I bet you think this is a birthday present:

















But it's not a birthday present.

Reason number one: I am Capricorn, and this is July, so it can't be a birthday present -- at least not for me.

Reason number two: it is one of my Mom's Christmas presents in its pre-knitted state.

The reason it looks like a birthday present: it is a package of yarn purchased at the Quarter Stitch in New Orleans. This is how they gift-wrap a regular purchase, on any ordinary day, so you actually do feel like it's your birthday when you leave the store. Considering that a visit to the Quarter Stitch means a considerable splurge, this excess of packaging seems justified. A splurge, yes, but it is for Mom, so nobody can argue with that. Besides, they have a cool shop dog.

This is what was inside of the bag:

















Eight skeins of Inca Alpaca yarn in the prettiest shade of mauve I have ever laid eyes on, and mind you, I am a completely anti-pink person ... outright allergic to pink, even ... a person who cannot even take pink antibiotics without projectile vomiting ... I don't even like strawberry ice cream ... a person who rarely ventures near anything in the Pink Family (except for Pink Floyd and pink flamingos) unless I am knitting for someone else. Not only do I dislike pink on general principles, but if I wear pink myself, I tend to look rather jaundiced. Having said that, you can rest assured that, if I look at yarn in any shade of pink and say,

"My, that's lovely..."

then it is a noteworthy color indeed.

My mother, on the other hand, looks smashing in any conceivable shade of pink ... baby pink, hot pink, magenta, mauve, Chanel pink, Pepto-Bismol pink, bubble-gum pink, carnation pink, poodle pink, flamingo pink, Elvis'-momma's-Cadillac-pink ... you name it ... soooo ...

By Christmas, this clutch of lovely yarn ... lovely even though it is sort of pink ... will have morphed into a lace-and-cable vest.

Mom is also getting an easy-care hot-cocoa colored cabled sweater in Lion Brand Kool Wool. That one is already in progress.

And, speaking of hot cocoa, and therefore chocolate ... I have just been informed that the remake of "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" sports a considerable number of handknit objects both in wardrobe and in set dressing. I'm feeling a little woozy .... uh ... I need to sit down. I have crappy knees anyway. I don't think they can hold me up long enough to contemplate Johnny Depp, chocolate and knitting all in the same movie.

Mambocat