Knitting en Español

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2009-11-26T13:26:00.000-08:00

I'm spending Thanksgiving with My friend's in-laws. DH is out of town and they invited me to spend the afternoon with them.
I haven't done enough knitting in the last days. I did finished the triangular shawl and is blocking (with no pins) as we speak.
The Socks are off the needles and on their way to the recipient...I forgot to take pictures of them, but I can ask them to take them for me. I hope they fit!

I'm always thankful for all the blessings that I have in my life, but this year I have sooo many things to be thankful for, so Gracias Dios por derramar tantas bendiciones sobre mi y mi familia.

Cupcakes

2009-11-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

Some of my friends got together to throw me a baby shower. In the past , I'm the one that makes the cake/dessert for the occasion, so this time I wouldn't let them say no.

I baked some chocolate cupcakes. Everybody loved them! They had a chocolate ganache center and a butter cream frosting.

Cupcakes cooling

After cutting out the center, I pipped chocolate ganache in each cupcake

After pipping the frosting with a big star tip, I sprinkled some coarse sugar

I got this awesome cupcake tower at Marshall's for less than $15! It fits 32 cupcakes. I had about 25 leftover cupcakes (that didn't fit in the tower) and I used them as long over due Thank you gifts.

I've been working on my To-Do lists. We're having family over for Christmas and I have to rearrange furniture, clean, plan menus and get ready for baby!

Wolfmother...again

2009-11-14T21:08:00.000-08:00

Once again we had the opportunity to go see Wolfmother . This time we didn't have to drive that far and we were closer to the stage. I was worried that the baby was not going to enjoy it, be she behaved pretty good! much better that the first time we went to the movies.

Moving on to knitting news, I finished the first sock. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Baby sweater

2009-11-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

I finally blocked and took pictures (dark and bad) of the baby sweater.

The pattern is the 5-hour baby boy sweater. Very fast knit, next time I'll knit the sleeves in the round. All I have left to do is add some crochet loops and 2 or 3 buttons.
I have leftover yarn that is going to become a hat and booties.

Let's see, what else? I hope I can turn the heel on the first sock. The pattern I'm using is this one. I'll have progress pictures next time.

Raviolis and knitting

2009-11-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to make raviolis for a very long time. Today happens to be the day that I got tired of looking at a container of roasted butternut squash in the refrigerator (half of it became a really good soup, the other half was just sitting there for 2 weeks).

Inspired by this post, I decided to give it a try. Even though I have a pasta machine (which I got for $8 at a thrift store!), I found it very tricky to roll, fill and fold the little raviolis. I blame the dough, at first it was too dry and then too wet :-( Anyway, I made the raviolis , but not the sauce. They're in the freezer, along with 1/4 of the roasted butternut squash, I think it still be good, right?

I started my FIL socks last night. This are my 3rd pair, toe-up, on 2 circs. They're a little thick, but that's OK, they're winter socks. I'm using Moda Dea washable wool on US5 needles.

I really want to knit my family Christmas gifts, I know, I've been down that road before, but this time I really have an excuse, having a baby is expensive! and I was sorting my stash and realized that I have way too much yarn. I'll check Ravelry to see if I can find something quick & easy that looks like it took a lot of time to make ;-)

Another shawl

2009-11-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday started knitting another Boneyard Shawl. I know this is supposed to be a stash-busting project, but I got yarn just specially for it.

It all started with a trip to Crafty Planet to look for some yarn to knit socks for my FIL. I didn't find anything I liked, but since I had a 20% off coupon, I decided to buy something for myself. I got 2 skeins of Cascade 220 Heathers in 9442. The yarn is very soft...it's odd, my label reads that it's Merino wool, but the website states that is highland wool, hmm. I got it in pink just in case I didn't feel like knitting something for myself.

Anyways, I didn't find yarn for the socks, so I went to Joann's and found 2 balls of Moda Dea washable wool in brown. It was marked 7.99, a little too much for my budget, but I had 2 40% off coupons. I was pleasantly surprised when I went to the register and it turned out that that particular store doesn't carry that yarn, so it didn't come up in the register, so the lady grabbed a ball of yarn that she had on hand and applied the 40% off to that price. I ended up paying $2.99 per ball!

Thriftstore trip

2009-11-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that I like to shop in thriftstores, actually, I don't like it I love it ;-)

Today I went to one and I found a Frida Khalo puzzle. I don't know if all the pieces are there, but I'm going to find out soon.

It's been a long time since I've worked on a puzzle. I think this one is pretty nice.

Habitat

2009-11-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

Here's my latest FO.

Habitat by Brooklyntweed. This is my first project where I follow a chart instead of row-by-row instructions. It was really easy to follow.

I used Patons Classic Wool and US 8 needles (I don't know how I forgot to change needles after the ribbing or why I CO with larger needle size). I like the hat, but it turned out a little bit thight for DH. It fits me, but I don't think I'll use it, I'm going through a slouchy-hat phase.
I don't use cable needles, so it made the whole thing go faster.
Next time I'll use a yarn that makes the cables pop out more.

I got out of bed to post

2009-11-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

Yep, I was already in bed when I remembered that I didn't post today, I know I'm already out of the whole NoBloPoMo thing, but still, I had to post something today.

I still don't have pictures of my latest FO, so I'll just tell you what's on my needles (that I'm actually working on). I'm knitting the 5 hour baby boy sweater in a very girly color (rose iris).

I promise I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Well, that lasted long...

2009-11-03T05:23:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that I forgot to post yesterday!!!! I remembered in the morning and was going to take pictures of my latest FO, but it wasn't dry and blah, blah, blah. Oh well! There goes NoBloPoMo.

Anyways, I have pictures of my Boneyard Shawl, which I made while in Mexico

(couldn't find anything else to perch my shawl on, so concrete blocks it was!)

I really liked how it turned out. I made some mods on the pattern, check Ravelry for extra details.
The yarn I used was picked out by DH, color and all! very fashionable, don't you think?
Patons Silk Bamboo in Orchid, it has a very nice drape. I'm planning on knitting another in wool, without the picot edge, just YO's

My last post before going into hibernation mentions that I'm very near my 100th post, I want to do something, a contest probably, any suggestions?

Almost a year ago...

2009-11-01T06:41:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's almost a year since I posted...well, not true, I can. A lot of things have been going on, mostly work at first, but in the last few months I've been really busy making a baby :-) I'm so excited! We're all very excited.

As excited as I am, I haven't knitted anything for the baby yet, I don't know why. I have a lot of patterns in mind, but just haven't decided on the yarn.

I've knit a lot of things in this past year, I'm sure all my FO's will make it sooner or later into the blog, because I'm planning on participating in NoBloPoMo, so good luck to me!

Tejidos

2008-11-30T14:51:00.000-08:00

I finally had a chance (or the inclination) to take pictures of some FO's.

Here they are:

This combo was part of my mom's birthday present, but since that is in Oct and now we're closer to Christmas, it is now part of her Christmas present ;-)

For the beret I followed instructions in The Complete Book of Progressive Knitting, very easy

fast. I used La Grand Mohair . Details are at Ravelry.

My inspiration for the neck warmer was the Purl scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It's very easy, just K1P1 until you have the right length. I made it shorter and used some buttons to make it a nice neck warmer. The yarns I used were La gran Mohair, Bernat's Cool Crochet and some yarn that I got while in Paris (you can see it here). I love it! it's very easy, super warm and a great stash buster. I might have to make one for myself.

This is another rainbow hat. It was knitted originally for my soon-to-be-born nice, but It came out a Little too big, so I decided to give it to Anna. She's one and a half years old and I think it fits her nicely. I'll knit a smaller version for the baby, because you know, she's not chopped liver ;-)

The pattern is Lil' Devil Baby hat. The hat ended up having 2 sides, a mostly red side and a blue side. Anna really liked it and didn't want to take it off.

I'm getting closer to my 100th post, yey! What should I do? Maybe a contest?

looking for a post

2008-11-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

Have you seen it? I'm looking for a post. I know I should post something, but can't somehow come up with an idea. I don't have pictures of my latest FO's and my brain is so fried from waking up at 3:40 for so many days that I can't really think of anything to post.
I can tell you about my day...
I woke up around 5am, a little later than usual because I had a medical appointment.
I left the house and was on time for my "procedure". It was not painful ( i thought it was going to be), but it wasn't pleasant either. That went pretty well. GAD!
After that we had breakfast at The Bad Waitress (for some reason I always call it the naughty waitress). The food is really good and we remember that we forgot to take my sisters there.
After that I went to work. I came in at 9am and started mixing scones (Orange + candied ginger), then I made a huge batch of chocolate chunk cookies, scooped them and started again with cherry oatmeal cookies. The place where I'm working (is it really working if you're not getting paid?) is fairly new, but becoming very popular. Everything is delicious!
I left at 2.30pm to catch a ride with a neighbor that works near by.
Got home, ate a sandwich with lots of onions and then watched Desperate Housewives and that's where I'm right now...
DH will get some take out (maybe spicy noodles) and we'll watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
We'll go to bed early and start all over again tomorrow.
How was your day?

p.s. now that I have reviewed my day I think that that I should be doing laundry and washing the dishes

Chocolate extravaganza

2008-11-16T14:00:00.001-08:00

Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the chocolate extravaganza for free...if you don't count the stress of having to make a chocolate sculpture to enter to the contest.

As part of one of my classes, we had to make a chocolate sculpture and enter it in the contest.

The theme was sports and we had only 2 days to make the sculptures.

There were several requirements that we had to meet, like height (16"), use of at least two colors, use of cut-out chocolate, molded and modeling chocolate.

I didn't put too much time into the planning and it showed on the final piece.

My piece had several "delicate" parts and I was adviced by my instructor to assemble it and put the finishing touches the day of the competition. I was told there was going to be tempered chooclate ready for us to use as glue, but there wasn't, and then... several parts of my piece broke. I guess it happens, and poor planning and execution add to the risk factors.

I don't think my piece was the best (far, far from it), but it wasn't the worst either.

I learned a lot and if I had to do it again I would change several things, but what can I do now, right?

Here's my piece. It's a soccer field with soccer balls ( I lost one and had to drop Mexico from the field), on top of each ball is a flag. Uruguay hosted the first world cup in 1932, USA hosted in 1994 and Germany hosted last in 2006. The next World cup will take place in 2010 and South Africa will be hosting.

The background was supposed to look like the logo for World Cup 2010, but I could not get all the pieces to stand right...I'm just happy that I had something to present. When the pieces started breaking, I told a friend that at least I had the big guy...and as soon as those words came out of my mouth... it broke!

I have no idea who won, but I'll update the post with a picture of that sculpture as soon as I know.

Tickets for the event were $25 and since we got to go in for free, we decided to walk around and get some of the freebies. My favorite was the Mayan Experience, it was delicious! it was like a liquid dessert, so chocolaty and decadent. Their Potion N.9 was also good, I can picture it with cookies, ice cream or as a very rich frosting on a cupcake.

There were lots of wine vendors giving free samples, but I didn't try them. I guess that If I had paid the full price I would have, you know, so it would be worth it ;-)

Have you had your chocolate fix today?

I spy

2008-11-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

This is what I'm doing on a Friday night. DH is having dinner with residency candidates and I'm waiting for Ghost Whisperer to start on TV (I think she'll wake up and everything will be a nightmare).

I spy, I spy with my little eye...an UFO!

* Hat to match boots

I spy, I spy with my little eye...a barley drink

*Newcastle brown ale

I spy, I spy with my little eye...a guy drinking coffee

* Sam from Private Practice

I spy, I spy with my little eye...a free magazine subscription

*Ready Made magazine

I spy, I spy with my little eye... a relaxing friday night

* After my first week of internship

Abril is...

2008-11-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

-Knitting a scarf for mom (Purl scarf from Last Minute Knitted gifts)

- Listening to Brisinger

- Waiting for Eclipse

- Watching Friends (season 2) & Sarah Connor Chronicles

- Waking up at 4 am for 3 weeks

- Going to the Chocolate Extravaganza

Thanks for visiting us!

2008-11-10T14:24:00.000-08:00

My sister and my friend Ali decided (finally!) to come and visit us for a few days.

We had a lot of fun. We made bread (focaccia, oh-so-good!), I made Tarte tatin, we shopped, drank beer, but mostly we just enjoyed each other's company.

Gracias por visitarnos!!! No se tarden en regresar.

Practicas

2008-11-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

Manana empiezo mis practicas de reposteria. Tengo que acumular 120 hrs y el lugar donde las voy a hacer no paga a sus "internos".
Estoy un poco ansiosa y a pesar de que me tengo que levantar muy temprano (5am) no me puedo dormir y aqui estoy navegando la red.
Deberia de poner a tejer la bufanda de mi mama, esa que le voy a hacer para que haga juego con la boinita que ya le teji (lo que me recuerda: tomar fotos de boina).
Tengo muchos proyectos de tejido en mi lista. Por un momento pense que podria tejer regalos de navidad para todos, pero recupere la cordura y me di cuenta que me quedan poco menos de 6 semanas para compeltarlos. Decidi que mejor me llevo los proyectos a Suiza y los tejo mientras este visitando a mi hermana.
*nota a mi hermana: los de ustedes si los voy a llevar hechos ;-)

Greenery Hat

2008-11-08T21:20:00.000-08:00

Today was cold enough to merit wearing a hat. I snapped this picture of DH as we were leaving for schools this morning ( I know, it sucks to go to school on a Sat., but I'm done!)

The pattern is Greenery Hat, knitted in Fishermen's Wool. I used 5mm (8US) needles.

I did about 4" of the ribbing pattern . The pattern is written line by line, which is nice because I don't know how to read charts. After a while the knitting gets pretty intuitive.

I like it , he likes it and we're all very happy.

What?

2008-11-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

Apparently I didn't realize yesterday that it WAS already Thursday! It snowed today for most of the morning, but there was no accumulation and it didn't get that cold, so the hat is still unused.
Today was my last day of production class. In this class we pretend to have a bakery and we make products to sale to faculty, staff and students. Each week we take turns to be the "manager". It was very hectic, but fun. Tomorrow we get to finish our sugar sculptures ( I promise there will be pictures later) and Monday I start my internship. I need 120 hrs, so it will take me about 3 weeks. After that I only have 3 weeks to get ready for my trip! It will probably take me that long to pack.
I forgot to write about a beret I made for my mom (this is just a remainder for myself, he he he)

p.s. post without pictures are no fun :-(

Me ganaron...

2008-11-06T16:08:00.001-08:00

My sister posted pictures of the Baby Surplice jacket that I made for my soon-to-be born niece. You can see them here.
I finished DH hat. It turned out very nicely, just in time for the first real snow ( maybe this Thursday?). Haven't taken pictures because the sun hasn't come out in days. This weather reminds me of the weather in the little town of Forks, from the Twilight saga...I know, don't judge me, I've been sucked in.

History in the making...

2008-11-04T20:06:00.001-08:00

This is huge and just being alive to witness it gives me goosebumps.

"Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz"

Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.

