Carton of Delights

On Friday (I should also add that was Kate the Knightly Knitter's birthday - waves!), I had 5 minutes up my sleeve on my way to work, so I thought I'd check the post box - as you do.

I left behind all the Accountant's work mail and grabbed the registered parcel card lying in there oh-so-innocently! This is what was waiting - nearly 7kg of yum from BMFA! I have dropped my shoe near it so you can get an idea of the scale. This carton of delight was notified as posted last Saturday - so it apparently reached here in 6 days from Oregon. Considering my mail often takes longer than that to get from Sydney, I was pretty impressed.

Inside the box was some serious yarny goodness. Sock yarn, twisted, peru and lace, all lying innocently inside, as if butter wouldn't melt!

I hasten to add, that despite all reports to the contrary, I am not a yarn pig. This gorgeousness was not all mine. Several friends (you know who you are! Don't act all 'Who me?' - you are just as guilty as me!) piggybacked on my order - given that I had to use a discount coupon before the end of October.

I managed to do this order while the Aussie dollar was sliding - but before it tanked completely. Of course, I wish I had done it while the exchange rate was over 90 cents, but there you go, you can't have everything! And it has slaked my need for a yarn fix for some considerable time.

Now, there was a certain level of slow hand clapping for me to display the yarn which might be called stash by people unfamiliar with the Rules of Stash as outlined by the High Priestess of Stash. By these rules, I have 2 jumpers worth of Bendigo, which fall outside the rules and therefore can be considered my only stash. Unfortunately, I also have a 'yarn collection'. We do not have bandwidth to show the inhabitants individually (and I know my Rav stash pages are woefully behind - I will get to updating them at some point, I promise), I though I would give you a bit of a glimpse of the inhabitants in their natural surroundings.

This is the main collection area. It is approximately 2 metres wide by 3 metres deep and runs to about 1.5 metres high.

This is the ancilliary collection area. It keeps growing and consists mainly of 50 litre tubs, but other sizes and boxes and such have also been pressed into service.

This is mainly sock yarn, although some malabrigo seems to have crept in. There is also a collection of patterns and downloads catalogued and stored on the right hand side of the area. This is down staiors for petting purposes.

This is the knitting library (and a big thank you to the Book Depository here, please - the benefit if paying no shipping is the ability to buy more books!).

Just to let you know, there are also 3 jumpers worth which are in bags with their patterns waiting to be cast on, and around 40 pairs of socks worth, also in project bags with their patterns, ready to go (my own private sock club.) They do not appear in these pictures, but would like to make their existence known.

So there it is. My guilty secrets exposed. No more handclaps (slow or otherwise, please). If you want to meet the inhabitants individually, you'll have to come and visit. I'll put the coffee on, and make a cake if you do!

And a big hallo to Toni, who popped in to visit the other day. It's always lovely to meet new knitters and fellow Ravellers. She brought Ravelry Badges with her (2 of which my offspring are proudly wearing ( just in case I forget their names!).