I did wonder beforehand if winter weight socks he may never wear was kind of insensitive as a gift, but I hadn't realised that extremities can really suffer when those with Cancer are so near the end. So thank you.
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Earlier in the day, we visited RoseRed at her lovely new home. We found her in the pretty, leafy suburb where she now resides and settled in for a meltingly hot visit as Sydney had one of its hottest days in ages. Sean planted himself in front of the TV and RoseRed and I retired to the room, which I dubbed The Parlour, for knitting and chatting.
Here's proof I was there. I call this photo Portrait of a shawl in the Parlour.
Note RoseRed's perfectly suited and elegantly draped Lady Eleanor shawl in the background.
At some point in the morning, we exchanged belated Christmas gifts. I can now reveal the gift I was SO excited about giving her.
About six months ago, a friend of mine who is a print artist, took us to an exhibition of her work. The loveliest piece, in my opinion, was of a pair of red shoes. I fell in love with it and thought of RoseRed naturally enough. Polly said she would make a print of it for me and late last year, I got it and some time after, framed it. Here it is.
Isn't it lovely, and perfect for her? There's a tender, sad story behind the shoes. The piece is dedicated to the artist's friend who died around a year ago of cancer. The shoes were hers and somewhere, Polly hopes, her friend is still wearing them and dancing.
I also gave her Loani Prior's lovely book, Wild Tea Cosies. It's gorgeous. Check it out. I bought it from Wool Addiction in Bowral who sent it so beautifully gift wrapped that I had to leave it as it was for RoseRed, rather than doing my own notoriously dodgy wrapping.
RoseRed's gifts to me were equally lovely and beautiful.
Some red Alpaca Silk from Blue Sky Alpaca which is so very gorgeous.
I have some in ice blue which was a gift from Mad, Mad Rachel and it's quite possible the two will make something beautiful in some colourwork. We shall see.
As well as the yarn, RoseRed gave me a beautiful, delicate shawl pin. Here it is adorning my Adamas shawl.
Stunning huh? I feel so blessed to have someone with such exquisite taste as a friend of mine!
Now, I shall go back to sitting around sweating. There's an image for you all!
Bells
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