate that sort of knitting productivity in the long-term. Knitting, in fact, is my escapism from the hectic cacophony that can be life. It has become my space where I feel safe and unconstrained and I wouldn't want to spoil that. Being able to be monogamous knitwise though is another matter. It brings to mind all those UFOs lurking around like cast off lovers (ha, I should be so lucky)! These abandoned projects are mostly to be found in dark places where they don't get chance to catch my eye and give me the equivalent of a baleful look! Just think, if the Olympic self-discipline were to be reprogrammed and hardwired into my brain, the balls and skeins of yarn for these projects could all very soon become twisted, twined, cabled, bobbled, intarsia-ed, fair-isled and generally otherwise manipulated in such a way as to make them recognisable as something wearable! If only I could recreate that Olympic drive until they were all done!

Anyway, enough of that. Now I've had chance to catch my breath, the Olympic shawl will be properly blocked before it goes to my niece for her new baby daughter (not born yet).

And now, to get back to the main purpose of this post, can I just say that not only does my secret pal rock but she keeps on rocking!!! Look what the postman brought!


And just look what was inside!!


Two balls of Zitron Ethno! Just the right amount and exactly the right shade to make the Fickle Fingers Scarf that I fell in love with from the last issue of Interweave Knits. Do you remember I bought some Noro Iro from the Knit Tin as a substitute for the Ethno so I could make this scarf? I don't think my secret pal saw this on my blog - she didn't say she did - yet, in the parcel was a lovely handwritten note in which she suggested I might like to make the Fickle Fingers Scarf with the yarn. She seems to know me very well!! Now I've seen the Ethno "in the flesh" I realise that the Iro is probably not all that good a substitute. I didn't realise that the Ethno is a boucle type yarn and a very yummy one at that! Anyway, to refresh your memories, this is the Fickle Fingers Scarf below.


Also, in the parcel was a really pretty zipped purse that I'm thinking could be used to store some of my knitting accessories in and not one, but two, bags of very luxurious chocolate from Walters Specialist Confectioners in Berlin. My favourite was the hazelnut and vanilla chocolate and I was safe with that as DH is averse to nuts. It was a different story with the dark chocolate flake pieces though! However, I still managed to tease DH with it for a suitable length of time before offering him some. Some of us never grow up, do we?!

I adore the Revolution teabags in their separate little boxes that my secret pal also included. I hope she'll correct me if I'm wrong because the boxes are labelled in German but it looks like I have one each of Earl Grey Lavender, Chamomile, Honeybush Caramel, Peach, and Bombay Chai. The bags themselves are made from a sort of silky looking material and the herbs inside appear as if they're freshly dried. This makes a nice change from the herbal and fruit teabags that are generally available which, in my experience, seem to be devoid of colour and freshness. I used to grow a few of my own herbs and make my own tisanes so I notice this. Does anyone know if the Revolution teabags are available in the UK?

What else can I say. Everything in the parcel is so perfect! Thank you so very much, secret pal! I hope you also got my Thank You e-card?

All this talk of tea has become so tempting that I'm now off to put the kettle on. Now what shall I have? Earl Grey Lavender? Chamomile? Bombay Chai? . . . . . mmmmm . . . . .