A surprise in the mail

There was a little box propped up against our front door when we came back from our Monterey trip. Not having the Amazon signature arrow on the side of the box, I knew it couldn't have been the iPod Touch DH had gotten me for my birthday. So I wondered, what could it be? Was there something I ordered recently that I forgot about? No, I don't think so. Hmmm...

We usually enter the house through the garage. So I walked around to the front to pick up the box and the return address said "Alana" on it. Oh! I know what it is! This is the prize from Alana's Blogoversary contest! What a pleasant surprise. With all the prep for our short road trip to Monterey, I had totally forgot about this.

Look what I found inside after opening the box:

She went through the effort of gift wrapping everything. Gosh, it feels like Christmas!

She even included a few extra goodies besides the book and yarn. Would you believe that this is my very first "real" knitting book? Yes, that's right. I don't own any real knitting books. I only have 8 stitch dictionaries. Thank you, Alana, for starting my knitting library!!! :-) I thought it was interesting that the round mirror should be in an octagonal frame. It made me think of those Chinese octagonal mirrors that people use to reflect or ward off evil. If you look closely, near the top of the yellow flower on the book, you will see 4 stitch markers. I probably should have put them on the pad of paper so they'd be easier to see. There's also a nice pad of paper which will go to good use, you can never have too many of those. The yarn is Classic Elite Provence, it's such a pretty blue. I've never used this yarn before, what shall I make with it?

Thank you again, Alana, for a great contest!

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