Many of my regular readers will know the story behind the name Ripples Crafts, but for those who don't it was as a description of the ripples that I had so often seen appear within the crafting community - especially when someone in the community needed some help.  More often than not the ripples arose as a result of an immediate need, but quite often they are simply random acts of kindness.

My recent trip to Darlington and Rheged resulted in a number of acts of rippling kindness aimed at me by others.  First up my good friend Liz, and her husband, Roger,  welcomed me into her home where I spent a couple of comfortable nights.  She agreed to come with me on my travels to Darlington, keeping me on the straight and narrow (even if it was a rather roundabout straight and narrow!), was an excellent map reader, especially when trying to find our way around the busy roads of Gateshead when we were trying to reach the Angel of the North.  She lugged bags from the truck to the shop and back again, helped with setting up, pulling down, tills, card machines, and did all the cooking for the two of us - I felt thoroughly spoiled.  At Rheged she once again lugged bags, fought with the credit card machine, kept me fed and watered, and took over manning the stand when my attention was demanded elsewhere.   Liz was with me on my very first show, a farmers market in Berwick upon Tweed in 2008.  When I was unexpectedly in Rome for a few weeks she helped Stevan run my stand at a show that I thought I'd miss because I couldn't get there.  The trusty collapsible bookcases which go to most of my shows came from a good friend of hers after she badgered him into giving them to me.  She has been the most excellent of friends.  Thank you, Liz.  (We won't talk about the fact that you have a really annoying habit of always looking stunning in a shawl which you have just casually slung around your shoulders - yes we all noticed that, nor about the fact that instead of trying to warn me that I was about to climb into a stranger's car in Darlington you simply sat, helplessly giggling, watching me!).

While in Darlington at A Fine Yarn, which belongs to my friend Chris Smith, Chris's husband, Les, who makes the beautiful shawl pins which I sell, told me that he'd made me a yarn tree.   For those who don't know what a yarn tree is, you can just see it in this photograph on the right hand side, where its branches are covered in hanks of Ripples Crafts yarn.



However here is a better picture of it, a little bare, but it shows you what a great job Les has made.



His gift was completely out the blue, and is something that will be so useful to me at shows.  Thank you Les!  For those of you coming to Wonderwool you will see the tree properly dressed and you will also have the opportunity to see first hand the beautiful shawl pins.

At the show at Rheged on Sunday it was wonderful to see Dorothy again.  However she did not come empty handed - she'd bought another beautiful version of Swallowtail for me, which she made with the left over silk from weaving the scarf she did recently.  It is beautiful.  I haven't managed to get a good photograph of it yet but you can see it over on Dorothy's blog.  Thank you Dorothy!  Again I will have this with me at Wonderwool.

So ... a weekend of good friends and great kindnesses.  Who'd have thought when I started down the dyeing yarn road that I'd be on the receiving end of so many kind gifts.   I couldn't ever have guessed just how appropriate the name "Ripples" would be.