Tea and Cakes

One of the downsides of not blogging so much is that I’ve become a bit disconnected from friends and a bit more hermit like and anti-social. It’s a fault of mine, that I try to keep an eye on. I think I could be quite happy living in a cottage by a beach on an isolated island, even though I like having all the conveniences that come with city life.

This week I received a lovely surprise in the post. I came home one day to a missed delivery notice, and went to the post office to collect what I thought was my new copy of Vintage Baby Knits – in fact that arrived the next day, and is OMG full of the cutest baby patterns, and is just a beautiful book to own.

Anyway, instead the man in the post office handed me a big green padded envelope that arrived as a surprise package full of lovely things from Sweden – thanks to Catrin, a lovely internet knitting friend. A while ago Catrin had been looking for some Irish loose tea, and I’d sent some on, not expecting anything in return. It was a lovely surprise and really brightened my day.

Looky:

There’s some lovely tea, a recipe book that includes the recipe for the delicious cinnamon buns that we became a bit addicted to in Finland and Sweden when we were there, a book, sweets, and a beautiful skein of yarn, that I’d been admiring on Catrin’s blog when she got it, but I had no idea was intended for me. I’m hurrying to finish the socks I’m working on at the moment so I can start on another pair with this yarn. It’s really soft and I adore the colours.

Thank you Catrin!

I’m a sucker for swaps. I’m trying to wean myself off them, especially as I have way too much yarn, and I’m not good at giving it away. I have plans for it all. I’ll happily knit it and then give it away though. Go figure.

Anyway. Chicwithstix organised an Ireland only swap recently, that appealed to me. It was for a knit/crochet cotton wash/dishcloth, and fairtrade goodies.

I fail at secret swaps apparently, I didn’t realise it was supposed to remain secret once the packages were sent, I just thought it was secret until then. Ooops. Can’t be undone anyway.

I collected my wonderful package from the post office on Friday. The always-fabulous SheKnitUpThatBall spoiled me rotten.

Lookie:

Coffee, sugar, two bars of chocolate (it may look like one in the picture, but I assure you that’s just an optical illusion), lovely fairtrade recipies (with a coffee brownie one to match the ingredients and OMG does it sound tasty), scrummy soft cotton yarn, and six lovely mini washcloths spelling out my name! Lets look at those properly:

Aren’t they great? I love them. Perfect for my skincare routine.

Thank you so much guys, for organising and spoiling me :-)

Hello. I am still alive. I’ve just been off working lots and having lots of fun and not really getting around to blogging.

One of the many reasons this is bad is that I’ve neglected to post about a fabulous swap package I got. I’m a member of the “This is what a feminist knits like” group on Ravelry, and we had a swap. My awesome swap partner was Sarah from String Theory, and her gifts arrived in the middle of a crazy busy week and really brightened things up for me.

Look at all this!

So many lovely things.
Lovely tasty teas, chocolate covered espresso beans, reeses peanut butter cups which are oh-my-goodness so delicious, loads of sugar and cream yarn which I just love in great bright colours, some cute bird buttons…

A lovely soft cotton washcloth with cinnamon soap (mmmm), and some lip balm.

And last, but definitely not least:

A feminist teacosy, which is so thoughtful and awesome on so many levels.
The picture makes it hard to make out, but it’s knit in Green, White and Violet (for Give Women Votes). It fits both my main teapots perfectly (the other one is a bit taller and skinnier and it works great on that one too). It’s so well made – I’m not up to manipulating three colours like that, and I’m a bit in awe. It’s been well used since it arrived and I love it lots and lots.

I really enjoyed swapping with Sarah – she’s a great person and I really appreciate the time and thought that went into everything she sent me.

Blimey! I’ve been totally treated!

Look what Kathy from Sit, Knit and Be Happy sent to me:

Do you see all that Sugar and Cream? Isn’t it wonderful! It’s so, so, so much better than anything similar I’ve had here – I’ve been knitting with some of it already (I just couldn’t help myself) and it’s great to knit with too – really sturdy, but soft and squishy too.

There’s also some Trekking Pro Natura, a wool and bamboo sock yarn which is in beautiful shades of blue and grey and is really smooth and I can’t wait to knit with it. Plus (I know! there’s more yarn!) some soft merino wool (from near to Kathy?) in a lovely blue. I have a few ideas up my sleeve for this.

Now, the delicious things – 3 teas! A tropical rooibus that I meant to have for my elevenses today but I didn’t get to have any (long story, bizarre but dull), some Bengal Spice which I already know that I love, and some cammomile and lavender too! Plus (again, there’s more!) Chocolate chip cookies and Cinnamon Grahams from Trader Joes. Mmmmmm. And local lavender honey. And chocolate from Paris. Wow.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, there were also some scrabble tile stitch markers which are way geeky and cool (I love scrabble), Brittany Birch needles and Surina sock dpns. I’m blown away.

