BareNaked Swapping!

Hello there! It's the first day of the Easter holidays, with two whole glorious weeks off work! Yippee! Mr JK and I are are heading up to Cheshire later this week to attend the wedding of Snoopydog's elder daughter, and afterwards, we're spending a week up in the Lake District. I hope that we get some sunny days, it's been lovely here this week. I still have my wedding stole to finish, and if all goes well, I will post some photos just before we leave. If you haven't heard from me, the chances are that I'll be knitting it in the car on the way and blocking it in the hotel the night before!!

I wanted to share with you a lovely parcel that I received this week. After the Fall in Full Color Club finished in January, I joined the next club from Knitspot. This one was called Bare Naked Knitspot, and was a chance to knit with natural undyed fibres and learn a little more about them each month. I decided to go pattern only for this club as I have more than enough stash to choose from. One of the enjoyable things about the FIFC club were the swaps that happened between members. So I was very pleased when signups for a swap were announced. My swap partner was Beki, who lives in Oregon. We chatted on Ravelry and found out that we had plenty in common, always a good thing when you are trying to send a parcel of goodies to someone! My parcel from Beki arrived this week, and she really spoilt me! Just take a look!

I can tell you want a closer look, don't worry! To start with there is an enormous skein of Polwarth and silk yarn - a whopping 650 yards altogether, in beautiful berry shades of plum, blackberry and raspberry.

Beki also gave me three lots of fibre - a braid of merino and mohair which she says is her preferred blend for socks, and two sample bags of pygora and guanaco. What a treat! (Sorry about the reflection on the bag.)

There was a handmade quilted bag with a spring clasp at the top, and inside that were three different sizes of my very favourite kind of stitch markers. Although the dangly ones look very pretty, I have had a couple of very bad experiences where they've snagged my knitting. These are all simple beaded rings. Each set has one of two colour beads, so you can use a different colour bead for each half of your knitting. I've never thought of that before, but it makes sense! There was also a dpn protector and a repositionable stitch marker.

Beki sells her stitch markers at local knitting and craft events along with her felted scarves. She was generous enough to send me one, it's beautiful! What a talented lady she is!

As well as all of these gifts, Beki also sent me a bag of dark chocolate buttons which look delicious, (I am saving them for the Lake District!) and a moisturising Lo-Lo bar. I have the Vanilla Moon fragrance and it is gorgeous. It really does make my hands feel very soft. To finish the parcel, there was a cute sheep card.

Beki has been a wonderful swap partner, and we are already planning another swap. I shall be looking out for some fibre while we are in the Lakes. After all, it is the home of the Herdwick breed of sheep! Here's another shot of my gifts. Look closely and you will be able to see a certain little pussycat who was definitely interested in something! 

Which of these gifts do you think Flo had her eyes on? The yarn? Nope! The fibre? Guess again! The stitch markers? No! Surely not the chocolate or the Lo-Lo bar? Definitely not! All Florence wanted was the box! Thank you so much Beki, swapping with you has been so much fun! xxx