Spring Fling Swap package

I went to a medical examination in Portland for a worker's comp claim today and was cattle prodded in my hand to test for carpal tunnel (it really wasn't that bad and I don't have carpal tunnel, which is good news). I was exhausted as it took about away my morning and I didn't get home until almost 2 o'clock, 1 hour before I was to work. I checked the mail first thing and there in the package bin was my Spring Fling swap package from Tanja! I smelled the coffee beans as soon as I opened the bin!

Inside the box were carefully wrapped packages full of wonderful gifts! Here's picture of the contents all together.



Tanja put together a very thoughtful, fun, and uniquely individual to me package. The coffee was the house roast from Dana Street Roasting Company in Mountain View, California. I had a cup as soon as I finished my lunch and it was delicious!

Other treats included 2 dark chocolate bars, one flavored with orange and the other with hazelnuts and currants. The orange one is gone. I'm going to try and save the second one for later this week. I also received some salt water taffy from a local family business in Mountain View and a jar of pickled okra! I was so surprised and touched by the pickled okra - I had just written about having some a few weeks ago, and Tanja obviously read about how much I love it.

Tanja worked in the early morning hours to make me a beautiful quilted needle case and it was accompanied by a little knitted bag with stitch markers, and the needle pockets were filled with perfectly scented hand lotions made by ShiKai (cucumber melon and yuzu). There was also a pink bag that I can use for projects and the most beautiful plum-aqua sock yarn by Thank Ewe. It's so soft I might make a shawl from it instead of socks. It has enough yardage for a shawl!

Tanja and I corresponded about books throughout the swap and she sent me Krik!Krak! by Edwidge Danticat and Arranged Marriage by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Arranged Marriage was inside a beautiful book cover and I'm wondering if Tanja also made that. Both books will be on my bedside table for summer reading. They're both books of short stories and will be perfect for bedtime reading. I've been wanting to read Edwidge Danticat for some time because I've been reading the Madison Scott Bell trilogy about Haiti and this will be good followup. Plus, I read a great deal about Edwidge Danticat on Laila Lalami's blog, a blog where I collect many titles for my reading lists. (Speaking of which, Tanja, have you read Love and Other Dangerous Pursuits? I think you would like it).

I feel like I'm forgetting something important, but I loved the package. I had read Tanja's blog early in the swap when we were assigned to choose someone from the swap who liked coffee the same way we liked it. Many people chose Tanja. I would have too, but missed the deadline for some reason. Also, in reading Tanja's blog again, I've discovered she likes to make Turkish coffee. Once again, thank you so much for the wonderful swap, Tanja. You were an enjoyable swap pal throughout the swap.

I know I'm behind in posting. I've been struggling with tendinitis and I've been finishing up swaps. I completed my last one on Monday and I may take a break from swaps where I knit big projects for others, at least until my hands heal. I'm working on a shawl for mothers for Afghans for Afghans (see side bar) and need to complete a comfort shawl and a welcome-to-the-family shawl for my nephew's wife, not to mention the bajillion pairs of socks I somehow promised family members in a burst of optimistic enthusiasm (or mania depending on your point of view).

I'm off to drink another cup of Dana Street coffee!