From Knitting

There are a lot of things I gained from knitting, not the least of which is some lovely things to wear.  

I gained a fantastic job,  River City Yarns, and wonderful bosses.  I gained shorter days, and a whole host of new career experiences.  I'm still not sure that I am good at selling yarn, but I know, positively, absolutely and beyond all doubt, I can sell knitting.  

I gained skills, confidence and the firm knowledge that there is at least one place in life where I get a mulligan (I use it almost every dang day) and it means I just get to knit more.  

But most valuable of all, the thing I really gained from knitting is a marvelous community of knitters. Knitting friends.  Of all the things I have gained, it is the knitting friends that surprised me most. I never expected that.

So when a friend brings something wonderful back from her dream vacation, I am thrilled and speechless. 

Little more than a week ago, these skeins were sitting on a shelf in Iceland.  And now they are here. Sitting on my table.  Real honest to goodness Icelandic lace weight, straight from the backs of a line of sheep a thousand years old, straight from a culture of stories and sagas that go back long, long before the printed word was common.  It comes from a people whose roots are were the sea and on land worn by glaciers from deep craggy places.  It comes straight from a century old company  producing a wonderfully warm, fashionably crunchy, lightly spun kind of yarn.  I feel touched by ancient traditions and patterns and people who knit because that is just what you did...

Special yarn deserves a special knit. The search for something that is traditional and shows off all the best qualities of this lovely red lace is on.  

Thank you so much for an unexpected pleasure, Frazzled Knitter.  Unexpected friends are the very very best kind.