Well, Secret Pal 9 is finished, and I was fortunate enough to meet two wonderful new people by participating in this exchange. I understand that during this round of the SP exchange there were a lot of people who signed up and didn't follow through. I was very fortunate to have wonderful pals at both ends.

My spoilee was Jerry of Twisted Knitster. By reading his blog, I discovered that Jerry is a great lover of fine yarns. His ability to yarn shop stuns me So what to get a yarn connoisseur – well, I only sent him one skein of yarn, but it was Seasilk in beautiful ocean blues. I also sent him stitch markers made by the lovely Sarah, and a few other goodies. 

And my spoiler was Shannon of Dreams of Yarn. Everything she sent me was absolutely perfect for me! I've already written about the first two packages I received. I've already knit up the yarn she sent then. And then this week I received a final package that certainly went above and beyond! Feast your eyes on this:

The yarn is Fleece Artist Nova Socks in a gorgeous colourway. The needles are rosewood (which I've never used, but have coveted). She included some lovely notecards and memo pad, and a couple of things that need a closeup.

Some adorable stitch markers that she made:

And a very cute zipper clip of a sweater on knitting needles

A truly wonderful package! Thanks, Shannon. And I love your blog!

In my last post I showed the little iPod carrying case that I had made, but quickly found in using it that it was all well and good having a storage solution for the iPod, but the headphones needed a home too. So over the last couple of evening I played around with some ideas, and came up with a little drawstring pouch that is now attached to the bag strap

I just think it's too cute for words. And very practical. Now I can wear my iPod around my neck, pull out the headphones when I need them, and tuck them back into their pouch when I don't. Very cool!

I leave on Sunday, so my next post will be from the other side of the world. I'll have a laptop with me and a reasonably good internet connection, so I will likely blog occasionally – but it may be infrequent.