Sign ups are OPEN!!

Welcome to Punk Rock Gift Exchange!

There are some changes to PRGE for this round. Its not at all PUNK but essential to a good exchange - so all the rules are following. Sign ups close midnight Denver time on March 3rd. Please know that it is really important to communicate with your pal, if you are not willing to send at least one e-mail a week, please don't join this exchange!

The total value of the swap boxes is $25 per box. I feel that when the limit was lower, most spent at least this. This is the value BEFORE postage. Know that if you ask for an international pal, your postage is on top of the value of the box. So the total value of the two boxes is $50.

This is a two box exchange. It is not okay to send one large box - two packages must be received by your pal. The first box must be received by April 5th, the second by May 3rd. If you don't think you can have your boxes arrive by the deadlines, please don't play.

This is a half secret, half open exchange. You must have a secret e-mail to play. If your main e-mail is not referenced in your blog or blogger name, you can use that. The first box will be your reveal - the second box is just to spoil your new friend. You must contact your punk pal once a week (and hopefully more). There is a time commitment to being a pal, so if you don't have time to spare, wait till the next exchange. This was a problem with the last exchange, so I have changed the rules on this a bit. There will be two contests and both are joint participation - you can't play on your own. So if you can't spend 10 minutes a week communicating with your pal, its not fair to play.

You will be added to the prge site as an author. You are expected to post all your packages - or a link to them on this site, along with a thank you to your pal. You are also free to post anything else that you feel will be of interest to the group. There will be a listing of anyone who would like their prge/knitting/etsy shop listed and any discounts they would like to offer prge members. Please don't solicit business on this site (other then the listing).

Finally, I am strict on deadlines. So if you get an e-mail from me because you missed a deadline, don't get upset with me. I post all the dates clearly and upfront - if you don't want to follow the rules, this is not the swap for you. We do have a deadbeats list - I am not afraid to use it. If you have any problems or questions, feel free to contact me, most things can be worked out.

Enough rules. I am hoping to avoid problems by giving all the rules up front. On to the fun part - if you would like to join, please e-mail me at sunne (at) rmi (dot) net with the following information...

Name:
Blogger Name:
Blog Address:
Secret E-mail:
Main E-mail:
Address:
Do you smoke?
Do you have pets?
Do you have any allergies?
Would you like an international pal?
Is there anything else I should take into account when pairing you up?
Do you promise to be the best punk pal that you can be?
Do you give me permission to publicly flog you, not accept you into future exchanges and put your name on the deadbeats list if you don't complete your punk pal responsibilities, if you flake or are otherwise a deadbeat?

Thanks for playing!! It will be fun!!

Sign ups will open February 23rd

Helloooo all punk rock knitters and punk rock gift exchangers!!
Its been a crazy couple of months and I have been a little absent - I apologize for that!! But everything is settling and PRGE sign ups will open on Feb 23rd. There are a bunch of changes, but I think this will make it more fun! Check back on Saturday for more details!!

This photo is of socks I knit while away, the yarn and pattern were from my amazing PRGE pal Kat from the last round. Thanks Kat!!

Hope to see you back soon!!

Box from the Netherlands!

Yay!

Although I am guilty of having little faith that I would ever see this box, my second package from the Netherlands arrived a few days ago! *happy dance* Yes, it took about 5-6 weeks to get to me in California! *shocked face*

Regardless, it was a LOVELY package, each item individually wrapped up so I had many little surprises inside :) I got two green skeins of alpaca yarn (sooooo very scrumptiously soft) and the pattern for Knitty's Sheldon to make with them...yay! I love turtles :) Then, I got some yummy lemon hard candies which are long gone, lol. My co-workers helped me eat them. Finally, I got a book I've been wanting for my son...it's a cookbook on creative recipes and ideas for feeding kids healthy foods. I saw it at Jamba Juice months ago and there are several recipes in there I can't wait to try now that it's mine!

Thank you so much, my awesome pal! Sorry for lack of pictures, but I accidentally left everything in my desk at work for the weekend, so it's not handy :(

Thanks again!

Box in UK!

Hi
This arrived yesterday from Twistedknitster. Some lovely supersoft Misti Alpaca in a lovely chocolate colour, 2 balls of Diaketo variegated in pretty jewel tones which is Japanese yarn I've not seen before. Also, as you see Socks, Socks, Socks by Elaine Rowley, an interesting addition to my library.
Thank you Jerry for being a great pal!
Happy Christmas one and all!

Winding down this round...

There are still two packages floating around in the mail system - but this round of PRGE is winding down. Thank you all for playing!!

I think we are all in the midst of holiday craziness! So, I just quickly want to say that I will be opening up PRGE sign ups for the next round on February 1st. This exchange has been running continuously for over a year and I think we could all use the break :) There will be a little tweeking of the exchange and the contests for the next round - and as always feedback and ideas are appreciated!

