One of the best things that being a knit blogger has brought me is making connections with people around the world.  In particular, with Emma, who, very early on, encouraged a very newbie knitter to keep going and to try new things.  She was really the one who lit my fire for knitting socks.  Quite a few years now (though it hardly seems that long) she started what would become a very fun yarn/fiber trade back and forth across the Atlantic by gifting me with my very first Opal sock yarn.  Since then, we've traded back and forth without any real schedule or time line, which means that every now and again a wonderful surprise ends up on my doorstep completely unannounced.

The last couple of trades we have done have focused on yarns that are special or local to where we live since there are so many wonderful independent dyers and spinners out there in both the US and the UK.  So when I opened up my most recent special delivery from across the pond, I wasn't surprised to find it stuffed full of indie dyer loveliness from Emma's part of the world.

All the yarns are incredibly fabulous.  And they are, from left to right:

• OxfordKitchenYarns sock yarn, 100% British Blue Faced Leicester in "Marmalade"
  
• OxfordKitchenYarns sock yarn, 100% British Blue Faced Leicester in "Plums"
• The Natural Dye Studio, lace weight kid mohair "Cobweb" -- I can't seem to find a colorway name. 
  
• MiddleEarthKnitter Yarns sock yarn, 100% merino in "Plumby"
• Skein Queen DK Light yarn "Blush", 80% merino, 20% cashmere in "Golden Plum"
• Bright Dyes sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% polyamide in "Scarlet Macaw"
• The Knitting Goddess 4-ply weight, 100% merino superwash in "Lavender Field"

I love putting these posts together because I get to surf through a wonderful festival of links.  It's like taking a short tour of UK hand-dyers booths at a festival. 

The yarns from OxfordKitchenYarns and the Natural Dye Studio were hand dyed using all natural dyes.  The OxfordKitchen Yarns call out for some lovely textured socks, I think, while the Cobweb from the Natural Dye Studio clearly calls out to be lace of some kind.  The yarn from MiddleEarthKnitter is not only delightful in both hand and color, but comes with a little stitch marker attached to the label.  While the Blush yarn from Skein Queen could clearly become socks, I think I would enjoy the cashmere much more being soft and warm around my neck.  It's going to make for a beautiful project with the right stitch pattern.  The Scarlet Macaw was Ms. Z's favorite -- she grabbed it as soon as it came out of the package.  Her mommy likes it a lot, too.  So fun and happy it might become my next project.  And the Lavender Field yarn from the Knitting Goddess is delightful and soft.  I'm also thinking that it may be a striping yarn given the way the stretches of color look in the skein.   It will definitely be a fun surprise to find out when I knit with it.

Getting this package is like getting a bag of inspiration handed to me.  I just want to run off with my stitch pattern guides and start knitting socks! Thanks again, Emma, for a lovely trade!