Coming and going

It's been a week for packages, one way or another. I'm about to leave to post my Loopy Swap package. I'm a day past the deadline, but in this case, it's actually because there was something I wanted to add that I needed to get this morning (well, to be totally fair, that I needed Rick to get; he's doing it now). I'll share once it's been received, but I'm hoping my swap partner thinks it was worth the extra day! Here's a picture of everything but those last things all packed up.
I'm rather pleased with the way all the coppery tones came together.

And, of course, I received my amazing Loopy Swap package. This is only the second swap I've ever done, but I seem to be very lucky in my partners. Here's everything unwrapped (each item was individually and lovingly wrapped up with a little label, but of course I ripped into all of them so fast that there were no pictures to be had).
Yes, that would be three, count 'em, three, beautifully handknit items all for me! I've only ever had one other thing knit for me (that's a story worth telling sometime; it was before I was a knitter, and I realize now how much I didn't adequately appreciate everything that went into it). The bag, which is felted, is long enough for a straight needle project, while being shallow and wide enough to find everything inside. And the lighter blue item is a gorgeous lace shawl, wide enough to cover my shoulders, and short enough not to get in the way. I can tell it's going to be my all-time favorite sitting and reading and grading shawl. And then right there on top, a pair of socks. Someone knit me socks!

The socks and the shawl are gorgeous; Jessica clearly knows her lace. Check them out.
(I'm so glad I waited for better light to take these pictures, by the way; these really deserve to be shown off.) And of course, the barbecue sauce is sitting on my counter, waiting to be used. I'm thinking I should plan a meal around barbecued pork something-or-other tomorrow night. What do you think?

I also received a surprise package from Anne, with some yarn that I'm dying to play with. But I'm promising myself I'll be disciplined and finish what I'm working on first. Sometimes I hate being a grown up. These two in particular are calling to me.
I'm starting to poke around Barbara Walker's books to see if I can find the perfect motif to use on that one on the right. It needs to be a lightweight shawl for the fall, doesn't it? For me. And look how fun these are.
The ones on the right may have to be something for my mother. The colors are right up her alley. And the yarn on the left is begging to be socks for Younger Daughter. I don't know why, they just are. (There's something about that child that screams future goth, or punk, or whatever the equivalent will be when she's in high school. I have known this since she was born. I'm scared.)

And so my plans get ahead of my needles. Such is life, no?

Anne commented that it seems odd to think of February as spring, and it's true. I'm about to go on a limb and publicly post an observation that is based on living in California my whole life. Rick (the wanna-be meteorologist of the family) laughs at me and tells me this is all in my head. But honestly, I've lived in the San Joaquin valley, LA, San Diego, and the Bay Area, and this has happened more than not in all of those places (all the rest of you out here, tell me if you think I'm right). So, here I go. As many winters as not, February does a very odd thing. For a week or two, everything warms up. And I mean, really warms up. I remember in Sacramento, it would go from 30-degree weather, tule fog every night, to 75 degrees or so. And everyone packs up their winter coats, and gets excited for spring, and thinks that they can believe winter has ended. And just as soon as we've decided that winter is really and truly ended, bam! We're back to cold and sleet. I tell you, it's February's little way of making us pay for assuming that as Californians, it's our right to have good weather.

All right, Rick is back, and I need to get to the post office before it closes. More tomorrow about my adventures with a spinning wheel.