brainylady

My friend Candy made my day yesterday by sending me some yarn in the mail from Vancouver. I picked up the package on my lunchbreak and tore into it as soon as I got back to my desk. Inside were two of these:



This stuff is crazy! I'd never actually seen it before. I'm tempted to cut some two-inch lengths and glue them to my eyelids. My coworkers were fascinated, since they'd never seen such a thing. (It really should be available here, since the keywords of Taiwanese fashion are fringe, frill, flounce, and fancy.) Plus we all found this very amusing -- look closely:



Oh, those three little words that are burned on all our hearts as children: "Made in Taiwan." So these little balls of Parrot-coloured boa were sent across the Pacific, but they've found their way home. Don't you just love a happy ending?

But wait, there's more! Candy has a gift for thrift (a lady after my own heart), and she managed to combine two fabulous things: she found this yarn at a thrift store!



Isn't it fabulous? I don't know what it is, how much of it there is, or what to do with it, but I'm in love. It's that perfect vintage shade of pink, and there is a silver thread through it all. Take a closer look at that sparkle:



Any ideas? A light and drapey scarf? No hurry -- at the moment I'm whipping up a keyhole scarf from a ball of the Boa (pattern on the label).

Would you believe that my azalea photos are so pink that they actually look bad on the screen? The colour is so saturated that the photos actually don't work. This one is all right and gives you an idea of what I've had the good fortune to see every morning on my way to work for the past couple of weeks:



Show-offs, aren't they?

Taiwan is electing a president today. I assume there won't be much coverage at home. This election is very important for Taiwan, and the two candidates were running neck-and-neck going into it today. For a little background on the election (and accompanying referendum), there's a good story in the Guardian: "Taiwan provokes China with missile referendum":

Analysts fear that a victory for Mr Chen would heighten the possibility of military confrontation, because he has pledged to reform the constitution in a second term. Arthur Ting, head of political science at Cheng Kung University, said: "The risks now are higher than during the last election. If Chen loses, the chances of war are about 20%. If he wins, the risk rises to 40%."

Keep your fingers crossed for this little island this weekend, OK? Have a good one.