The Kindness of Strangers

This colorful 6 of Pentacles from the Tarot of Trees is to exemplify the kindness of strangers. I have been very fortunate to receive some lovely things this year - sometimes simply for the asking, and at other times, wished for but unasked - from people I have never met except online.

Quite some while back my Alabama friend Sara of Lazy Knits & Purls was having a clear out and, amongst other things, was getting rid of some Brittany knitting needles; tongue-in-cheek, I suggested that I was a worthy beneficiary.  Lo ! what showed up in my mail a couple of weeks later:

At around the same time, my Fen friend Susie from Useless Beauty was itching to jettison some Malabrigo Lace in a lovely colorway, . She didn't like the feel of it: I know ! Not in her right mind, obviously. D'you think I took advantage ? Why, yes, yes I did - I nominated myself as being is dire need of it, and Lookee ! what my postman delivered a bare few days later:

One skein of which was sent much later to my friend monkey Mimi so as to share the love, and the other I transformed into the Waves of Leaves shawl (blogged about here, here and here):

My Good Twin, Alison of Hestia's Larder, sent me - apropos of nothing - a deck I'd been quite keen on for a while, the Fenestra:

 My Evil Twin, Ania of AniaM, sent me a bunch of ebooks, mainly crime - murder mysteries. I wonder what she's trying to tell me ? By the way, I have actually met my Twins in real life.

And just this week, mi amiga Janine of Where the Nodding Violets Grow not only emailed me with a lovely comment about my last post, but said she'd found one more ball of the Sirdar Sirocco she'd gifted me, and would I like it ?

Also this week, I was surfing my Ravelry friends' activities, and noticed that m'amie Steph had posted pictures of her completed Karise shawl. Why yes, it is green (again) - why do you ask ? Since her alter-ego's name must be Kermit ....

I asked her if she might lend the pattern to me, and - Whallah ! - there it was, gifted to me and sitting in my Ravelry library ! 'Course, that means that now I really do have to knit it.

So take that Bainbridge Scholars Mister Kitten, for all those posts where your thrift shop finds made me weep and wail.