Benito Juarez

1806-1872

NoBloPoMo

2008-11-03T19:22:00.000-08:00

I know I already missed a day, but still, in the spirit of NoBloPoMo here's a list of things I have on my needles (sorry, no pictures, only links)

Juliet I started this almost a year ago (can it be that long?). I ran into some problems because I substituted the original yarn and my gauge was much , much smaller.

Phiaro Technically off the needles, but still need to hide all the ends and braid the fringe. I didn't use a pattern, I kinda figured it out myself , very easy mindless knitting.

The Greenery Hat This is for DH. I'm using Lion Brand's fishermen's wool in brown. I really like it, hopefully it will be done before it snows... for real (ok, it has snowed, but it was mostly rain and it didn't accumulate)

I know I have lots of UFO's but I can't recall names or yarns...I'll leave that for later.

Feliz Dia de los Muertos

2008-11-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

before....

Yum!

I have lots of knitting to share, I promise it will be soon!

Quincy

2008-09-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Relaxing in the balcony
As promised in my last post, I'm going to post pictures of a very funny cat.His name is Quincy and he lives here.

For our anniversary, my husband surprised me with a weekend trip (it was actually in July, but I'm a little behind posting). He booked a B & B and did all the research (I'm so lucky!). I'm gonna be honest, the idea of staying in someone's home was a little bit creepy, but at the end I was very happy with his decision and we had a lot of fun. That is just one of the reasons that I love him so much...

When we parked in front of the house, Quincy was there to greet us

Noticed anything different?

At first I thought the cat was sick, but I couldn't stop petting him because he was so friendly ;-)

Myriam, the owner, said it's called a "lion's haircut", I thought it was very funny! I really hope they let his fur grow for the winter.

Guilty...

2008-08-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

...that's how I feel for not posting. I feel so guilty, that I even dreamed that I had updated the blog.
I've been very busy and lazy, that's all I have to say for myself. I started a new job (can't tell you where, just in case I want to rant about it) and a new quarter in school.

I've been knitting for my new niece and had a little project in between.
Let me show you what I've been doing:

This little booties are the first thing that I knitted for the baby. My sister told me she was pregnant less than one week before she was supposed to arrive for her visit. I had to have something for the baby, so I decided on these little worsted-weight booties. They were very quick and she liked them a lot. This were knitted before we knew it was a girl, I think the yarn works both ways, but the dad disagrees (I'm glad it's a girl!).

The yarn used is some recycled wool that I dyed some time ago and used for Zaida's hat. I still have enough left for another hat or maybe a small jacket, What do you think? Do you think the yarn is "too much" for a little jacket?

This is EZ's Surplice Jacket

It's almost done (that's an old picture), but I won't show what it looks like until It gets to Zurich.

I finally finished my little brother's scarf! I started it a long time ago. I think it's too small, or at least not as big as I intended it to be at the beginning. I noticed that my gauge has gotten considerably looser in this last years. Compare the beginning and end, maybe I've become a more relaxed knitter, who knows.

The yarn is (if my memory doesn't fail me) Lion Brand Wool-ease and I used 2 balls.

I made a Bainbridge scarf for myself. This was a very quick and easy knit. So easy and quick that I considered making it as this year's Christmas present...then I tried it on, not at all what I had in mind, but the more time passes the more it grows on me. I think I finished it like a month ago, and after trying it again for the picture, I'm now thinking it would be a great Christmas present ;-)

The yarn that I used is this one that I dyed myself.

Okay, enough for today. I still have pictures to show you (there's one of a cat) and stories to tell you (hmmm...now that I think about it, do I ? really?) I don't want to use up all my material in one post because we know what that leads to...

OMG!

2008-07-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

(en Español aqui)

I didn't realize it had been such a long time since my last post! A lot has happen since then:

- Finished another quarter at school. Actually, my month long break is almost over :-(

Final project for Artisan Breads class. The theme was "movies". The whole thing is made out of live and dead dough

- Some news I'm not at liberty to disclose, but might be soon posted here. Very exciting!

- My sister came to visit. She stayed here for about 3 weeks and then we traveled together to Mexico to visit. It was such a treat to have them here (brother in law arrived 2 weeks later). We both had lists of all the things we wanted to do together (crafts, cooking, shopping), but we didn't have enough time to do them all. The hectic last weeks of school and the move to a new apartment made for a crazy schedule. We still had a chance to do some fun things

Sis and brother in law observing Rembrandt's Lucretia

New bear exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo

Beautiful Minnehaha falls

- We had a Usual Suspects reunion. I met this group of friends through my sister and we used to hang out a lot together while we all lived in Bloomington, IN. then everybody moved and we ended up all scattered around the world. It was really fun to hang out again with all of them, just like old times. We still missed Kate and Gera. Thanks for visiting guys!

Everybody soaking the sun at the Sculpture Garden

- We moved to a new apartment. I left town 2 days after the move, so I'm still unpacking and trying to get my stash organized. Next post I'll show you some of the things I have on my needles.

- Meanwhile I managed to finish some knitting!

I knitted Gera some poop for his birthday! I got the idea here. It was very easy and it looks like it was a hit! I used some Nashua yarn that I had left over from another project (which I just realized I haven't post it)

Mi tia Yaya asked me if I could make her a mañanita, I looked around and it turns out it's just like a poncho or caplet. She lives in Arizona, so she wanted something light and definitely not wool. The pattern is Eudora from the book Viva Poncho. I used Red Heart Soft Solids and 9 US needles. I liked the pattern it was very intuitive and it gets smaller (and faster!) as you progress because it's knitted from the bottom up. My fear was that it was too small. My aunt loved it and it look like it was the right size. (Jazy said that it looked like Batman's grandmother cape, he he he, funny).

I used some wood vintage buttons that I had. I crocheted a little loop on one of the sides.

The yarn harlot socks are finally done! I sewed them up on the plane (with a plastic needle) and gave them to my mom as a late Mother's day present. It was funny because it was so hot in Juarez (while I was there it was over 100F) that the last thing you could want is a pair of wool socks, but I know she'll wear them to bed during the winter.

Again, I was worried about the fit. I used needles 2 size larger to bind off and make a stretchier top. In real life they're not as tight as in the picture. The pattern is Sox on 2 stix and I used Woll Service Super 7 yarn, a superwash wool (i can't find a link) on 6US needles. I liked the pattern, but next time I need to keep better track of the rows, because I ended up with a bottom longer that the top.

A friend of mine had twins and I wanted to make some cute little hats. Long story short, the babies were already 2 weeks old when I met them and it turns out that they weren't as tiny as expected (for twins). To make things worst I could only finish one hat and it didn't fit. Oh well, there's always winter, right?
The pattern is from Pipi Knits stockings, peaches and cream cotton yarn and 6US needles (2 circulars because I fear of DPN's)

I hope I get my posting rhythm back (like I had one!) and soon I can show you some things I've been knitting.

Thanks for reading!

>----ESPAÑOL-----

Pues vaya que si me trade en escribir algo esta vez, no? y para acabarla de amolar mi traduccion al español es mas simple, asi que mil disculpas por eso.
En estos dos meses que no he escrito nada han pasado varias cosas, unas si las puedo contar y otras todavia no.

Acabe mi segundo tetramestre en la escuela y ya mero empiezo el tercero. Como trabajo final de la clase de panes artesanales hicimos una escultura de pan (foto). El tema fue "El Cine". A mi me encanto, aunque si le hubiera cambiado unas cosas.

Mi hermana Jazy y su esposo nos vinieron a visitar. Jazy se quedo con nosotros 3 semanas y luego nos fuimos todos junto a Juarez . Me la pase tan padre con ella! No hicimos muchas de las cosas que queriamos hacer, como coser, enseñarle a tejer, pintar unas cosas y demas. Pero si alcanzamos a visitar museos, parques y el zoologico. Mientras ella estaba aca, tambien vinieron a visitarnos otros amigos, tuvimos una reunion (aunque faltaron Kate y Gera). Me diverti montones!

Nos mudamos de apartamento y todavia estoy tratando de ordenar y desempacar cajas. La cosa es que en vez de purgar y empacar yo empaque y ahora estoy viendo que me traje cosas que no necesito, quiero o uso. En fin!

Que es un blog de tejidos sin fotos de tejidos? no se, pero ha de ser muy aburrido ;-)
He aqui lo que he hecho:

Le tejia mi tia Yaya una Mañanita. El patron se llama Eudora y esta en el libro Viva Poncho. Use estambre acrilico porque mi tia queria algo lijero y facil de cuidar. El unico pendiente que tenia es que no le quedara, pero al parecer ya se la midio y si le queda (digo al parecer porque se la mande con mis papas que fueron a visitarla). Cuando me manden las fotos yo se las enseño.

A Gera para su cumpelaños le teji una caquita, jejejeje, agarre la inspiracion de aqui y al parecer le encanto!

Los calcetines que empece cuando fui a ver a la Yarn Harlot ya estan terminados! Los acabe mientras iva en el avion, ya nada mas faltaba cerrar las costuras y use una aguja de plastico para no tener problemas con seguridad. Se los regale a mi mama. Yo se que no les va adar mucho uso en Juarez durante el verano, pero una vez que llegue el invierno no se los va a quitar ni para dormir! Use un estambre de lana lavable y el patron de Knitty.

Y por ultimo mi amiga Adriana tuvo gemelos! Yo le queria tejer algo a los bebes, pero entre calcular mal la talla del gorro (solo alcance a tejer uno) y el hecho de que no nacieron tan pequeños (5 kilos entre los 2) y que los conoci a las dos semanas de nacido, no les quedaron! Bueno mas bien no le quedo el gorro a ninguno de los dos, solo a scully. Ya sera para la proxima, no? Este es el patron que use con estambre de algodon.

Para la proxima les muestro lo que ahorita estoy tejiendo.

Gracias por leer el blog!

Felicidades Mama!

2008-05-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

Modelando una panta que le teji en Dic.2005

Mama, gracias por todo. Te quiero!

Baby Bobbi Bear

2008-04-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Isn't he cute? I love it. It was a somewhat easy knit, there were times when I got lost in the pattern, but it was easy enough to take it on a plane with me.This is the pattern and I got it through a swap on Knitty, thanks Jeannie!

I also have the "regular" size Bobbi Bear pattern, one of these days I'll knit that one too.

Lets see... I used some worsted wool, no label and probably from a thrift store. I had some leftover yarn (I'm thinking cupcakes) and used 2 circular needles to knit it. The tie is some yellow ribbon the I had. I felt that it looked "naked", the tie doesn't cover that much, but you get the point.

I looked online for a picture of what the back was supposed to look like, but I couldn't find one, so in the spirit of sharing, here's a tush shot, nice, eh?

I other news, my sister is coming to visit me, yey!! I'm soo excited!! I'm already making lists of things we can do, things to bake and places to visit. We're moving to a different (cheaper) apartment around the time she's here, so it'll be a great help ;-)

I might have another FO for next post, I hope.

Yarn Harlot

2008-04-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

No se si se han fijado, pero en los link que hay en la barra de la derecha esta este http://www.yarnharlot.com/ . Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) es una escritora de "humor tejeril" (?) escribe libros acerca de las personas que tejen, por las cosas que pasan y porque el mundo no nos comprende, todo con mucho humor.

Ahorita anda promocionando su mas reciente libro Things I learned from Knitting (Whether I wanted to on not).

A mi me encanta leer su blog, asi que cuando supe que venia para aca me apunte para ir a verla! Bueno, la verdad es que no me apunte inmediatamente y para cuando hable ya se habian agotado los boletos, repartieron 600 boletos gratis. Yo ya me habia resignado a no ir, pero en Raverly encontre uno.

Me la pase muy padre, lo unico malo de toda la noche fue el clima, estaba nevando y haciendo mucho viento, y aun asi hubo mucha gente.

The yarnery fue la tienda que organizo el evento. Tuvieron que reservar el auditorio de una universidad para que cupieramos todos.

Unos empelados de la tienda fueron los que abrieron el show. Cantaron unas canciones del musical Sound of Music pero todas las letras tenian que ver con la Harlot, tejidos, patrones, estambres y demas! muy divertido. Aqui esta el link a los videos Parte 1, Parte 2, parte 3 y Parte 4

Aqui estoy con Sarah, ella fue la que me dio su boleto extra, GRACIAS!
Mientras esperabamos para que nos firmara el libro se estuvieron rifando regalos. Yo me saque una bola de estambre y un libro de patrones.

Y aqui estoy con Stephanie, que tenemos en las manos? Ella esta sosteniendo mi calcetin y yo el suyo. Ahora voy a tener que terminar ese par de calcetines, jejejeje.
Para cuando llegue a que me firmara el libro ya era un poco tarde y la verdad pobre mujer! no se como le hace. Se porto muy agradable. Se me paso mencionarle mi primer par de calcetines, a lo mejor hubiera salido en su recuento del evento, en fin, sera para la proxima.

--English--

The Yarn Harlot! I guess everyone that knits is a bit familiar with Stephanie aka The Yarn Harlot, right? Well, I had the chance of going to her book presentation and it was sooo fun!!!
I got my ticket (which were free) thanks to Sarah, who I met through Ravelry.com
The Yarnery organized the event and it was amazing. The Yarnery family singers did a great job of warming up the crowd.

I got to meet Sarah, who I met through Ravelry and if it wasn't for her I wouldn't had attended (she gave me her extra ticket), thanks Sarah!

I had so much fun! Stephanie was funny and witty. I forgot to mention that I was wearing my first pair of socks, maybe I would have made it into her blog.
I started a pair of socks on straight needles, and on the picture shes holding them and I'm holding her traveling sock.
If I could have a "do over" I would bring her a washcloth or a beer, but that will be next time ;-)

Feliz Cumpleaños Jazy!

2008-03-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Muchas felicidades!!!

Esperamos que te la pases muy padre en tu dia.
Yey! It's your birthday!

Yum!

All is good now

2008-03-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

We've been through a rough patch the last couple of months, hence the lack of posting. All is good now and we'll keep going forward.

I've decided that I'm going to start posting about the things I make and bake at school. I, surprisingly, don't do that much baking at home, but that might change in the future. Consider yourself warned ;-)

I did manage to finish something

I'm squinting because it's hard to take your own picture while sitting on snow. This was taken 03/20 and we still got more snow!

Le slouch in Classic Elite Inca Alpaca the color is 1127 Cochineal red. I can't remember the needle size that I used, but, as always, I used 2 circulars instead of DPNs. I really liked the pattern and the yarn is sooo soft and warm. I actually had been wearing this without weaving the ends (just tucked under) to avoid posting about it :-(

This next FO was finished in Dec 06, but somehow never got around posting it. I think it was because shortly after we moved and we didn't need scarves there.

It's made with a 100% wool recycled yarn from a sweater that I bought for that very purpose. My husband liked the color and requested a scarf. I looked for "manly" scarf patterns and came across this one from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, very easy and very manly indeed!

The color is a much deeper red, you can see it in this next picture that was taken the day he got it.

Y ahora en Español!

No creo que alguien lo haya notado, pero no habia escrito mucho en el blog por causas personales. Gracias a Dios ya todo esta mejor y a seguir adelante!

