All around the world

I am in awe of how small the world can be. I have a friend in Saudi and we can speak most weeks, face to face, via the miracles of Skype and Facetime. I met two of my friends at a sewing weekend and we live considerable distances from each other in the UK. I got a message on Ravelry this morning from a lady in Australia after I had commented on her, frankly fabulous, knitted creation. With the miracle of the Internet and E mail, now we can communicate as often as we want with people all over the world. Maybe we take this for granted now, but if you really think about it, its pretty amazing. Its not that long ago, maybe one or two generations at most, that a letter would be the only contact between people on different continents. And the on-line community can be very supportive, caring and often extremely generous.

I've been thinking about this particularly in the last fortnight or so, because when I was dying all that yarn with Kool Aid and bemoaning the cost of the drink mix in the UK, Becki commented on my blog that she would be willing to swop some of the yarn I'd dyed for some Kool Aid. So we made the arrangements and I sent Becki's box off last week. I shall say nothing more about this box since it has yet to reach its destination.

This morning I received my box of Kool Aid. All packaged in a USPS box, with the Kool Aid wrapped in American grocery store bags. I have been fascinated by America since I was quite young and I did a one year course "America in the Twentieth Century" as part of my degree. You may recall the over-excited post when I discovered actual Krispy Kreme donuts could be bought in Yorkshire. So items travelling from America were very exciting indeed. And when I opened the box, I found that the Kool Aid had some incredibly cool, and very, very attractive friends in tow. Behold my lovely Swop box contents.

In addition to a huge selection of Kool Aid (enough to dye masses of yarn), Becki sent three divine lengths of fabric; the grey is a wool glen plaid. The silky at the front is a silk charmeuse with the most fabulous print, and the white at the back is cotton shirting with a self stripe in a lovely weight. All totally, totally gorgeous, fabulous pieces and very me.

And then I have two patterns; a Vogue and a Marfy. Aren't they both fabulous? This year is going to be the year I perfect my dress fitting (at least, that is the plan) and the Vogue pattern is a very interesting construction. And the shirt has such lovely lines.

Thank you Becki. I love it all sooooooooooo much. I only hope you like your box contents as much as I like mine.