Connecting

It truly is amazing what a few days off and good company can do to restore balance and happiness in your life. Before my roadtrip, I'd felt so out of sorts and disconnected that it even affected my speech. I used the wrong words, my grammar was off and at times I was just completely lost for words. Though this can also happen to me when I'm feeling happy, when my highs are so high that the intensity of that emotion leaves me speechless, and I become very quiet and calm, which is often misunderstood. Often, there just isn't any adequate language to describe what is going on inside of me, or sometimes, it's not the right language. It fascinates me to see how much language reflects a society's culture, how some languages have certain words available to describe a particular thing or state of being, that others don't. My good friend M feels 'round' when everything is in balance, and that comes really close to what I've been feeling these past two weeks, just round (and I've been eating so much yummy food lately that it can be applied physically as well ;-)
On the fourth of July I had lunch with Mary of Mamie makes, who was in San Francisco on business. We meet at a tea house right across from Imagiknit, which luckily was closed, no temptations there! Mary's blog has given me so much inspiration over the months, and I always hoped I'd get to meet her someday. Some people you just know you're going to click with, even if you've never met them in person. Three hours later, I wish I could have kidnapped her to chat all night! She brought me surprises from NY, Japanese pastry that was devoured, eh, savoured instantly and a beautiful Japanese book with designs of Japanese fabric. Thank you Mary, for the gifts, but mostly for the lovely time I had.
Surprises also came by mail from across the ocean. First, an envelope from Finland from Mari (who doesn't have a blog, I think), containing beautiful self-striping Novita wool yarn in beachglass colors. Definitely socks, I'm thinking.

I love the bird motif on the envelope!
A package from Germany arrived on my doorstep yesterday. Suzi sent me a spare Rowan magazine and as a surprise included this beautiful yarn dyed by her friend Claudia, aka Die Wollmeise.

The color is 'Rhabarber' or rhubarb, and so luscious I want to eat it. She also included this cute card from a bazaar, what a great idea to use up left-over yarn.
Mari and Suzi, thank you both so much, I'm so excited about these beautiful presents!
My little give-away (some fabric and yarn) will happen tomorrow around 9am. Whoever leaves the first comment, gets what they like. I'll pay for the shipping, no matter where to.