And some photos

The one thing I totally finished over break (I have a cowl about 3/4 done and a pair of socks almost done) were the gift-mitts for the AAUW gift exchange next week:



These are made from Erica Lueder's excellent soccer mitts pattern. I used one of the Opal "flower" yarns (Blütenpracht, which means "Blossom"). The particular flower is Männertreu, which I don't know...let me check Translate...Lobelia. Yeah, that was what I was guessing from the blurry photo on the ballband...

I was very careful to match the stripes and am happy they came out matching.

I got my mail for today and a bunch of packages came over break.

Some books I ordered a while back (one had to come from the UK...)



I have MANY of this series - they are either reprints of "classic" British detective novels, or compilations of short stories (some of which were previously only published in magazines like "The Strand.") I *love* these books. I love the styling of them and I have enjoyed many of the stories (one or two novels, they were either poorly written or one was just depressing - it was an early-60s book in a very gritty style, rather than the more cozy "village mysteries" I prefer - and I jettisoned them).

I think at least one of these will be my on-the-train reading (maybe the one of Christmas-crime short stories) over the upcoming break.

I also got my ITFF swap package!



Some GOOD pencils (I rage at the cheap pencils that are mostly what's on offer at the stores here - I like real hardwood pencils with good strong leads in them. And yes, I like using pencil for stuff; I feel like I can write more neatly in pencil and I don't tend to smear them like I do some ink pens).

Many of the pencils are marked "HB" which makes me smile because it makes me think of the bit from Winnie-the-Pooh:

When Pooh saw what [the gift] was, he nearly fell down, he was so pleased. It was a Special Pencil Case. There were pencils in it marked "B" for Bear, and pencils marked "HB" for Helping Bear, and pencils marked "BB" for Brave Bear. There was a knife for sharpening the pencils, and india-rubber for rubbing out anything which you had spelt wrong, and a ruler for ruling lines for the words to walk on, and inches marked on the ruler in case you wanted to know how many inches anything was, and Blue Pencils and Red Pencils and Green Pencils for saying special things in blue and red and green. And all these lovely things were in little pockets of their own in a Special Case which shut with a click when you clicked it. And they were all for Pooh.

HB is a little harder and tougher graphite than the standard #2 pencil.

And some funny cute erasers to go with the pencils, and a page of stickers (which my partner promised me was "extra" and should not count in the three things: the rule was "the number shall be three" of the items that were sent - like the old Monty Python gag about the Holy Hand Grenade)

And a full skein (400 some yards) of a soft green laceweight yarn made of yak and silk. I might look for a laceweight cowl pattern for it because that would be nice to have right around your neck. (I do have the Helmholz Waves Cowl pattern, but I already have a yarn in mind for that)

And then I opened my Doki Doki crate. I think I'm going to save the Gachapon crate (which also came) for another day when I need a little cheering up.

This month's theme was "confections":




Cookie molds (not *quite* sure how those work but maybe they are a little like cookie cutters; I could also seeing them used for fudge). And a box of My Melody little baggies, like sandwich bags, which I might carry with me up to my parents for packaging up cookies-as-gifts-to-neighbors in. And a nice Little Twin Stars crate sort of thing, which might be good for containing all my many nail polishes in my bathroom. And a super cute Rilakkuma "strawberry festival" mug. I have a *lot* of mugs but maybe it's time to retire one and sub this one in.

And there was a stuffie! There have been few of these in recent months and they are my favorites. This one is called "Mochifuwa Piyomaru." I know "maru" is "round" and they tell me "piyo" is like "cheep" (and mochi are a chewy rice ball sort of thing)

I think I'm just going to call him Piyo because the full name is kind of a mouthful for an Anglophone.

He looks like a grumpy little duck but the grumpiness makes him more amusing.