Elizabeth's away on holiday this week (she set a couple of features to upload automatically) so you get the dubious 'treat' of me rambling to you again. I've been a busy bee and have been finishing off knitting projects in my spare time, so of course I've taken on a new load of things that are making me wonder what on earth I was thinking of.

I'm on Ravelry* and have signed up for a couple of swaps. Have you ever joined in a swap? Swaps are great. A whole bunch of people sign up to swap on a theme - Favourite Films, say, or Local Yarn. An administrator then tells each person who to send a parcel to, and in most cases you get a parcel from someone different, so if I were sending a parcel to Debora, she might be sending a parcel to Elizabeth. Usually in a swap you include something knitted or handmade in some way plus other things your swap recipient might like, and people post to a message board saying what they do and do not like. I try to include something involving yarn from the UK if I'm sending things overseas, because getting something foreign and exotic is always a real treat, and it doesn't have to be expensive, just something the swapper can't buy in their country. (And yes, I do buy the yarn myself – no scrounging from work.)

Like a numpty, I signed up for two swaps at once. None of this 'stagger them sensibly', no sirree. And I am a slo-o-o-ow knitter. While my friend Elle is racing through her plan to knit 52 pairs of socks in a year, I struggle to complete one pair in a month. Still, hunting for patterns has been really good fun, especially as I'm looking for something that is quick enough to knit in time and that the recipient will (hopefully) like too. If it busts a bit of stash, so much the better. And at some point in September, I should get a couple of nice surprises myself!



*I will NOT answer work-related PMs on Ravelry - email me at Simply Knitting so my bosses have a record of all interactions, please! It's not me being mean, it just means that I can be more organised at helping you, especially if whatever you're contacting me about is something I need to pass on to another person.