Merry Holiday Giftapalooza!

(if you’re still waiting for your Giftapalooza package or haven’t opened it yet and don’t want spoilers, STOP READING HERE.  I mean it.  There will be pictures and everything.  

Also, say it with me:  “Fucking Customs!”)

Ron had this brilliant idea back in July, you know, EXACTLY when we were surrounded by racks of drying yarn and the huge boxes they needed to be packed in for Sock Summit.  Really?  Why do the great ideas always come at the busiest times?  All our plans for next summer have been made in the past 3 CRAZY weeks…

But I DIGRESS! What follows is long, but also the most funny you can have with your jammies on, so pour a cup of your favourite hot beverage and settle in.

Holiday Giftapalooza.  A “Club” package, with no long-term commitment. And send it to someone else, so it’s a gift and the one you get back is a gift to you. A yarny Secret Santa.

There, of course, had to be extra stuff, so we did our best to make it affordable and fun.

Everyone got a tape measure:

And some of you got a tote bag:

(artwork by Darby Bayly)

And some of you got one of these colour name magnets:

and one of these “note” magnets:

(based on notes like these that I’ve been known to write on behalf of knitters, from time to time…)

Everyone got a copy of this pattern:

Preposterous by Natalie Selles (so named, says Natalie, because “these mitts kind of are insane!”) We think they’re brilliant and beautiful and that with this photograph proves that Natalie is indeed the most adorable of all designers. And we love her and her work, but really think she’s outdone herself this time.

(which reminds me…I need to go and cast on mine right now!)

Oh wait.  You probably want to hear about the yarn.

MCS Sock: 75% merino/15% cashmere/10% silk in fingering weight yumminess, never before seen at Indigodragonfly. (We’ll be releasing this as a regular base in February 2012)

For Giftapalooza, we dyed one-of-a-kind, non-repeatable colourways. My favourite way to dye! If you got one of these, you’re only 1 of a few in existence who will every have YOUR colour. Ever. It’s my favourite way to dye.

Here’s a peek at all of them:

  

It’s Not Polite to Poinsetta; Mistletoe: Aphrodesiac or Garnish?

I Think The Turkey Is Done; Laugh It Up, Snowball!; One! One Partridge in Pear Tree Ah-ah-ah-ah!

It’s a Wonderful Twilife: Jimmy Stewart vs. The Werewolves;  Say Hello to My Leetle Elf; I Thought the Email Said ‘Present Enlarger’

Poor Little Reindeer – Probably Kept Up With You for a Mile or So; I Suggest You Check Your List Again or Do You Really Want To Sleep With the Fishes On This Most Holiest of Nights?; For the Last Time Charlie Brown Will You Please Water That Tree?

What Happens in Whoville Stays in Whoville;  Merlot: The Coping Mechanism of Champions; Failed Holiday Marketing Campaign 5A – Butterball Frozen Canary

Driving Under the Influence of Muppets; Stuffing: Nature’s Cruel Joke on Bread; Cranberry the Evidence

And last, but really and truly not least, we gave each Giftapalooza participant the opportunity to send a little something extra in their Giftee’s package.  Any thing we could print out on paper (or photo paper…or sticker paper, because, um, we may have some of that lying around…)

Here’s what that pile looked like:

It’s at this point that I lost it.

See, I love the holidays.  I love presents…most of all giving them. So Giftapalooza let me (us…but I think I might love it just a touch more) play Santa Claus.  And to see this pile of pages made me tear up. So many of you were so generous with your time and your secret family recipes and, well, your utter and complete nuttiness (there is some FUNNY stuff in that pile)… and you did it for COMPLETE STRANGERS!

(And trust me, the more you protested your wit and your creativity, the wittier and more creative you were)

Seriously, I thought this holiday season was going to suck (my mother’s in the hospital, so that’s where we’re spending today) and you all COMPLETELY turned it around for me.  So truly, thank you for the best present ever.

And now, a little performance art piece entitled How Giftapalooza Gets There:

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Sunday!