Strange Ball of Yarn!

I started a new aran project last night and as I started to cast on, I pulled the yarn from the middle of a 400g ball of aran. I pulled out a right mess and was really surprised at what I found!
The centre of the yarn wasn't a long length at all - it was a huge bundle of smaller sections of yarn, all about 30cm (or 12 inches) in length. There weren't just one or two of them, there was a huge handful:

At first I though a mouse had somehow got into the centre of the ball ---- but the balls of yarn had been in a bag that had no signs of rodent activity, and the ends hadn't been chewed and there were no tell-tale 'mousey' signs in the ball!

Mr M thinks that somehow, somewhere, in the balling up process, someone has shoved a load of ends into the centre of the ball to make up the weight! He has a suspicious mind!!

I should add that the yarn was bought a while ago from a mail order company that has now gone out of business but the yarn was actually produced by a well-known spinning company.
I've never had this happen before - how odd!!

If anyone can throw any light on this I'd be very interested to hear!

A Few Timely Updates

I realised that I haven't shown you any of my finished items lately (although you can see them by clicking on the Flickr slideshow at the side of my blog) so here are a few things that have been finished recently:

A pair of plain ordinary socks knitted in Opal Prisma, terracotta colourway

A little baby jacket knitted in Novita Marine DK for a friend's new baby boy

A fusion knit cardigan knitted in Hayfield Authentic Cotton Rich DK

in a beautiful, pale terracotta shade

These three finished items have something in comon - they are all knitted using yarn that has been received as part of a swap of some sort, either Karma swap or straight yarn swap. I think that a good proportion of my yarn stash is beginning to share that common factor!

I'm now working on a chevron lace crochet cardigan that I'm working from the top down. It's a real first for for as not only have I never crocheted a garment top down before, I've never CROCHETED a garment before! It's turning out extremely well and I only have a few more repeats to work at the bottom of the bodice before it's done.

I'm also working on a pair of bright, primary coloured socks for Dan to take camping in a few weeks time. I'm up to the heel of the second sock so they should be finished in a few days too.

The summer WIPs are soon to be hibernated though because there's no point in finishing off summer knitwear just as the Autumn mists start to roll in is there?

A Very Green Day

I've had a very green day today :)

I've dried three loads of washing outside and saved electricity because I haven't used the tumble dryer (I never use the tumbler when I can dry washing by any other way though), I walked to the post office instead of using the car when I went to post some woolly parcels, and I've recycled three lots of yarn to other people via the Karma forums. The recycling of yarn with added karma is a fabulous idea and I urge you all to try it :)

We had a very green day yesterday too, taking two overgrown trees and an old fence that was really a health and safety hazard down to the recycling skips in the city where my parents live. The trees were terribly overgrown and Dad is so old and frail now that he is unable to chop them down, and the fence had fallen down several years ago. There's lots more to do in my parents' garden, but it's a start! Next time I promise I'll take some photos!!