Christmas comes early....

When we got back home on Friday after our trip up north I had a small pile of mail waiting for me. Most of it was fairly dull, junk mail and bills and the like, but tucked in amongst them was a while you were out card from the Royal Mail. As I'd placed several orders online before going away, I wasn't surprised. But I was a bit confused; whoever had written the card had terrible handwriting, so I couldn't tell how many parcels were being kept for me. Both the "needs signature" and "parcel too big" boxes were ticked, but that could still only mean one parcel.

I had no chance to get to the sorting office on Friday or Saturday morning, so had to send Jamie in my place, armed with my driving licence as proof of ID. Of course, as soon as he came back he emailed me in work to say that there were three parcels waiting for me at home! Three! Everything I'd ordered had arrived on the same day!

Are you excited? I was. Even though I knew what was in them all.

I had to wait an unbearable three hours before I was home from work and able to tear all the packaging open.

A set of blocking wires and proper blocking pins.

The long thin tube couldn't be anything other than my brand new shiny blocking wire and pin set! Twenty four 36" wires plus four 24" flexible wires, a yard-stick and 40 rustproof t-pins. The entire set was under £30 from Hulu Crafts. Just the thing for blocking my Jane Austen shawl!

I noticed while I was on the site that shipping was free if you spent over £30. So it was easy for me to slip in some extra packs of t-pins to bump the order over the limit.

Two packs of t-pins. I'm not sure how all that Sugar'n Cream got there.

I think this might really be my first yarn purchase with absolutely no idea of what I will make. I just saw they had it, and it was a low price and well, shipping was free, so I thought I'd get some and try it out to see what all the fuss is about! I suspect it will become mug hugs, dishcloths and scrubbies. Possibly some baby booties. Who knows?

As if that wasn't exciting enough, there was still one parcel to go! This is possibly the most exciting one of all.

I wish I had empty rooms with clean, white walls to take my blog photos in!

It's an umbrella swift!! It works and everything! I haven't tested it out with a skein of yarn yet, but have measured it and it is about 60" in diameter at full extension. It spins beautifully.

It will be tested properly when the time comes to wind the Wollmeise for my Hypernova. It's certainly giving me motivation to finish my current knitting projects so I am in a position to cast on!