Look!

Look!

See what came today?

My Yarn Aboard 2 spinning package.

Isn’t it pretty?

I love all the stamps. I have a thing for pretty stamps. I don’t collect stamps by any means, but I do make a point of buying nice ones from the post office (well, www.usps.com), and always appreciate seeing something other than the usual stars and stripes.

The best part, though, is that, of course, it’s even better inside. (Although it took me a while, I opened this super carefully so that I can turn the paper inside out and recycle it for my pal–since I don’t know where I could get more of this stuff! I just hope she wasn’t hoping to be able to do the same thing.)

Anyway, mine is the Marco Polo box.

Here we have, the illustration of Marco himself, no doubt on his way to discover pasta and gunpowder–or, more likely–Chinese silk for all us spinners. Because, he brought some with him! There’s 2 oz of Silk/Cashmere roving in here, in the “Reds” colorway. You heard me. Silk. And. Cashmere. Wow!

And then (because, yeah, there’s more!) 8 oz of Superwash Merino in “Great Balls of Fire,” which is so lovely, and so autumn-y, I can’t wait to see what it looks like spun up. I haven’t actually spun a real, multi-colored roving in a while. (Sure, the merino/silk I’ve been working on has variations and touches of other colors, but I wouldn’t call it multi-color, you know?)

  And, let’s not forget the little extras–as if all this roving goodness wasn’t enough–a “C” charm for Chappy’s collar, and a bar of dark chocolate for me.

Does my pal rock, or what??

What’s that? You want to know who she is? Well, I suppose she does deserve the credit, huh? Lots of it, really, let’s face it. Kathy from Knitigator.

Kathy, I’m blown away, I really am. Everything is gorgeous!!!

Now of course, it’s my turn to send the box out to its next recipient. I’ve got everything ready EXCEPT a postcard. Do you know how hard it is to find a postcard in my town? One that shows a picture of anything remotely like where I live? The couple I can think of show scenic spots that are about 30 miles from here, so where’s the fun in that? Or, the one and only postcard of my town? Shows a picture from about 1956 . . . you’d think no-one had taken any pictures since then. (I wonder if I could get my own postcards printed for things such as this?)

Anyway, my box is ready except for the taping-up part. I’ll see if I can get a postcard tomorrow, but if not . . . well . . . I don’t think my Pal would be crushed if I sent a notecard with a picture I took myself, do you? (I don’t really think so, either. Heaven knows it’s more reflective of where I actually live than a picture of High Point.) I can’t wait–I hope she likes her box as much as I liked mine!

So. In amidst all the near-terror chaos today . . . Oh, as bad as the airport mess is here in the U.S., my heart bleeds for all the people trying to fly out of Heathrow. What a near disaster this was–and really, kudos to the folks in the Intelligence industry who caught this. Anyway, aside from the awful news that we (the world) came this close to another massive terrorist attack, there was this touching memorial to the World Trade Center on msnbc.com today. Not the movie, but the buildings themselves, how our view of them has changed since we lost them.

1. Do you plan ahead for your reading? Work off of a to-be-read pile? A reading list? Or do you wing it, choose whatever you’re in the mood for?
   I rarely plan ahead, or not by very far. When I finish one book, I take it back to my “library” at the other end of the hallway and browse the shelves, looking for another book to catch my interest. I know some people who keep their unread books gathered together, but that’s too much like a quarantine to me–I like all my books to feel free to mingle together.
2. If you do plan ahead, how far ahead? Do you have two or three books waiting in queue? Or are you backed up by dozens of volumes waiting their turn?
   About the only time I plan ahead is for assembling books to read on a vacation–saving a new book by a favorite author, or something thematic for the trip (like a book about Cape Cod to read on Martha’s Vineyard, or something like that.)
3. If you do not plan ahead . . . well, never? What about if you’re reading a series? Or someone gives you a book for a present?
   I DO tend to read series in their entirety, beginning to end (assuming they’re all published), so in cases like those, I do know what my next book will be. And the vacation thing I mentioned above. But usually, it all depends on what my current read “sparks” in interest . . . like, pairing Dorothy Sayer with P.G. Wodehouse, or a book with an anthropologist as the main character, sending me to another, entirely different book that happens to also have an anthropologist. I think it’s much more fun that way.

Tags: Friends, General, Knitting/Spinning // 9 Comments »