Owl delivery

Yes- it's here!! An owl arrived this morning with a very exciting package, my sock kit from Lily Finnegan. I was so excited I nearly tore it open straight away, then remembered that my dear friends in the swap would want to share the excitement of discovery with me, so I ran for the camera. First I got a picture of the unopened parcel. I noted with delight that it had some very interesting Swedish delivery markings upon it. I love to experience things from other cultures that I don't normally see, so I took a close-up of the markings for posterity.

Despite the care Lily had so obviously taken in packaging the kit there was a rip in the back of the packet - I think her owl must have been as curious as me to know what was inside and attempted to claw it open! There was all kinds of packaging fluff sticking to the bag inside. Luckily a quick hoovering spell sorted it out, and I laid everything out so that I could show you what I got:

Next to the stitchmarkers (beautiful aren't they?) you can see a little tube filled with tiny bronze beads. I'm going to have loads of fun thinking of things to make with them. The edible/drinkable goodies were really interesting because they were labelled in Swedish. I had no idea what they were until I opened them! One of them said "Emma's skafferi" on the packet - very clever of Lily to find a personalized treat for me! Apparently it means 'Emma's Pantry' (my translation tool from Skrivenshafts came in very handy this morning!), and the packet contained a baked liquorice sweet bread-type delight! The other brown packet says "Önskebrunnen, Önskebrunnsblandning, sort: svart" on it!! I can't find what the first two words mean, but I think they have something to do with potion ingredients because the stuff inside looks like tea. As well as the little pieces of dried leaf material there are little pink hearts in it - I think they might melt to add a particular flavour to the draught? "Sort: svart" means "Kind: black"! The red and gold packet contains little chocolate horses filled with caramel. The packet tells me that they are a gift from Sweden. I'm sure my little wizards are going to enjoy helping me to eat them!
The stitchmarker bag also contained a cute leather and braid bracelet that fastens with a button. I think Lily may have made it herself?

Being a knitter the things that most delighted me were, of course, the handknitted and felted bag, and the yarn. I like the bag so much that it is going into use as my everyday handbag! And the yarn is just to die for, don't you agree? I'm thinking of using some of the silver I have left from making Emma Gorordok's bag to knit a lacy cuff at the top of the socks I make with it. I know really I should use bronze, because it's meant to be for Ravenclaw socks. Nevertheless I think a sparkly whitish silver will look awesome with that shade of blue. What do y'all think?