Knitmas time again - happy days for Twitter Knitters!

My Knitmas gifts!

Yes, it's Knitmas again and for those of you wondering if I've lost my festive seasonal marbles, rest assured, it's just that it's the time of the year for a dedicated group of Irish-based knitters to do an online Secret Santa via Twitter! It's my second year and it's been fun both times. Last week my "victim" Jenny (@jenbear) posted on her blog about the goodies I sent her; now I'm doing likewise with the lovely parcel I got on Friday from Isobel (@teaandcakes).

Driving to Dublin on Dec. 8th

I was thrilled with the lovely gifts I got last year from Caroline, (@scattyhats) who sent me a lovely alpaca silk cowl and two skeins of yarn, which gave me a lot of pleasure as I knitted a shawl and a scarf with those during the year. I drew Cathy (@cathyqtpi)This year I was paired with Jenny and as it's a three-way swop you don't get something back from the person you draw. Via the website Elfster I could post anonymous questions to Jenny to see what colours she liked and what her shoe size was! All a bit smoke and daggers, as Bertie "Malaprop" Ahern might say! But she had indicated on her wish list on Elfster that she'd love a pair of handknit socks - so that was a challenge I loved! I made her a nice pair of purple self-striping socks and even though she wasn't too keen on variegated yarns she was delighted with those. I made mitts to match, and a phone cosy as well as sending a few balls of nice yarn - some Cushendale bouclé and merino with a tea cosy pattern.

Lovely Lace Merino - perfect for a shawl.

So I was chuffed with the parcel on Friday which had this delightful pair of fingerless mitts in a terrific navy, cerise and teal intarsia design - a bit like stained glass - and some fab sock yarn, as well as a 1400m skein of lace merino in a gorgeous lavender colour! I can't even begin to think how I'm gonna wind it into a ball - I'm sure I need a ball wonder thingy but haven't investigated it yet, they always wind the skeins in This is Knit in Dublin which is the only shop where I've bought unwound wool! I wore the mitts going to Dublin yesterday for the Labour Women executive meeting and they are perfect driving gloves, keeping me cosy when it was 1°C outside and ice on the roads!

Isobel also sent me some funky stitch markers, beads and slices of cake (!) as well as a notebook and soap and some cookies and chocolate to keep me happy! Altogether a very thoughtful and generous pressie and I am always touched by the kindness of strangers who've become virtual friends via Twitter - there's a lot of good things about social media despite all the bad press it gets!
Enjoy the photos!

This is what I sent to Jenny!

Sock yarn - can't wait to get going!