running about a week behind here — I got a wonderful package from my Secret Pal the other day!

as modeled by my sun bear:

first, a pattern for Montana Wheat Socks and a wonderful skein of hand-dyed sock yarn from another indie dyer, Mountain Colors. the yarn is Bearfoot in Winter Sky, a beautiful blend of dark blues and purple, in superwash wool, mohair, and nylon.

next is a 50g sliver of Fleece Artist Blue Faced Leicester, in a bright undyed white, which — i know a bunch of you heathens are looking at me funny right about now — is a specific breed of sheep whose wool is legendary to spin. i’ve heard a lot about it but have not had the opportunity to try it myself, though i had wanted to — so now i can! i would no doubt have already broken it out of its braid were it not for…

third is a huge braid of 70/30 merino wool/silk roving (or top. i always get the two of them confused.), in a great reddish purple blend — the silk is undyed white and it is really luminous. i pretty much immediately plonked my butt down on the comfy chair with my louët and started spinning:

and finally, my SP knit me a really cute hat!!!

i don’t know what the pattern is (hey, you try googling “knit seed stitch hat” and see what you come up with!) but it’s really cute, and it’s knit out of the softest wool/alpaca blend. when i first got it (in between cuddling it — ask D.) i was initially a little sad because it wasn’t cold enough to wear it, but today i swear i saw snow in the headlights of an idling car while walking home from the L after work tonight, and i was certainly freezing my $%^& off wearing just my little black hoodie (which was FINE when i left for work in the 55°F morning, but not so much in the 38°F evening!), so you never know — it might get broken out a little earlier than i had thought!

and, even more belatedly — i seem to never have blogged about my last gift from my SP!!! (Sorry! :( ) i got a tiny box in the mail a little while ago, and opened it up to discover the most ridiculously cute stitch markers ever:

yes, it’s true: i have tiny cheese wedge stitch markers! they’re fantastic. and each wedge is smaller than a dime! so cute. i was honestly thinking about buying myself a second set just to have more of them. actually, these are part of what prompted me to pick my clapotis back up — an excuse to use my cute new stitch markers. and you know, that time, i finally finished it! so maybe they are the good luck stitch markers of project completion.

and there you have it! my SP is spoiling me rotten. :) i’ve really got to get finished with the Anti-Baudelaires so i can cast on one of these sock yarns! (i made a mistake on the A-B’s today, on the el on the way home from work — i got confused, or something, who knows really, but i twisted the cables two rows early. i haven’t even knitted back around yet, so i could go tink back and fix it, but … is it really the spirit of the Anti-Baudelaires to fix mistakes? i think it’s sort of anti-Anti-Baudelaires. and yet, a really short cable twist followed by a really long cable twist are going to look pretty dippy. i feel conflicted. i swore not to fix mistakes, but . . . that was really sort of predicated on not making any, you know what i mean? maybe i’ll put these aside temporarily and cast on another pair of socks anyways, just to go do something different for a little while. what do you think, O Humble Peanut Gallery?)