I feel really guilty at the moment too, as Kathy’s package from me is sat right here next to me. All wrapped up and almost ready to go. I’m waiting on one more thing, that I ordered from overseas, that really should have arrived by now, and I don’t want to send the package without it. I’ve had so much fun getting it all ready, and I really want to get it sent so that Kathy receives it soon! (Sorry for the delay Kathy)

I’ve had great fun being matched with Kathy – Suzie made a great match putting the two of us together.

This morning I was able to run to the post office before work to collect a very exciting box:

Inside were all sorts of wonderful goodies, all just for me!

There’s some Misti Alpaca lace yarn in a lovely bright red, some green Alpaca with a twist Highlander which is sooo soft and yummy, three types of tea (from Adagio and Teavana) that I’ll be sampling soon, some red bean jelly sweets which look and feel really interesting and I have to admit to being a tiny bit apprehensive about trying, some wonderful smelling soaps (a ginger lime one and a lavender foot scrub) – both of which I’ll be using in my bath later, a solid chocolate easter bunny (solid! not hollow!), a copy of Craft magazine, and best of all, these:

Yep, Tea and Cakes stitch markers, made by my treater herself! These are so fabulous, I just love them to pieces.

My treater was Melissa, and she did a fantastic job of treating me! I feel so spoiled! Thanks a million Melissa :-)

Fancy exchanging knitterly goodness with another blogger, but can’t spare the time commitment for a full-on secret pal exchange?

Wish you could spend some time settled down with a nice magazine you haven’t seen before and a something delicious to go with it?

On a yarn diet but really need a fix?

In short, do you need treating?

Well, do I have the exchange for you.

Tangelled Angel and I are running the Knitters Treat Exchange.

It’s a one off, secret swap. You’ll send a package to one person, and receive one from another.

The package will contain:
1. Enough yarn for a one skein/small project
2. Magazine
3. Pampering treat – e.g. Hand cream, bath fizzer etc
4. Delicious treat – e.g. chocolate/candy/tea/coffee
5. Your blog address, so your pal can say hello

Full details and instructions on how to sign up are over at the Knitters Treat Exchange blog.

Two very exciting packages arrived today. One I’ll tell you all about tomorrow, but first, here’s my Secret Pal 9 package!

What a package – it was enormous.
I opened it up to some lovely fabric with teacups and pots on, and some knit picks dpns.

Inside was sooooo much lovely yarn:

3 skeins of knitpicks shadow, a laceweight merino wool
Some absolutely divine mountain colours mountain goat yarn in the mountain twilight colourway (lots of mountains)
2 large skeins of wool dyed by my spoiler in a Spring Garden colourway. So clever!

Also, (deep breath) some lovely purple fabric, patterns for bags and accessories (perfect, as I have some purple cord I want to make into a bag, and now I have a pattern!, some teapot buttons (so cute!), very useful place marking in pattern post its, two types of tea (mmmm), sweet hearts, some luscious vanilla soap, some recipes, a really cool pad for the teapot to rest on that has cloves inside to make the room smell nice, and 2 wonderful books – Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman, which I’ve wanted for a while now, and Vegan Cupcakes, which is so absolutely perfect it’s almost not true. No eggs! But Cakes!

Phew. Breathe out now.

What a wonderful package that was! I’m really lucky and feel very spoiled. My spoiler was BJ from BJ’s Musings and Meanderings. Thank you BJ!

Secret Pal 9 comes to an end this week, and I’m delighted to announce that my spoilee has received her final package, and now knows who I am.

I should hopefully be receiving a package from my spoiler sometime soon too, as the exchange is pretty much done, so when that arrives I’ll be sure to post it up here.

Anyway, I was spoiling Glenda over at Still Life With Books, and it was an absolute pleasure.

Yesterday was a wonderful day chez Tea and Cakes.

I was haircut modelling after work, and didn’t get a chance to take the make up off until late in the evening when I got home, so apologies to anyone who saw me in the pub and was a bit unsettled by it.

Anyway, we were in the pub to see friends who moved to America a couple of years ago. They came bearing unexpected gifts!

Leanne brought over the Winter and Holiday Gifts Interweave Knits, plus a lovely set of Brittany Birch dpns, and a beautiful soft baby blue crochet scarf. A really lovely surprise. Thanks a million Leanne!

Then, when I got home, the winter Vogue knitting was waiting for me – sent by Nic as second prize in the random fact contest.

Thanks Nic!

Then, as if I didn’t have enough, there was a lovely postcard from my new secret pal spoiler – who’s in Buffalo, New York! Very exciting. Thanks secret pal, I love getting postcards.

Right, off to Leitrim this weekend – hope to get some knitting, walking, cakes and blogging in.

I came home from work today to this lovely autumn card from my secret pal. Thanks SP!