Ruth, my Yarn Angel from Denmark!

Her name is Ruth Sorensen.

How do I get a yarn angel from Denmark?

Its a long story but read on as it is a lesson in kindness.

It all started with post on Melinda's blog. She mentioned a fair isle design that looked complicated but wasn't. The beauty of this design is it utilizes self striping yarn. The results are stunning.

The designer is Ruth Sorensen, my yarn angel.

You have got to see this design. It is awesome!

Go here.

Isn't that awesome?

The pattern is free and is translated to English. Go here for the pdf for the pattern. She used Kauni Effekt color EQ.

I started doing much research on-line trying to find Kauni Effekt. The shipping costs from the website Melinda mentioned in her post, wollsucht.de, quoted me 17 euro ($22) for no tracking and insurance or 47 euro ($61) with tracking and insurance. The owner also told me it could take 6 days to 3 months for the yarn to arrive. (Note: I asked how much it would cost to send 1000g - I thought if I'm going to order I may as well order a lot to take advantage of shipping yarn only once).

I said...no thanks. The shipping was outrageous.

I contacted another overseas company to try to get the yarn. Their shipping cost were also outrageous - something like $40. I said "no thanks".

I just did not understand why shipping would be so costly because I have ordered/received yarn from the UK and the shipping usually ran around $10. Whether it was Virtual Yarns(Alice Starmore) or Posh Yarn the shipping was always reasonable with arrival usually was within a week. Actually both Virtual Yarns and Posh do free shipping over a certain dollar order amount. I've never actually paid for shipping from either vendor.

The saga continues.

I wrote to Ruth. Thankfully she knows English. I told her how much I love this design but the challenge was getting the yarn. The yarn is very affordable but the shipping costs were outrageous. I told her a friend of mine had a good friend from Germany who I was going to ask her to help me get my hands on the yarn. It wasn't so much that I couldn't afford to pay the shipping costs but I was unwilling to pay those costs when I knew it couldn't possibly cost that much. How could one european country cost THAT much more than another?

In our correspondance Ruth pointed me to some more of her designs being sold in a kit. Look at this design called Anne Evilla. Isn't that cute? She also designed Claudia Evilla. I contacted this company and the shipping is reasonable. It would be about $12-13 and up to $22 if you are ordering yarn with weight of 1 kilo plus. So for a kit it would be about $12-13. Vivian also gave me instructions on ordering so the VAT will be deducted. So if you want to order a kit just contact me and I will send you her instructions. I would definitely order from this company.

Ruth wrote to me and told me she went to the post office to find out how much shipping would be for a package weighing about 500g to the US. It was reasonable - about $10. She also asked how long it would take to get to the US. They said it would take about 2 days to get to the US and the rest of the time was all in the hands of the USPS. So I figure a week at most.

You know what she proceeded to do?

She purchased the yarn for me and offerred to send it to me.

She made the purchase before she knew how I would get her the money. She wasn't worried how I would get her the money. She said I could send her some yarn if the Paypal route didn't work.

My heart is full to know someone across the world wanted me to get this yarn with delivery at a reasonable price. She mentioned in one of her emails how she can get watermelons from South America, grapes from South Africa but how difficult could it be to get yarn from Denmark to the US?

I am a very sentimental person. I feel the kindness across the miles.

Isn't Ruth a kind, thoughtful person?

It is heart warming for me to know that someone half way across the world is willing to go out of her way to do something nice for someone in the United States that she doesn't even personally know.

I just started writing her about a week ago. I come back after the weekend away and I have mail from Ruth saying she already bought the yarn. I sent her money via Paypal today and tomorrow she will ship my package.

How do I thank her across the miles?

Not only is she a great person, she is an innovative designer.

Thank you Ruth. You are my Yarn Angel, and more!