Swap: We Love Lucy Christmas

Oh man.

I love swaps.

I love the We Love Lucy Ravelry Group swaps especially. It seems people are REALLY good stalkers in that group. You might remember that in the last Lucy swap I was totally floored by the fact that my partner somehow figured out that I bake cupcakes.

This swap I had the amazing Izzy. It turns out we're VERY similar people, which is pretty awesome when it comes to a swap partner. We both like bright colors, make up, nail polish & Downton Abby.

Issy did an amazing job finding things that I loved so much I literally squealed when I opened them. No joke. Actual squeals of delight. Observe...

This is what the box looked like when I opened it:


And here's all the little packages wrapped up so cheerfully:


Inside all those packages was this amazingness:



Ok... "When Bad Things Happen To Good Knitters"? Best book ever. It's a great, easy to follow, step-by-step guide to all the knitting tricks I need to learn! It's awesome! There are very clear pictures and I can't wait to really read through it!


The yarn is King Cole Galaxy (a wool/acrylic blend with little sequins throughout- so cute) in red and purple and King Cole Baby Alpaca (100% alpaca- my favorite fiber) in a mossy green & a subdued lilac. They all feel beautifully soft and I love all the colors.

I LOVE that she included matching buttons! It made me want to decide on a project right away. At least one ball is going to become a Juliet scarf. The other... I'm think some kind of cowl or maybe a slouchy hat (since I look so awesome in them ;)!) with a little button on the edge? Your recommendations are welcome!


And the nail polishes... so awesome. I know Rimmel London is heavily advertised, but I don't think I've ever actually seen it sold in stores here. I'm going to have to really keep my eye out because the colors she sent (a vibrant blue & a very sunny yellow) are SUPER saturated & dry really quickly. She also sent a crackle top coat which is so cool. Look:


Yeah, that's right. I already have it on! I love it soooo much!

I also gasped when I opened this little beauty:


HA! A posh little Hello Kitty vainly checking herself out in her mirror! I love it!

She also sent this awesome little key chain made by her daughter! How adorable is that? And this totally cute candy tin featuring one of my guilty pleasures!

The handmade gift from Issy also floored me. Check out the longest Queen Anne's Lace scarf ever:

That's it folded in half, people! It has to be 10 feet long! I'm so excited about it, too. I've been crocheting for a million years but for some reason every time I've tried this pattern I just can't get it! The colors are so bright & cheerful too-- made with King Cole's Wicked. In her note Issy said this was to wear to see Wicked this month! This is AWESOME because the dress I'm wearing is what I like to call a little "boob-tastic", so draping this multiple times will help keep me warm & not flashing people! The colors are very "Over The Rainbow"! It's absolutely perfect.

Finally, her very cute and thoughtful card said this tea is for my little sister, who, as you know, is recovering from a coma. 

How incredibly sweet is that? I'm so touched that she thought of my little Sarah that I could just cry. Of course... that's immediately followed by the thought that English Breakfast is my favorite tea and this looks really delicious. :) We're so close to Christmas that I might not see Sarah until Christmas Eve, so I think I'm going to wrap it up and put a little note saying it's from Issy in England. :) Sarah was really interested in the little gift I made for Issy and asked what she'd be sending me in return, so I think she'll get a kick out of receiving this! 

I'm so happy to receive all these amazing things! Everything is just perfect! Yay swaps!!

Lucy Swap (Caution: Pic heavy post)

I recently participated in Round 4 of the "We Love Lucy" group swap on Ravelry. All the folks in the group are fun so I knew it would be a fun swap. I didn't know, however, that my partner was going to spoil the crap out of me. We were required to send yarn, something handmade & goodies totally about $24 USD.

Here's what came out of the package:

Isn't it pretty all wrapped up? I love the gift bag, too. So cute.

As I unwrapped the little gifts I found a treasure trove!

First, the yarn. Norah gave me some awesome Fyberspates Scrumptious DK.

Scrumptious is right. It's a great single ply worsted weight that has a similar look as Malabrigo. BUT it has this great sheen and amazing softness due to it's 45% (!) silk content. Holy cow. I love it.

Then there were these two amazing skeins:

What's particularly awesome about her giving me Riot is that I just commented a couple days ago about someone else receiving this same yarn in a different colorway on the Lucy forum. It's a wool acrylic blend that is super soft & has amazing long repeats. I couldn't be more pleased with the color.

