Magic Eight Ball - Ravelry Style!

I don't know about you, but I had never heard of a "Magic Eight Ball" or "Magic Yarn Ball" swap - but then again, I'm new to the world of swapping in general, lol!  Basically, it is a gift-filled treasure, made for another person that comes from the book The Children's Year (Hawthorn Press).

The gift giver wraps neat little treasures up in a ball of yarn, with a few of the beautiful gifts peeking out at the edges. As the recipient crafts with the yarn, the treasures fall out one by one, and they get to discover the fun as they knit or crochet.

I recently made one of these for the Ten Dollar Swap on Ravelry, and I thought I would show the gift from start to finish so that you can make your own Magic Eight Ball for a special friend!  First, start with something round-ish for the center, and begin wrapping one end of your yarn around the object.  I used a small knitted jingle ball that I had made for my recipient to give to her pet ferrets.

I continued on by adding another jingle ball and a ducky themed project bag and wallet I had sewn that I folded and rolled up very tightly around the ball. Anything your fellow knitter might appreciate (such as a tapestry needle, a few point protectors, special stitch markers or knitting notions) would be perfect for your Magic Yarn Ball.

Keep wrapping and adding objects and watch as your Magic Yarn Ball grows bigger, and bigger!

At the end of the ball, finish with a few lovely objects that will show, and secure the yarn end.  Here is a glimpse of my finished ball, as well as picture of all of the goodies that I included for my intended recipient based on her likes and dislikes (before wrapping them in the yarn!)

In return, my swap partner sent me this wonderful goodie package!  Here’s a first glimpse as I opened the box:

A beautiful blue project bag from the pattern, Bag! You’re It!, blue dangly stitch markers packaged with an orange accent ribbon as well as a package of my preferred flavor combination (PB & Chocolate) and a lovely gourmet coffee “Hazelnut Cream”, and a collection of nicely packaged sea shells and shark’s teeth collected for my children (that she had thoughtfully BOILED! Thank you, thank you, thank you, lol!)

Next came two MORE coffee selections, “Caramel Latte” and “Sven’s French Roast” (yum... I love coffee!)...

and then my ball finished with some Peach Citrus hand lotion, two packages of blue buttons, a yummy sounding recipe from a place she had recently visited for “Door County Cherry Muffins” and a package of Wilton’s Buttercup Yellow icing coloring so I can do some more dyeing experiments :)

The whole wonderful package was wrapped with a skein of Washable Ewe in the Duckling colorway (which is kind of funny because of all the duck themed goodies that I included in my package, lol!)


Here is a close-up of the beautiful bag full of my thoughtful, personalized goodies…

I hope that my swap partner has as much fun unwrapping this ball as I had putting it together (and that you share a Magic Eight Ball with someone special as well!)