The Grand Canyon, Tokyo, India, England!

I've mentioned before the gorgeous birthday wool a friend bought for me while on vacation at the Grand Canyon.

I was originally not terribly thrilled by the orange in with the blues, greens, and purples, but I began to change my mind when I wound the skein into a ball. By the time the scarf was knitted up I was quite charmed by the colours!

So, the ball of wool from the Grand Canyon was knit up here in Tokyo and then winged its way to England for a good friend from India. That's one well travelled yarn!

The friend in question was one of my co-workers (co-volunteers?) in India, and my traveling companion for one short and one long trip. We spent about a week in Bangalore and Mysore during a break, and then 6 weeks travelling almost around the entire country (Goa, Kerala, Pondicherry, Kolkata, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Delhi, Shimla, Amritsar, and, of course, Agra and the Taj Mahal). In those six weeks I think we spent a total of less than an hour outside of each other's company. The fact that she managed to put up with me and not strangle me is pretty impressive, and definitely deserving of... well, something more than simple knitted goods, but I figured it was at least a start! While I've never seen her wear any cold weather gear beyond a pair of socks and perhaps a sweatshirt, I'm hoping that she'll need a scarf and toque to keep her warm in non-Indian climates.

Her new scarf:



and, since I had some yarn left over when I was done, and I also had some (unclaimed) yarn in matching colours in my stash, I decided to make her a toque too.



She had just moved into a new place and said she was excited to get her first parcel...