my hand dyed yarn arrived

Thank you Christina for your "The Litte Mermaid Princess Ariel" hand dyed colorway. It's a skein of lace weight, 440 yards. It included a sock pattern on the inside of her home made label.

Thank you, Felicia!!!

I am so thrilled with my package from Felicia!! Just look at this gorgeous yarn!! The photos do not at all do it justice. It's wonderfully muted shades of greens and blues, with a bit of yellow. Felicia dyed this yarn for me with Superwash Merino in sport weight. She calls it "PG Getaway" after her home in Pacific Grove, California.

Along with my beautiful yarn, Felicia also sent me some really fun gifts. There is some lavender-scented vegetable oil soap, some "beak balm" (not sure what to do with that, yet), a lovely Lantern Moon notepad, and a postcard with a photo of the beach at Pacific Grove. Each item is fabulous!

Now, on with the search for the perfect sock design to showcase this beautiful yarn. Thank you, Felicia!!

My package from Shelly!!

I had a very sad day when I found out that two of my skeins of sock yarn were ruined in what I call "The Sippy Cup Incident of 2008." My day was made better when I found this in my mailbox. It's a beautiful tweedy orange yarn, perfect for a pair of Halloween socks.
Included in my box was a crocheted business card holder, which is the perfect size for my ipod!!
I love the sock yarn that my partner made for me. Thank you so much Shelly!!
She also sent me a note that something else is on it's way to me, I can't wait!! This was my first
swap, and I'm definitely going to participate in more.

A little extra info about Christabel's yarn

So here is some info about the yarn I dyed for Christabel (who has already posted below). The second photo below is the "inspiration" photo, of Chestermans Beach near Tofino, on Vancouver Island (I'm in Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island). It wasn't a postcard but a photo I told when I was there in June. Our family goes there every second year, and I love it! I had planned to print out the photo to include in the package, but my printer would have none of it! So I had to settle with emailing the photo to her, and including it here for all of you to see.
I call the colourway, oddly enough, "Chestermans Beach". I dyed it Kettle-dyeing style, adding a little extra water so that it wouldn't be too dark of colour saturation. I wanted to leave some areas white to show the fluffy clouds in the sky, a little brown and green for the trees and small islands shown, and some sand, and of course, the blues and blue-greens of the sky and sea.



I look forward to seeing the socks later on!

cheers
Ursa

Adding to the Blog

I had a request (which I think is a great one btw) that after the yarn you dyed is posted you create a reply post of your own telling everyone what method you used to dye the yarn. If you took any pictures during the dyeing process we'd love to see those too.

I LOVE this yarn!

Okay I finally figured out how to do this after spending WAY too much time trying to understand how to post a blog before asking for help which Celena was nice enough to provide. I'm so happy with the yarn I received! I'm looking for the perfect sock pattern for it right now and have it narrowed down to 4. Meghan's inspiration was Niagra Falls which was a really unique thing to dye yarn to go with. There was more candy but my 3 year old ate it before I took the photo. She also included a pack of notecards which was really nice. I was really happy with this swap! Thanks Celena and Meghan!

Perth to San Francisco in record time

I received my swap package from Christabel on Friday. Wow--what a package! This yarn is amazing--it is honestly the best sock yarn base I have ever seen. And Christabel--you did such a wonderful job dyeing the yarn. It practically glows--I really like the orange. And the sockdown challenge for September is to knit with orange yarn, so the timing is perfect. I'm planning to make Nancy Bush's First sock in Shell Pattern--I'm really looking forward to knitting with this yarn.



The entire package is very generous--Christabel even included a hand-crocheted peach pin. Home canning peaches is a summer tradition in my family and peaches hold special memories for me. Thank you very much for everything Christabel--it is wonderful and I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

Yay!

My yarn arrived yesterday. Many thanks to Ursa!



Such beautiful colours. I can't wait to knit it up.

The Fun is About to Begin

I've heard from several participants that they already mailed their swap packages out. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's blog posts. This is where the swap really gets fun!

Partners!

I sent out swap pals last night. I did not do partners for this round. This means that the person you are sending yarn to (the questionnaire you received last night) is NOT the person sending yarn to you. If you did not get a forwarded questionnaire last night, please check your junk/spam mail folder. Let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Swapping!
~Celena

Last Chance!

I'm going to assign partners this weekend so if you still want in on this swap you've got a couple more days to get me your questionnaire answers.

Housekeeping

I did a little housekeeping to help me keep track of things for this round. I deleted all the blog authors so the list was clear so if you have participated in the past, please look for your new invitation. Thanks!

Questionnaire for Round 4

Sign-Ups for Round 4 Open

1. Name and mailing address:
2. Website/blog (if you have one):
3. Ravelry username (if you have one):
4. Email Address (I know I have it already but this is for your pal):
5. Have you ever dyed yarn before?
6. What are your favorite colors?
7. Are there any colors you really don’t like?
8. Do you have a preference for sock yarn weight? For example, do you prefer to knit with larger yarn (worsted, bulky, etc) or with smaller yarn (dk, fingering, etc)
9. Are you allergic to any fibers?
10. Have you participated in any other swaps? If yes, which one(s)?
11. Do you spin?
12. What other hobbies do you have besides knitting/crochet?
13. Do you have pets? Kids?
14. Is there a sock pattern (or two or three) that you’ve had your eye on for a while that you really want to knit but still don’t have the yarn for?
15. What are the last three things you knit? Were they for you or did you give them away?
16. What’s on your needles right now?
17. Do you sell yarn or other knitting related items? If so, how? (Etsy, LYS, eBay, etc)
18. If you had to pick only one type of item to knit for the rest of your life, what would it be?
19. Are you willing to ship internationally or would you prefer a pal in the same country?
20. When you think of summer, what comes to mind?
21. If you could go anywhere for a summer vacation and money were not a factor, where would you go/what would you do?
22. Is there anything else you want your pal to know about you?

Round 4: INSPIRED BY PICTURES

Round 4 is on for this summer! Here are the details:

1. Round 4 will be “Inspired by Pictures” - Your yarn should be inspired by a picture (postcards are okay) and you should include it in your package. Some ideas floating around are your favorite beach or vacation spot, an interesting animal, etc.
2. We will swap sock yarn again. Enough for an adult pair of socks. Whether you dye one big skein, split it in two or do mini skeins for toes and heels is totally up to you. Feel free to be creative, as long as it’s enough to make an adult size pair of socks.
3. To sign up, send the answers to the questionnaire above to swappingyarn@gmail.com.
4. Please make sure you are able to take and post pictures before you sign up. A big part of this swap is this blog. If you don't intend to take and post pictures, please do not sign up.
   
5. After I receive your questionnaire, I will send you an invite to this blog or an email if you were already invited in a previous round. That will serve as your acceptance to the swap.
6. Any questions/concerns/ideas .. please let me know.
7. Let's have a great summer swap!
   

Interest in Round 4?

Checking to see if there is interest in doing another round of the swap this summer. Please leave a comment to this post if you are interested. I'm thinking it will be another round of sock yarn. Maybe with a pattern, maybe not.