MY WONDERFUL SECRET PAL 11 SWAP PACKAGE

Today was a wonderfully fun day. My next Secret Pal swap partner is going to have a hard time topping my secret pal in this swap and WOW OH WOW my third and last package which I received today was unbelievable. So yes I received my third package today. AND it didn't come in the mail. My partner Lisa from Toronto delivered it to me personally. Yes you read correctly. My partner came to my fair city, drove to my apartment and brought me my gift package in person. OK OK she comes from Winnipeg and was visiting her parents for the weekend. but while she was in the city she took the time to stop at my place. We spent most of the afternoon together.

Lisa met Solara and Solara rubbed up against Lisa's black pants and even sat on themand we chatted. She showed me a lovely pair of socks she is working on which she designed herself from a pattern she found in a pattern book. We talked about the Clapotis I want to make and I showed her my yarn. She showed me her Clapotis. Lovely Lovely! Some of what wee talked about included ravelry, listening to podcasts of the computer, and of different patterns online.

Now to the wonderful SP 11 gifties in my third package. I got amazing goodies. Oh my. Here is what I received. I will start with the yarn.

Four skeins of Louise Harding Coquette. A yarn I have been oogling every time I go to Ram Wools. Shelagh I now have enough to make more than a small cap. The color is actually a coral not an orange.Here is a close up showing the tiny sequins. A very very tiny version of the ones I knit in the very fast hat I had to do in school, that dreaded pillbox hat.
This is Opal Circus and according to Lisa they make one colorway each year and each year it is different. I have never seen this colorway listed. Another yarn to makes socks for me. This particular yarn comes directly from Germany when my pal was holidaying in Europe. Imagine she went to Europe and thought of me.
A Lisa Souza supersport yarn called Sky Drama. The colorway is lovely. To feed my delight in knitting dishcloths as they are so quick, easy and a great way to learn a new stitch pattern, I received the following dishcloth yarns. None of which I have in my stash. This first one is called Strawberry Swirls.
This one is called Vintage Wine Ombre.
I have used yarn color similar to this yarn before but a different brand. I call it Broken Shells in the sand as it is the color of sand with streaks of other colors dispersed throughout.
Now I didn't only receive yarn. In the gift bag was also the following wonderful treats which included The Interweave Holiday Gifts (now I have my own copy), the neatest pattern of a pair of gloves from Heartland Knits and a hugh bag of colorfuls M&M's which is already opened and being sampled. I am going to try to have this bag last for a while. If I remember correctly the M&M's came from Vegas when she was on a trip there. Lisa did tell me that what I thought was maybe cherry flavored M&M's were actually Raspberry either way they were just delicious. HMMM now I know why they taste extra special. They are American chocolate. YUMMY YUMMY!!!! There is even a great mitten pattern from Hearland Knits. It is a pattern using graphs which I am not the best on but will give it a go.
And check this out. In my package were two packages of Lady Godiva coffee. I received one in Chocolate Creme flavor and the other in Creme Brulee flavor. I definitely know what I will be having for breakfast in the morning.
Last but not least was some small little bottles and tubes of lotions and potions. Boy, how I could have used the shampoo earlier this week while waiting for my Avon order to arrive with a new bottle of shampoo.
Now if that isn't enough after we gabbed and I hope I didn't talk her ear off we went out for lunch to Sorrentos of my favorite places for salad. I had the Sorrento salad which comes with bread sticks and Lisa had the cheese salad also which comes with bread sticks with a different dressing than I had but she also ordered brushetta. I hadn't had that before. Was it good. I had a goodie bag to take home since the salads are so large and I only ordered a large and not the extra large. Then Lisa paid for lunch which was totally unexpected.

After lunch we came back to my apartment so I could put my doggie bag away and we walked over to Woseley Wardrobe to check out the yarns. I had hoped that Mona would be there. I told the gal in the shop yesterday I was bringing my SP11 who was coming in from Toronto and I told Rachael earlier in the week but Mona apparently had just left before we arrived.

While I was there I did take a couple of photos of Lisa. She did manage to find a couple of items here in Winnipeg that she hadn't seen in Toronto or in the states. Mona even had her yarns 10% off. Do I want to admit to getting any yarn? Thank-you Lisa for letting me take the photos and put them on my blog for all to see.
AGAIN, I want to thank Lisa for a lovely day, a lovely secret pal package and being a wonderful partner. I hope you will keep in touch with me.
I do need to apologise to Lisa for being so overwhelmed having her visit me I had no manners while she was here and never offered her a cup of tea and I have so many to choose from. Please please forgive me. I accept my punishment of 50 with an eyelash yarn and I promise if you visit again we will have a lovely cup of tea and some fresh baked something, pie, shortbread cookies, brownies but something. I would have offered some after Mona's but I know you had plans to go for dinner with your family. So I hope I will get to see you when you come back to the city.

AND here is Solara at the end of the evening lying all over my knitted & felted bag with second set of flowers to be felted and next to my new Louisa Harding yarn.