Swap Season

Some forum friends and I had organised another yarn swap some months ago, and it was finally time to send it last week. I managed to get one off in time and one was a little late being sent – naughty me! But since have both been received I can post about them here.

The idea of the swap was to hand dye some yarn and to gather together a gift, pattern and paperwork all in a theme of our choosing. We were given some hints about their favourite colours, movies, songs, books and so on, but we had totally free reign in terms of developing our themes.

My first swappee has been knitting a lot of shawls recently. The hints I got suggested that some gold yarn would go down a treat. Gold? Well, that was easier said than done, but after a bit of experimentation I managed to come up with this colourway:

I dyed up 150g of 4 ply Patyonyle firstly with yellow and orange food colouring, and then kettle dyed in brown acid dyes to produce a semi-solid gold yarn.

I chose the theme ‘Pot of Gold’ and filled up a wee hand knit bag with gold gifts for her to enjoy.

The second swap was for another sock-mad knitter.  I dyed up some more Patonyle yarn, in a luscious semi-solid wine colourway.  The theme was ‘After Hours’  – like me, the recipient is a SAHM, and I knew that she understand that wonderful feeling you get once the kids are in bed and you are ‘off duty’. I included all sorts of things to pamper herself with as gifts, and chose a cute sock pattern for her.

 

Once these were off in the post, I was able to start thinking about the fact it was a *swap*.  Sometimes you get so caught up in the excitement of dyeing, making, buying, wrapping and writing up your theme that the fact you are getting something in return almost gets forgotten. But, sure enough, I got first one parcel and then another.

First to arrive was this lovely package:

The theme is “Earl Grey” and the pattern is for Earl Grey socks – it looks like a beautifully simple but effective sock pattern for DH. I had asked for one suitable for him – but the gifts are clearly for me . They are all things for a relaxing afternoon tea – Earl Grey (of course), shortbread and yummy choc, as well as a magazine. There are also two gorgeous markers.

The yarn is Patyonle, and dyed with food colouring. They are lovely colours, which I think will knit up really nicely. DH is on holiday for the next two weeks and we have been enjoying drinking endless cups of delicious Earl Grey together.

 And my second parcel was also gorgeous, and more sock yarn too.  My friends clearly know me all too well 🙂 The theme of this second parcel was lavender. When I opened it it smelled good! The gifts of lavender scented soap and other goodies made it smell devine. They are from the Aromatherapy Company, and I can’t wait to try them. The yarn is a gorgeous skein of Patonyle in various purples dyed with Procion.  I also got given a pattern for Lavender and Lace socks, which is very cute.  So, onto my to-do list that goes!

As you can see, despite my yarn -buying ban, I’m not suffering too badly from lack of yarn.