Saturday, May 3, 2008

Fine & Noble

My friend from Norway, Ziarah, exchanged a swap-box with me this week. Isn't it wonderful to be able to sample the unique teas and yarns from a far-away place? Even though, on the map, we are so separated, Ziarah and I have several things in common and so picking out treats for each other was not hard at all!

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The first thing you see is the Biscotti that she made! It is orange and almond flavoured and is soooooo good! I'm eating one a day but I have to put the box away afterwards because I just want to keep eating them!

The Fine and Noble tea is a Green Tea that I love - two boxes!! Ziarah had sent me some of this last year and I was almost addicted to it. These tea bags will make my work days happier.

You also see some metallic fibers - gold and copper - so unusual. I plan to pair this yarn with a lace-weight for shawl making. It will make a soft glow I think, don't you? It will be good for emboidery too.!

And the yarn! She sent me 3 skeins of Silk & Baby Alpaca yarn in - guess what - Green! A beautiful sweet green like a new tulip sprout. This is from a company called Alpaca Du and has cute little pictures of alpacas on the label. It is uniquely Norwegian!

This information is from Ziarah about the yarn company - I think this is really cute, and fitting:

The yarn brand is Du Store Alpakka, which means "You Big Alpaca" and it is used in Norwegian as an exclamative way of saying "Oh my!", or "Wow!" - Kinda like "Holy cow!" :)

I do say "Holy cow!" to this yarn - the silk and the softness of the baby alpaca makes it the smoothest stuff ever. I just hugged it for about an hour after I unwrapped it. The yarn company is very correct in saying Oh my! about their yarn!

The cool thing is that Ziarah and I emailed back and forth about a yarn that would be especially Norwegian before we swapped. I was sending her some Seacoast Handpaints - made here in my state, in soft pinks and tans as well as Manos silk and wool. I had read that Norway has some very wonderful yarns because they have ancient breeds of sheep there that are raised no where else, but Googling was failing me. She knew all the websites to suggest and pointed me to this alpaca which couldn't have been more perfect. I feel that I got something so special.

I am mulling this yarn around in my head, but I think....perhaps, this:

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Thank you Ziarah soooooooo much for these gifts!

ETA: Included in this package was a knitting designer's book too! It got missed out of the photo because I started using it right away as soon as I unwrapped it! It has measurements and yarn requirements, pockets and note pages, graph paper for designs, and abreviations and chart information - everything I need in one place. It even has a guage-counter and needle sizer included! When I am at meetings at work, I'm always designing on the notepaper I'm supposed to be taking notes on. So this book is coming back and forth with me each day, and I'll start putting my drawings in their proper place. :D

5 comments:

ziarah said...

Just checking - the book didn't get lost, did it? I hope you can use it, it looks really handy for planning projects.

I have the same problem with the biscotti - I tend to eat a lot of them if I don't force myself not to... :P Let me know if you want the recipe ^_^

The yarn brand is Du Store Alpakka, which means "You Big Alpaca" and it is used in Norwegian as an exclamative way of saying "Oh my!", or "Wow!" - Kinda like "Holy cow!" :)

ziarah said...

Oh, and the box didn't fit into the cardboard box I used last time I sent you that tea, so that's why it was just in the plastic that time :)

Unraveling Sophia said...

Oh the book! Yes - I must put that in the description too! I put it right in my knitting bag, so it got missed from the photo.

I would love your biscotti recipe!

pia said...

I had no idea you were in my home state (I left years ago). No wonder I like your voice/writing!
~Pia

Unraveling Sophia said...

Oh, thank you Pia! I will have to look up your blog, too. :)