Norah also went above & beyond in the handmade department too. She made these adorable lizard bookmarks to go with the book she gave me.

I particularly like the one with the tongue! :) And the book looks like a great summer read.

She also felted this cute little bag to put the awesome knitting bracelet in!

The bracelet has knitting related charms and cute felted purple balls. Totally my color.

The other handmades are a lipgloss holder with some awesome gloss inside and a little chain to hang it from my purse (how did she know I always lose my gloss in the bottom of my huge bag?) as well as this beautiful "friendship ring" square. I plan to tack it up on my inspiration wall when I finish converting the spare room into my craft room. :)

Then this is where she totally blew my mind:

Ok, first off, I love the little coin purse! And I REALLY love that she put a coin in it because it's totally bad luck to give a purse without money! :) But in her card she wrote that she added the cupcake charm because she knows I bake cupcakes. I can stalk better than anyone I know and I can't for the life of me figure out how she knew that! Did I post a blog about it? It's not on twitter. I have NO idea how she knew this but I LOVE the charm. I'm actually moving it to my "real" charm bracelet, which I've been adding to since I was in high school.

And ok, last picture:

CHOCOLATE!!! :) I'm seriously salivating over the Cadbury bar. The black box is some super fancy 71% cacao dark chocolate. Norah said this is to enjoy with my wine. :) I think it deserves a special bottle so I'm going to be cracking open a bottle of my favorite dessert pinot that we picked up at Homewood in Sonoma. YAY!

There is also a cute magnet that says "Go without a bra- it pulls the wrinkles out of your face" (HAHAHA!) and this adorable little bird ornament. It will be hanging from my lamp in my bedroom I think.

If you haven't tried a swap on Ravelry I really recommend it. For me, I don't have many friends who craft (or at least who crochet or knit) and it's great to share fun packages with like minded people.

Magic Yarn Pumpkin

I participated in another awesome swap on Ravelry. Since it was a Halloween theme, we called the balls "Magic Yarn Pumpkins" instead. I had a LOT of fun buying/wrapping the one I sent to my swapee, but couldn't find my stupid camera so I'm hoping she posts pics.

I got a really fun pumpkin in the mail yesterday and since I now have my camera, I can show you!

This was what I found in the mail bag. Check out the awesome project bag!



This is the "pumpkin" itself. Thanks to my new ball winder it was unwrapped pretty quickly!

And here are all the goods:

Check out the awesome crochet hook!

Some highlights:

I'm especially excited about the necklace. I've actually been wearing it ever since opening the package. I love Dia de los Muertos and it's such a cute little sugar skull.

I'm so pleased. These swaps have been so fun and the ravelry community is pretty awesome
Now I'm off to Vegas. Trying very hard to decide if I'm taking any projects with me. I imagine the drunk crew I'm going with will make fun of me if I do. Hmm....

Tiny Turtle

Now that my swap partner has probably opened her Magic Yarn Ball, I can show you what I made for the center.

My partner collects turtles. She also loves all things Disney. She's even running the Disney half marathon next month! So, I made her this:



Uh huh. That's a little turtle with a Mickey Mouse Club hat. :)

Magic Yarn Ball Swap

I participated in my first swap on Ravelry this month. For those not in the know: a "magic yarn ball" is basically a ball of yarn you wrap around little gifts so as the recipient unwraps the yarn, they find all these goodies inside.

In my rush to get mine out to my partner, I totally forgot to take pictures. I'm really hoping she posts some, as I was kind of excited about it.

I came home to a priority mail box and was very excited to see it was my Magic Yarn Ball! I was too excited to find my camera, so I took a picture of the unwrapped ball with my crappy phone camera:



Once I got through unwinding it, this was my loot:




Inside was:

origami paper

really lovely chopsticks

a cute pen

a really nice crochet hook with a floral casing. (LOVE using it)

a small origami crane figurine

a small tea pot figurine

two Millstone coffees (yummy flavors)

a little "luck ladybug" on a rock

a cute little crocheted bag

Forte sea salt caramels covered in dark chocolate (SO YUM)

Crystal Palace dp knitting needles size 2.5

The yarn was Fly Designs Lace Wing Sock yarn in Seattle (a very nice teal & purple combo). It's beautiful and I can't wait to start on some socks! There was also a skien of Sugar n' Cream Twists in green & cream. I plan to make some dishcloths for my new apartment. :)

I'm really excited about my goods. I think I will be participating in the October swap.

Have you participated in a swap with a stranger? How did it go?