Secret Pal, Coming and Going

Late last week my Secret Pal struck again! Actually, this was a tide-me-over package, because she’s heading out for a vacation to New Zealand and so will be sending me a package after that trip. She’s been great, and the whole family has enjoyed the Australian snacks (surprisingly, I’m the only one who appreciates the Vegemite).

In the package were, you guessed it, Arnott’s biscuits (no picture because it would be embarrasing to show how few are left today). Tim Tams and some mints ones that—dare I say?—I think I actually like better than Girl Scout thin mints. She sent along a cute green metal notepad (with refill pages!), that will fit just great in my purse/pack/pocket.

She also included a tam made with the same yarn (but different color) that she sent me last month. Here, we have Trixie modeling it for me in the very weak afternoon winter sun:


Thank you, Secret Pal!

Sticking with the Secret Pal theme, and because I have finished socks to show you but I haven’t snapped a photo yet (and self-taken foot shots always come out terrible, at least for me), I’ll include something I made for my Secret Pal and mailed out today:


What is it? Well. Let me open it up for you:



“Yeah, we’re not all knitters, Imperatrix. So what is that thing?!!”

It’s a needle case for double-pointed needles (and other accessories). I took the idea from the Organized Knitter, which I found through the Elliphantom Knits blog. This one is much smaller than either of theirs, but it does fold rather than roll. This was a learning experience, and there are some things I’d do differently next time (like, sew the tie on before sewing the pockets so that I can set it in the center of the folded-over case, rather than 2/3 of the way up). But it was fun and easy.