Sasha Knits!

I received a very special package in the mail today!

At the end of July, I decided that it might be fun to try out one of the many swapping groups on Ravelry.  As it was my first time, I wanted to start “small,” so I shopped around for a bit before finally deciding to join the Swap on a Budget group.  I was enticed by their relatively low budget limit of twenty dollars and it seemed like a very active and friendly group of people.  I filled out an application for round five, supplying information such as my favorite color, favorite treats, allergies, etc., and was then placed into a sub-group from there.  The sub-group’s leader assigned a spoilee for everyone and then it was off.  We were given almost two months to get together a package for our spoilee based off their own application and a bit of stalking.

There were a few hitches (like not getting my partner’s address until very late), but for the most part, things went smoothly and I had a great time.  Every week we were given a question to answer to prove that we were active and that provided a chance to get to know the other people in my group a bit better.  It was also amusing to pop into other groups and see what they were up to.

My spoilee was a lovely woman from Tennessee.  I had a lot of fun learning about her and was able to gather an assortment of things that I thought she would like and shipped it off to her last week.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the final package, but you can see some of the yarn I picked out for her in pasts posts here and here.

It was my turn to be spoiled today!

The first thing I discovered upon opening the box was a cute little card with a note from my spoiler (yarn007 on Ravelry).  Underneath, there was a treasure trove of useful and beautiful items.

I received:

• a handmade towel in my favorite shade of pink
• two very useful task list notepads
• a mousepad with place for a photograph
• a small case made from recycled plastic
• a large Ikea shopping bag
• a pattern for a lace scarf (Cape Cod Shell Scarf by Cathie Hammatt)
• a sock blocker sock keychain kit (pattern and blocker keychain bit)
• a pair of sock needle holders
• a package of Nips hard caramels

There were also two little charms:

The longer one ended up on my favorite pair of scissors.  The smaller one is a stitch marker and I look forward to using it soon.

There was also a generous helping of yarn included.  My partner really went out of her way to pick things she thought I would like and she hit right on the mark.

There were two skeins each of Regia 4-ply in a rich dark chocolate brown, Knit Picks Stroll in Burgundy, and Knit Picks Stroll in Sapphire Heather.  I was really surprised at how soft and squishy the Stroll yarn was and will have to add that to my list of things that are good to get from KP in the future.  The Regia is also especially lovely and I can’t wait to turn them all into lovely pairs of toasty socks.

I really look forward to participating in another swap soon.  Every single package that has gone out in this one has been exceedingly wonderful.  You can really tell that everyone put a lot of thought and effort into making sure they were sending off something that their partner would enjoy.  It is also awe-inspiring to see what people can do with just twenty dollars.