Lucky Me!

I have great Secret Pals! Yesterday I came home to find my parents had arrived from South Dakota (expected) and a package from my One Skein Secret Pal (unexpected).
A handmade card, two postcards from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, coasters from Paris, a knitting guide that I can stick in my wallet and carry with me everywhere, and two skeins of a beautiful soft laceweight yarn. Thank you, thank you OS SP! Van Gogh is one of my favorites. The yarn is one of my favorite colors of all time and I plan on putting the guide in my purse today!! I have to be careful where I use the coasters because of this:


Yeah, I know she looks cartoon cute with her big floppy ears, sad eyes, and giant snowshoe feet. But she is still the BHFH who will eat anything. Sofa cushions, addis, and most likely coasters from Paris. So the lovely and much appreciated coasters may have to be put away until Maxine Louise gets over her last remaining puppy chewing tendencies.

I'm off work today through the 4th of July. I've got to finish the poncho today as I am hosting a birthday for my father and niece tomorrow. I'm running errands today while my parents go shopping and to lunch at my sister's place. Tonight my sister, mother and I are going to take in a chick flick. Tomorrow the big family birthday barbeque. So I'll be knitting furiously to get this poncho done to present to my niece tomorrow. I know, just what an 8 year old needs in July, a poncho, but she asked for it and she's getting it.

When the poncho is done, I can cross that off my list of knitting to dos. But with the lovely yarn that my OS SP sent, I think I have to add a lace scarf to the to do list. Any suggestions for such an item would be appreciated. Remember that I'm a lace novice. So many people are participating in the Amazing Lace challenge, that I bet someone has a suggestion. I'm thinking about Branching Out as the pattern uses the word easy in the decription. Advice is always appreciated.