The other end of it.

When I left my last temp position, the one I was at all winter, I made a pretty little shawl for my office mate.  The office we shared had heating issues and even though they sort of solved it, there were times when a chill ran down your back. Shivering was a regular and shared event.  There is a certain sort of cameraderie to shared cold, a sisterhood of sorts.  I'm sad to lose that.

I made the shawl for her to remember me by, to wrap around her shoulders when the days weren't going well, to let her know I'm cheering her on and shivering with her, wherever I am.  

I did not expect anything back.

She came with a very large bag.

Oh dear I thought.  I worried that my small gift of very very enjoyable knitting made her feel that a gift must be given in return.  I hate when that happens.  Obligation isn't what gifting should be about.  My small thing gave me joy to make and the thought of keeping her warm is what drove me. Well that and me being swathed in wool all winter while all she had was her coat. I was worried. What on earth could be in a bag that big?

And then I looked in the bag.

I had to laugh.  The gift was absolutely perfect.  It is rare that anyone understood so clearly or so quickly the very heart of me.
This is a rare friend indeed.

Its the biggest ball of yarn on the market.  As you can see it almost takes up the whole seat of my knitting chair (Its one of those tub chairs from Ikea)

It weighs several pounds.  I would weigh it but I suspect my scale down here for woolly things doesn't go that high and the scale upstairs doesn't do that small!

As a gift for a knitter, this lovely perfect bluey green, or greeny blue is exactly right.  She understood everything in all the ways that I could never come right out and say.

She understood how much I enjoy knitting even though she knows nothing of it and knew yarn would be perfect.  She understood that my love of knitting is beyond reason, and that I consider poking fun at my knitting necessary to balance the universe and wasn't afraid to share that with me and poke just a little fun at it that with a very very large ball of yarn.  She knew that a very very large ball of pretty yarn would convey the message she needed to say, just as my knitting told her how much I valued her support and care, that she valued mine.

See when you say it with words, it sounds a little much doesn't it and it doesn't even approach all the depths of it.  But a big big ball of yarn?  That speaks a language that says it all in one large and goofy and completely and utterly sweet very very big thought.  I am charmed.

It is going to be something special.  I knew that the moment I saw the yarn.  My first thoughts always go to sweaters, but I rather think a blankie, to echo the shawl. Something to keep both of us warm at each end of a gift exchange. I might consider a shawl, but seriously, there is too much yarn! So to blankets.  You don't have to go further than Brooklyn Tweed to find the right stuff.  Girasole perhaps, or maybe he Hemlock Ring or the absolutely fantastic Umaro.

I'm looking forward to getting it on my needles, and then getting it onto my lap!  I will cherish it as I cherish a good friend.