I found out who my sp8 pal was, Ellen. She sent the most wonderful package of all as my final package! I am sorry that I couldn’t take pictures today (camera operator malfunction..lol), but I have provide links to some of the appropriate items to give you an idea.

I got the pattern for the “ME Lace Shawl” from knitpicks dot com. Okay, so they call it the “Janet Lace Shawl” but since my name is Janet (although I go by Jan), I call it the “ME” shawl…hehehehe. I have wanted to make this shawl since first eyeing it on knit picks. http://www.knitpicks.com/books/itemid_50472/books_display.aspx

She sent me three beautiful hanks of lace weight yarn from knitpicks called ‘Gosamer’ in the “Sweet Peas” colorway. The picture at the left is of this yarn from knitpicks.

She also included the book “Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls” by Martha Waterman. It has some shawl patterns in the back of the book, some lace patterns towards the middle, and a great history of the construction and making of traditional lace shawls. It is as much, if not more, of a guide on how to design your own traditional lace shawl as it is a history of them! Oh wow, I love books that help me design and do my own things my way!!! Knitpicks has the book on sale right now, so if remotely interested check it out now by clicking the link that follows. http://www.knitpicks.com/books/itemid_30530/books_display.aspx

She also had a coffee cup that was filled with a chocolate bar and hard candies. The cup is decorated and is a sovenier from Seattle Washington, Ellen’s soon to be new home. In fact, most of the package was soveniers from Seattle!

Since the Seattle zoo is known (unless I am horribly mistaken) for their Panda Bears, she included a TY Beanie Baby panda bear “Fortune”. It is a retired beanie, meaning they are making no more of them. He’s sooo cute! The picture to the left came from the TY web site. I collect TY Beanie Babies, mostly the teddy bears. But I do collect other Beanie Babies that have special significance to me. Like misc. bunny rabbits in honor of various Easters, the lamb in honor of wool (afterall I am a knitter), a puppy dog that reminds me of the attitude of dog I used to have, and others. This panda will always be special because Ellen sent him to me!

She also included a beautiful note pad. It is either simply a pad of multi-colored newsprint paper, or it is that and is recycled. Either way, I will have to save it for special notes!

She also included a print of one of her original abstract pieces of art. It is absolutely beautiful! Wish I could include a scan of it, but it is copyrighted and I don’t have her permission, so just take my word…it is wonderful.

Here’s a link to Ellen’s blog, go check her out. http://knitabout.blogspot.com/