All over the web, I’ve been reading about these “secret pal” yarn swap dealies. Let me just say I’m intrigued. When I was a kid, I was a pen-pal fiend. I remember one time we were at Big Boy for dinner, and I picked up their magazine/newsletter/whatever for kids, and there was section in the back for a pel-pal sign-up. I jumped on it, and I had a pen-pal in NY for quite a while. Eventually, she fell off the face of the earth, and I kept writing and writing. I eventually gave up. Lost cause, right? But I still have a pen-pal. When I was in 10th grade, my grandmother took our family on a cruise through the Panama Canal for Christmas. There, I met Christy. I met a bunch of other kids on the cruise, too, and for a while, we all wrote back and forth. But Christy is the only one who’s kept up her end of the bargain over all these years. That was 10 years ago, and despite probably half a dozen address changes each, we’ve continued to keep in touch. A decade-long relationship with someone you only knew for 10 days is pretty impressive.

Anyway, so I love letters. I love getting them, I love writing them – I love pen-pals in general. I collect pens, I collect stationery, and when I feel like writing but can’t justify writing yet another blog entry, I sit down and write a letter to Christy. So this idea of a fiber-related secret pal is just too awesome for words. I did a little research, and chose the right one. The most popular one right now seems to be the Knit Mitt swap, but I’m not so interested in joining one devoted to mittens… I don’t like mittens. Gloves, yeah, they’re okay. But I don’t want to do a swap devoted to them. I wanted something a bit broader in scope. What I ended up with was Secret Pal 10. In a nutshell, it’s a $60 (minimum) obligation over a 3-month span of time. You get a secret pal that you correspond with via a secret email address, and you mail them goodies every so often – yarn, knitted goods, patterns, other knitting notions, but also random "care package" kind of things like chocolate, lotions, CDs, books, whatever. I’m truly psyched about this. Once you sign up, you’re supposed to post this questionnaire (haha, it’s totally a meme!) in your blog so that your secret pal knows what you like and can figure out what’s best to send to you. So, here I go.

SP10 Questionnaire:

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
   I’m a wool junkie. Just about everything I work with is wool or a wool blend. I’m not terribly fond of working with cotton, and I’m allergic to mohair (I know, it’s so so so sad). For special treats, sometimes I’ll allow myself some wool/silk blends.




2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
   It’s sad, but right now, they’re just in a box in my Yarn Bookshelf.




3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
   Technically, I’ve been knitting essentially my whole life. My mother is a knitter (if that wasn’t obvious from the fact that this is a mother-daughter knitting blog!), and she taught me to knit very early on. However, it wasn’t until a few years ago that the hobby really took off, and I trnasitioned from being "one who knows how to knit" to a "knitter". Skill levels are hard to measure – I’m certainly not a beginner, but depending on your scale, I’m somewhere in between intermediate and advanced. There are so many things I’d like to learn still, but I can hold my own and could probably tackle just about anything given enough time and access to some resources (and let’s face it – between the Vogue Knitting Bible and the internet, knitting resources are not that hard to come by).




4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
   It’s short, and not very complete (I rarely think to add things to it), but I do have an Amazon Wish List.




5. What’s your favorite scent?
   Ooh, that’s hard. I love just about any scent wafting in from the kitchen – fresh baked bread, pot roast slow cooking in the oven, chocolate chip cookies cooling on the rack… But I don’t think that’s quite what this question is getting at. I have a pretty sensitive nose when it comes to lotions and the like, and I tend to stick to fragrance-free or very mildly-scented soaps, lotions, etc. For example, the lotion I’ve got at work is Bath & Body Works green clover and aloe. My body wash is Dove. Nothing terribly frilly there. :)




6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
   To say I have a sweet tooth is an understatement. I’m a sucker for chocolate. Any form, any type, any combination of other flavors… I’m a chocolate fiend.




7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
   I don’t spin as of yet, but my mother is bringing me her old spinning wheel when she comes to visit in March… so… Yes, I will likely become a spinner one of these days. As far as other DIY stuff, not really (do other knitters actually have time to do other hobbies? Seriously?) I do dye yarn (and man, is that addicting!), and I do web design, and on a very rare occassion, I make my own stationery and cards, but that’s about it.




8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
   I have yet to find a type of music that I don’t like at least in small bouts. I mostly listen to modern and classic rock, classical, and some jazz. But my music collection is pretty ecclectic – I’ve got country, techno & electronica, grunge, metal, showtunes, crappy (and sometimes embarassing) pop, bluegrass … I love everything, and I love being introduced to stuff I’ve never heard before. Perhaps for reference, the radio station I listen to at work nearly every day is WXPN – an NPR station in Philly.




