Thoroughly spoilt.............................

Well I have just had another birthday come and go and although it is not a significant one this year I have been thoroughly spoilt by both family and friends alike. With my birthday falling on a Sunday we certainly made a weekend of it and went out for a lovely meal at my very favourite restaurant in Chiswick on Saturday night.

On Sunday morning I woke up to unwrap some long awaited presents. I think they originally went on order back in the summer and then sat hidden in the house for a few months until I finally got to open them.

My beautiful Offhand designs Sabrina Bag in Berry Bliss. To accompany it were the matching needle case for my knitpicks interchangeables and a tia clutch for all those little nik naks you like to carry around for serious knitting.









I also had a lovely jumper kit from the children which has a bit of a mobieus twist to it and I am seriously looking forward to casting this on. It may have to wait a little while as I have a few projects on at the moment.





Sunday afternoon was the 'Not quite there yet' get together with a bit of an open house from 3pm with an afternoon cream tea and knitting. Thanks also to Ling, Diane, Vanessa, Robynn, Suki for some beautiful presents - all yarny and knitty related of course and to Alice for the lovely book that arrived with my socktopus parcel this week as she wasn't able to make it, but don't worry we all ate her share of cake.





I also had a lovely fibre parcel arrive from across the big pond from Vancouver from the very much missed Gabrielle. The colours were just gorgeous with three different types of fibre from one of her local indie dyers 'Sweet Georgia'.







I had such a fantastic time and it was so lovely to spend my birthday with friends and to knit so thank you all that came and to those who couldn't make it this time around maybe you will be there to celebrate when I do make it to the big one!

Happy Knitty Birthday........................................

Yesterday was my birthday and it had a bit of a knitty theme. I recieved the outstanding items from my Knitpicks collection. I was unable to pre-order the individual harmony interchangeables before christmas so now I have 9.00mm, 10.00mm and 12.00mm ends aswell. Purchased last weekend on the visit to Get Knitted. I also had the pack of DPN sock needles along with some of the 40cm circulars as the interchangeables shortest total length is 60cm. How many more knitting needles could a knitter want? (Well only to update her straights into lovely Lantern moon Ebonys of course!That will have to be done on a project by project basis though, oh and whenever Robynn has a sale!)Those who know me well understand how I have to have things matching and the complete set.
I am also now the proud owner of a Ball winder, still got to get the swift to go with it. This is becoming far more urgent since I have aquired several more skeins to wind since both Christmas and Birthday (no complaints on that front at all).I am also very set on getting an Umbrella swift which means import from the US.

So here are a few of the lovely pressies that I was lucky enough to receive this year.

More lovely Knitpicks - of the sock needle variety.

From my sister - Fleece Artist Sea Vines Vest in Beet. You can order these kits from Robynn at Purlescence now.


This skein was from Carl. The secret skein that I didn't know which colour and yarn type I was getting (out of the three I brought up on screen and left him to choose one - well a little direction is needed when purchasing beautiful yarn).


He also bought me lovely flowers too, not knitty but too lovely not to include.


And then of course was the home pedicure set....................
I guess a little background is required to understand the full story behind this lovely gift and its presentation. Ever since I have been blogging I have been jealous of the way that ORK (Gabrielle) posts her photographs in such creative ways on her blog. I had a chat and she gave me a little instruction on how to use my camera more effectively - that is showing me the Macro button. So since then I have been trying hard with varying levels of sucess or not (your opinions may differ from mine). Anyway fairly recently I knitted a little set of Yoga sockettes (see the post of January 1st - Yogi feet). I was to be congratulated by ORK on the lovely clear, close up shots I had taken of this new knitted garment. However there was a but, a rather large but with OMG look at those toes. They so, so need a pedicure! I was told at that point that with an impending birthhday if the present hadn't already been bought that a pedicure gift would be purchased. I breathed a sigh of relief and trundled off home to perform a virtual pedicure via Flickr.
So on Thursday evening after my whinging the previous Saturday about not really having any suprises to open G pops around to the house on her way home with a beautifully wrapped package. Now I have to say at this point with her being a friend and fellow knitter I was of course expecting a soft and yarny package. In my hand was a small, hard, box shaped item with a label reading........

Ok, good start so far followed by...........

Ahh! I now had my suspicions. I said thank you and it didn't take long for my mind to start guessing. A home pedicure kit it must be. I waved goodbye to G and carefully put my present on the side to open up in the morning.
The next day came and I opened up gifts from the family, mostly ones I already knew in advance because apparently I am difficult to buy for! What me! There are only two things they need to know to buy for me;
1) quality yarn
2) Pink
Now to be fair pink is not always needed as you can see from above the Camelspin is just lovley and not a hint of pink in that case.
So then one of the children passed my the beautifully wrapped gift from G containing the pedicure kit........................
Or was it?


Beautiful yarn and pink, thank you so much even if you did have great fun winding me up. I had a great birthday with fabulous presents. Did I mention I have now got a ballwinder?