Better than Christmas

This has been one awesome goodie filled weekend chez moi. On Friday I forced myself out of the house because I was SURE there would be more than bills and crappy catalogs in the mailbox. THERE WAS!

I am the proud owner of my very own Amyville sushi stitchmarkers. Behold the almost intolerable level of cuteness:

These were right in my box, as they are small. But, there was also a little slip telling me they were holding another box for me. THERE'S MORE?!?!? Score! So I saunter up and hand the Marine my slip and ID, and he shimmies back with a tidy box marked "Yarn and Chocolate." Double Score! It's from my Secret Pal!! I do not lie to you when I say I did a little happy dance right there in the Military Post Office on Camp Foster, amidst several testosterone laden jarheads. Here's what I got:

There's three balls of ON-Line Merino Soft in a juicy tangerine color, and two balls of LIME green linen. To top it all off she's fattening me up with two bars of Perugina and Lindt dark chocolate. Um, Secret Pal? I LOVE YOU.

I think Secret Pals get a certain clairvoyance. This is my first SP, so I'm pretty sure I don't have the gift yet. But, I'm always reading blogs saying "how did my SP know....?" Well, how did MY SP know I'm dying to try out linen? Right now the linen is raw and crunchy and, quite frankly, zesty. It seems to want to become a tightly knitted bag that I may dip in starch so it has lots of structure. But, then again, I keep hearing about how soft linen gets after you wash it. I'm afraid to sacrifice even one little yard to swatch'n'wash as a test.

I don't know if you can tell in my awesome photo, but the merino yarn is very different. It's almost woven into a tiny little rope, with lots of stretch. It's got a great light feel to it, not like fuzzy or warm. I think this may end up in a tee so it will be warm in the A/C, but still crisp for the steamy sauna that Okinawa becomes May thru September. I'm thinking of putting it with bright white so that the colors really pop. Bonus, it has a great floral scent on it. Secret Pal, you smell nice.

Don't judge me, you all know you rub your new yarn on your cheek and sniff it to take in the wooly goodness. And if you don't, you should.

I also scored the Friends complete series on DVD via the Lt for Valentine's Day. That will come in handy for the olympics, as we don't yet have network TV. We're signed up, but not sure when it'll happen. My Olympic socks are coming right along. Here's a starting gate pic for you:


I forced myself to wait until Saturday morning to cast on, as the Lt and I suck at math, and couldn't figure out the time difference between Italy and Japan. Sad, but true.