He decidido que voy a empezar a escribir mas acerca de mis aventuras en la cocina, no se si ya lo mencione, pero estoy haciendo un certificado en alta reposteria. Asi que ya saben lo que pueden esperar.

Con todo y todo me sigo dando tiempo para tejer y entre las cosas que he acabado esta este gorro/boina Le slouch tejido en alpaca, el estambre esta super suavecito y es muy calientito. La foto donde estoy yo la tome hace unos dias y todavia nevo mas despues de eso!
La bufanda se la teji a mi esposo en Diciembre 2006, pero por alguna razon no la habia puesto aqui. El estambre es 100% lana y fue reciclado de un sweater que compre en una segunda. El patron es de este libro y lo puedes encontrar aqui, como ves no tiene chiste.

Knit-out 2008

2008-02-18T17:51:00.000-08:00

Saturday my DH took me to Mall of America for the 2008 Knit-out, how could we let this opportunity pass? I had such a great time, I bet I would've enjoyed it more if I had taken a demo class or stayed for a demostration, but I didn't have time, we were only there for 3 hrs and most of the time was spent in line, but I think it was worth it!
I love getting freebies and DH stood in line with me, so he got a goodie bag too! All the ladies that were in line with us were very impress by his patience, he even brought me lunch to the line, I definetly hit the jackpot with this one <3 (does that look like a heart?)

I got to meet Vicky Howell, she's really nice, super nice! I now regret not going to her Crafty Planet presentation the day before. At least I got a picture, right?

This is one side of the Interweave Knits booth

This is the Lion Brand line, the booth is actually around the corner...40 min away, You would think they were giving money away, but no, it was just a black tote and free patterns

This dress was at the Knitting Machine Guild booth, I thought it was really cool.

This is my booty: Lots of free patterns, some magazines, several needle gauges, yarn, knitting needles (one free pair and if you donated 3 dlls they would give you a second pair, so I got some Knit-lite and some N.19 wood needles)

I had a great time! If you ever have the chance, don't let it pass.

Feliz Dia de San Valentin!

2008-02-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

and now that that's out of the way...

let me tell you about my latest trip to Salvys (Salvation Army). I'm a big thrift store fan, big. I love going to Goodwill, Salvation Army, Unique, you put the words "thrift store" by the name and I'll be there. Lately I haven't had a chance to go and the last time I was there I walked empty handed (shocking, right?), but boy am I happy I stopped there yesterday...

I found this

14 balls of Rowan's Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply

best part?

It was only $1.99 for all of them!

5 are brown, 2 blue, 2 grey, 1 green, 1 light green, 1 redish/brown, 1 orange-ish and 1 mauve

Any ideas or suggestions? I have enough for a sweater, but I would need to combine the colors...which scares me a bit.

Hope your thrift store trips are as rewarding as mine!

20 days later

2008-01-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been 20 days since my last post! So much has happened since...well not really. I came back from south of the border and started culinary school. For those of you who don't know me that well, I'll explain a little. I graduated from medical school, but it's been about 5 years since I practiced Medicine. I won't go into the reasons because sometimes it's even hard for me to understand what I'm doing. Long story short, I've always loved baking and pastry and for the next year that's what I'll be doing. After that, who knows, maybe I'll continue into the baking and pastry career or maybe I'll go back to medicine. Whatever I decide, I'll definitely be knitting!

And speaking of knitting, there are tons of things that I haven't posted yet.

Remember the calorimetries? Well, I ended up knitting about 20 of them. I don't have pictures of all of them, but here are a few. Needless to say, everybody loved them!

DH didn't get one, he was just posing, but even guys look good in them!

My mom received a hooded scarf, loosely based on this pattern. I used 2 skeins of Paton's Divine yarn. She liked it, but next time I'll try to round-off the top a little bit.

My MIL collects angels, so I decided to knit her an angel scarf. I modified this pattern to make it a scarf and I used Lion Brand's Jiffy yarn in one of her favorite colors: Yellow.

(MIL with my sister)

(Close up)

For my two sisters and my BIL I knitted each a pair of Felted clogs. I'm still waiting for the "good" pictures from my sisters, but here's at least a preview. My husband decided that his pair should also be in the picture. I still have to finish a pair for my little brother. I ran out of yarn in Juarez!

This adorable baby

got a pair of EZ baby booties from The Opinionated Knitter

My friend Roberto got a nice neckwarmer. Trust me, he could had sued me if I didn't crop the picture ;-)

I'll end this post with more babies! Well a baby and a toddler.

O-man got a Ganomy hat, another pattern by EZ found in The Knitter's Almanac

His sister Zaida got a top-down bonnet that I knitted with Kool-aid yarn

Aren't they cute?

I'm still missing some FOs. I'll post them next time.

Have a great week! or month, depends how much it takes me to post ;-)

Feliz Año 2008!

2008-01-02T10:11:00.000-08:00

Mil disculpas por no escribir mas seguido, la verdad es que estoy disfrutando estos dias con mi famila. La navidad la pasamos todos (y me refiero a TODOS) con mis suegros y el año nuevo la pasamos con mis papas, muy padre todo.

El 2007 ha sido un año lleno de bendiciones, robe paso los examenes, entro a la residencia, visite Europa por primera vez, nos mudamos de ciudad, todos tenemos salud y amor, que mas podria desear? Yo se que el 2008 superara por mucho el año que se acaba y eso me emociona mucho, hay tantos proyectos! Ya despues les contare.

Espero que el año que empieza este lleno de bendiciones y cosas buenas para ti y tu familia.

My apologies for not writing in such a long time. I've been busy having fun with my family. We celebrated Christmas with my in-laws and New year's with my parents, all very nice. DH left yesterday and I'm leaving in a couple of days :-(

I feel so blessed, 2007 was a great year, but I know 2008 will be even better, we have so many plans and projects. I'll tell you about them later.

I really hope that 2008 is filled with blessings for you and your family.

All freaked out!

2007-12-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

This is my last post before leaving tomorrow to spend the holidays with my family. I'm all freaked out!. I haven't packed (my flight leaves in about 17 hrs, that's plenty of time, right?) and I didn't finish knitting all the presents. I still need to pick out my "travel project" and I have 2 movies from the library that I haven't watched, 1408 and Premonition.
At least I managed to finish the bear booties from 50 Baby Booties to Knit, right? This are for one of DH's coworker. She's pregnant (thank god! 'cause it would be weird to give her baby booties if she wasn't) and we were supposed to take her out for drinks as a thank you for helping DH with some work...but now she can't drink, so booties it is!
The pattern is pretty straight forward, all the mistakes I made were my fault. The yarn is what I had left from another pair that I made 2 years ago for my godson, I think it's Dale of Norway's Baby Ull, but I'm not 100% sure. I would had like them to be a little more symmetrical, but I can deal with it. Aren't they cute?

Este es mi ultimo post antes de irme a pasar la fiestas dicembrinas con mi familia. Ando toda vuelta loca! Me falta empacar, no termine de tejer los regalos de navidad, no he escogido el proyecto que me quiero llevar para el camino y quiero ver 2 pelicuals que saque de la biblioteca.
Al menos acabe estas botitas. Son para una compañera del trabajo de mi esposo, como agradecimiento por ayudarle con un trabajo. Esta es la segunda vez que las tejo, la primera fueron para mi ahijado. El estambre es el mismo, ya hace tanto tiempo que lo compre que no recuerdo el nombre, creo que es este. Me hubiera gustado que quedaran mas simetricas, pero ahorita ya me doy por bien servida al haberlas acabado. A poco no estan muy monas?

Nos vemos en Juarez!

Cold!

2007-12-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

I'm no stranger to snow or cold weather, but something tells me (OK everybody keeps telling me) that Minnesota winters are different. It's being snowing here and by the looks of it, Minnesotans will have a white Christmas, not me, I'll be south of the border telling people how it's not really cold there, how they would be freezing their traseros off in Minneapolis.

Thankfully its' been cold , but I haven't been cold...could it be because I spent most of my days indoors? Anyways, I'm pretty sure I'll be knitting lots of socks, mittens and scarves to keep ourselves warm and toasty. I'm actually looking forward to knitting for myself, right now it's all about the Christmas presents and Locapalooza. I really doubt that I'll be able to knit everyone a present, we'll see.

One thing that I have noticed is the absence of snowmen, I guess people are so used to the snow that they don't play with it, and they must be used to driving in the snow, because it takes more than 24 hrs to start plowing the streets, at least in my neighborhood.

And for those who are keeping track, I knitted 3 more Christmas presents, yey!

Long time, no post

2007-11-29T07:52:00.000-08:00

I figured that if I was going to blow off NaBloPoMo, I might as well not post for more than one day. It was incredibly easy not posting, but I can't do it forever, so here it is, the long post.

Pues me canse de escribir tan seguido, despues de un rato se acaba la inspiracion. Asi que ahi le va el resumen:

Here's a recap:

We had a really nice thanksgiving. In Mexico Thanksgiving is not a Holiday, so for us, it would had been like any other day, thankfully, one of DH fellow resident took pity on us and invited us to dinner. Everything was delicious and we had a really good time.

Celebramos el Dia de Accion de Gracias con un compañero de Robe, se apiado de nosotros y nos invito a cenar a su casa. Su esposa cocino el pavo y toda la cosa. Cenamos riquisimo y la pasamos muy bien.

On Friday I went shopping. I bought some things that my sister asked me to and some things for me, pants and memory cards for the camera. It wasn't as crowed as I thought it would be.

El dia despues de Thanksgiving es famoso por sus ofertas. Yo acabe iendo a comprar unos encargos de mi hermana y unas cosas para mi. La verdad yo esperaba qeu hubiera mas gente, pero no, todo estuvo tranquilo.

Later on Friday we had some friends over. Remember Ambica and Mike? along with CL and Ed (from Illinois), visited us. It was so nice seeing them again! We had dinner at a Red Sea, which serves ethiopian food, a first for me. It was really good!. After that we had a beer at Town Hall Brewery, we sat near the fireplace and had a really good time. The Masala Mama was a little too bitter for me, but after a while you don't notice anymore ;-)

El mismo viernes por la noche vinieron a visitarnos unos amigos de Bloomington, bueno, los conocimos ahi, pero ya todos viven en otros lados. La pasamos muy bien, fuimos a cenar comida etiopie y a hecharnos unas cervezas. Eso es algo que me gusta de aqui, puedes encontrar un restaurante para todo tipo de comidas!
El sabado se regresaron y nos quedamos flojeando todo el domingo.

On saturday we had Indian food and went grocery shopping. We had a really good time, it was nice seeing them after so long.

Most of the "Usual suspects"

I'm still knitting, not necessarily what's on my list. I finished another koolhaas. It came out a little bit smaller, I used the same yarn as before (Lion Brand's Wool-Ease in Blue Mist) on smaller needles (my mistake). I like it, it's warm, fast and easy, while looking very-hard-to-knit.

Here's a picture (ignore the pajamas)

I'll keep knitting and counting my blessings.

Sigo tejiendo, no lo que deberia (me faltan todavia regalos), peor al menos sigo con la viada. Termine otro gorro Koolhaas, mismo estambre, mismo patron, diferentes agujas y por lo tanto mas chico, peor no importa. este patron me gusta porque es facil, pero se ve como que es muy complicado.
Por lo pronto seguire tejiendo y dando gracias a Dios por todas nuestras bendiciones.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hoping you have a lot of thing to be thankful for this year, I now I do, family, friends, health, love, residency, and so many blessings more.

Enjoy your turkey! Wobble, wobble.

Edited to ad: Ha, Ha, Ha! I guess my sister is right, it is goble goble! What was I thinking? LOL!

Lo prometido es deuda

2007-11-21T20:03:00.000-08:00

Ayer dije que hoy iva a terminar de tejer algo, la verdad esque he empezado varios proyectos, pero no los he acabado. De hecho, hoy casi se me olvida escribir en el blog. Ya iva a acosdtarme a dormir cuando me acorde y ya no pude hacerme loca.

Asi que voy a mostrarles alguans cosas que me gustaria tejer en un futuro inmediato y que ya tiene un buen rato circulando el internet.

Tatami Kimono El puro patron cuensta lo que un libro, y al parecer ahora ya esta agotado y el estambre recomendado cuensta una fortuna. Pero apoco no esta hermoso?

Image Copyright Sundra Yarns

Interweave Knits Fall 2007 issue Minimalist Cardigan. Lo unico qeu me detiene son las mangas que se tejen aparte y la ultima y unica vez que he hecho eso no me resulto muy bien. A mi me gusta hasta en ese color.

Copyright Interweave Knits

Tilted Duster.

Cuando vi este no me llamo mucho la atencion, pero he visto fotos de otras personas que lo han tejido y se ve muy padre.

Copyright Interweave Knits

Y todavia quedan un monton! Pero si me pongo a buscarle nunca acabo, y mejor paso a pasito, priemero acabo lso regalos de navidad y luego tejo para mi

Chase's Calendar of Events

2007-11-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no knitting stuff today.
When I worked as an Assistant Librarian, one of the things I liked doing was checking this book, to find out what was being celebrated on that day. Since I couldn't think of something more interesting to blog about, here's what I found out.

~ Mexico's Revolution day 1910( I knew that! No school, no work and a parade)

~ Name your PC day My sister's laptop has a name, Matilda. My husband decided to name ours "that's stupid"

~ Anniversary of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials 1945

~ The Sheik was released. I don't think I'm ever watching this movie.

~ Lucerne Piano Festival runs from Nov.20-25. My sister should go and have a look.

~ United Nations Universal Children's Day. In Mexico is celebrated on April 30. Schools have festivals on that day and it's really fun.

I promise, tomorrow I'll have some knitting done.

Random stuff

2007-11-19T18:49:00.000-08:00

Huevo

I don't have any new FO's and I'm running out of knitting things to write about, so here are a few random things (Huevo one of them).

Como hoy no tengo nada nuevo que mostrar en cuanto a tejidos y se me estan acabando temas que escribir, he aqui algunos datso al azar acerca de mi.

1.- I'm reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the time of cholera in spanish. I decided to read it before watching the movie.

2.- I'm currently watching season 5 of Six-feet Under. I get the dvd's from the library and I love the fact that all the episodes are there. I only watch them while on the elliptical machine.

3.- I didn't watch my usual six-feet under episode today...you can guess why.

4.- I'm a Libra and a Rabbit.

5.- I'm afraid of going bald.

And now in Spanish (different of course!)

1.- Empece a ir a primero de primara a las 4 años porque no me gustaba el kinder.

2.- Si pudiera tener un perro, seria un perro pelon como este o este.

3.- Cuando era chiquita queria ser veterinaria.

4.-Termine siendo Medico

5.- No soy muy buena para tener plantas, tiendo a regarlas de mas. Ahorita tengo dos que estan sobreviviendo y eso me hace pensar que la de la culpa era mi hermana (no te creas jazy!)

Done!

2007-11-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

The koolhaas hat is all done! It was a very quick knit. Here's DH wearing it.

I used Lion Brand's Wool-Ease, I figured it was a good yarn for a test knit and easy to care for if I give it as a gift...which hasn't been decided yet. He really liked it! I used 2 oz of a yarn in Forest Green Heather (about 132 yds).

