Not Even Christmas Yet

It was so nice to come back from vacation to find PRESENTS waiting for me. =)

First was the prize I'd won from Jennifer's Knitflix swap/contest. It's a "Gettin' Knit Together" kit from Purl of Knit and Plenty...

Inside this gorgeous organizer (the color is called "Water"), I found:

• A retractable measuring tape that I will be keep inside the organizer where it will be nice and handy (and not buried like my regular measuring tape tends to be).
  
• A flexible magnifier and ruler called a Site Minder. This is going to come in so handy for many of my craft projects when I need to see the fine print to figure out what I'm suppose to do next.
  
• 3 of the cutest sew on garment labels that you can imagine. They have "Made by Hand. Knit by Heart" written on them. I can already tell I'm going to need more of those.
  
• A big (16" x 11 1/2", yes I measured it with my new measuring tape!) and heavy duty plastic bag that zips LONGWAYS! It's called the Project Minder and I can't believe someone didn't think of this sooner. No mangling of a project getting it in and out of a plastic baggie here. Nice!
  
• I have 3 nifty plastic labels, Yarn Minders, to attach to yarn so I don't lose the label or if I don't want the label, there are cards inside that I can jot the information down on.
  
• The Needle Minder is something I wish I had sometime ago. It's a card that I can identify what knitting needles (and crochet hooks) I have without guessing and stores in a nice thick plastic sleeve. Now I know some people have all their needles nicely organized but I don't and because of that I have 3 pairs of 10.5 knitting needles!
  
• There are 3 Measure Minder cards that once I'm more confident in my knitting skills will definitely be putting to use for presents. Actually, I'll use one for myself now so I don't have to keep remeasuring myself to figure out the right size of a project.
  
• The 4 Pattern Minder cards appear to capture a lot of information about a project in a nice and tidy way. One side lets you record all sorts of information about a project, from beginning to end. The flipside is for taking notes, allowing you even date the note and put down which row you're suppose to start the next time you pick up the project (THANK YOU!)

I see myself getting a few of these as presents for my knitting friends.

The next package I tore into turned out to be from my Secret Pal 9 partner. Inside I found:

• 2- 50g balls of 100% wool yarn in a neat black and deep red blend.
  
• A 50g ball of this interesting yarn called "Summer Net". It's this beautiful soft green yarn with a "net" of white over it. I need to dig through my patterns for something Summery to make with it.
  
• A nice size bottle of fraganced lotion/body silk (oh la la). Perfect timing as Fall is quickly making way for Winter and the skin is going to be begging for moisture. And why not smell pretty in the process? =)
  
• Tucked inside card that accompanied the goodies was a package of 4 stitch markers with millefiori glass beads on the end. Me likey!

All signs point to more wondrous things from my very sweet SP9 pal.

One package was sitting amongst the pile of mail waiting for me that I wasn't expecting. It was from my adorably sneaky Vegan Swap pal. Very original and I LOVE THE MINNIE PIN! It is going straight in my collection. I'll have to take a picture of that particular stash one of these days.

And to your question, dear pal, about which I wouldn't use/like (mittens, scarves, purses, sunglasses, hats, totes, legwarmers): until I get my eyes lasered hopefully in the next month or two, I can't wear sunglasses at the moment and I haven't worn legwarmers since I was in high school (along with mini skirts). LOL!