Last Friday was the Dubai Amiras meeting. It was bittersweet because whilst we are now getting our afternoons sponsored by More Cafe and Magrudy, we were also saying farewell to two of the longest standing members of the UAE Amiras: Kundi and Caroline.

Let’s break it down. This is the reservation plate on the long table at the cafe…how sweet right?  And how about that subtlest of pimpage right there huh? *insert big cheeky grin here*

Rain and Michelle were the first on the scene, after me of course.  Rain lives and works in Al Ain but travels to Dubai for the weekend.  Michelle, now that’s a fun story, she was having lunch with a friend at The Noodle House, Madinat Jumeirah when we met up there with Debbie, Jackie, Shyma and Caroline.  She was on the next table and saw us whip out our knitting and immediately that familiar bond among knitters surfaced and before you knew it she was asking about our next meeting!  I was truly pleased to see her last Friday.

Caroline arrived next, in a flowing summer dress and her fabulous Featherweight cardigan.  Rain promptly presented her with a few birthday and farewell presents, including this handsome wooden box which had Ceylon tea bags in it but really what you want is the box!

Hala also gave Caroline some naked BFL yarn…so squishy! Lucky Caroline. I bet she is already planning what colours to dye these beauties.  They looked like yummy pasta.

A nice sweet moment with Debbie and Rain.

And speaking of which, I owe Debbie a photo of her finished Adrift cardigan after I absent-mindedly deleted the previous ones.  Here she is in all her blocked glory!  Awesome, hey?

And whilst we’re gawking at beautiful FO’s, here’s a current favourite among the ladies: Jackie’s Summer Flies shawl.  Knit out of Wendy Pure, it is the softest, most drapey shawl ever.  I’m contemplating knitting this but dreading doing the joins because bamboo tape is notoriously slippery.

We never stop learning.  That’s the beauty of this craft.  Kundi teaching Rain how to purl continental.  It’s fun watching them and realizing all the knowledge and skill we would ever need is in the very same room.  We just need to pass it along.

What is an Amiras meeting without any yarn winding eh?  This is Debbie’s Bugga! on my swift and winder.  The table and bench were too thick so the clamps would not fit.  This is the yarny take on the proverbial bulb joke, i.e. how many women does it take to wind a skein of yarn?

Did someone say yarn?  Wollmeise, to be precise?  Why yes, we had a few precious skeins on the table, courtesy of Shyma who recently visited Claudia’s yarn lover’s paradise of a shop in Germany.  It was a wonder how none of these skeins jumped into any of our bags.  Shyma was so restrained – I probably would have forgotten about food or paying for a roof over my head, as long as I got more of these beauties.

And an Amiras meeting would not be without the most important of all: food!  Just look at this incredible display of the More Burger!  That’s 220grams of pure beef patty with condiments and such to warm the cockles of your heart.  I don’t know how Jackie and Debbie demolished one of each of these but I’m guessing they were both quite happy to skip dinner!

Rain is such a sweetgirl, and talented too plus crafty.  Just how crafty?  Look at what she was using to tame her long dark locks!  Yes, that my friends is a paintbrush!

Oooh, sneaky, I like.  Whatcha got there, Debbie?

And Jackie too?  What is going on?

Oh yeah, it’s the super secret journal we organised for Kundi and Caroline!  I got lucky and found one with buttons, which is Caroline’s thing.  Kundi is a colourful person so I got her the stripey coloured journal.  We passed these around on the day, quite sneakily at times and gave them to the two ladies at the end of our meeting.  We also got some of the Amiras who have already moved away from the UAE to send in messages via email which I printed off, pasted on the pages and prettied up with sparkly bits.

Caroline was nearly in tears – she was so surprised and pleased by it.

And Kundi was just plain surprised!  All four photos I have of her browsing through the journal had her mouth hanging open!  Sorry, Kundi.

Caroline, not to be outdone, organised a small raffle of her own to give away some goodies.  Debbie won one of two cans of pure maple syrup so she picked out the other winner, who turned out to be Hala.   I already have one of these cans and I am excited about using the syrup which I am sure is going to be amazing.

And there were still more!  Caroline raffled off some of her handmade soaps!  They were divine.  I got one which is a goat milk base and smells truly heavenly.  Thanks, Caroline!

It was quite hard walking away from that meeting while everyone was still having a great time, but the kids were waiting for me.  Never mind, I managed to give Kundi a hug and said farewell.  Caroline and her husband Mario are going on a little holiday before flying back home to Canada but she will be back for just one day in Dubai and I will go with Jackie to have a cup of coffee with her, say farewell properly.

It will never be the same again, but then again we have more new members!  Yay!  The Amiras are trully alive and kicking and with Magrudy supporting us and us returning our support, this could be the start of something truly big and special.

Thanks to Mia and Stacy at Magrudy for organizing the afternoon for us.  Hope you could join us on the next one!