Let's see, what else? It was knitted on 2 8US circulars. I forgot to change needle sizes for the ribbing and messed up the pattern, you can actually see it in the picture, but it looks as part of the hat. I did 4 pattern repeats and decided to decrease to 6 stitches before closing the top. Oh! and the best part? I didn't use a cable needle! I followed this tutorial.

I was planning on making one for DH in Misti Alpaca Suri/Silk that I got on sale, but now I'm not sure I got enough yarn. I'll definitely knit another one in a different yarn.

Koolhaas

2007-11-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

I started a koolhaas hat yesterday, just as a "test". As my sister said in the comments, I'm knitting more than one. I just want to make sure I understand the pattern before I use a nicer yarn.

So far, I've used a different yarn, didn't change needles for the ribbing and messed up the pattern, but I think it's coming along

What do you think?

Again

2007-11-16T22:27:00.000-08:00

Once again I forgot to post. It really doesn't matter because I had been out of the contest since day two. I was out of my apartment most of the day and totally forgot about the blog until now, half an hour to late to count for today (or yesterday).
I'm still posting twice, just so I can say I posted 30 times in November, he he he.

Today, while waiting for DH, I started "test" knitting koolhaas. Test knitting, for me, is knitting something in a different yarn than stated in the pattern, just to see how it comes out and if I can stand the pattern, whatever the outcome, I'll find a recipient. But I have to say, so far so good. I'm doing cables without the cable needle and knitting it on 2 circular needles, oh! and I'm using Lion Brand's Wool-Ease. I'll post pictures later today.

Edited to say: OMG! It looks like I'm in a different time zone than blogger and it's still Nov 16 there! por un pelito de rana.

A day late

2007-11-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my Martes 13. I had a little accident while making this:

Ayer fue mi Martes 13. Mientras teñia este estambre tuve un pequeño accidente.

I really like it! I think the blue makes all the difference, don't you? The stripes are much longer (1 yd each). I'll knit another swatch to see how it works.

El estambre me encanto como quedo, mucho mas que el anterior. Yo creo que el azul hace la diferencia, no? Estas rayas son mas gruesas. Me queman las manos por tejer una muestra para ver como quedan!

Anyways, as I was saying, I dyed this yarn with kool-aid in the microwave and this happened

Pues como les decia, tuve un accidente mientras teñia el estambre en el microondas

Thank god it was the last part I had to dye. It was all done in sections, one by one.

This is what my hands looked like... I swear, my husband is still alive!

Las manso me quedaron rojas. Ya casi se me quita, solo me quedan las uñas.

After that I had another accident, one that involved an FO and scissors, but more about that later, once I figure how or if I can fix it.

Despues de ese percance tuve otro. Despues les muestro lo que pasa cuando mezclas un tejido terminado con unas tijeras, ayayay! Espero poder componerlo.

Back to reality

2007-11-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the Yarn Harlot posted on her blog that there are 42 days until Christmas, now 41. I gotta say, it hit me hard! I don't know why to me a month sounds much longer that 42 days, I know, it doesn't make sense. I need to start turbo knitting.
One of the reasons that I haven't made that much progress is because instead of concentrating on the bigger gifts , I'm knitting the one pattern that is small and I already know, so it makes for wonderful mindless knitting, no checking or looking at a pattern. Today I'm going to start one big project and hope I can finish on time.

I was on ravelry, when I came across this website Knitmap.com As a knitter, I know that when you travel (or not) you want to have as much S.E.X (stash enhancement xcursion) as you can and this website is going to make a lot of traveling knitters happy. Look how many yarn stores are in my area!

*that kitty used to live outside my parents home in Mexico. She was sweet and in love with Huevo ( a dog). We don't know what happened to her, one day she was gone.

Triscadecafobia

2007-11-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Tu la tienes?

Martes 13 es el equivalente al Viernes 13 en la cultura Americana. Yo no me concidero supersticiosa, pero un poco de precaucion no esta de mas ;-)

Pero de donde viene? y donde se concidera de mala suerte?

Me puse a buscarlo y encontre esto, esto y esto. Muy interesante, no?

por si acaso

Knitting Meme

2007-11-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

I was wondering what I would blog about today, so I googled "knitting meme" and this came out. I'm giving it a shot. I might be late to the party...but better late than never!

~ What is your all time favorite yarn to knit with?

I can't say I tried a lot of yarns. As long as it's soft, in a nice color and doesn't break my bank it'll be my favorite. Right now I have a thing for alpaca yarn, its' soo soft.

~ Your favorite needles?

I like using circular needles to knit everything! I have tried using DPNs, but I just don't get it, that's why I use 2 circulars to knit in the round.

~ The worst thing you've ever knit?

(sigh) So many things. The one that comes to my mind right now is a hat that I made for SIL. I used needles that were too small, so it ended up being too stiff and I ran out of yarn and it ended up being to small.

~ Your most favorite knitting pattern ( maybe you don't like wearing it, but was the most fun to knit)

I felt very accomplished when I made Clapotis. I'm happy with anything that turns out remotely similar to the original.

~ Most valuable knitting technique

I don't know, knitting continental? The last technique that I learned was color knitting. There are a ton that I want to learn! Double knitting, enterlac (and purling from the front), intrasia, Kitchener stitch, oh my!

~ Best knit book or magazine

I tend to buy VK and IK magazines. I like nice pictures, like the ones in Rowan, but that's too expensive. Book is another thing, I currently have an EZ craving. I'm starting to lean more towards books that teach you how to do it and improve it, rather than just give you a pattern. I haven't had a chance to use my Knitting from the top, but I'm glad I have it.

~ Your favorite knit-a-long?

Zimmermania, but just because it's the only one I'm a member of.

~ Your favorite knitblogs?
Lets see: Yarn Harlot, Knit and Tonic, Skrilla Knits (I usually visit most of her blog list), Buenas Puntadas ( I like reading about knitting in Spanish), Batty's, Bezzie's, I have to make my own blog roll.

~ Your favorite knitwear designer?

I would loooove to say ME, but, I haven't design anything...soon I hope. Right now EZ is my favorite, I would like to knit everything on her books.

~ The knit item you wear the most?

My first Clapotis. I don't knit for myself that much, actually it was one of my New Year's resolutions (it's in Spanish, but it's in there) and here I am, doing Locapalooza.

I'm tagging anyone who wants to do this. I would love to read your answers! leave a comment with your link.

Yarn Cafe

2007-11-11T07:20:00.000-08:00

Surprise gift #2 Done!

Yesterday was my first visit to a LYS (Local Yarn Store). I got invited by a group of Knitties, which I thought knew each other, but turned out they didn't. I had such a nice time! We sat there knitting and talking for 2 hrs at Yarn Cafe. It's not close to were I live, but it was well worth the trip.

Before going I decided to break my yarn diet and I did ;-) 15 min. before closing I stared looking around and found 2 balls of Misti Alpaca Suri Silk yarn. My label says it's Worsted 4 ply, but it does look like DK, just like the website. I got one in Expresso and another in Hematite, both very manly colors. I hope its enough to make DH a hat. oh! did I mention that they were $3.50 each!!!

I definitely would go back to Yarn Cafe, the staff was very friendly, they help me find the group (there were several), helped find some super wash wool that I didn't buy, we were the last to go and everyone was very nice about it.

I have to say that this was also my first knitting group experience, I mean, I had knitted in groups, but I was the only one knitting. Now that I think about it Kate and I would knit together while watching Gilmore Girls, does that count?

Ayer me junte con un grupo de tejedoras que conoci por Knitty. Fue muy agradable. Nos quedamos de ver en una tienda de estambres que se llama Yarn Cafe. Si alguna vez estan en el area visitenla, el staff es muy atento y tienen un monton de estambres. Yo me compre 2 madejas de estambre de alpaca, estaban rebajadas y no me pude resistir. Me fieje que tienen un estambre 100% lana de de Merino, 210 yds por bola y costaba como $5.50, en un monton de colores, pero no me puedo acordar del nombre. Tendre que regresar a buscarlo! Buscando un poco lo encontre! resulta que no era lana de merino, pero cuando lo toque se me hizo tan suavecito que yo core por eso lo recorde asi.

Rainbow Brite

2007-11-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

( I know! I thought it was Rainbow Bright, too!)

If Rainbow Brite was a member of my family, this is what she would get for Christmas:

Calorimetry made with self-dyed yarn . I liked how it turned out, I only wish I had added some blue or green to the mix to balance out the reds. I still have a lot (and I mean a lot) of yarn left. I'll try knitting something small, to see if I can get complete stripes. That would be nice.

Se acuerdan de las caricaturas de Rainbow Brite? Bueno pues si ella fuera parte de mi familia, este seria su regalo de navidad, un Calorimetry (si una mas!) hecha con el estambre reciclado que teñi yo misma con kool-aid. Quede contenta con el producto final. la proxima vez que tiña algo le voy a poner un poco de verde o azul para cortar tanto rojo. Despues de navidad les cuento a quien le toco este regalo.

Links

2007-11-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

I decided to post early today and just get it out of the way. I realized how fast you can post if you're not uploading any pictures, so today I give you the no-pictures-just-links post.

Here's a list of some of the pages I visit regularly

-My sister's blog
-Yarnharlot
-Ravelry
- Knitty
- NY Times daily sudoko
- Not Martha
- Craftster
- Zimmermania
- Craftzine
- Library

I do read a lot of blogs, but that will be another post ;-) gotta stretch the material!

Killing acrylic

2007-11-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

I was telling you yesterday that there's a downside when you buy yarn at thrift stores and garage sales: NO LABELS!

You have to look at the yarn very carefully, touch it, smell it, rub it together, sometimes (if they're not looking) burn it a little and try to identify if it's a animal, plant or a synthetic fiber. Sometimes you kinda know what it is and other times you have to decide if you like the yarn enough (because of its color, price, quantity) to not care what it is.

This particular yarn I bought thinking that it was wool. I liked the color, it came in a cone, it was $5-6 dlls, but (big but, just like mine) it's lace weight and If I had known it wasn't wool, I would had passed.

So what do you do with a cone of lace weight acrylic? Do you knit with multiple strands, thous making it DK or worsted, or do you knit lace and try to block it?

I went ahead and asked the very knowledgeable knitters at Knitty.com and someone suggested to knit a swatch and wet block it and another suggested "killing acrylic" which means using hot steam to block it.

I used Wisp's lace pattern to knit 2 swatches, here are the results:

First swatch before blocking

Swatch 1 & 2 during blocking. Can you see I lost 2 stitches on swatch #1?

Swatch #1 after wet blocking (completely dried). I'm not sure if I did it wrong or what. Maybe I could have pulled the swatch a little bit more? It's not as open as swatch #2, but it feels softer and I think has more texture, like it gives in a little.

Swatch #2 after blocking with steam a.k.a "killing it". It's flatter, lighter, it drapes and is a little bit less soft than swatch #1. It doesn't give, it doesn't stretch nearly as much as #1. (I'm still thinking that maybe I didn't block swatch #1 properly)

The "drape test" swatch #1 on the left and #2 on the right.

Conclusion: It depends what you're looking for in your FO. I would start with wet blocking and then if that didn't looked nice, serve acrylic one last meal, grant it a wish and then KILL IT.

Update

2007-11-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't knit a swatch with the rainbow yarn yet, but I will...soon. The yarn that I swapped came in the mail today, Yey! Thanks to someone on the knitty boards I can continue to knit one of the Christmas presents in my list.

I'm currently swatching some lace weight acrylic yarn. When I bought this yarn, I thought it was wool :-(

By now you probably know that I like cheap yarns (as in $$ not quality) and this particular yarn I bought at a thrift store for a very low price, so It doesn't hurt as much that it didn't turned out to be wool, but more on that tomorrow.

Right now I want to show you one of the many reason why I like to shop thrift stores and garage sales

Six skeins of Berga 100% ren ull (that's wool, right?) for $5 dlls! The needles are still in the WIP, what more can you ask for?

Este post es de por mientras. Aun no hago una muestra con el estambre que teñi ayer, yo creo manana lo hago, la curiosidad me esta consumiendo!
Hoy teji unas muestras de calos (lace) con estambre acrilico, a ver como sale eso.
La foto muestra una de las tantas razones por las que me gusta comprar estambres en tiendas de baratijas y en ventas de garage: Una bolsa con 6 madejas de estambre 100% lana, aun con las agujas y por solo $5 dlls!

Rainbow yarn

2007-11-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I dyed some yarn with Kool-aid...it didn't go as smooth as planned. I had used it before, but not for self striping yarn and definitely not using steam, but for some reason I decided to do both at the same time.

These are the colors that I used. From left to right: Piña, naranja, fresa, cherry, black cherry, uva ( I used mexican kool-aid, same results much cheaper price!)

After dissolving the powder in a little water (turned out it was too much), I applied the color with a brush to each section.

This is what it looked like before I used steam to set the dye. You can already see that the black cherry looks a little brown and the uva (grape) looks gray. I think that I didn't wash the brush enough and that the colors got a little mixed.

While steaming. You can see how the yellow has fresa (strawberry) stains. I didn't think of putting plastic wrap on the bottom of the colander, the grape/black cherry colors dripped and ended up being much lighter.

Final product. Yellow doesn't look bad, it has some darker stains, but I like it. The grape looks grey-ish in some parts, I'm thinking that it might not look as bad once I knit a swatch. It didn't turned out as I had dreamed, but it might still work for some fake isle hats.

Old FO's

2007-11-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

I'm still dyeing the recycled yarn (more on that sad story tomorrow), so here are some FO's from last year that I never got a chance to post. The pictures aren't good, not that I take good pictures, but these were taken while I was packing for our move from Bloomington, In. Some of this are still missing, packed away in some box that I have yet to unpack.

Aun estoy pintando el estambre reciclado, no esta saliendo muy bien, mañana se enteraran de lo mal que quedo :-(
Asi que hoy les voy a mostrar algunas coas que teji el año pasado, por angas o mangas nunca tuve oportunidad de mostrarlas. Algunos de estos tejidos estan todavia empacados, mas vale que los busque porque aca ya empezo el frio.

Moebius scarf following instructions in "A Treasury of Magical Knitting" , I've never used it. It's too short to wrap around twice, not wide enough to use as a shawl. I might frog it, we'll see after I unpack it and try it on again...maybe it just needs more blocking (?). Knitted in Andean Silk , I think the color is Chocolate.
Esta es una bufanda estilo Moebius que no tiene principio ni fin, un concepto muy interesante. El patron que use esta en en este libro. No quedo lo suficientemente larga o ancha, asi qeu a lo mejro la deshago para reciclar el estambre.

This is Craftster's Circular Shrug . I made it 10 lbs ago, so I'm not sure it still fits. I really liked it, it's soft and warm, but the malabrigo yarn pills a lot.
Este shrug lo hice siguiendo estas instrucciones. No estoy segura de que todavia me quede. El estambre usado fue Malabrigo.

