Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The kindness of others

After a week of feeling pretty low thanks to a great lack of appreciation on behalf of others, I have had my faith in the human race and the kindess of others restored.

In the spring when I went on a business trip to Toronto I met up with some lovely fellow knitters. One especially lovely knitter was A. She was actually who I had gone to meet. Not only was she fantastic about showing me around her work even though her schedule was enough to make my head spin, she was just so friendly and welcoming. Shortly after coming home from the trip, she emailed me and asked (asked?!?!?) if she could send me some of her stash she no longer was wanting. She wondered if I would mind giving them a good home. Would I!!! Fast forward a few weeks and lo and behold I get a call last Monday or Tuesday from the bus depot telling me my shipment is in. Four, (Yes, I said four) huge boxes of delectable yarn now calls my place home. It's beautiful yarns in colours that I would choose myself! Thank you A, for your incredible generosity!

The very next day I got a parcel card in my mailbox letting me know to pick up a parcel. I knew what it was... I was so excited. Months ago I ordered some yarn from Woolworks. Unfortunately they only ship within the USA. I posted my woes on Knitty and Kate jumped to my rescue. That problem solved I thought it was a done deal. Until I got the message that the yarn was out of stock. Sigh... Finally I got an email saying it was in stock, I contacted Kate to make sure she still didn't mind and my yarn was on it's way. Kate, being the wonderful, kind soul she is not only sent my yarn along fast as could be when it reached her, she also enclosed a beautiful skein of sock yarn along with it, telling me she couldn't bear to send just one lonely skein all by itself. So Kate, I thank you from the bottom of my heart as well.

Moving along a few more days - my stress level was hitting the roof due to a combination of getting ready to move, exhaustion from working at Folklorama all week, and feeling more than a little unappreciated and invisible (in-law type crap - no need to go into it, I'm over it now. Mostly anyways). One night, late in the week two of our volunteers left to go home. Moments later one came trudging back to the pavilion. Their car was out of gas. No body seemed to know what to do or didn't seem to care. I am not sure which. I offered to take them to get gas. No big deal. Wasn't any bother for me. Such a little thing to do, made such a difference to them that they brought me a beautiful boquet of flowers the next night as a thank you. I was so touched by it that I teared up and got all blubbery on them.
Those three acts of kindness mean so much to me. Especially during this time when I was feeling so low. Thank you to you four ladies who have cheered me up so much over the last days. I am not sure what I've done to deserve such wonderful treatment, but I am truly thankful for it.

As an aside... since this is a knitting blog I should post at least a wee bit about knitting. I've not had much time with the needles lately, but will tell you that I do have a FO that I'm very excited about.
Yes! Josephine is done and happily there are still (hopefully) a few warm days in which to wear her this summer!

Until next time - happy knitting!

PS: Welcome home N. I've missed you so much over the last six weeks!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Regularly scheduled programming to resume soon!

Well - it's been a long haul, but the costumes are DONE! I calculated my sewing time yesterday and it worked out to 72 hours. 72 HOURS!!!!! No wonder I'm tired!

I've decided that I am taking a break from wearing my seamstress hat for at least awhile. I need to regroup after this summer's madness. I won't go into details here as it's done and over with, but to feel year after year that the time and effort I put in is less and less appreciated, well... I'm just not terribly into that anymore.

For what it's worth, in my humble opinion, the costumes look beautiful on stage.




Now that the sewing has been done for the year, I can focus on other things. Like packing for our upcoming move in three weeks. And knitting. My fingers twitch to get back at the needles. I've missed it these last few weeks! I want to finish up my WIP. I realize that now would be a good time to really delve into some holiday gift knitting too, rather than leave it till the last minute. So - in between packing I shall take some lovely little "me-time" breaks with some yarn and needles.

To date I've got the following to finish:

Clementine Shawlette - Exactly one half done!

Breeze - Again half done. One sock sits lonely in the basket waiting for it's mate!

Josephine - Oh Josephine, you are so close to being done. You need your sleeves and neckline. Maybe I'll do this one first!