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

Spinning and Knitting together

Hello dear friends,

Just a few pictures to share with you a wonderful afternoon spent this weekend with some lovely people.

Rosário from dona maria hosted a Spinning and Knitting Meeting at the wonderful, gorgeous Café Saudade in beautiful Sintra. It was a nice, cozy and friendly afternoon spent around wheels and spindles, knitting needles and handspun yarn and hand dyed rovings :) 

Rosário talking to 2 ladies making fantastic socks with Zauberballs in the cutest stripped pattern (a must, I have to learn to knit socks with these two ladies!) and her spinning wheel standing in the foreground

Sporting the prettiest handmade sweaters and cardigans

Even a little one joined us and tried to give the wheel a spin!

Two young ladies giving their first steps at spinning with a drop spindle

And in the mean time the inevitable cup of tea (lemon grass for me, please) and yummy scones with butter.

Even got to meet personally two other nice ladies I already knew from their blogs, Sofia (SofiAlgarvia) and Ana (mãos de sapo & pés de pato) from whom I already bought some hand dyed yarns :)

Definitely... a treat to myself, a day to repeat, and I will certainly try to join those ladies at their weekly saturday afternoon knitting meetings in Lisbon :)

Hope you had a great weekend too!

xxx

2012 is here!

The first 2 had already gone out and a few slices were missing, but I couldn't resist it... a lovely dinner and celebration of the new year with some friends, with a lot of candles and fireworks outside and a warm and cozy evening...

Have a wonderful New Year, my friends. May all your special wishes come true! I wish you all much health, love and peace for this year that starts today--and I hope it will be a new start for me too!

See you soon!

XXX

Happy New Year!

Hello my dear friends!

This will most likely be my last post in 2011, as the end creeps up on us so fast (and my holidays sneak away so fast too, *sob*). I will try to show you later on my Christmas presents--just a sneak peek here.

First, and above all, let me tell you how WONDERFUL you have all been cheering me on through bad times and good times, and in a way nursing me back to health. These have been 2 complicated, rough years healthwise and it has been fantastic to read your blogs, visit your gorgeous homes, gasp at your fantastic crafts and ideas and find new friends while sharing the little things I started creating again. Your messages have been truly appreciated and if sometimes I don't reply right away I always try to do so at some time.

I want to THANK EACH and EVERYONE of you for being here for me and hope to have many more wonderful days spent with you in 2012, which definitely will be a good one--no more treatments and total recovery, yeahhhh!!!! Just check-ups every 6 months :-)

This year has brought me new friends.

I was lucky enough to have met personally one of them, Carla of Simply by Carla who is an amazing quilter and patchworker--have to take pictures of the fabulous sewing / crafts bag she gave me for Christmas! It looks like a jigsaw puzzle but she says it's not as difficult as it looks. Right. As if I believed her :-)

Then there's Marjo of Marjo's Cosy Corner, a sister in arms as she had to go through the same ordeal I did this year. From knowing what the other one was going through I believe we were able to give each other some comfort and strength--I know she did / does to me!--and I'm truly glad we met this way. Hopefully we'll be able to meet personally in the near future, as Belgium is not so far away from Portugal!

Even though distance is a bit of a problem for meeting personally, there are other fantastic people who are always here to leave a kind word and share a smile--Meredith, Marilyn, Carol, MemeRose, Crissi, (hmmm... what is it with the M's and C's?!) Valeria, Susan, Jo...among so many others! (Please make sure you visit them too, you'll love their work!)

I wish you all and each one a Happy, Wonderful New Year full of joy and love and above all health--and hope to meet you here again soon :)

You're the best!

XXXXX

At last!

Hello, my dear friends! 

Bringing you a llittle bit of the Portuguese holiday spirit...

Amoreiras Shopping Center, probably the loveliest this year

A visit downtown Lisbon, that brought back fond memories of younger years...

The amazing Elevador de Santa Justa, connecting 2 streets downtown Lisbon

Detail of the XIX century elevator (and you can actually go up there!)

