My First Swap

With a title like that I feel like the whole post should be in primary colors with rounded corners, but then my brain is just a little fried from a stressful week.

I haven't had as much knitting time lately and a lot of the recent knitting time was devoted to a test knitting project.  Said test knitting is now finished, but I haven't checked with the designer to see if I can post photos or discuss it yet, so it's staying hidden for now.

But I have a hard time posting without any photos, so there's this:

The contents of the package I received from my first swap!  The paper in the lower right is a note from the sender and the eyeballs in the center are candles.  The bunch of peanut butter cups aren’t Reese’s, so I’m assuming they're something local to the sender, and the cute mouse is a toy meant for my kitties.  Under the mouse is a cute reporter-style notebook and pen, and the package in the center has HiyaHiya Puppy Snips -- a knitting tool that I had never heard of but is tiny, useful, and adorable!  I probably wouldn't have picked either of the yarns for myself (which is half the fun of the swap idea), but I really like both and I haven’t tried either brand yet, so there's also two new yarns to look forward to.

So the swap was a total success for me, but that's only half of the swap.  I sent out a swap package, too, but to a different person than who sent to me.  It's a swap with fans of the Dizzy Sheep site with just a loose set of guidlines:

the “rules” (pretty flexible - more like guidelines)

1. stash-diving is applauded/encouraged (but you can purchase new yarn if you would prefer)
   
2. MSRP range for yarn is $15-$20 (but if you want to clear out more stash no one is going to stop you!)
   
3. yarn doesn’t have to initially have come from dizzy (but who doesn’t have more yarn from dizzy than they have plans for?) if you clear out non-dizzy yarn you just have room to buy more right?
   
4. including additional small items (esp dizzy themed items and fall/halloween - dizzy tricks and treats etc!) is encouraged.
   
5. Have fun and get creative (esp w/ rule number 4!)
   

And I'm pretty sure my swap "target" is out of town, so I won't know how my package went over for a while.  It was a fun way to destash some yarn and I hope she likes it, but either way it will probably be my last swap, at least for a while.  I found it hard to figure out what to send, how much to spend -- I know it will all work out well enough, but I was stressing about it more than I expected.  So: generally positive experience, fun to try, the stress wasn't really the fault of the swap itself, but not something I'll jump back into right away.

Scarecrow Socks In Progress

My socks from the Scarecrow kit aren't flying off the needles, but the first one is coming along.

I love how the perfect Fall colors spiral around the leg.

Of course, working the heel stopped the spiraling for a bit and introduced some pooling even though I used the contrasting color for the heel flap and turn and switched back to the main color for the gussets.  Obviously that means I'm farther along on sock #1 than the photos suggest.  I'm actually nearing the toe, and since there's just a little over a week left in October it also means I need to get moving if I want to finish these off for Socktoberfest! Where on Earth did the month of October go!?!

Woolgirl Oz Sock Club - Scarecrow (Halloween)

There are fewer daylight hours and a lot of distractions, but no real excuses for the silence.  I'm still knitting and, since the end of the year is quickly approaching to mark the end of my Oz Club subscription from Woolgirl, the kits are arriving even more quickly now.  The Scarecrow kit landed on my doorstep just a couple of days ago.

************ Spoilers from this point on! ************

The kit contents:

There's a cute little pair of overalls that were stuffed with crinkly paper (like straw) and edible treats, a decorative scarecrow, a large spiral-bound journal, and a Scarecrow bookmark and gift tag.  The quippy extras included a Scarecrow button that says "I'm Tinking" and a pen featuring the Scarecrow that reads "Did the Wizard Ever Get Back To You About That Brain?".  I don't have a lot of use for the button, but I really like the pen.

The project bag is a dark, Halloween-style fabric with the Wizard of Oz characters.  It's big enough to hold a sock project and I really like that it zips shut to keep everything neatly contained.

The Paca-Peds yarn is perfect for fall; I love the colors!  This time it's a yarn that I already have in my stash (obviously in a different color), but haven't had a chance to work with yet.  I was (and still am) drawn in by the fact that there's a contrasting heel/toe mini-skein included.

Finished Black Cat Socks

I did keep up a pretty speedy pace and finished the second sock from the Black Cat Halloween kit over the weekend, meaning that I had a finished pair in a little under a week!  That's faster than my usual sock progress, although these did have my undivided attention.

************ Spoilers from this point on! ************

So here they are, not yet washed in any way:

I'm going to try to remember to get before and after photos when I do give them a soak, just to see how much dye bleeds out into the water, although I obviously rubbed some off on my fingers already while knitting them.  In some photos you might even notice some of the deep wine hue running through that isn't really visible without enough light.

It's not a complicated lace pattern, it's very symmetric, but I do like the hidden fish shapes in them.  I don't like doing yarn overs at the beginning of a needle, but I got in a groove and it didn't slow me down too much or bother me enough to shift stitches around to avoid them, so no real complaints.

Since I haven't soaked them I haven't worn them yet (I don't really want to look like I've been walking barefoot through soot all day if they are going to bleed more), but I'm looking forward to it.  They're dark and squishy and lacy -- all things that should make them work well with all sorts of outfits when I'm forced to abandon my sandals for the year.  I'm not quite there yet.