My first Clapotis. I used Pingouin Mousse yarn that I got at (where else?) a thrift store. It's an Acrylic/Polymide mix that looks like mohair. I think I made it shorter. I like it and have worn it a lot.
Mi primera Clapotis. Este patron me encanta y ya voy en la segunda (luego pongo fotos). Use estambre que ya esta descontinuado y que compre en una tienda de baratijas. Yo creo que este patron se ve bien sin importar el tipo de estambre que uses.

Watchcap for my husband knitted in Cascade 220. I think I used the "Watch Cap" pattern on pg. 75 of Vogue Knitting Caps & Hats. It turns out DH is "sensitive" to wool, but he still wears it.
Un gorro que le hice a mi esposo. Es de lana y resulta que a el le hace reaccion la lana, pero de cualquier manera lo usa (pobre! solo por darme gusto)

I made this as goodbye gifts for some of the staff when I left my last job. For the tissue cozy I just knitted a rectangle and seamed up the sides (in different styles). The little bags were made using Meg Swansen's instructions for Turkish Cast-on and were filled with chocolate. I used Patons SWS, really soft and shiny.
Estos son unos regalitos que teji para algunos compañeros de trabajo. Los de arriba son para guardar los paquetitos de pañuelos desechables y las bolsitas de abajo estaban llenas de chocolates. La construccion de las bolsitas esta muy ingeniosa, aqui puedes encontrar las instrucciones.

I'm waiting for the yarn to dry. Tomorrow we'll se how it turned out, but it doesn't look like I imagined it.
Mañana les enseño como quedo el estambre que teñi.

Make up post

2007-11-04T12:50:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to make up for not posting yesterday by posting twice today, what do you think? does it work?

Ayer se me olvido escribir en el blog, asi que estoy tratando de revindicarme haciendolo dos veces hoy. Como la ven, funciono?
Aun sigo tejiendo los regalos de navidad. Complete uno, no les puedo mostrar una foto completa, pero aqui esta una probadita.

I'm still knitting away for Locapalooza!. I have finished one, of the many gifts that I have to knit. Here's a teaser.

I ran out of yarn for another one that I was knitting, fortunately, I found someone willing to trade for it on the Knitty boards.

Se me acabo el estambre de otro de los regalos que estoy tejiendo, afortunadamente, encontre a alguien en Knitty que estaba dispuesta a hacer un trueque.

I'm also making a bunch (as many as I can knit from now until Christmas) of Calorimetries (is how that you spell the plural form?). Everybody loves them!

Here's sister #2 modeling hers

Made with Knit Picks Andean Silk in cream and pitch. I like the way it turned out. I don't remember how I didn't exactly, but I remember that I had to weave in a lot of ends. I guess that with better planning I could avoid cutting the yarn...I might try again, I still have some yarn left over.

Otra cosa que voy a hacer es tejer un monton de Calorimetries, tantas como pueda de aqui a navidad. A todo el mundo le encantan!

En la foto mi hermana esta modelando la que le teji para su cumpleaños. La hice con Andean Silk, en 2 colores. A mi me gusto mucho como quedo, yo creo voy a hacer otra mas porque me sobro estambre, pero voy a tratar de planearlo mejor para no tener que cortar el estambre cada vez que cambio de color, es una lata atar los cabos sueltos!

Tomorrow I'll be dying some recycled yarn with Kool-aid. I'm planning to make some fake isle hats with it. I'll either post about that or I'll show you some FO's from long ago.

Mañana quiero teñir el estambre que recicle con koo-aid. Luego les cuento como quedo, si esque no se me vuelve a olvidar el blog ;-)

I can't belive it

2007-11-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

I can't belive I forgot to post yesterday. I remember in the morning, but tought to do it later and then I forgot.
In my defense, I was busy all afternoon. We had guests for dinner and I was making this:

Chiles en Nogada with rice

and this

Pico de gallo with avocado

and this

Flan (I'll post a tutorial before the end of November...if I don't forget)

Buen Provecho!

Dia de Muertos

2007-11-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

"La Catrina" por Jose Guadalupe Posada

Hoy se celebra el Dia de Muertos. Extrañamente en mi casa nunca se celebro. Yo creci en el area de la frontera con USA y la cultura es bastante americanizada, asi que celebrabamos Halloween. Siempre tuve la impresion de que las verdaderas celebraciones por el Dia de Muertos se llevaban acabo en el interior de la republica. Yo creo que parte de la razon por la que no celebrabamos el Dia de Muertos, era porque (gracias a Dios) no teniamos a quien "celebrar".

En la escuela siempre trataban de hacer algo relacionado con la celebracion, como concursos de altares o calaveras, siempre haciendo burla o rision de alguien famoso o en caso de la escuela, de los maestros y directores. A mi el Dia de Muertos me intriga, se me hace tan extraordinario que se pueda hacer toda una celebracion en torno a algo que a mi me asusta, pero a la vez eso es lo que me atrae de ella.

Algo que nunca puedo dejar pasar, es comer Pan de Muertos. Aqui donde vivo hay panaderias Mexicanas, asi que no tuve problemas en encontrarlo.

El pan, poco antes de ser deborado

Por mas que busque, no pude encontrar donde ir a festejarlo aqui. A lo mejor el proximo año me entero de algun concurso de altares o algo asi.

NaBloPoMo

2007-11-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

I'm in!

National Blog Posting Month is happening in November. I know this is a very lame first post, but I decided to join at the last minute. Lets see if I can do this. Anyone up for the challange?

Le entre al reto! Noviembre es el Mes Nacional de Escribir en tu Blog, NaBloPoMo por sus siglas en Ingles (si alguien sabe de una mejor traduccion para el nombre diganme). Basicamente hay que "postear" en el blog todos los dias por el mes de Noviembre. A ver si aguanto!

Reciclando Estambre (3ra y ultima parte)

2007-10-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

Aqui puedes encontrar la primera y aqui la segunda parte.

Despues de que ya tienes todo el estambre en madejas hay que lavarlo, en parte para limpiarlo y en parte para quitarle lo chino (ondulado).

Lo primero que hago es ponerlo en un recipiente lleno de agua con un poco de jabon para los trastes o shampoo. El agua debe de estar fria para evitar que el estambre se arruine (Agua, calor, jabon y agitar no son una buena combinacion al menos que quieras encoger tu tejido).

El estambre esperando su baño

Un poco de jabon...

Lava el estambre agitando un poco y enjuaga hasta que le agua salga limpia. Por lo general yo repito esto dos veces, a veces tres, dependiendo de que tan sucio este el estambre.

El agua sucia en la primera lavada

Ya que esta lavado y enjuagado el estambre, lo exprimo
hasta que casi no salga agua.

Listo para secarse o teñirse

Lo cuelgo en el balcon y espero a que se seque.

El estambre se puede teñir antes o despues de secarse.

Ya una vez seco, lo hago bolita. Lo hago asi porque no tengo un "yarn ball winder".
Aqui hay fotos de como hacerlo, pero esta en ingles. Ya les enseñare en otra ocasion como hacerlo.

Espero estos ultimos post les hayan sido utiles. Regresamo ahora a nuestra programacion habitual ;-)

Reciclando estambre (2da parte)

2007-10-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

Aqui puedes encontrar la primera parte.

Una vez que ya estan separados los lados continuamos con las mangas. Una vez mas busca hacia donde "corre" la costura y descose en esa direccion.

Asi es como queda sin una manga. Repite esto en el otro lado.

Ahora vas a desbaratar la costura de la manga. Basicamente vas a repetir lo qeu hiiste para las costuras de los lados. Buscas el hilo y lo cortas y "corres" el hilo, si no corre, entonces te vas al otro extremo y lo vuelves a intentar.

Esta es la manga un avez que le quitas la costura. No se aprecia muy bien en la foto, pero los puntos de arriba no fueron desmontados (cast off), asi que por ahi vamos a empezar a desbaratar la manga.

Ahora solo quedan las costuras de los hombros y el cuello.

Igual que con las otras costuras, encuentars el hilo y lo corres, facil, no?

Antes de que se me pase, no se te olvide quitar las etiquetas. Por lo general estan cocidas, tomate tu tiempo y usa unas tijeritas muy chiquitas.

Aqui ya estan separados los hombros y el cuello.

Y aqui ya estan todas las partes listas para ser desbaratadas. Dos mangas, un cuello, el frente y espalda, mucho estambre por tan poco dinero!

Este es el banquito que uso para enrollar el estambre

Lo volteo al revez y Ta-da! Tambien puedes usar la parte de atras de una silla o un swifter. Yo tengo uno que me regalo mi hermana y no lo uso hasta que voy a hacer las bolas de estambre, porque? no se, la costumbre. No se te vaya a ocurrir empezar a desbaratar el estambre y no envolverlo o enrollarlo en algo porque lo mas probable es que se enrede todo y batalles mas.

Un video pra que veas que tan facil se hace

Aqui ya se acabo la manga, todo fue una sola pieza de estambre. En ocasiones hay nudos o el estambre se rompe. Si ese el el caso, debes de decidir si quieres hacer otra madeja de estambre o seguir con la misma. Una vez que ya tienes completa un madeja la amarras con estambre de color contrastante y ...

esto es lo que queda! El estambre sale muy ondulado, por eso recomiendo que lo enrolles en algo conforme lo vas desbaratando. El chino se le quita una vez que lo lavas, pero a veces no del todo.

En el proximo post les mostrare como lavo y hago las bolas de estambre.

Como reciclar estambre

2007-10-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

What follows are instruccions in Spanish on how to recycle yarn, If you're interested, you can go here and here.

Lo prometido es deuda y en este post les voy a mostrar como reciclo estambre. Aqui y aqui hay instrucciones de como hacerlo, pero estan en Ingles. Hice una busqueda rapida en Google y no salio nada en Español, asi que aqui estan un poco de informacion al respecto.

1~ Que sinifica reciclar estambre? Para mi significa tomar un sweater o algun otra prenda tejida, deshacerla (destejerla ?) y usar ese mismo estambre para tejer otra cosa.

2~ Porque reciclar estambre? Yo en lo personal lo hago porque significa que puedo adquirir una gran cantidad de estambre a un bajo precio, tengo tiempo de sobra para hacerlo y me gusta darle una "segunda vida" a las cosas. Cualquiera que sea tu motivo, es un buen motivo!

3~ Que prendas puedo reciclar? Cualquier cosa que este tejida y cuyas costuras no esten"remachadas" o con "serge" (esto sucede cuando se teje un pedazo grande y de ahi se corta el patron de la pieza en vez de tejer cada pieza por separado). Desgraciadamente no tengo idea de cual es el termino correcto. Espero que las fotos ayuden.

Evita las prendas que tienen este tipo de
costuras!

Este es el tipo de costuras que debes de buscar en los sweaters que vas reciclar

4~Otras cosas que hay que tomar en cuenta para reciclar son:
a) El uso y condicion de la prenda. Si el sweater que vas a deshacer se ve muy usado, el estambre que vas a sacar tambien se vera usado. Fijate si tiene agujeros por polilla o manchas muy visible

b) El material con que esta hecho el sweater tambien importa. A mi me gusta buscar prendas tejidas con fibras naturales (lana, alpaca, seda y cuando ando de suerte Casimir!), pero esa es preferencia personal.

c) Fijate en el grosor del estambre (gauge). Un estambre muy delgado va a ser dificil de destejer ya que a veces es muy fragil y se rompe con facilidad. Yo me inclino por estambres con grosor 3 a 5.

d) Busca colores que sean de tu agrado o que se puedan re-teñir.

e) La talla de la prenda no es muy importante, pero entre mas grande mas estambre!

5~Donde consigo prendas para reciclar? Lo mas facil es comprarlos en tiendas de segunda mano. Otra alternativa es pedirle a familiares o amigos si tienen sweateres que no usan. Aqui en USA hay muchas tiendas de segunda. El precio varia, pero no me gusta pagar mas de 6 dlls por un sweater que voy a deshacer. Si, soy coda, y que? ;-)

6~ Ya tengo el sweater ahora que? Sientate en un lugar comodo y bien alumbrado, agarra unas tijeras con punta, una aguja delgada para tejer y a empezar!

El sweater antes de empezar (la verdad es que olvide tomar una foto antes de empezar y aqui ya le habia quitado una manga, pero hagan de cuenta que no se nota)

Primero hay que encontrar las costuras y deshacerlas.

Es mas facil empezar por la costura de la axila e irmse hacia abajo.

Usa una aguja delgada (u otra cosa que tengas a la mano) para sacar "a flote" el estambre usado para coser las partes.

Una vez que tienes localizado el estambre de la costura, usa las tijeras para cortarlo. Puedes brincarte el paso de la aguja y usar directamente las tijeras, pero corres el riesgo de cortar el sweater en vez de la costura.

Una vez que ya cortaste la costura, busca el hilo (estambre) que da hacia abajo (el que va a los pies y no el cuello) y jalalo,
veras que facil se corre!

Te puedes dar una mejor idea de lo que digo con este video

Esto de estar tomandole fotos al proceso esta un poco tardado, asi que mañana continuo explicandoles el resto.

Locapalooza!

2007-10-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

We've decided that we're not going to spend a lot on Christmas presents, soooo, I'm going to knit (hopefully) everyone on my list a present. The catch is that I can't buy new yarn, sort of a yarn diet, but shhhh, we don't want to call it that because the cravings will start.

Se acuerdan de ese comercial de la Profeco que decia "regale afecto no lo compre"? Bueno pues eso hemos decidido para esta navidad. En este caso vamos a demostrar nuestro afecto regalando cosas tejidas por mi, la cosa es que solo puedo usar estambre que ya tengo en mi stash. De ahi el titulo del post, porque debo de estar LOCA para pensar que voy a lograrlo!

I'm calling it LOCAPALOOZA, yeah that's right, I must be loca to think that I'm gonna actually finish before Dec 24th 2007 (notice the year, there's no way around the date) without buying new yarn!

I'll probably post a little about the Christmas projects, but not a lot, because sister #2 and other family members read it. I'll definitely post progress on Ravelry.

Right now I can say that I have already cast on for the first of many many many ... Oh my God! I need to make a list. Maybe it's Locapalooza because I'll end up all crazy.

Como algunas de las personas en mi lista leen este blog, no voy a poder poner fotos de las cosas que vaya tejiendo, pero si tienes una cuenta en Ravelry ahi los vas a encontrar. Por lo pronto ya empece ( y casi acabo) uno, YEY! Uno menos de...Cielos! tengo que hacer una lista para planear bien los projectos.

Anyways, I'm about half way done with the first of many (lets' not go there again) projects.

And speaking of projects, here's a picture of my mom's birthday present

"House slippers " from Knit 2 Together. I used some recycled yarn from a thrift store sweater. I'll probably make some more. They were done in an evening, but it took longer for me to felt them. As you can see, the orange yarn was so bulky that it didn't felt that much, but I still like them and my mom will probably will too.

Estas pantunflas las teji como regalo de cumpleaños. El patron esta en este libro. El estambre esta "reciclado" de unos sweaters. El proximo post voy a documentar como es que lo reciclo. Los colores estan medio chillantes, pero yo creo le van a gustar a mi mama.

This came in the mail Saturday

It's the new book by Veronik Avery. I liked it, but probably wouldn't had bought it if it wasn't for the letter that I got from Crafter's Choice telling me that either, I pick a book to fulfill my commitment or they would charge my account the average price of a book without me actually getting one.

