Magic Yarn Ball
For a couple of years now, I've been aware of an intriguing phenomena where complete, or at least relative, strangers exchange various things after meeting and corresponding on the internet. To be honest, I guess I've seen this happening in various forms for more like 8 or 9 years in online communities. Someone was having a bad streak, and someone else would overnight them a box of cookies. Someone else was moving and wanted to get rid of some books, so they offered them to their online friends.
But the more recent version of it, the one I've really only been aware of for the last few of years is the crafty one, and I've always thought it sounded neat, but never had the gumption to sign up for one. It starts with some online group - the first one I saw was in the Socknitter's Yahoo group, and they were exchanging little mini-socks. Over time, I've seen people in the same group do normal-size sock exchanges. I've wanted to join in, but always felt afraid that I would fail to get my socks knit up and sent off in time.
Even more recently, I've seen this swapping thing take off to whole new levels. Often, some popular blogger suggests a swap - hand dyed yarn, socks, scarves, scrapbook materials - you name it they swap it. It's been done enough that there are even sites out there that manage it all for the group. Last week I saw an announcement of a new swap starting on a blog I read, whipup.net, and not only did it sound like fun, but also easy enough that I was sure I could get it done in the month alotted. The idea is that you take some yarn and wind it into a ball, hiding little gifts in it as you wind. Then you ship it off to the person that the computer randomly selected as your swap-buddy. If everything works out like it's supposed to, you then expect to get a similar ball of yarn in the mail from a different swap-buddy who drew your name. Then, you knit up a project of some kind and as you knit out pop the little gifts one by one.
Yes, this is a little nutty. But I am coming in late to the game - this thing has been going on for quite a while (swapping weird stuff with strangers on the Internet) and people keep doing it, so it must work out and be kind of fun. In a way, it's like the pen pal from Japan I had in grade school who sometimes sent me interesting stickers and things and I sent her something in return - I have no memory of what.
So I signed up, and I heard from the person who got my name, Magni in Norway. I'm getting yarn from Norway!!!! That sounds like fun to me. She seems very nice, and I've read her blog. She's also a mom who knits, and her craftiness blows me out of the water. I got the name and information for the person I'm sending my ball to - Amy also a mom and lives in Nashville and is also very creative. It looks like she's getting ready to start her own stationery boutique. I e-mailed her and haven't heard back yet, but from reading her blog I got a few ideas for things to include. In fact, I have many ideas of things to include, and will have to whittle them down to a reasonable number in order to get the thing together and sent off in time.
Anyway, one other thing about these swaps is that they have buttons - little images that you can put on your blog to show that you're participating. I'm putting my little button up over on the right and linking to this entry (if I get the coding right, I hope!) I'll try to post updates as new information develops. What I'd really like to talk about is all the cool stuff I'm going to be putting in Amy's yarn ball, but of course if I did that I might be ruining Amy's surprise. So I'll have to wait till it's all over to tell.
But the more recent version of it, the one I've really only been aware of for the last few of years is the crafty one, and I've always thought it sounded neat, but never had the gumption to sign up for one. It starts with some online group - the first one I saw was in the Socknitter's Yahoo group, and they were exchanging little mini-socks. Over time, I've seen people in the same group do normal-size sock exchanges. I've wanted to join in, but always felt afraid that I would fail to get my socks knit up and sent off in time.
Even more recently, I've seen this swapping thing take off to whole new levels. Often, some popular blogger suggests a swap - hand dyed yarn, socks, scarves, scrapbook materials - you name it they swap it. It's been done enough that there are even sites out there that manage it all for the group. Last week I saw an announcement of a new swap starting on a blog I read, whipup.net, and not only did it sound like fun, but also easy enough that I was sure I could get it done in the month alotted. The idea is that you take some yarn and wind it into a ball, hiding little gifts in it as you wind. Then you ship it off to the person that the computer randomly selected as your swap-buddy. If everything works out like it's supposed to, you then expect to get a similar ball of yarn in the mail from a different swap-buddy who drew your name. Then, you knit up a project of some kind and as you knit out pop the little gifts one by one.
Yes, this is a little nutty. But I am coming in late to the game - this thing has been going on for quite a while (swapping weird stuff with strangers on the Internet) and people keep doing it, so it must work out and be kind of fun. In a way, it's like the pen pal from Japan I had in grade school who sometimes sent me interesting stickers and things and I sent her something in return - I have no memory of what.
So I signed up, and I heard from the person who got my name, Magni in Norway. I'm getting yarn from Norway!!!! That sounds like fun to me. She seems very nice, and I've read her blog. She's also a mom who knits, and her craftiness blows me out of the water. I got the name and information for the person I'm sending my ball to - Amy also a mom and lives in Nashville and is also very creative. It looks like she's getting ready to start her own stationery boutique. I e-mailed her and haven't heard back yet, but from reading her blog I got a few ideas for things to include. In fact, I have many ideas of things to include, and will have to whittle them down to a reasonable number in order to get the thing together and sent off in time.
Anyway, one other thing about these swaps is that they have buttons - little images that you can put on your blog to show that you're participating. I'm putting my little button up over on the right and linking to this entry (if I get the coding right, I hope!) I'll try to post updates as new information develops. What I'd really like to talk about is all the cool stuff I'm going to be putting in Amy's yarn ball, but of course if I did that I might be ruining Amy's surprise. So I'll have to wait till it's all over to tell.
posted by Shelly Kang at 11:27 PM
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