I had been clued in by my Secret Pal for SP9 to expect a package this month, and it arrived today! Thank you so much! I love it all – the scarf is wonderful and warm (I will definitely try the tip you suggest for washing it), and the yarns are beautiful.
She sent the most wonderful package of all kinds of knitting goodies. There is yarn, some yummy looking chocolate and tea cookies, a nifty little folding calendar (not pictured, I missed it in the box when I was setting things up to photograph!) a box of white tea, a needle roll with cats, a delicious smelling soap, and two very pretty beaded pieces – an drop ornament, and a bracelet. And folded up around it all , a great looking scarf knit in the Aran yarn.
Here is the the whole she-bang!
There is some of the softest feeling yarn I’ve ever felt – Ovation kid mohair and silk, in a gorgeous brilliant red.
This is a great looking creamy white yarn – Naturally Aran 10 ply, from New Zealand.
This is the scarf – isn’t this a great pattern? She sent me the pattern too, in her letter!
And here is the very best part.
The soap, and I think the beaded pieces and tea came from Ten Thousand Villages!!! Ten Thousand Villages is a Mennonite company/mission , specializing in fair trade goods. By buying the products they import at fair prices from individual artists and craftsmen, they are working to reduce the effect of poverty around the world, and to enable the women and men in the communities they work with to live and raise their families with hope and dignity. There is a Ten Thousand Villages shop in one of the Mennonite/Amish communities south of us, and while I don’t get down to that part of the state often, I always try to visit them when I do – they’re good people, and the mission is a very worthwhile one. Plus, the tea they import is delicious!
Knit-Write 
I’m so glad you got it! I am even more glad that you like it all. Ten Thousand Villages is new to me and there isn’t a shop near where I live, but they have a great website and some of the Mennonite people here sell their stuff at local craft fairs. The pendant and beaded pieces are both from them.
Warning about the pattern though. I knit into the back of stitches and wrap the yarn differently on both the knit and purl, so you may not get exactly the same look I did. Here is a more accurate view of the pattern done the “normal” way. http://www.knittingonthenet.com/stitches/romanstripe.htm
Thanks for telling us about Ten Thousand Villages – I’m going to click over there now and see what’s there…
Secret Pal – do you do the YO by bringing the yarn over the needle to the front and then back under it? Instead of the usual ‘under the needle forward then back over’?
I did it that first way for years before I figured out that anyone did it differently – I could never figure out why everyone always said doing a YO should make a big hole! *lol*
OK this pattern for the scarf is driving me crazy, I love your finished result, yet I am following the intructions for romanstripe and it aint working, please put me out of my misery, can you please share your pattern ?? I am writing from NZ and I have some nice wool to knit, its raining in Auckland and I am going mad with this pattern, off for chocolate now – thanks Belinda