Dear friends
It's so good to feel so welcomed by all of you! It makes me feel sad that I stayed away for so long but it also makes me feel good realy wonderful to be back.
Though you may not know it, I have kept up with you, through Google Reader (most of you) and Facebook, some others. I've been happy and sad with you, and seen all the beautiful things you have been making. As for me... it will take me a while to mention all the things I wish to share with you. These are just a few of them...
I have joined a knitting club in Lisbon. Did I mention last year going to a knitting meeting in Sintra? It was wonderful, a lot of fun, and I met a lot of lovely ladies who share my love for yarn and chatting. Then one day I decided to go to another meeting--this time in Lisbon. It's held in a shopping center, in the restaurant area, where there's plenty of space and light to work, eat and drink some goodies and especially to be with my new friends. They're the "Cenouras", (the Carrots, named after one of the original ones who's the sweetest strawberry blonde you can imagine). Since then I try to make sure I go everytime I can, because each meeting I skip makes me feel like there's something missing. And there is. The friendship, the companionship, the lovely hours spent around a table covered in yarn, projects, cake and tea, and all the chitter-chatter and sharing that go along with it.
Here we are, with Cristina's new yarn standing out in front of us--she went on a yarn-fast for a full year and we decided to reward her for her persistance with a bunch of alpaca skeins in her favourite (green!) color, from Drops Garnstudio. It was such a pleasure to see her happy face when she oppened the parcel, carefully wrapped in many layers to make it more fun!
Another one of the highpoints of the meetings was Ana's party. This was her cake. And who's Ana, you may ask?
A year ago in the beginning of the year (before I joined the group) Ana, a 20-something-year-old journalist, showed up at the meeting and introduced herself. Hi, my name is Ana, my sister gave me this skein of yarn and these needles for Christmas and I want to learn to knit. So she did. She now makes beautifull sweaters, mitts, and the other day was teaching all of us to make moebius (more on that later). So to celebrate her 1st year as a knitter we surprised her with this cake, baked and decorated by the daughter of one of the girls. Isn't it stunning?!
Needless to say, she was utterly surprised and absolutely loved it. Great job, Ana!
Now on a different note... after a long struggle with tumors and 3 surgeries, I finally had to acknowledge it was time to let go of my sweet friend Pantera and let her go over the rainbow bridge. To help soothe the sorrow we had taken in another little girl, Janis who is a half Norway Forrest cat but is really tiny, because she didn't eat enough as a baby.
And lately we gave her a little "brother"--who in spite of only being 4 months old, is a big as she is :)
Of course I find myself calling her Pantera all the time (black as my dear baby) and think about her all the time...
And it's so cute to see her mothering him, though they're the same size!
So... what have are you up to, these days?
XXX
