Doubly mysterious!

I've been having so much fun receiving these glorious packages in the mail, tearing them open, oohing and aahing at the contents, and then trying to match the package to the sender. 

Sometimes, this is easy: some kind souls have slipped in wee notes to me, identifying themselves by their Ravelry names. 

Sometimes, it's a little trickier, but I can be pretty tricksy myself. As everyone signed up, I built a spreadsheet of all the participants, and included (wherever possible) their first names and nationalities, along with notes about which information they'd received and which project they had chosen to work on. That has helped a lot when matching up return addresses with senders. 

But tonight, I'm stumped. 

The thing is, I know that someone had messaged me about these, describing the way the beads had been strung on a thread carried while the leaf was knit, and how they dangled loosely post-felting. But do you think I can find that message? Super-organized, compulsive spreadsheeter that I am, I have not been able to track it down. 

Here's what I know: the package was mailed from Dryden, ON, Canada. It's postmarked July 24th. There was no return address on the envelope. (And, weirdly, it doesn't seem to coincide with what I know about the Canadian contributors -- I've already received most of the Canadian packages I was expecting, and for the few outstanding ones I know of, I already know the contents...)

So who is the mystery contributor to Rewselene's mystery project?

If you'd rather not identify yourself publicly, please do PM me on Ravelry to let me know who you are...

How would we like our socks/mitts presented?

Janet who is doing our sock/mitt gathering asked me a very good question, and one I hadn't considered -

Would we like everything left in our mailing packages, or opened up and put in a basket all woolley and colourful?

Comments? (use the blog comments or drop me a Ravel-note. Or look to the left oops, right, the blog elements are on the right here, for the poll.

johannab

We have a gathering point for Socks'n'Mitts o'Love!

Hi there, all!

Fellow Raveller Islandwoman (Janet) has agreed to co-conspire in our efforts and be the gathering point for part two of our zany little project - she will collect socks/mitts, and get them all to Laurie en masse. Janet made Laurie's acquaintance at a knitting gathering Laurie got started, and was missing her since early this year, but has reconnected.

Her preference is that I do not post her address, so please - when you have your sock or mitt ready to go, PM me via Ravelry and I will forward the delivery address to either your Rav message box or personal email if you prefer to send that.

Anne has shared a spreadsheet with me indicating who is doing what, so I will review that an form-letter everyone as well, just so I don't miss folks - hope you don't mind.

Finally: DEADLINE. I know, never adds to the fun to have the pressure, but we don't want these trickling in for months on end, either. So, I'm going to nominate Friday, July 25th OK, Monday, July 28, as the must-mail-by date. That gives us all two weeks plus a couple of days, for a single sock or mitten. I do have sock experience, but am not particularly fast, and I usually find between 3 days and week is enough to zip off a single sock, so I hope that's enough leeway for all.

I'm back - socks/mitts coordination

Hey all! Sorry to have been silent. I was chasing sheep around Scotland, falling in bogs, and utterly failing to find interesting yarn, much to my surprise. More sheep than people, but no idea where the wool goes.

The reason it's taken a bit to get coordinated, is I have been looking around for a sock/mitt drop point in or near Victoria, so we can have someone collect a package for Laurie - and I've gotten lucky, I think. I've made contact with an acquantance who does know her, though not well, and is interested in helping. I'm just waiting to confirm her comfort level with her address being sent around.

Flowers on my doorstep!

I got home today to find the first two packages of flowers/leaves for the garland project in the mailbox! My heart skipped a beat or three, let me tell you -- and I was even more wowed when I opened the envelopes.

Check out these stunning crochet beauties from MHDesigner1:

And the jewel-like flower and leaf (and sweet card, and tea!) from Miri:

Ladies, I salute you. Your work is beautiful, and so quickly done! Thank you!

Garland progress

I have to give a HUGE shout-out to Karen at my LYS, Shall We Knit?, who stepped up big time to help with the garland.

Remember the miles and miles of i-cord that I was dreading knitting? She invited me to come to the store, let me wind my Cascade 220 into a pretty little cake, and then set me up on her knitting machine to crank out the i-cord. So, on Friday night, I was able to crank out 4 metres of i-cord in no time at all, while enjoying the regular Friday night knit-and-chat.

(Big props are also due to my husband, who -- since I don't drive -- chauffeured me out and sat patiently in the back of the shop while I worked and gabbed...)

So, now I've got 4 metres of i-cord. I decided that it would be great to felt it, to make it really sturdy, but I'm worried that if I just toss it in the washing machine, the whole thing will become one tangled, felted-together mess. So I'm about to try an experiment: I've chopped up some old nylons, threaded the i-cord through, and tied little knots along the length (to keep the nylons in place, and to maybe put some little kinks in the garland). I'm about to throw the whole thing in the wash -- so wish me luck!



(Ain't that lovely?)

I've also knit up some more leaves with the leftover Cascade, which I've tucked into the mesh bag with the garland.

More progress notes when the felting is complete!

Edited to add: The felting is done! The "vine" felted up nicely. Where the knots were tied, it's less felted, but that actually gives it a nice sort of gnarly feel that's more vine-like! The leaves felted perfectly too.