I have discovered the SP

Ok, I'll admit it: at first, I had no idea what the hell an SP was (that's the problem with abbreviating half the things you say- newbies are left in the dark). KALs were also a foreign abbreviation. I can understand DH, FIL, LOL, IMHO, PO, and many others- the list goes on. (I'll leave the why-don't-we-type-full-words-anymore rant to another post.)

Now, not to leave anyone out of the loop, SP stands for Secret Pal, and KAL for Knit Along.

So, back to what I was talking about: I have joined the One Skein SP Exchange, which, after further "research" into SPs, seems to be a bit more complicated and rigid than the usual kind. That's cool with me; I have no idea what's going on.

Secret Pals appeals to me for several reasons: I get to pick a few skeins from my stash (which is comprised mostly of single-skeins anyway) to send to someone who is happy to get them, I get gifties* from someone (the anonymity doesn't totally do it for me, but- who cares?- it's part of the fun), I get mail (I am a mail junkie, hence my compulsive eBay purchasing), I get to immerse myself in thinking about yarn/fiber/color, I get to fill out those questionnaires (sometimes they're annoying, sometimes they're fun), I am guaranteed to get a response (so much cannot be said of a lot of my friends).

One downside: if my parents knew about it, they'd be very condescending and they'd try to dissuade me from deepening my involvement with the world of craft. So I've got to be at least a little stealthy.

I have also signed up for the Mellow SP2 on the knittyboard. This exchange is a lot more open-ended in terms of gifties, which will be interesting (especially cuz I may get someone a bit more advanced than I am). There's a possibility of books, yarn, items, hardware, and other stuff. It'll be really neat to get stuff for someone else, but there's a limit of $40 in all; I think it's more of a guideline than an actual rule, but the mods (= moderators) were pretty adamant. Also, MSP2 and One Skein are both during the summer.

Man, I am so excited!

*Please to be imagining a greedy finger-twiddle with every iteration of "gifties."