Package #2

I know you all have been sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what is in box #2. Well, first I will say that there are about 100 or so other people that received a very similar box and here is what was in mine...
I had been following the Phat Fiber blog for a couple of months. I decided to put my pennies away to finally try and purchase one of their sampler boxes this month. Apparently the one last month sold out in 20 minutes. The Phat Fiber sampler box is a box full of items that would be near and dear to a fiber lover's heart. Each month has a different theme and this month was Romance and Chocolate. Each day the Phat Fiber blog highlighted stores, mostly on Etsy that were contributing to the sampler box. The boxes are also purchased at the Phat Fiber shop on Etsy as well. So, in January I signed up to find out when the "secret" time was that the boxes would be going on sale. A few days before I received the long awaited message, the boxes would go on sale at two times on February 16th, 9:27am and 9:27pm CST. For those of you who are not aware, I am in Alaska, so I would need to get up and on the computer by 6:15am if I wanted to get a box. Since I was determined, I did rise at the (actually before the) crack of dawn. Of course, I had never done this before, so I wasn't exactly sure how it would all work out. The boxes actually went up for sale two minutes early, but I was on it. I had been forewarned that there would be two boxes one for just yarn and another a fiber sampler. Well, when they came up one just said Phat Fiber Sampler and the other Just stitches. So, to make a long story short I had to read closely to make sure I was getting the right box and by the time I got my yarn only box into my shopping cart and finalized the transaction somebody else had already purchased them all. Literally, in two minutes all 60+ boxes were gone! What a bummer. So, I tried again at 6:27 p.m. and was not able to get a yarn box this time either, but managed to be quick enough to go back and grab a fiber box. These too sold out in less than two minutes. It is funny because I had thought at one point I would try and purchase both boxes. I didn't think it would be nearly so difficult. 
There were some really nice and generous samples included in the box. Above are three of my favorites. I love the Wooly Hands one especially, it reminds me of a peppermint stick. 

So, was it worth it? Well, I did get a whole ton business cards (below)and was able to learn about a lot of new shops. Although, I am pretty sure I discovered more just by reading the blog. There were a few coupons thrown in, but nothing really impressive. 
And I also received this very strange comic book, how odd...
My favorite thing in the whole box was this incredible generous sample of wool roving from Desert Garden Farms. It is really soft. The color name is tree frog which seems about perfect since I have recently taken up felting. I think this is destined to become what else but a little felted tree frog like this one from Wool Pets. Only mine will be green of course. It is funny that this became my favorite item as I originally wanted a yarn only box and would never have discovered this if I had order a yarn only box. 
I'm still trying to decide if I want to try and get a Celtic themed box in March. I think the hardest part about the box is that not everyone receives the same thing. For example some people just got little dried up samples of fudge like in my box, where other people received full size pieces such as this post. Some people also got wonderful samples of fabulous cashmere, you guessed it, none in my box. It is supposed to all even out in the end, but I can't help thinking that Phat Fiber does play favorites with regular customers and friends. Either that, or my box was at the very end of the line. The few items that were there were very nice and I look forward to ordering from some of the merchants. I think it is a good way for them to get the word out, especially when you can compare them. Although, I would say that unless I was a top quality producer I would not send my samples. Some of the items poor quality really showed when you could look at the items in this way. 

It  fun, and I may very well try again. I don't think I will be nearly as disappointed if I miss out next time.