Monday, April 22, 2013

Best meet-up in Orlando

I have been part of Ravelry for over 5 years now (WOW! Can you believe it?), and I have been blessed (like the rest of us) with many, many friends.
Those who live near me, in Buenos Aires, have become some of my greatest friends, and very important people in my life, but I was also lucky to find many new friends around the world that I never thought I would be able to meet.

10 days ago, when we were still on holidays in Orlando, I had the privilege to meet 3 girls who make my designing job really fun: Maggy (Mswnnola), Shannon (Knitwit41) and Carol (Cdncarol).

These girls met while testing one of my patterns, and soon became close friends.  They kept on testing for me (thank you!), so they would end up always knitting the same sweaters at the same time... And one day they decided to meet up (the live far away from each other) and model these sweaters together.

From left to right: Maggy, Shannon and Carol, modelling their Jenica Hoodie
From left to right: Maggy, Carol and Shannon, modelling their Dragonflies Jumper

I owe them so much for helping me out with such a tedious job as testing is... They would find mistakes which meant they had to rip out a sleeve... Or would find out that the measurements are wrong and adjustments need to be made...  However they seem to enjoy it for some strange reason, and for that I am forever grateful.
But they also offer me the gift of their friendship, and when they found out I was coming to the US on holidays, they decided to make a trip to Orlando so that we could meet on my Birthday.
Of course, a visit to a theme park was the obvious hang-out date, so we met at Universal Studios.

I finally made it to their group shots!!!

We had so much fun!  And I got to understand why Carol gets so many knits done.  She even knits when waiting to ride a roller-coaster.



I cannot tell whether she was actually knitting while on the ride, but I suspect she actually did...  I wish there was an "Extreme Knitting" attraction somewhere.
They also took care of our boys so that my hubby and I could ride the big big roller coasters!  That was a Birthday gift on its own, but they surprised me with another awesome gift, spun by Shannon herself:


At night we went for dinner, and got to chat about life and future projects.  They were all wearing Window to my Soul, the latest test knit they did all together (more on that design on a future blog post).

Yes, I am having a mojito.  They told me this was the "small" one.
So even though I was not dressed up for the ocasion, I wore mine too and we took some pictures the 4 of us together (sorry, taking pics at night with a flash is not easy...).


These girls are awesome, and I am so happy that we could meet in "real life"!!!  I'll remember this Birthday forever!  THANK YOU!!!


-Joji

6 comments:

CarolT said...

It was delightful to meet you in person and your amazing and supportive husband and adorable kids. Thank you for not posting the picture of me screaming in terror on the ride where your kids are smiling and laughing!

Shannon said...

This was the best weekend ever! I loved finally getting to hang out with you in person and meet your beautiful family! These pictures are so special to me...a way to remember the fabulous time we had!!!

mswnola said...

This was such a special weekend for me too! I knew I would love you in person, Joji, but getting to meet and love your family was a real bonus! Thank you for allowing us to be part of your birthday!

Linda said...

Aw that is so sweet! How lovely.

Hannah said...

Joji, Happy Birthday! I wish that we could have met up while you were in the states -- next time let me know and I will try to be somewhere that you'll be!

Knitabulls said...

What a beautiful picture! I am swatching for the sweater now:-)