9. What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?
   I’m a fickle girl when it comes to colors. Right now, it’s pinks and oranges. Or pinks and greens. Or purples and greens. Or browns and purples! If you ask my friends, they’ll tell you my favorite color is green. Any shade of green. About 40% of my clothes are green, my laptop is green (his name is Puck), and whenever I see something green, apparently my eyes light up. But I love colors. Bright colors tend to be my standard, but I also love more muted or earth-tone colors. The only thing I’m not terribly into is pastels, and even then, sometimes they can be nice if they’re just right.




10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
    I live alone with 2 cats right now. But I talk to my family all the time via blogs, emails, or phone calls! :)




11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
    I love all things knitted. I wear scarves when it’s cold enough (it rarely is, but sometimes, like right now, it gets pretty dang chilly), hats if they’re not too tight and mush up my hair, and gloves (or fingerless gloves, but never mittens) when my poor fingers need to be kept warm (again, like right now).




12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
    My default stand-by is socks. I love making socks. When I don’t know what to make next, and I need something to work one while I pick out the next project, it’s always socks. My stash isn’t huge, but I’d say about 80% of it is sock yarn. I’m in a sweater mood right now, though, too. Pullovers and jackets. :)




13. What are you knitting right now?
    At the time I’m writing this, I’m working on V-neck sweater I designed out of Berroco Soft Twist. While it’s not on the needles yet, I’ve got a kitty hat pattern I’m mulling over in my head – I promised a friend I’d design and knit her one. I’ve also got some sock patterns I recently designed and want to knit up, but again, they’re not quite on the needles yet.




14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
    Very much so!




15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
    With the exception of dpns, I am exclusively a circ kinda girl, and I only work with wood needles. My circs are all bamboo, as are most of my dpns. My favorites right now are the blondwood Lantern Moon Sox Stix dpns I’ve got. I’ve got a chronic pain condition, and metal needles just hurt my hands too much. So I stick with wood. They’re warm and they give a little. DPNs are hard for me to find, too, because I’m pretty picky – I only like 5″ or 6″ needles – anything shorter, and they poke the inside of my hand; anything longer, and they catch on my sleeves.




16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
    Thanks to my wonderful mommy, I’ve got both! :)




17. How old is your oldest UFO?
    Hmmm… I’ve got a tweedy cardigan that I started maybe 4 or 5 years ago that’s got about 2/3 of the back done. I don’t like the pattern anymore, but I haven’t yet frogged it to re-dedicate the yarn to something else.




18. What is your favorite holiday?
    No question – Thanksgiving. Autumn is my favorite season, and Thanksgiving is just a wonderful time of family gathering. Meal-time has always been a pretty big deal in my family – we always ate together when I was growing up, and dinnertime often lasted long after the food was gone. We’d sit and talk, laugh, tell jokes, share stories… So Thanksgiving is like a rehashing of old times. My brother and I both live in different cities now, far from home, so when we get together for Thanksgiving, it’s … nostalgic and special.




19. Is there anything that you collect?
    Besides sock yarn? :) I collect pens (any kind of pen – fountain pens, funky-colored gel pens, whatever), socks (not just hand-knit socks, but any socks – I always get drawn into the sock aisle at Target), and stationery (I’ve got a pen-pal habit to support, you know?).




20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
    Aside from the books in my Amazon list, there aren’t any I’m dying for off the top of my head. Honestly, usually if there’s something I want, I go out and buy it (I lack self-control and moderation in that sense), but I always love finding new things. In my opinion, you can never have enough sock yarn – each skein is different and unique. Special in its own right. Especially when you start wandering out there to indy dyers… Currently, I have no magazine subscriptions, but I’ve been leaning towards IK… I can’t decide if it’s worth the subscription cost, though.




21. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?
    In the coming months, I’m determined to teach myself how to do stranded colorwork. I’ve got a fair isle pattern lined up, but first I need to dye the yarn for it. :) I’ve got a sock pattern I’m going to work on first, to get the technique down. But I’m prettymuch open to all new techniques out there. I love to learn. Knowledge is power, right?




22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
    I am, above all things, a sock knitter. I’ve got thick calves and narrow ankles and feet. I don’t have my measurements (or a tape measure) on hand (and I may edit this later to include it), but on size 1 dpns, I usually cast on 60 sts for the cuff (for 5-6″ socks) and then reduce it to about 56 sts for the foot (doing decreases every round instead of the more traditional every-other-round at the ankle). As for foot length… I dunno. I wear a size 7 (or 37 in European sizes) … I don’t measure – I usually just try on the sock as I go along and start the toe when the sock gets to my pinky toe, so… Yeah, not much help there, I’m afraid.




23. When is your birthday?
    July 18