El Sabado me llego este libro por correo "Knitting Classic Style" por Veronik Avery. Las fotos estan bonitas y hay cosas interesantes, pero no creo que lo hubiera comprado de no haber sido porque la compañia de libros no me dejo otra opcion, en fin! Ahora voy a tener que tejer algo para que valga la pena haberlo comprado. Estos son los proyectos que mas me llamaron la atencion:

These are the projects that I liked

I want to make Robe either this or EZ's Ribwarmer
Tengo rato queriendo tejerle a mi esposo un chaleco, yo creo va a ser este o el "Rib Warmer" de Elizabeth Zimmermann.

I don't like knitting socks, or at least not yet. I liked the pattern because I have a pair of these
Estos calcetines me gustaron porque tiene los dedos separados y yo tengo un par de "Air Rift" que estan igual. Por cierto, los tenis son super comodos y eso que a mi no me gustaban ese tipo de chanclas.

Maybe for Robe?

I'll definetly make at least a pair for Locapalooza!
Yo creo que voy hacer unos de estos para regalar en Navidad.

I like how this is constructed and I like black.
Esta blusa me gusto porque se me figura que te ha de hacer ver mas esbelta, no crees?

That's it for today. I'll keep you updated on Locapalooza!

Los mantendre al tanto de como se van deteriorando mis facultades mentales ;-)

2007-10-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

to me!

Come se chiama?

2007-10-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Mi chiamo Abril!

I finally got my Ravelry invite!! Look me up, I'm Abril.

Yesterday I took my first Italian class. It was fun. I don't know if speaking spanish makes it easier or harder...I'm hoping easier.

Lets see, what's new on the knitting front? I started and finished something for my sister's birthday. I'll post pictures after she receives it, although, I don't think it matters, she doesn't read the blog. I stared and frogged a sweater and I'm thinkg of knitting a lot, doesn't that count for something?

I was reading commentaries for my last post and it hit me, I've never thanked anyone for commenting on my blog, so THANK YOU for taking the time to read and leave a comment. I thought Kathleen's comment about what her daughter said was really sweet!

----ESPAÑOL-----

No hay mucho que contar en cuanto a tejidos. Termine un regalito para el cumpleaños de mi hermana, aunque ella no lee el blog, no voy a poner fotos hasta que lo mande.
Empece un sweater de mi propio diseño y lo desbarate. Yo creo lo vuelvo a empezar hoy o mañana. Estoy usando estambre reciclado que yo teñi de rojo oscuro.

Ayer empece mis clases de italiano! Tengo un muy buen rato diciendo que voy a estudiar italiano y nomas no lo hacia. Me anime porque andando en Italia me di cuenta que lo entendia. Espero que el habalr español no vaya a hacer el aprendizaje mas dificil.

Mi invitacion a Ravelry por fin llego!! Si tienes una cuenta buscame, mi nombre es Abril.

Aprovecho para agradecer a las personas que se toman la molestia de leer este blog y dejar un comentario, GRACIAS!

Two firsts

2007-09-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

First pair, hopefully not the last

They're done! After I don't know how many months (more than 12 for sure!), my first pair of socks are finally done. They're not that bad for a first pair of socks, they fit and are wearable. I gotta say, I finished them out of conviction, more than love of knitting socks... I didn't catch the sock-knitting-bug. I'll try once more (it wasn't that bad) with a more "festive" yarn that will keep me awake...maybe a different pattern. I definitely loved the fact that they were toe-up and knitted two on 2 circulars. I liked the "after-thought" heel. I didn't like that they ended up too pointy and that the ribbing took FOREVER! I used knit picks Two at once toe-up socks pattern and Essential yarn.

Heel close-up

Por fin los termine! Mi primer par de calcetines. Hace mas de un año que empece a tejerlos y hasta ayer los termine. La verdad no me gusto mucho tejer calcetines, estos los acabe mas por conviccion propia que gusto, pero ya que los veo acabados, no salieron tan mal! Yo creo lo voy a volver a intentar con diferente estambre y a lo mejor un patron diferente. Me gusto que se empiezan en la punta, que se tejen dos al mismo tiempo en 2 agujas circulares y el talon es muy facil. No me gusto que acabaron quedando un poco puntiagudos y el punto elastico no mas no se acababa!

And now another first...

Front

This is my first Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern (and my first post in Zimmermania!) I made the hat form Knitting Workshop. This is my first color work and I like the way in tourned out. It wasn't as hard as I thought, I just need to remember to knit loosely. I liked the instructions, but I feel I need to keep notes for when I want to used the same pattern (instructions are buried within the text). I didn't follow the pattern exactly (who can?), but I feel it lays a pretty good foundation for future hats. I think I'm hooked!

Now, If I can only make the back look as good as the front...any suggestions?

Back

Este dia ha sido de "primeros" aparte de mi primer par de calcetines, tambien acabe el primer proyecto diseñado por Elizabeth Zimmermann. Este es el gorro de Knitting Workshop, es el primer tejido que hago incorporando diferentes colores de estambre. Si tejes y nunca has oido hablar de EZ, googoleala! Vale la pena, ella mas que darte un patron de como tejer algo, te explica y te da rienda suelta para que tu lo modifiques. Esta resulto una buena "receta" que estoy segura volvere a usar. Lo unico que no me gusto fue que como esta tejido en circular, el diseño no esta alineado, sabes como solucionarlo?

Yey!

2007-09-19T09:24:00.000-07:00

Yey! I'm finally back to knitting!! I started yesterday and so far so good. I decided to cast on yet another project. I don't know, I needed something that would be quick and since I joined the Zimmermania! (did you noticed the button on the sidebar?) I decided to start with the hat from Knitting Workshop. I'm using some alpaca I bought a looong time ago in a galaxy far far away, actually in Juarez. I've never done color work ( stripes don't count) so this project should give me, once it's done, multiple satisfactions ;-)

I prefer to use 2 circulars instead of DIP's

Last Saturday was our first night out on the town, can you believe it?! It took us exactly 3 months to go out for dinner and drinks. Maybe we had put it off because we don't know a lot of people, that's why we were really excited when Ambica and Mike told us they were coming. They live close by in Wisconsin and sometimes drive to the Twin cities to escape their little town. We ended up going for dinner to Blackbird , everything was really good and the staff was friendly, we ended up staying until 11 pm when they close at 10pm, and nobody said anything! We had a really nice time, I don't know if I'll be back thou, sometimes I like to have dessert and they don't have a good dessert menu. After that, we went downtown, had some drinks and listened to some jazz. Had a great time. Thanks guys for visiting!

Having a good time

Besides ripping thrift store sweaters, and now a little knitting, I'm keeping busy by listings things on eBay, currently I don't have knitting related items, but I'm planning on listing some books and magazines that I have, check it out!

I just realized that I have been blogging for more than a year and only have 35 posts! at this rate I'll take another 2 years to reach 100, that's why I've made the decision to blog at least once a week, even if I don't have any FO's, new WIP's or news to report. Consider this my once-a-week notice.

Still not knitting

2007-09-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

I'm still not knitting, so I decided to dye some yarn that I had. I've been meaning to do this for months! So I started with some small samples of the yarns I had for dyeing and some Kool-aid, then I moved to some Jacquard Acid dyes that I bought last year. I basically followed the instructions on the web site, but combined several colors (vermillion, fiery red, burgandy and burnt orange). I liked the end results, next time I'll tied the skeins a little bit looser to avoid "white-spots". Most of the yarn came from thrift-store sweaters and will probably become various felted christmas presents for my family, but there was a bunch of yarn that my husband bought me in Germany and for that I have great plans...I just need to give my finger a little more rest, but I'm prepared!

I got a XXL man's sweater (J. Crew 100% wool) at the thrift store to keep myself busy for another week (in case you're wondering, I'm going to recycle the yarn and probably make something else) I love cheap yarn!

No Knitting

2007-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

(en Español aqui)

I'm currently visiting my family in Juarez (and taking care of some health issues) and sadly...I have nothing to knit, worst? It was my decision.

I learned to knit when I was around 11, my mom and I went to a yarn store and if you bought the yarn and needles there, they would teach you how to knit. I never thought anything about my style of knitting until I moved to the US, long story short, I discovered (thanks to Annie Modesitt) that I was a combination knitter *.

As with many other things, I succumbed to peer pressure and about a year ago decided to start knitting through the front loop, the purling was a whole different story. I don't really know how "regular" continental knitters purl (I guessed I could've google it or something), the thing is that the yarn is on top of the needle and instead of wrapping the yarn around the needle (is that how you do it?) I started pushing the yarn downwards with my index finger, which meant and extra movement and stress on the articulation. My finger started hurting and swellign about 2-3 months ago, but that did not stopped me from knitting (it doesn't hurt when I knit), then the pain became more severe, it hurt when I put lateral pressuare on the top half of my finger, that meant that I had trouble tying my shoes, pulling my pants up (I do it by grabbing with my index fingers the belt loops) and doing other simple things. I'm pretty sure I have tendonitis due to the repetitive motion of pushing the yarn downwards as I purl. I decided to give my finger a rest and take a break from knitting, at least for a couple of weeks. As you might've guessed by now, I'm going to start knitting the old way again and hope for the best.

*I've checked with other Mexican knitters and that's the exact same way they knit.

Me not knitting doesn't mean no knitting post.

Last Saturday I bought 2 pairs of hand knit gloves.

Knitted in Alpaca, these were made in Peru. I didn't notice that one the fingerless gloves doesn't have the ends weaved in and the other has a big hole on the side ( the knitter missed the side seam), I think finishing them off will make them feel a little more personal (yeah, keep telling that to yourself).

The fingerless gloves are for me, I have small hands, so they're a bit large, but I love the alpaca motif. The other pair is for my husband. Now that I think about it, I might go back to buy some more, they were $50 pesos each or less than $5 dlls!

>----ESPAÑOL-----

Advertencia: Esta no es una traduccion literal, pero la idea es la misma.

Ahorita estoy visitando a mi familia en Juarez y aproveche para ir al medico, gracias a Dios todo salio bien. Lo triste es que no tengo nada que tejer, ya que decidi darle un descanso a mi dedo indice de la mano izq. Hace como 2 o 3 meses que me duele la articulacion y yo le hecho la culpa a la nueva manera en la que tejo. Asi que, despues de mi periodo de reposo, volvere a tejer como antes.
Bueno, pero el que yo no este tejiendo no significa que no va haber fotos de tejidos.
Estos y estos guantes los compre el sabado pasado en un muestra artesanal en Misiones. Estan hechos con Alpaca y tejidos a mano en el Peru. Ademas de guantes habia gorros, bolsas, joyeria y demas, de muchos lados de America Latina y todo a muy buen precio (creo yo). Los morados son para mi y el par para Robe, y no, no voy a tratar de pararme el cuello con ellos y fingir que yo los hice, aunque quien le va a decir? ;-)

Nos vemos luego!

Before I leave...

2007-08-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be packing, but instead I want to post my latest FO's. This are my first -completely-done-for-me items and I'm OK with how they turned out.

Se supone que debo de estar empacando, pero en vez de eso voy a mostrarles mis dos ultimos projectos terminados.

~This is the Sleeveless Top from the cover of VK Spring/Summer 2004

I used 7 balls of Classic Elite Bam Boo in Flamingo. I started around March (I think), at first it went pretty fast, but then I run out of yarn and had to order an extra ball from WEBS and I lost momentum and didn't get finished until today. I had forgotten how soft the yarn was! that almost makes me forget how much it splits.

Use 7 madejas de estambre de bamboo (muy suavecito!). Este projecto lo empece por ahi de Marzo y tuve que dejarlo imcompleto porque se me acabo el estambre y de aqui a que lo mande pedir y me llego por correo, ya habia perdido el vuelo.

Mods? Besides the yarn I think I made the front a little bit shorter so I wouldn't be as low cut and I did a 3-needle bind-off instead of grafting the shoulders to give it a little more stability. I made some mistakes with the increases and decreases in the back, but overall I like how it turned out and I'm glad this is out of the "Basket of shame".

El patron no lo segui tan a la letra, modifique el estambre, lo hice un poco mas corto del frente (para que no fuera tan escotado) y en vez de hacer el punto Kitchener en los hombros, desmonte usando 3 agujas. Me equivoque en la parte de atras, pero con todo y eso me gusto el producto final y me alegro de que ya por fin este terminado.

~Short-sleeve lacy Cardigan from VK Spring/Summer 2007

another picture...

This is my second attempt at set-in sleeves (the first one is still unfinished) and I didn't like them! I think I could have done better, but I just wanted it to be over with. It's a little short for my taste and I like it better unbuttoned. This was my "moving" project, I cast-on as we left El Paso, Tx and casted off about a week ago, pretty fast for my standards!

Este suetercito me dio muchos dolores de cabeza! empezando con las mangas estilo "set-in", no me gusto mucho como quedaron, a lo mejor algun dia lo descoso y las vuelvo a hacer. Tambien quedo un poco mas corto de lo que yo esperaba y me gusta mas como se ve abierto que cerrado.

Este projecto lo empece cuando veniamos en camino de El Paso y lo acabe hace apenas una semana.

This was knitted in Omega Sinfonia 100% cotton. I used almost 6 balls of yarn using 2 strands held together. I had a little accident while blocking it... I had made sure to use a colander to wet the piece for blocking, but somehow it still made contact with the bathroom fixtures and it stained the back a little.

Use estambre Omega Sinfonia 100% algodon, casi 6 madejas usando 2 al mismo tiempo. Mientras hormaba el sueter tuve un pequeño accidente...al parecer al mojarlo en el baño se mancho con cloro o limpiador y la parte de atras se mancho.

I don't know what to do about them. Should I use a permanent marker in a similar color or

just leave them be? Besides the stains, in this picture you can see my un-even stitches and the mistake I made while picking up stitches from the back.

Next time I'll knit something from the top down in a more forgiving yarn...that's what I learned.

No se que hacer, las cubro con un marcador permanente o las dejo asi? ustedes que piensan? Ademas de las manchas en la foto pueden ver que las puntadas estan un poco chuecas y que me equivoque en el cuello...moraleja, la proxima vez voy a tejer un sueter de arriba hacia abajo y en algun estambre mas elastico.

Next post will be from Juarez, Yey!

Nos vemos en Juarez!

Amor

2007-07-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Julio 25, 2003

Gracias por tanta felicidad!

Te amo

Un buen dia

2007-07-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

As promised in the last post, here are the pictures of my mini-Clapotis.

Tal como lo prometi en el ultimo post, aqui esta una foto de mi mini-clapotis.

Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty

Yarn: Noro's Silk Garden, can't remember the color.

Modifications: I did less setup rows to make it skinnier. It ended up measuring almost 79" long by 11 across.

The oranges are not as bright, but usually I don't wear orange. This scarf will be a nice way to warm up a cold winter day.

Patron: Clapotis de Knitty

Estambre: Silk Garden de Noro

Modificaciones: Teji la bufanda menos ancha.

