The Summer of Yarn Love Swap Final Reveal

I figure as long as I am on borrowed time at my job that I should catch up on blog posts.

The final reveal for the Summer of Yarn Love Swap at Ravelry was kind of like the end of the world:  except that it ended with a whimper and a bang.  My spoiler Pamela (of Pamela on the Farm fame) and I had gotten to know each other quite well in emails and I was pretty certain I knew who she was, so the reveal wasn't all that surprising.  It seemed more like a mint on my pillow after full day of heavenly languor on the sun deck over Caribbean waters.  (This is the "whimper" part.)

In the last box she sent, Pamela included a letter that linked each item with her and her family and tied us together with our common threads -- and there are so many of those, it is uncanny.  I don't think she even realizes how linked we have become.

I don't think everything that she sent is visible in the photo above.  She sent playing cards and a car air freshener to represent both Ohio and the inevitable "life in the car" that moms like her lead.

There was lots of sock yarn for my baby projects (she knew I wanted to try making the Berroco design Celestine crochet dodecahedron).  (In fact, I have already started one this week):

What Pamela didn't know (at least on a conscious level) was that right before this package arrived, I had decided to try my hand at crocheted socks.  So not all of this yarn will become dodecahedra.

That book in the foreground?  Another one of the Amazing Pamela's Mind Meld products.  One of the questions on the questionnaire for the swap was, "Do you collect anything?"  At the time I said no, but when I saw this comb-bound recipe book from the Ohio State Fair, I realized that -- albeit not on purpose -- I actually do collect something.  Behold!  My grassroots comb-bound recipe book collection:

Clockwise from the far left:

• Best of the Fair previously seen;
• a Greek cookbook from a Greek festival I attended in Oakland when DH and I were first married;
• my grandmother's church's cookbook (Grace Lutheran in Northern Illinois); and
• last but not least, my childhood church (State Street Methodist in East St. Louis, Illinois) cookbook circa 1961. I distinctly recall my mother and the ladies in her church Methodist Women's circle collecting the recipes inside. They even wrote to then First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and received "her favorite" recipe for tomato aspic. That recipe, along with a cover letter from her personal secretary proudly grace the first pages of the cookbook.

See that little bag resting on top of the Best of the Fair cookbook in the earlier photo?  I really suspect that Pamela made what was in that bag and that it's a recipe that's in that cookbook, but she neglected to mention it in her letter, so we'll forever be in mystery.  (Unless she decides to comment on this blog post, that is.)  Anyway, it was a yummy treat that sent my blood sugar soaring and would have caused great damage had not my Dear Husband been nearby because after I'd tasted it and it became obvious that it was Not Long for this World, he thoughtfully disappeared the rest of it.  (He liked it a lot, too!)

Now, I would have been perfectly content with all of this, but then I saw the homemade item!  (This is the "bang" part.)

This bag is perfect in so, so, so many ways.  First off, it's entrelac.  I mean, I can't even knit and purl anymore, so just the thought of attempting colorwork this complicated boggles the mind.  Second, it's a bit of Ohio culture.  It's called a buckeye bag.  I wish I could go to Ohio and pick buckeyes and carry them in it!  But I'll have to settle for carrying crochet projects when I go to very special events.  Thirdly, although the photograph doesn't do them justice, the colors are just beautiful.  And fourthly, she felted it!  This is another craft skill I haven't done yet.  I am in absolute awe of Pamela's skills.

I have Pamelaonthefarm to thank for making the summer of 2008 delightfully memorable!

First Ever Contest!

So there's this person over at Ravelry who has this avatar (except we call it a "Ravatar"; get it?) and she and I have decided we are twins separated at birth because we have so much in common.  We are not paying attention to the fact that I think there's somewhere between 20 and 30 years' difference between our ages....

I digress.  She's got this Ravatar that has created quite a stir because it's something of an optical illusion without meaning to be an optical illusion.  Everybody who sees it agrees.  It's a picture of a butterfly and a ____________________.

Some people see a caterpillar.  Some people see a whale's tail.  Some people -- MOI included -- see an elephant trunk sniffing at the butterfly.  And one person who shall remain nameless saw a butterfly fart.

It has been the subject of much speculation and finally the person -- "mkrval" to us -- revealed what it was one day and poof!  The caterpillars and the tails of whales and the elephant noses vanished.

Magic!

I digress again.

Anyway, mkvral had her 1,000th post recently at Ravelry -- she's a real chatterbox, that one and she's over 30 posts past that now -- and in honor of her first millenial post, I put up a contest (technically, it's a drawing with a writing assignment) for people to reveal their own experiences with this mystery Ravatar.

It is posted over at Ravelry on the Swap on a Budget group board.  Can't miss it.

So what do you see?

To be included in this drawing, all you have to do is post a story on your blog (or in the thread on Ravelry) -- fictional or non -- about what you see when you look at the Ravatar.

Prizes are highly relevant stitch markers.

First prize:  Set of 6 caterpillars-and-worms

Second prize:  Set of 4 penguins (no, nobody saw penguins in the Ravatar.  They're just my favorite and it's my contest, so there.) 

Third prize:  Set of 3 orange elephants.

Contest closes at 9:00 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, August 13th.  Drawing to be held sometime around 3:30 PM PDT on Thursday, August 14th.