Saturday 8 March 2008

Swapsies

I love swaps - they give me the incentive I need to actually finish a project & I get lovely things in return.

I've done a few recently but the biggie was the 'I’m just sending this box so my partner can have cardboard for their boots and I was guilted into putting stuff in it' swap from the Ankh-Morpork Knitters Guild on Ravelry (yes we have our own Guild, no it's not like the Seamstresses Guild, okay?). I shouldn't have to point out that Ankh-Morpork is the premier city on Discworld but since there is the slight chance that a non-Terry-Pratchett fan may stumble across this blog I will.

My box arrived on Friday & since I've finally learned to use dh's camera I can show you all the fantastic goodies I got from Sarah all the way over in the US.

You can imagine my excitement when the wee red Royal Mail van drew up outside - I nearly did myself an injury tripping over some of the dc's toys running to answer the door. After a brief struggle with the sticky tape I finally got my first look at my goodies.



It was accompanied by a brilliant letter from my ‘loving cousine Sarah (newe citizen of Ankh-Morpork) which made me lol all the way through & contained -

A swamp dragon from the Sunshine Sanctuary who had to be rehomed after he ate Lady Sybil’s sewing kit. His dinner obviously didn't agree with him & the poor love had a little whoopsie shortly after arrival but on the plus side I now have a new sewing kit which will come in mighty handy for sewing up the Pratchgan.



A skein of Octarine sock yarn which my cousine says she can’t see herself but she’s been told it’s magic (it is too - gorgeous!).



A souvenir t-shirt from UU. It has the UU unofficial mottoe (Eta Beta Pi) - I’ll be wearing it to my parents’ next week to see if my dad gets the joke (he should as he’s as big a Pterry fan as I am). Here's a pic of the back -



A figurine of the Librarian, a genuine AMCW badge no 177 (as sold by Mr Dibbler) & a wooden dried frog pills box complete with pills.



An elephant tea-cosy - despite not having a tea-pot I’ve always wanted a cosy & am off out shortly to buy a pot to fit it. Here it is being modelled by ds's foam football.



A black handkerchief for Dark Morris Dancing (you'll see it in the bottom left corner of the main pic) & 3 (three!) knitting patterns - 1 for Flynn, 1 for DoR & 1 for Nanny’s Knickers bag. There was also a tract from Constable Visit - Die Chelonian Mobil - which contained a crochet pattern for a turtle pocket necklace. I think Om would approve.



A HUGE thank you to Sarah - I love all of my goodies & can't wait 'til the next swap (which is being planned already).

Just in case you're interested - here's what I sent to Sarah.




The horse is Binky, Death's faithful flying steed & is actually a purse - one side of his saddle lifts up so you can stuff things in his back. The wall hanging is a portrait of Death, his grand-daughter Susan & the Death of Rats taken by Otto Chriek, vampire iconographer for the Ankh-Morpork Times - it's worked in tapestry crochet & is actually oblong rather than trapezoidal like the pic makes it look :0D Inside the egg is yarn & notions to make a swamp dragon labelled as CMOT Dibbler's Genyooine Growe-Thine-Own-Dragon Kyt. It's approved by Lady Sybil Ramkin's Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons. The gloves are fingerless crocheted ones done to mine own pattern in Noro Silver Thaw, the purple thing is an abstract caterpillar cowl knitted in Morpork Mist yarn (Patons Moonglow heh), the bracelet is crocheted silver wire & shell beads, the stitch markers are handmade by the wonderful Whizzz & Ridcully's knitted coin purse was bulging with chocolate coins - it's just a shame he's so tight you can't get them out. The yarn is gorgeous Wensleydale sock yarn dyed by Freyalyn - please go check out her Etsy shop for fab spinning fibres.



Binky was made following the fab crochet horse pattern by Kristen with a little modification to the saddle so it's all in one piece & can act as a flap to close the bag. Please go check out Kristen's blog - she has the cutest free patterns imaginable.



I had great fun with the portrait right from charting it to finishing it off. I think I'm gonna publish it on Ravelry at some point as it should work well in intarsia knitting too but not a good enough knitter to try it yet :0)

Sadly that's all the pics I have but if you take a look at Sarah's blog you'll see loads of much better pics than I've got here. In the meantime I'm off to sew up some more Pratchgan squares. Check back soon as I aim to get more up-to-date Pratchgan WIP pics on this weekend!

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

Such lovely goodies. This has been such a fantastic swap!

josla said...

what an amazing swap! you are both so talented! (and well versed in discworld lore!)
xxx