White Elephant

Our guild luncheon was today and every year they do a white elephant exchange. Last year, to put it bluntly, my gift sucked. It was some plastic pony beads strung on a piece of ... actually I have no idea what they were strung on. The whole thing was about as hideously ugly as you can imagine, so I've tried to block the memory. I think the lady's great grandchild must have made it in VBS for his Ga-ga. I bet he'd be pissed if he knew she palmed it off on a stranger.

I couldn't find any knitting thing to give away this year as I've been pretty vicious with the decluttering. Everything I have, I use. I finally managed to find a discarded library book on knitting afghans (McCall's circa late 1970s). I felt guilty about it not being a great gift, but the swap was called a "white elephant" exchange, and the afghans weren't universally ugly. And it was certainly exponentially better than some cheap ass pony bead bracelet on a string. At the very least, I put it in a nice fabric bag I'd made from pink poodle flannel and black satin ribbon. I figured the bag would be the real gift.

When my turn came, I resolved not to pick over the gift bags hoping for something super cool. I felt my moderately sucky book was not worthy of pickiness on my part. So, I quickly plucked up a small bag, figuring small wouldn't be greedy on my part. Guess what I got?

People turned around as squealing ensued.

There could not be a more perfect gift for me to have selected, what with my Hello Kitty obsession and all that. I have HK chopsticks, barrettes, pajamas, and other unmentionables. I even drove a car completely outfitted with HK accessories: seat covers, steering wheel cover, floor mats, pillows, mirror, CD case, and more.

The free pattern is available online.

Next year, I'm really going to aim for a cooler gift to put in the swap. It'll be good karma.

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I'll be gone for a few days, since I'm being kidnapped on Monday by my friend Margaret. She called yesterday and shrieked something about an angora goat farm up in Minnesota and how they were calling out to her to come look into their faces. I don't know exactly where we're going, and I don't know for exactly how long, but I'll try to at least take some pictures of the trip.