Friends Bearing Gifts

Today I was going to tell you how this weekend I made yarn while the sun was still shining.  I was going to tell you that I have reached a milepost in the washing of the sheep, in that half of my fleece is now clean.  I was going to tell you that I even have a second bobbin of it all spun up, which will be ply #2 of the 5-ply I am dreaming of.  I was even going to tell you about how I have begun to imagine what my perfect black sheep gansey might look like, should I live long enough to scour and spin the second half of the circus tent fleece.

But then my friend Collier came home from his trip to Ireland, and every thought about my current and future knitting projects (and I have MANY) went clean out of my head.  He came over to our house especially to bring me this:

You see, my friend Collier asked me very kindly if there was anything I'd like him to bring me back from Ireland, and I of course said YARN, not really thinking he'd be able to find any.  I mean, if I landed in Ireland, I would not necessarily know where to look for yarn, though I'm an expert at sensing its presence, so I didn't really expect Collier to spend a lot of his vacation on a yarn quest. 

Lucky for me, I was SO wrong.  Dude has Master Yarn Sniffing Skills.  Can you believe the bounty?  There are 5, count them 5, skeins of this, and it's my favorite color and everything.  The color is called Bilberry (who knew?) and I am in love.  Oh, and get this:  It cost so dang many Euros that Collier decided my "punishment" would be that I have to knit HIM a sweater, too, so there are also 6 skeins of this in Jacob color for me to make him his Dream Aran.  Can you believe it?  It's my greatest "Will Work For Yarn" fantasy come to life. 

I have the best friends in the entire world, and Collier is their King.

Here is a picture, taken immediately after Collier left. 

Phillip:     "Would you like me to sleep on the couch tonight so you two can be alone?
Me:          "Would you?"