I will keep the blog open while the exchange is not running, so anyone who would like to post anything prge (the two unarrived boxes or an object made with something a pal gave) or that you think is of interest is welcome!

I hope all of you and your families have a safe and joyous holiday season!!

Pretty Tweed from England! (or Another Turkey Late for Thanksgiving)

Superbig thanks to Alison. She was an excellent exchange partner, spoiling me with a sweater's worth of Rowan when i asked about english tweed.


Colorway: Holly. So pretty!

She sent the package to my travelling address in the States. While the package arrived early, I got to it a bit late. She also sent me patterns, some pretty brown tweed, stitch markers, music, dvd, cocoa, and lavender soap for the full english effect. (I'm sorta glad she didn't pack the rain!).



I wish also to tender apologies for the late post, both to the Lovely Alison, and to all participants. I was running around Michigan like a madwoman visiting the fam/friends/everyone and doing the big annual holidays. But I'm back in the Fatherland now, and chilled out enough to catch up. :D

Happy Holidays to everyone. I'm going to be on ravelry now, figuring out what to do with the Rowanspun. :)

Package Arrived!!

I got my 2nd package yesterday from Angela. It rocks! Thanks so much!

You can see more pictures on my blog, but the package includes 2 skully dishcloths (black & pink!!), Cougar Mountain Choc Chip Cookies (which are off limits right now due to the copious amounts of peppermint bark I've eaten the last 2 days), a beautiful postcard from Mt Hood, the final installation of Cast on Bet's Off, a great Emily the Strange pocket notebook (great for travel bag!), a big lace & skull notebook, a folder that Angela printed out the Eunny Jang lace tutorial with two different lace patterns, a skein of lace weight dyed by Angela, and a bare skein to try dying myself! Phew, I ran out of breath listing it all!! I'm ever so excited because I really have been wanting to try lace, now I have no excuse!! Thank you, again, ever so much!

ps - if you pop over to my blog, be sure to enter my 100th post contest, where the price is, ironically, a skein of cobweb Orenburg lace :)

pps - i know we all can't wait until sunne hosts this swap again, but if you're bored in January, come sign up for the swap i'm going to host :) sorry, for the first round it will be us/canada only :(

Yay for yarn!!!

Lookee what I got in the mail today from Megan! (The mailman referred to it as fanmail..)


Bamboo yarn, Malabrigo, and other goodies! More info on my blog. Thanks, Megan!!!

And the winner is...

And the winner of Best Pal is KnitDaisyKnit!!
Here is a photo of the goodies, before they jumped in the box - and then a couple other things jumped in, too!! Jackie, e-mail me with your address, so I can send the box of goodies to you!

And I would like to thank Shadkitty for donating the yarn in this package - that she spun!! Its about 220 yards of yummy yarn!!

We are still waiting for 4 more boxes to arrive. Hopefully, this weekend....
And I will post about the future PRGE's next week, when I have a little more time!!

Happy KNitting!!

Thank you Yvonne

Yvonne sent me a lovely package filled with lots of lovely yarns, yummys, goodies for the kids, keyring, skull stitch counter...

Here is a photo of what Yvonne sent me, I am sure she probably packaged it well but customs thought they'd have a look. The only broke one item but it can be easily fixed.

Big thank you from myself and my boys.

Package 2 from Down Under...

From the land down under came the second package. First there is the really large bag with the flag of Australia on it, some soft sparkle yarn that will be great in a scarf mixed with some other yarn that I have. There is a package of key chains with what looks like miniature copies of Australian money plus a package with 3 flowery candles. And lastly, the small ball with the pirate that glows. Nathan will love that since he has taken a liking to Pirates lately. Thank you Leeanne!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!!
I am so happy to have had everyone who has been a punk pal in this exchange, in my blog life. I have learned so much - sometimes even more then I have wanted to, from all of you... And I think that all of you are amazing to sign up to give to someone you don't know and then spoil to the nines!! I am thankful to get to know all of you...
Happy Thanksgiving!!







This is a photo of the wheat elevator in Dusty, WA - near my grandmother's house in one of the most beautiful and bountiful areas of the United States.

Best Pal

So most of the second packages have been received. If you got your package but didn't post it here, please do so - or at least link us to where you did post your gushing Thank You!

I do have a few prizes donated for Best Pal, so I would like to open up nominations. I will keep them open till November 28th. There will be one Best Pal prize. Since it has been a little quiet around here - I will post the prize later this week. To nominate your pal, please e-mail me no more then 20 words on why your pal was the best. While creativity is appreciated and I will post all the submissions in one post, the best pal will be chosen by random drawing. Best pal gifties will go out on November 30th.

