Holiday Booty!

Well, actually, Booties! Rubber puddlersplashers! They go perfectly with the slippers I received from Kyoko-san for my birthday.



Sue, at Little Knits, supplied the yarn for stash enhancement presents.

A bit of gorgeous Trenna...


Some soft angora from Fly Designs...

And a skein of Little Knit's own Indie II cashmere/silk.


My major gift, though, may seem a bit weird for a knitter. Ever since I can remember, my crochet hook collection, inherited from a variety of ancestors, resided in the tatty case shown on the left in the photo below. The hooks are old (some of them bone and ivory), but most of them have the thin steel handles that make my hands hurt. I don't do a lot of crochet work, but when I do, I have to stop every few minutes to rest. Finishing Lyra, what with zillions of crochet chains, was a miserable experience.

As of now, the old set (with a few exceptions) is on the way to Goodwill, having been replaced by the spiffy roll (courtesy of Etsy stores) shown on the right.


here's the entire set:


And the fat, hand-crafted handles are covered with colorful flowers, bugs, and butterflies...




And finally, a perfect necklace for a knitting fiend:


For some reason, the makers didn't see fit to etch the needle sizes next to the appropriate holes....we'll take it to a jeweler and have it engraved. Guess I'll have the jeweler inlay some extravagant gemstones into the sterling silver surface, too. (Just kidding, Dear!).

As a timely bonus, I received a Thank You gift from a friend in England. A skein of Suzanne's Sockenwolle, a little tin of hand cream, some adorable sheep stitch markers, elegant buttons, a lovely handmade shawl pin/hair stick/oil level tester (Just kidding, Hazel!), and a handmade Russian doll pin.

Stay tuned for the amazing knitted eggs, later this week.