Burned down in 1988, the Armazéns do Chiado has a long tradition of merchandising (this was a trading area as far back as the XII century). When it was rebuilt after the fire they managed to preserve the front of the building, dating from the XVIII century, after the earthquake.

The arcades by the Terreiro do Paço

Terreiro do Paço, a.k.a. Praça do Comércio with the statue of D.José

The bridge connecting Lisbon and Almada

Two friends who finally met! Carla and I drooling over gorgeous fabrics :-) (we're sure the girl in the store thought we were nuts, asking her to take a picture of the 2 of us in front of all that fabric ;-) )

And I got to meet Pedro too :)

Christmas wouldn't be the same without a Nativity scene (next year I'll put up my grandmother's)

Sparkle and red berries scattered around the house

And some wonderful scents perfuming the entire place, with Marjo's tulip peeking from behind :)

So... who's coming over next for a visit? ;-)

Wishing you all a wonderful last week of the year 2011

xxxxx

A flower from Belgium :)

Hello my dear friends!

This has been a crazy busy time for me... a lot of stuff going on at work, and recently I've started a round of training courses for my colleagues that will last until mid December. It's kind of amazing to think that only 2 or 3 months ago I was home resting and now I hardly have any time for myself... 

I thought I'd post a short note from my hotel room before I do a bit of knitting (does that sound silly...?) and go to sleep to get ready for tomorrow's classes. A post promised long ago, with a picture I've wanted to share of a WIP finished a while back (to make things worse my camera decided to go AWOL again and is nowhere to be found... so this one was taken with my cell phone camera, sorry it's not the best quality!)

This shawl was made with 100% laceweight linen (natural color), with the half circle shawl pattern and I have to confess I'm truly happy with it. Though this yarn is really different from the one shown in the pattern, it turned out really nice and light and pretty (promise I'll show it off better as soon as I find the missing camera!)

But what makes the biggest statement is the crochet flower I adapted from Marjo's lovely gift--found a button in my sewing box that looked like it had been waiting all its like to be used here, added a pin to the back et voilá! A beautiful flower brooch that adds the perfect touch here.

See... I have managed to keep up with my crafts! And there are a lot more to share, as soon as I have a bit of time... and a decent camera :( Until then, back to my needles and yarn to finish off a couple of Christmas presents.

Miss you all! Have a wonderful week :)

xxx

Hello, my lovelies!

I've been a bit away from here... but not completely! In between striving to learn some new skills and getting reacquainted with work schedules and replanning "silly stuff" like grocery shopping (which can be fun if you have the time to do it off of rush hours and at your own pace but is completely annoying when everyone else is trying to do it at the same time as you) I'm still managing to maintain some sanity... with some yarn around my fingers :) Hopping on over to check out what you're doing, leaving a comment or two here and there and staying in touch by mail and phone with Marjo and Carla...

Not much time for nice pictures, yet... but let me tell you I've finished off a few WIP's, yeaaay!!! The one I'll be sporting tomorrow (and hopely getting a pretty picture of) is a shawlette where I've pinned one of Marjo's beautiful flowers   and let me tell you, it looks wonderful, if I may say so myself. 

Right now I'm finishing this cowl and about to move on to the hat--I'm not really a hat / beanie type of person but I'll give it a try, the colors are so yummy!

 Tempting, this little sweater, isn't it? I've been trying to control mysel... making a few things for Christmas gifts  and not all for myself lol!

And before I take off... for those of you who are granny squares fans... here's a great easy and fun idea--it would look awesome with a black turtleneck under it! A total of 6 granny squares, 2 large ones for the front and back and 2 smaller ones for each sleave.

(All of these are patterns by Katia, made with their yarn Darling and are in their Fall / Winter magazines)

I'll be back soon, hopefully with pictures of my own work :)

Oh... and by the way, hop on over to visit Marjo's Cosy Corner, she's feeling a bit under the weather and at the hospital right now and needing a lot of good wishes!

XXX

Teresa