En la foto se ve mas naranja de lo qeu es, de cualquier manera no estoy acostumbrada a usar el anaranjado en la ropa. Esta bufanda va a ser una buena manera de alegrar un frio dia de invierno.

Yesterday was a good day, I baked some delicious chocolate cupcakes and I got some goodies in the mail:

Ayer fue un buen dia, hice kekitos de chocolate y recibi varias sorpresas en el correo:

1) My state ID! Which I'm not showing the picture

Por fin me llego mi identificacion del estado

2)My Knitty swap package arrived, Thank you yarn-a-holic!

Me llego mi paquete del intercambio que hice antes de venirme para aca.

3) and last but not least, We won! We got free tickets to go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 3-D!

Y por ultimo, Ganamos!! Nos mandaron boletos gratis para ir a ver la nueva pelicula de Harry Potter en 3-D, luego les platico como esta.

Europe

2007-07-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

(en Español aqui)

It's been a while since I really posted something (I don't think Knitty's Swap counts). So much has happened... where to start? oh yea! the beginning.
In my last post I wrote a little about our trip to visit my sister in Zurich, very little actually and more about the yarn ;-)
So, allow me to fill in the gaps.

The Plan: To visit Jazy y Gera in Zurich, stopping first in London and Paris and then do some Europe sightseeing with them.

The People: My husband, older sister, our friend Ali and myself.

The Knitting project: A smaller version of Clapotis knitted in Noro Silk Garden yarn. I started while waiting for our plane in Chicago and finished on the plane back.

The Story: We hopped on a plane on May 5th and came back May 30th... story too short? OK, OK here are the details...

London: We were there for 3 days and stayed at the Fitzroy/Cosmo Hotel , you really get what you payed for here...which isn't much, but still, we didn't need much. I loved London, I don't know if it was because it was my first trip to Europe or if it was the the view, I thought it was a beautiful city and the people, even thou don't seem to notice or acknowledge you on the streets, were very friendly, open and kind when you talked to them. We saw the Rosetta stone, a piece of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Tower of London among lots other things. We ate fish and chips and drank London Pride. We even squeezed a visit to this yarn shop. Needless to say I knitted every time I had a chance (on the tube mostly).

knitting on the tube

Paris: We took an overnight bus to Paris (it was cheap, but I don't recommend it). By now we were really tired of walking...and each other, just kidding! We had our differences, but it all worked out at the end. We stayed for 3 days at the Hotel Lafayette, which was much better than the one in London. Paris was very different than what I imagined. It wasn't as glamorous or romantic as I thought it would be*, but still, it was beautiful and it was PARIS! We visited Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Père Lachaise, the Louvre and I got to try escargot (it doesn't taste like chicken). I had such a wonderful time.

Me knitting while visiting the dead

*Let me rephrase that, I was expecting a "Paris Cliche" berets, baguette, scarves, "La vie en rose" and all.

Zurich: The whole idea of this trip was to visit my sister and her husband (which happens to be my husband's brother) who live in Zurich. We took an overnight train to Zurich and got there early in the morning. You can read more about this part of the trip here, all I can add is that Jazy and Gera were great hosts and we couldn't have had a better time. Gracias Jazy y Gera!

During a boat ride through Lake Zurich

Venice: Of all the places we visited, I was looking forward to this one the most. Venice was all that I expected and more, I loved it. I loved the piazza, the bridges, the canals, the decaying buildings, everything...to me it was surreal, romantic and magical all at once. I had a chance to visit Lellabella and got some souvenir yarn. Towards the end I kinda got tired of the tourists, I guess I felt at home there... I don't know how the locals deal with them.

The blue door in the back is the yarn shop

Rome: This was a last-minute decision. We thought for a while that we would go to Prague, but since Robe and I still had days in our Eurorail Pass, we opted for Rome instead. We took an overnight train and 11 hrs after we were in Rome. While there we had a chance to visit our friend Kate and she let us stay in her apartment while she was away (Thanks Kate!). Rome was something out of a book, everywhere you looked there was a ruin or ancient site. It was so fun and mind blowing to finally get to see in person so much history! Everyday (sometimes twice!) we had gelato, you know what they say, when in rome...

We were there for 4 days and got to see the Coliseum, Borghese Gallery, Pantheon, Vatican city among many other things. I still get excited when I think that I was there, in rome...

I didn't get any funny looks for knitting at the Coliseum

As usual, we took an overnight train back to Zurich and the next day we where of to real life. I had such much fun!! I was really blessed that I could enjoy this experience with my husband, family and friends.

Tomorrow, OK, next post I'll show you the finished scarf and things I would have done differently.

Adios!

----ESPAÑOL-----

(OJO: Mis traducciones no son literales, los texto en ingles y español puede que sean un poco diferentes, la idea es esa)

Pues hace rato que no escribo nada y muchas cosas han pasado desde entonces, por donde empezar? ah!si, por el principio.

En el ultimo post escribi un poco sobre nuestro viaje a Zurich, bueno mas bien escribi acerca del estambre que compre durante el viaje y no mucho sobre el viaje, asi que ahi les va:

El Plan: Visitar a Jazy y Gera en Zurich pasando antes por Londres y Paris.

El Equipo: Mi hermanna Magda, nuestro amigo Ali, mi esposo y yo.

El Tejido: Una version mas angosta (tipo bufanda) de Clapotis tejida en Noro Silk Garden. Este proyecto lo empece mientras esperabamos el avion en chicago y lo termine en el vuelo de regreso.

El Cuento: Nos trepamos al avion el 5 de mayo y regresamos el 30 del mismo mes, colorin colorado este cuento se ha acabado...bueno aun hay mas.

Londres: Aqui estuvimos por 3 dias. Nos hospedamos aqui, la verdad el lugar no estaba muy bueno, pero tampoco estaba caro, asi qeu ahi se balancearon las cosas. Londres me encanto, no se si seria porque era la priera vez qeu viajaba a Europa y ahi aterrizamos por primera vez o que, pero me gustaron muchos los edifcios, las calles, los paisajes...hasta el clima! un dia nos llovio, pero no hubiera sido Londres sin lluvia. Entre otras cosas vimos la piedra Rosetta, un pedazo de los manuscritos del Mar Muerto y la torre de Londres. Comimos Fish and Chips y bebimos cerveza local. Hasta compre estambre en esta tienda. Esta de sobra decir que me la pase tejiendo en el metro (ver foto arriba).

Paris: Tomamos un camion de noche a Paris, fue extremadamente barato , pero no lo recomiendo. Pasamos toda la noche en un camion totalmente lleno y apretado, aparte de que ya veniamos cansados de tanto caminar, se nos hizo muy pesado el viaje. Llegamos a este Hotel y nos quedamos 3 noches. Esa tarde Robe y yo nos quedamos en el hotel (me lastime el tobillo y estaba descansandolo), baba y Ali se fueron a turistear. Paris fue toda una sorpresa; yo me imaginaba la ciudad diferente, mas romantica y glamorosa, con "la vida en rosa" de sountrack. Se me hizo muy bonita, pero diferente a la idea que yo tenia en mi cabeza. Aqui visitamos Notra Dame, el Louvre, el cementerio Père Lachaise y la torre Eiffel entre muchas cosas mas. Comimos escargot (santos caracoles Batman!) y la verdad no saben tan mal. En la foto de la version en Ingles estoy tejiendo en el cementerio.

Zurich: El proposito original del viaje era visitar a Jazy y Gera. Como era de esperarse, tomamos el tren nocturno en Paris y llegamos en la mañana a Zurich. Nos la pasamos muy padre con ellos, fueron muy buenos anfitriones. Fuimos a uetliberg, nos paseamos en bote por el lago Zurich, descansamos mucho y sobre todo convivimos con Jazy y Gera como cuando viviamos en la misma ciudad. Aparte de todas las delicias que jazy nos preparo de comer, tambien probamos los famosos luxemburgerli (aqui en ingles) que estan deliciosos! mmm... se te desbaratan en la boca. Ve el blog de jazy en Ingles o Español para mas detalles de esta parte del viaje.

Venecia: (suspiro) Venecia...es un sueño. De todo el viaje, esta parte era la que mas anticipada y no me decepciono. Me encantaron las piazzas, los canales, los edificios que parece que se caen en pedazos, los callejones; Yo nunca he ido a Guanajuato, pero me dijeron que las callejuelas son parecidas. Se me hizo un lugar magico, romantico y encantador. En un abrir y cerrar de ojos regresaria a Venecia, aunqeu ya a el final me artaron un poco los turistas, yo no se como le hacen lso qeu viven ahi para sobrevivir.

Roma: Visitarla fue una desicion de ultimo minuto. Por un tiempo pensamos que iriamos a Praga, pero nos quedaron dias en nuestro pase de Eurorail y preferimos usarlos. Como ya se imaginaran, tomamos un tren por la noche en Zurich y 11 horas despues estabamos en Roma. Nuestra amiga Kate nos dejo quedarnos en su apartamento mientras estuvo fuera de la ciudad (gracias Kate!). La ciudad esta como salida de un libro! Por todos lados hay ruinas, estatuas, museos, hay tanta historia y tantas cosas que ver! Todavia no me la creo que estuve en Roma.

Durante nuestra estancia de 4 dias visitamos entre otras cosas la Galeria Borghese, el Coliseo, el Panteon, el Vaticano (se me puso chinita la piel frente la tumba de Juan Pablo II), comimos gelato y auntentica pizza italiana. (en la foto de arriba estoy tejiendo en el Coliseo)

Regreseamos a Zurich en el tren de la noche y despues de descansar un dia Robe y yo regresamos a la realidad (en este caso Juarez). Me siento tan afortunada de haber tenido la oportunidad de conocer tantos lugares, pero me siento realmente bendecida por haberlos podido disfrutar con mi esposo, familia y amigos.

Despues escribo sobre las cosas que haria diferente si volviera a ir.

Bye!

Knitty's Swap

2007-06-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

Hi, Thanks for stopping by!

Link to Knitty's swap post
Link to pictures of items I'm swapping

Things I've knitted:

-Summer blouse here and here
-Orangina
-Felted slippers, Beret and headband here
-Lace scarf
-Calorimetry
-Top down sweater and scarf here
- Cap and small cluth here
- Some of these FO's have seen the "finished light" since this post

I can't belive I've posted so few FO's...one more thing to add to the TO DO list.

Reportandome

2007-05-22T06:45:00.000-07:00

Nos la estamos pasando bien chido!!! Este es el dia 17 de 24 dias de viaje. Hasta ahorita hemos visitado Londres, Paris, Zurich y Venecia, nos falta Roma (ahi estaremos para el cumpleanos de Robe). Como se podran imaginar he comprado estambre en algunos lados y hasta ahorita este es el botin.

Lo bueno es que tengo espacio en la maleta por todas las cosas que le traje a Jazy.
Nos la estamos pasando muy bien, pero ya estoy pensando en todoas las cosas que tengo que hacer cuando regrese...como planear otra mudanza! Por cierto ya tenemos apartamento en Minneapolis, luego les paso la direccion por si quieren ir a visitarnos. Bye!
----------and now in english--------------------
We're having a great time!! So far we've visited London, Paris, Zurich and Venice. We'll be traveling to Rome for Robe's Birthday. As you can imagine, I got some souvenir yarn/magazines, and my lovely sister had a yarn swift for me when I got to Zurich!!! I think I have enough space in my suitcase for all these.
We've had a lot of fun, but I can't stop thinking about all the things I have to do when we go back...like planning another move. BTW, we got the apartment we applied for in Minneapolis, I'll give you the address later on in case you want to visit. Mi casa es su casa!

Not what I was expecting...

2007-04-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

For Christmas my husband gave me a WEBS gift certificate. I had been saving it for their big annual sale and once that started I could not resist using it. Among other things I got this yarn (3182), which was a very good deal, right?
Well...once it got here I was a little disappoited with the color. I know tweed means specs, but I thought it meant light spects or darker specs not multicolored specs.

I bought the yarn with the intention of re-dying it, but now with the multicolored specs, I'm not sure how it will turn out.
You know, I have to say the more I look at it, the more it grows on me. I'll have to knit a swatch to see how it looks.
Any Suggestions?

Sin mucho que reportar...

2007-04-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

*scroll down for english

No hay mucho que decir. No he tejido tanto como me gustaria, en parte porque se me acabo el estambre de un proyecto y estoy esperando que me manden mas (como si fuera el unico estambre qeu tengo, jejejeje). La costura ahi va, mas lento de lo esperado.

Acabo de ordenar en Amazon estos libros:

Gracias a Elizabeth que me dio la tarjeta de regalo con la que compre los libros. Luego les platico como estan.

Tambien estamos planeando nuetro viaje a el viejo mundo. Vamos a visitar a Jazy y Gera, y a aprovechar para ir a otros lugares. Ya tambien les platicare de eso. Hasta pronto!

* Not much to say. I haven't been knitting as much as I would like to, in part because I ran out of yarn for the project I was working on, no need to panic, yarn is on its way!
I recently ordered some books on Amazon (Gift card courtesy of a Elizabeth, a very sweet lady).
We're getting ready to go visit Jazy and Gera. We'll be there for almost a month! Lots of things to see and do. Of course, I'll be posting our adventures, maybe a little bit late, but better late than never!

Salsa Verde

2007-03-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

My sister makes a really tasty homemade SalsaVerde. I've never attempetd to make it because that was her thing, but now that she lives in a different continent and I'm moving, I think I'll try to make it myself. I hope she doesn't kill me for posting this!

Jazibe's Salsa Verde

2 cans of tomatillos

4 or more jalapeños, boiled until soft, reserve the liquid

1 tbs of knorr's chicken boullion

1/2 tsp of sugar

garlic salt to taste

Put all of the ingridients plus about 1/4 cup of the jalapeño's liquid in the blender, blend well or not, depending if you want a more chunkier salsa (you can add more liquid if you want to). Taste and adjust seasoning, if it's too acidic for your taste add a little bit more sugar, if it's too bland add more boullion and/or garlic salt.

This salsa is great with chips, but you can also add it to guacamole (or just plain mashed avocados with salt, maybe a litte sour cream to make it creamier, yum!).

If you don't have the time or inclination to make your own salsa try this brand, it's not bad at all.

Congratulations, you have matched!

2007-03-26T16:56:00.000-07:00

Eso era todo lo que decia el email que recibio Robe. Despues de tanto estudiar, tanto esfuerzo y angustias pasadas, gracias a Dios, quedamos (dijo la mosca) en Minneapolis, ahi Robe entrara a hacer su residencia medica (los que lo conocen ya saben en que, los que no, preeeeguuuntameee). Todavia no sabemos cuando nos vamos, en donde vamos a vivir o que voy a hacer yo, pero la cosa es que estamos muy emocionados! La ciudad al parecer es muy bonita y cultural, esperemos que sea lo suficientemente bonita, cultural y entretenida como para olvidarnos de que hace un frio de la chi... bueno, al menos voy a poder tejer muchas prendas de lana y las voy a poder usar...voy a tener que terminar el par de calcetines de lana que empece. Hojala y puedan ir a visitarnos, los estaremos esperando!

Se ve bien,no?

