Over to Ravelry, there is a group or two or three for just about every interest one might possibly have. There are groups for journals round robins, fans of Moleskines, TV shows, quilting, movies, books, authors, designers, steampunk, geeks, knitting needle brands and all matter of other things, even for being cack - handed (a lefty).
One of the many groups I belong to is for the fans of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Here's the link to Diana's Site: http://www.dianagabaldon.com/. Within the group, we are doing read-a-longs and Knit-A-Longs. The book we currently are reading is Dragonfly in Amber, which is the second book in the series. We have been doing the Dragonfly socks as the KAL, please see earlier posts for pictures of the socks (I've made two pair, as I really like them).
It's coals to Newcastle for me to read this book yet again, as I have read the series every year since 1996 when the first one was published. I know that sounds crazy, but I am not alone in doing this. The Ladies of Lallybroch are legion. (The Ladies of Lallybroch is an on-line fan group of Diana Gabaldon. Here's the link to the site: http://www.lallybroch.com). I have 3 sets of the books, a set of autographed hardbacks and 2 sets of PBs. The PBs, I will lend to anyone I can con, I mean, er, introduce to them. Between Katte Beth and I, we finally got to our friend, Darla. She is going to start reading them as well. Woot! Another person to sit and spin and talk about Outlander with.
Well, anyway, to the point of this blog. We do a swap in the group by signing up and getting randomly selected to be spoilt and to spoil. I was given Tiffany to spoil and her sporran is on the way to her. K was chosen to spoil me. The Sporran Swap is a package of themed goodies tailored to the spoilee. In this, I was spoilt to a great extent by Lachlan, aka KRobin... She really outdid herself. She must have poked around on Ravelry and other places to see what I liked and what things are favorites of mine. She did a great job of sleuthing, IMO. Thank you, thank you, thank you, (100 million).
In the great box, I got a Moleskine-like journal with a picture of the Eiffel Tower on the front. There is a package of sliced candied ginger and a recipe to make Ginger Roos (if you have read earlier posts, this will make sense). There was also roving for needle felting including some smooshy Corriedale in a shade of blue that I didn't have. Two beautiful skeins of handspun yarn (they are whispering about a pair of wristlets to me), in some of my fave colours of cream, green and brown. A package of shortbread, cuz we're Scottish after all. Wonderful stitch markers of dragonflies to add to my growing collection of REALLY KEWL JEWELS for knitting. Possibly my most favorite item of all, an amber bead and wood bead with silver charms bookmark (I love, love, love bookmarks!). There is so much more, including dark chocolate, a skein of sock yarn in a colourway very similar to one I was contemplating just this morning. There was also a roll of ribbon, a postcard, a photo of Edinburgh Castle. Jealous (1), as she's been there, also some fun buttons and findings for a bracelet.
Again, a thousand thanks and I have enjoyed this experience to no end and would do it again in a heartbeat. Next up, Voyager and I got the sock pattern picked out already, the yarn to do it in now, as well. Thanks again, K!