You all have been a great group! I will be running another PRGE in the spring - more about that later....

Thanks for Playing!!

Final Package from Lindsay of Storm Moon Knits!

I received my final package from Lindsay of Storm Moon Knits on Thursday. As you can see, it is a fabulous package. Included is Storm Moon Knits Celestial Bulky yarn, Burly Spun yarn, a pumpkin pie candle, stitch markers, lovely knitting needles, a cute cute cute picture frame (with a picture of bud in last year's halloween outfit), and much needed sour patch watermelons!

The colors of the yarn are amazing! Seriously beautiful and wonderfully me! I've never knit with yarns like these before and I really wish I could dive right into them (unfortunately I have knits with deadlines to finish first!). I was really lucky in this exchange to have such a wonderful pal.

Thanks again Lindsay!

edited to add: I forgot to include in the picture the book Knitted Toys by Zoe Mellor that was also in the package. I love this book! There are so so so many cute pictures of things!

Chocolate Covered Cherry Box!!

I want to send a huge Thank You to Knit Kat for my amazing second box!! I got a great messenger bag that says "Little Miss Sunshine", the Stitch and Bitch daily calendar (yippee!!), two balls of SWS from Patons, a beautiful C*Eye*Ber Fiber sock yarn, and a package of Chocolate covered cherry Hershey's kisses (mr.sunnshine kinda devoured most of them before I could take the photo. It makes me laugh and makes him feel involved in the exchange - so we all win :) Oh, and I got the beautiful cherry card, too!! It really was a stressful week, and this package really made it better. It was a wonderful and thoughtful gift - Thank Kat!!

Awesome package from Stella!

I totally love everything in my package No. 2!

It was started off with two extra-large balls of Sugar N Creme - one in variegated blue, and one in natural. Then, a mixed bag of Lindor truffles (!), a new car freshener, Japanese Cherry Blossom skin cream, a black-and-white checkered headband, dark chocolate-dipped Altoids, skull patterned toe separators (for my next home pedi!), a teeny mirror to stick on my cell phone (or some other adorable location), a pig keychain that lights up AND oinks, a personalized mix CD by Stella herself, and two blue-purple balls of Elisabeth Lavold baby llama! Whew! I had no idea so much could fit inside one box!

This was such a welcome package, since I am currently out of my home element, and visiting with the many families and families-in-law. We also bought a new car this past week, so to say that the past couple of weeks have been hectic would be an understatement.

I am very grateful to Stella for giving me a reason to s-l-o-w-d-o-w-n and take the time to look forward to unwrapping each individual little bundle. I will post a pic as soon as I can get the images off my phone!!

It's snowing here right now!! Ack!!

2nd package came. Thank You, Thank You!

Like I said in my last post, I was very bad abut quickly displaying my swap packages. Time to give huge thanks to my PRGE (Punk Rock Gift Exchange) swap partner. This was my first PRGE and Sunneshine the moderator was my spoiler. Thank you seems so inadequate. You matched me up with a wonderful lady in the UK who as turned out to be a wonderful friend. This was supposed to be a half secret half open swap and I think I love the format because you have more contact with your upstream and downstream partners.


Once again you were really generous and you sent such special things. To really think about the giftee and think about what would make them happy is not an easy task. I really appreciate the effort to locate the hand dyed fibers and local flavor in your packages. You have raised the bar for me to try to do better next time.

This was locally dyed and hand spun alpaca hank made just for me. mmmmm Purple


Hand picked Chocolates that were from a local candy store.

Beautiful Lotus yarns hand dyed sock yarn in a muted grey purple.

Some themed stitch markers for the swap and even some pink Kitten Markers for Mrs. Twisted. She thanks you very much!
This was the whole booty haul. Some mind stimulating games and even a CD from a local music group. The Chocolates were absent because they were open and I forgot to include them but you seen them up close and personal.

I can't wait for the next PRGE.

Life is Good

Thanks Carly!!!!!

I received my wonderful second box from carly a few days ago....I received wonderful yarns, punky items, wine bottle cosy....here is pic but you can read more on my blog Carly has been a wonderful pal!!!!

I also received some terrific stitch markers made by our very own Sunne....I am a big fan of hers!!

another contest prize

Thanks so much sunne, my prize arrived today. I didn't take a photo yet, but the blue stitch markers are really beautiful, the pouch looks great and I already know what I want to do with the skull iron-ons...

You are really a great host of this swap, thanks for all the work and effort you put into this

Thank you Sunne your tops !!!!!!

My mini Contest prize arrived today from Sunne. She is just the best. I have a transfer of skulls and some punk badges for my collection.
Skull and Cross bone stitich markers.
Also some candy called Pop Rocks they are new to me and will be interesting to try.

Thanks Sunne for hosting another round of PRGE and for the great little prizes you give away.