Sunday 6 January 2008

Educating Tussah...

Towards the end of last year I participated in my first ever swap. I'd read about them on other blogs with a great deal of interest. How lovely to knit something for another knitter (actually it's also a bit scary, 'cos you KNOW they'll see every mistake); you also know that they'll appreciate the effort that you made. How lovely to receive a parcel from an unknown knitter - it could be someone round the corner from you, or someone on the other side of the world.

I was really pleased with the idea of the Harvest Sock Swap as I only had to knit one sock, thereby avoiding second sock syndrome. It was great taking part (bendy needles aside), but I now realise that I really didn't understand how they work. Firstly, I thought that I had only one swap partner. I thought that I was supposed to get to know her, and to identify myself to her - which I did. Oops, actually I was supposed to remain a mystery. I was utterly confused when I seemed to be receiving two sets of email from her. One with her real email address, and one from someone called "Spoiler". Then, just a few days before the parcel arrived, I received an email from "Spoiler" saying that she wasn't my sock swap partner ... huh? I am not generally considered a stupid girl (at least I didn't think so until after this experience), but what the hell? Imagine my surprise when I receive a package from a completely different person other than my sock swap partner...

Then a day or two ago, I was browsing on Ravelry, and came across a very relevant question about swaps in the UK Swaps group. This lead me to The Bag Lady and The Pro's blog post called Swap 101. It explains about having an upstream spoilee and a downstream spoiler. I wish I'd seen this before I joined the swap, it would have saved a lot of head scratching and looking dumb!

For me there were a couple of notable things in participating in this swap (above-mentioned educative experience aside):

(1) The faboo package that I received from my spoiler*, Cheryl of Knitting-Knut. The yarn is lovely, and the knitting exquisite. Actually, I'm a little intimidated to try the pattern.


(2) Knitting for my spoilee* forced me to try my first patterned sock, and the pattern worked. Yeah!

*Ahem, just so you know, now that I've acquired the lingo I've just got to use it!

3 comments:

PlazaJen said...

I participated in my first-ever knitting swap last year as well - the Int'l Scarf Exchange. Unfortunately, the person who had me never sent anything. Sigh. Fortunately, they just got me an angel, so I should get something down the road.... it's just hard to not feel a little burned, because the knitter who had me did all sorts of emailing and asking questions - and now I don't know if she's ill, or if something happened. An explanation of any sort is better than the silence.
I'm glad yours worked out so well! I'd swap with you any day. :)

Cheryl said...

Oh you can do it, the sock is very simple....

KimT said...

well, it sounnds like you learned a lot on all fronts. Next time, you will be ready!