We matched! Yey!! We're going to Minneapolis. We're sooo excited, but scared at the same time, it will definetley be a new adventure, a great adventure! Hope you have a chance to go visit us, we'll be waiting for you.

Calorimetry

2007-02-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

I finally gave in to the calorimetry trend and me likey! I made 2, one for a friend (green) and the other for my mom (beige). I liked the pattern, it's easy to adapt and really fast to knit, I'm sure I'll be making more. Here are some pictures:

Top: Knit in Jo Sharp wool yarn (lost the label), I used size 6 US needles. It's not as tight as I would like it, lets hope it's just right for Rebe. She likes ladybugs, hence the buttons.

Bottom: I used Lana Grossa's Silana (wool/silk) on size 4 US needles. This version is smaller and lighter.

I don't think my friend will wear it any time soon, it's too warm here!

Next week we will finally take our sewing machines to class, this might be a little problematic since space is limited, they said something about moving us to a bigger classroom, I can only hope. Just in case I'll be very early to class.

This puppy is adorable!!! As you can see, she's only 27 days old and she's already the size of her mom. I've kept an eye open to see if I can spot the dad, no luck yet.

Feliz Dia de San Valentin!

2007-02-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

Espero se pasen un muy feliz dia, independientemente si piensan que este dia solo se creo con fines comerciales. Gracias a todos por su amistad y gracias a mi "corazon de melon" por hacerme tan feliz.

* La foto es de Martha Stewart si quieres la receta para hacer los corazones de merengue rellenos de nieve ve a esta pagina.

News, well sort of...

2007-02-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

I'm really excited! I've enrolled in sewing lessons, so far we haven't sewn anything yet, we're learning how to make our own patterns, which is going to be really helpful even if I end up using the comercial patterns. For this reason I bought my first sewing machine, it's a Singer "facilita" , it's very basic, looks and feels sturdy, but I wonder why I couldn't find reviews on it...

What else have I been doing? Oh! Knitting! lots of knitting. I made my little brother a ganomy hat (from EZ Knitter's Almanac) but it didn't fit right, so I made him a simple 1x1 rib cap.

I made a small clutch for a friend's birthday. The yarn is Paton's SW (soy/wool) really soft and a very fast knit!

I'm frogging a thriftstore sweater. Mucho yarn!

And last, but not least, I give you...well, we haven't named her yet, but isn't she cute? and huge! I guess she's only half chihuahua (my mom claims she kept a really close watch on her, but look at the size of her head!)

Tarde pero sin sueño!

2007-01-26T14:20:00.000-08:00

A ver, que ha pasado en todo este tiempo? Pues me mude de ciudad, empece un nuevo año con los mismos propositos de siempre, ya me inscribi en clases de corte y confeccion y todavia seguimos esperando los resultados del residency match. Ya hace un mes que llegue a Juarez y todavia no agarro una rutina, eso si, he estado tejiendo, he aqui las cosas que he termindao en lo que va del año:

Anthropology-inspired caplet, tejido con estambre Lion Brand's Landscapes.
Super rapida de tejer! No tengo un broche para cerrarlo, asi que tuve que usar uno de elefante que me encontre en el cajon de mi mama. Este es el mismo estambre que estaba en mi "basket of shame" .

Bufanda para mi amigo Ali, esta tejida horizontalmente en 3 colores diferentes.

Mmm..yo pense que habia tejido mas cosas...bueno, tambien teji unas botitas para la bebe de mi amiga Monse, le adelante a los calcetines y termine (y entregue) el boobholder para mi comadre.

Dentro de mis propositos para este año esta tejer mas cosas para mi, la mayoria de las cosas que tejo las regalo, a ver si lo cumplo.

Espero actualizar el blog mas seguido, a veces en ingles y a veces en español. Bye!

For those of you that don't read spanish, here's a brief recap: We finally made it to Juarez, I enrolled in sewing lessons, we're still waiting to hear from the residency match up, I knitted some things and one of my new year's resolution is knitting more things for myself. I'll keep this blog updated, posting sometimes in english, sometimes in spanish. That's all for now. Bye!

Feliz Navidad!

2006-12-25T11:02:00.000-08:00

Que Dios los llene de bendiciones y salud.

Casi acabamos de empacar y ya estamos listos para mudarnos. Nos vemos en Juarez!

May God filled you with blessings and health.

Almost done packing and all ready to move. See you in Juarez!

How much is too much?

2006-12-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you know, but I'm moving, and not just a small move, I'm moving all the way from Indiana to El Paso, Tx. Most of my stuff I'm leaving here in storage, but not the yarn, oh no, the yarn is moving with me. So, as it happens with all the people that need to pack, I've been spending a lot of time online (no connection there, but it's the truth) and came across this contest, I said "what the hell, I'm already packing I might as well count how much I have" and guess how much I had...

172, mostly thriftstore impulse buys, some gifts, some regrets. As you can see mine is not even close to this.

While packing I also found this:

THE BASKET OF SHAME or the UFO's graveyard (for my non-knitting family members UFO=unfinished objects), wanna see what's in it?

Top: It was going to be a scarf and then a purse, but I didn't like it, I like the yarn though, Lion Brand's Landscapes.

Bottom: A shawl out of the 25 cent yarn that I bought at Target, should've seen that coming.

Disco Monkey: Made out of 2 Bernat's Disco yarn that I got in the mail for FREE. I actually like the body, but I think the head needs a do-over.

A shrug, my own pattern. I ran out of yarn Moda Dea's Ricochet in Rock. If you have some that you don't want I'll take it! Still, I think the sleeves are too long.

My almost finished Knitting World Cup project (scroll down a bit). I'll probably have to frogg it beacuse it's too small.

My first pair of socks. I thought I was being clever by doing two at the same time, you know, to beat the "second sock syndrome", I guess I got bored with the color. I'll try to finish them on my way to Tx.

Beautiful sunburst sling bag in recycled silk. I only need to weave in the ends and sew the lining. It's a little bit on the heavy side.

This one I just started it about 2 weeks ago. It's the IK's heart sachet. I'm using a thriftstore silk yarn that makes my throat itch (bottom left corner, behind the green yarn on stash picture).

This is a hat for me. The yarn is Manos del Uruguay (Thanks! C-L and Ed). I finished it but didn't like it, so I'm doing it again.

A fingerless (and mateless) mitten. My own pattern, knitted on 2 straight needles. The thumb turned too tight, so guess what? I'm frogging it.

My first boobholder attempt, the yarn was too bulky.

The start of a Log Cabin blanket. I had a color combination planned out, but now I'm rethinking it.

Boobholder 2nd attempt, almost finished (keyword in all these UFO's is almost), all I need to do is weave in the ends and put a button. It's a present for a friend.

A scarf for my little brother, simple in a color that matches his school uniform.

So, what do you think? Do you have more UFO's? Let's see if I can dig up some FO's for the next post.

Magda

2006-12-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

I finally finished my sister's birthday present! It was a little late (her birthday was in October), but it was knitted with lots of love and good intentions, you see, this is supposed to be a "good love" charm, something that will help her navigate the complex road of singlehood and help her get to her "destination" safe and sound. I didn't tell her all of this, I guess she'll find out when she reads this post. Sis: I love you.

Here's Jack modeling the scarf

Here's a close-up

I don't have the finished measurments, I was in a big hurry to get it in the mail before 3pm, I think it ended up being 5 1/2" by 70" (?). I used almost 2 skeins of Classic Elite Yarns "Miracle" (50% Alpaca, 50% Tencel) in color Ladyslipper. This yarn is sooo soft! It also has a nice sheen to it, you can't really tell from the pictures (note to self: take better pictures). The stitch pattern is from Vogue's stitchionary Vol. 1, I just added 2 stitches on each side to make a garter stitch border. I knitted each half separately and used 3-needle bind off to seam it. I didn't know this similar pattern existed, great minds think alike!

Some FO's

2006-12-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I posted something related to knitting, but that doesn't mean that I have not been knitting, here's the proof:

- Felted Slippers for DH

Before and after felting (with camera case for reference)

I used the KP yarn that I got for a messenger bag. DH loves them. I will definitely make a pair for me. I used this pattern.

- Beret for a friend

I used Plymouth's Suri Merino yarn and this pattern. My friend has some rough times ahead of her, hopefully this hat will maker her feel a tiny-bit better. This yarn is sooooo soft!

- Heart headband for another friend

I don't know if you can tell, but it has a heart pattern. I used some Kool-aid dyed yarn that I had and made up the pattern.

Un poco de musica

2006-11-29T15:50:00.000-08:00

Como muchos sabran a Robe le gusta ir a conciertos, y despues de un tiempo de "inactividad" hemos (dijo la mosca) agarrado vuelo. El problema es que vivimos en un pueblo chico, asi que para ir a los conciertos hay que manejar al menos una hora a Indianapolis, o tres a Colombus OH o a St. Louis MO, y esto nomas es de ida. Bueno pues aqui los dejo con la lista de los mas recientes:

En el verano fuimos al OZZFEST en Indianapolis, System of a Down cerro. Aqui esta un poquito de eso (No es el mejor video, pero peor es nada)

En Septiembre fuimos a Indy a ver a Roger Waters y su show "Dark Side of the Moon", ahi no permitian camaras, el sonido era EXCELENTE. Para aquellos que no sabian (como yo), el era parte de PINK FLOYD y se avento el disco de DARK SIDE OF THE MOON com-ple-tito, para no ser fan de Pink Floyd me la pase muy bien.

En Octubre fuimos a ver a los RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS, THE MARS VOLTA les abrio. El sonido no era tan bueno, pero estuvo bien. Esto fue en Colombus, Ohio.

En Noviembre fuimos a ver LEZ ZEPPELIN, una banda de puras chavas que tocan covers de LED ZEPPELIN, he aqui una probadita (chequen el solo de la bateria)

El domingo pasado fuimos a St. Louis, MO a ver a WOLFMOTHER, valio la pena las 3 horas de ida y 3 de regreso solo para estar ahi 1.5 hrs. Al vocalista le aventaron un bra, al parecer es el segundo del tour...hojala lo hubiera filmado

Y la empacada? Bien gracias.

Adios Bloomington

2006-11-24T18:53:00.000-08:00

(Scroll down for the English version)

Ya se que la hice mucho de emoción y a lo mejor la noticia no es lo que esperaban, no, no estoy embarazada (hasta donde yo se). La gran noticia es que nos regresamos a vivir Juárez!!!...(pausa que permite digerir lo que acabas de leer). A lo mejor se preguntaran, es una buena noticia? Porque? Cuanto tiempo se van a quedar? Donde van a vivir? Que van a hacer? Quien mato a JFK?, para algunas todavía no tengo respuesta, y no precisamente la de JFK. El plan es regresarnos hasta que Robe entre a la residencia de patología (con el favor de dios Junio o Julio) y de esa manera empezara su “entrenamiento” con su papa un poco antes. Esperamos llegar para antes de navidad. Esta es definitivamente una EXCELENTE noticia, para mi, para Robe, para nuestras familias y esperemos también para ustedes. Estamos muy emocionadillos. Adiós Bloomington, te vamos a extrañar, pero por otro lado NOS VAMOS A JUAREZ!!!

p.s. A robe le fue muy bien en su entrevista en Minneapolis y tiene otra en Hartford el 1ro de Diciembre, mandenle buena vibra.

This might not be an exact translation of the text in Spanish (sorry I’m not as good as Jazy) but you’ll get the idea. Nop, I’m not pregnant (as far as I know). We’re moving to Juarez!. We decided that It would be a good opportunity for Roberto to train with his dad while he waits to get into the Pathology Residency Program (if all goes as planned June or July). So, my last day at MCPL is December 10th and we should be on the road by the 18 or 19. We still haven’t worked out some of the minor details, like where will live (Juarez or El Paso?), where are we going to leave our stuff? Among other logistical problems (we have 2 cars and only one Driver’s License). We’re very excited! I hope you come and visit us, you know that mi casa es su casa. Roberto’s interview in Minneapolis went pretty well and he has another in Hartford on the 1st of December, send good thoughts his way. I’ll try to keep you posted on all the packing details, actually I’m looking forward to packing, I’ll finally know for sure what’s under the bed ;-)

Gustan?

2006-11-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Ayer cocine CHILES EN NOGADA, yo creo que mas que los tacos este es el plato mas mexicano que existe, por los colores que reflejan la bandera de Mexico.

Modestia aparte me quedaron muy ricos.

La ocasion? Los cocine para desearle buena suerte a Robe en su entrevista. Despues les platico como le fue.

Nuevo "look"

2006-11-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

Pues despues de pensarla mucho, por fin me corte el pelo. He aqui la foto del antes, comiendo un taco de chorizo con queso (para antojar a jazy y gera), notese hasta donde me llega el cabello en la espalda, hacia mucho tiempo que no lo traia asi de largo, desde marzo que no me lo cortaba (mi amiga Q me lo corto cuando vino de visita).

Tadan! He aqui el "despues", no se aprecia mucho pero la parte de enfrente es mas larga que la de atras, ahi disculpen la "cara", saliendodel trabajo fui al mall a cortarmelo. La chava me lo aliso, yo pensaba llegar a pintarmelo (no se alcanza a ver en la foto pero traigo una mega-raiz!). Luego que me lo pinte y me lo enchine pongo otra foto.

Oh! Brother

2006-09-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

Look what I found! A Brother KX-350 knitting machine. I have no idea waht to do with it, I've never used one, but for $20 dlls I could not resist. I comes with the manual and the videotape. I might use it to make my DH a felted messenger bag, I got the yarn (and some color cards and the superwash "swiss" to try it out) from Knitpicks.com. If anyone out there has any idea if this was a good buy or if this is a good machine, please let me know!

Orangina is finally done!

2006-09-11T05:12:00.000-07:00

I think I started it in March, but I'm not sure. After about 15 false starts (and a little bit of hair lose) it's finally done! I think it's too small, and up until I saw the post pictures I didn't like the way it looked on me, I thought it made me look too "boxy", but now it kinda grew on me. I better wear it before the weather changes. Let me know what you think!

Done!..Well almost

2006-07-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

I'm finished with the sleeves (got them done while watching the Germany vs Italy match), now I'm blocking, not sure if this is how I'm supposed to do it, I didn't use steam. Here's a picture of the almost finished product, I have to practice the crochet edge on the swatch first before doing it on the real thing. Hopefully I'll have it done by Friday, so I can wear it to Kate's book presentation.

Bad blogger

2006-07-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

I really don't think that anyone is reading this, not even my family ;-) still if I have a blog I should really try to give updates more often. This update comes to you courtesy of the bookmobile laptop, so no pictures today. I'm done with the back, left and right fronts, yey! I casted on one of the sleeves today, hopefully I'll be done with the sleeves in a couple of days at the most and I cans start to worry about the crochet edge. I'll take pictures of the body while blocking it. By the way, Mexico got eliminated by Argentina. Have a great 4th of July.

More bad news....

2006-06-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

Jazy y Abril esperando a que empiece el partido en Kilroy's,

chequense las camisetas que Jazy diseño.
Tristemente empatamos con Angola 0-0, no era los que estabamos esperando, pero en fin, a ver que pasa con Portugal.
No he tejido nada.