Yarn swap

I've just recently participated in a fantastic hand-dyed yarn swap, organised by the terribly clever KB of incidental happiness (details on her blog & quite a few others!) :-)

and this is what awaited me when we returned from our weekend away!The theme was "Green Tea"
"The yarn is Tekapo, hand dyed in tone on tone shades of 'green' and 'tea' (funny that!) to produce a yarn that should progressively strengthen in colour as you knit - much the same way tea darkens as it is steeped."

The yarn is 100g of Tekapo 8ply that has been cleverly dyed so that the colour radiates from a pale, bright green through to a rich olive-y brown, the suggested pattern is for a cute tea cosy (we don't have a teapot eek! i might have to come up with something else that will show it off nicely..), the recipe is for highly intriguing sounding Green Tea Sauteed Vegetables, the wee gift was a box of Green Tea (which has already been nicked & opened!), and the knitting paraphernalia was a 4.5mm circ needle (you've been checking ravellry haven't you yarn fairy? that is one size i don't have!) these gorgeous stitch markers made by the multi-talented Casper.. aren't they cute!!? They are available from craft fetish if you are jealous ;-) And the whole packaged was wonderfully wrapped in a big piece of olive fabric (not sure what kind of fabric it is, but it is wonderfully light & drapey, so it's destined to become an elf cape for alexis i think!) and secured with a sparkly kilt pin!

but wasn't that cleverly thought out?!
i'm extremely impressed, i know those colours aren't easy to achieve, and paul is on another health kick at the moment so the green tea theme is just fab!

thank you yarn fairy!!

and this is what i've sent off.. i hope it arrives safely!

the theme i chose was "tropical dreams on a winter day"
i tried to create 100g of 8ply self-striping yarn in tones reminiscent of sparkling blue seas, verdant green rain forests & lush tropical fruits...

i had to knit up a little sample to make sure that it did actually self-stripe, which it did on 40-ish sts in the round, so good for women's socks & thus the pattern that i suggested- "Mom's fast florida footies"
for the knitting paraphernalia element i made a little knitting project bag... i've never sewn a proper bag before, and didn't have a pattern, so it's very basic, but it has a pocket on the outside for a pattern, and is lined with blue sky satin, for a little sunshine whatever the weather ;-) i hope the recipient likes it! :-)