Sad day

Today I went to Dorit's funeral. It was very sad. I thought I'd be ok when everyone was talking about breast cancer (because while that was an important topic to Dorit, it wasn't *all* Dorit was.) Then her brother stood up and told stories about her, and that was it. I was done.

I feel the saddest about all of this because Dorit and I had been drifting apart in the last year. She just didn't have the energy for our friendship, and I feel like I didn't do enough to make up for it. My heart is broken that I can not do anything more for her. I'm only glad that I told her I loved her every time I talked to her.

Make sure that you give to the people you love, and not just your heart.

Goodbye, dear friend

Sunday, Dorit Shapiro, president of the Gal to Gal Foundation, mother, wife, and friend, died after a 3 year struggle with stage IV breast cancer.

Please consider participating in the Gal to Gal Virtual Walk at

http://www.GalToGalWalk.org

to help her reach the goal of $250,000 to help meet the needs of families of people living with stage IV breast cancer.

Here is a beautiful tribute to Dorit.

sorry I've been hiding

I've been very neglectful of my blog. To be honest, I've had absolutely nothing of interest to report! I've been very neglectful of my knitting too. Sometimes life gets in the way.

I promise to write something interesting soon!

update!

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. Things have been very busy, but I've still been knitting.

First off, I took a wonderful knitting class that was a part of our county night school program. This was the intermediate class, and was taught by a master knitter. She is amazing! We talked about swatching, reading and deciphering patterns, shaping, seaming and grafting. The class was great! We made mittens for the class, and these are mine.

Next, I started the Lion Brand KAL. I'm hoping this will help me get over the afghan trauma of Christmas 07! I'll post pictures of it soon.

Mousenapped

I got my secret pal's package, but I didn't get a photo when it came, stupidly, and now my mouse has been mousenapped by my 3 year old. lol

My pal has a photo of the mouse on her page, so you can check it out here. Cute, isn't he? Unoriginally, in our house, he goes by mousie. My kids fight over him, so he has been a reward for good behavior.

My secret pal, Lora, also gave me some bamboo yarn (which I've always wanted to try), some godiva hot chocolate, some bellagio hot chocolate, and some beautiful stitch markers that she made (these are similar). It was a really nice package, and I really have enjoyed the contents! Look for future posts to see what I made from the yarn!

Thank you, Lora, you rock!

whoops, I forgot

To post the contents of my package. I hope I remember everything.

First, the point protectors... I think I sent pink and green.

(you saw the stuffy posted below)

more of the same yarn,

some stitch markers by Weeones on etsy (I highly recommend this seller),

of course, hot chocolate,

some homemade marshmallow mix,

and the ever essential emergency chocolate.

My downstream person has turned out to be a lovely woman, and I hope we will stay in touch!

cocoa swap kitty

I made a kitty for my downstream in the cocoa swap. It's very soft. I changed the final design just a little, but I think it came out really cute. It's a little more "denim" blue than the photo shows, and the paws are blush pink.

My daughter asked me to make one for her. It really wasn't hard, it just takes time to make all of the little pieces. Next time I'll try doing it in the round. I got the pattern from etsy, if you want to check it out.