Winter in Madrid

It's not supposed to snow in Madrid. Unless, of course, I come here to visit. It happened in 2001 and again this year. What really bothers me is not the cold weather, but the dry air. My lungs are used to North Carolina humidity. I have a bad cold and I'm staying indoors today, hoping to feel better by tomorrow so I can hit the streets again (there's tons of things to do in Madrid, and the food is wonderful). I'll be cautious anyway, since I'd hate to be coughing on my plane back to the US, and I'm sure other passengers would hate that too.



I finished the laptop case just in time for this trip. I'm not very happy with the results. Garter stitch stretches a lot and I was hoping for a close fitting case. I'm not posting pictures but I will later on. I have not bought any yarn yet. All I'm looking for is a furry yarn (remember the
fox?), and so far I have not found anything I like. Of course, I've only looked in a shop near my in-law's apartment, but I'm planning an excursion downtown later on.



I wish everyone a wonderful New Year's Eve, and may 2005 have a great beginning for everyone. Don't forget to donate to a worthy cause, particularly the tsunami victims, who need it most just now.

PSA

I wish I had found this link sooner:






I don't think gift giving is a bad thing. I just don't believe it's necessary to go over the board during this time of the year.



Have a worry free Christmas, and may your credit still be good in 2005.

My Birthday

Yep, another year has come and gone. Let me see, what have I accomplished? I've read about 25 books, I got a better job (no commute, better pay, more fun), I've been twice to Spain and twice to Mexico, and once to Germany. I kept most of my plants and Bertoldino alive in spite of all those travels. My husband finished his PhD, I started this blog and I've knitted and crafted some nice stuff. I did not get to knit some projects I bought yarn for, Bertoldino's companions passed away and my Basil plants died out, but other than that, it was a good year.

So I set out to reward myself and visited five different yarn sources, hoping to find yarn for the fox of my dreams. Sadly, this is the worst time of the year to go shopping. Skeins are messy and unwound, different brands are mixed up, popular brands are out of stock or they only have one skein left of the few yarns that interest you. There's even one LYS that was already closed for the holidays. I should have known better. I never go shopping on my birthday, but I was in shopping mode, which doesn't happen very often. I didn't come back empty handed, though:







I bought the magic stripe lion brand yarn just to compare with the socka yarn. It is, of course, much cheaper, and since it requires slightly larger needles it should be faster to knit up, but the yarn content is basically the same and the concept is not that different. I've been enjoying the knitting in the round thing, so why not? I also bought some cascade fixtation for more socks later on. Oh, and some knitting toys too.



The laptop case is progresssing:





And so is the socka sock:






I will be packing tomorrow (note to self: finish that case soon) since we're going to Spain (yet again!) on Saturday. I wish you all a merry time in company of your loved ones, whether you celebrate Christmas or not. Happy Holidays!

Dreaming of future projects

When I was a little girl I had this wonderful great-aunt that owned two fox stoles, made out of real foxes, and she allowed my sister and me to play with them. Back then the cruelty of killing an animal to wear its skin around your neck escaped me completely, but it came back to haunt me when my aunt died and my mom brought the precious stoles home for my sister and me. Of course, we've never worn the foxes.



Recently, one of my coworkers showed me a beautiful scarf made of soft furry polyester.... which reminded me of Marta's recent post about her vegan fox.... and I ended up thinking a lot about my aunt's stoles. I even dreamt of buying yarn for a vegan fox. Mind you, I did not dream of knitting the scarf, just buying the yarn.



I'm not sure if dreams are supposed to give you cues or not, but I looked up the pattern in knitty. It is a wonderful idea, but it requires thick needles that I know I would never use again. Also, I noted that one of the yarns the pattern calls for is merino wool, and an item made of wool it's not strictly "vegan". I am not a vegan and I like knitting with wool, but if I make this item I really want it to be totally free of animal products, don't ask me why. Is it that I'm feeling guilty just now after all those doggy fights me and my sister staged a long time ago with my aunt's fox stoles?


I don't want to buy any yarn yet, at least not until the holidays are over. But sooner or later I believe I'll end up knitting a fox scarf. I think that would please my great-aunt, she might not have been much in touch with nature, but she was a knitter too. The mystery yarn scarf on my finished projects list came originally from her stash.

Almost a sock

Thank you for your comments on my husband's defense. We did go to the movies that night, something we hadn't done lately.


I've been knitting at work, which I don't do very often. I have almost finished one sock:




And here's the still unfinished Frankenbag's strap:




You can tell I'm not crazy about an endless garter stripe. I could have finished a long while ago but working on the sock and watching the different stripes appear seemed more appealing. However, I must now hurry with a new project someone requested. For now it's just a garter rectangle. Can you guess what it's for?

PhD

Yup, that's hubby's official title, after his defense yesterday. We're still getting used to it. I'm glad it's over, after so much stress, especially during the recent months. Now all he needs to do is some finishing touches and he'll be truly done.



I had my knitting with me but I did not knit during the defense, only during the open questions. Here's a progress picture of my sock:






And after trying different crochet and knit ideas, I decided to do a garter strap for my Frankenbag:




My husband's asleep just now. The poor thing is exhausted. He wanted to go to the movies and celebrate, but for now I'm going to let him rest.

Please tell me I have her genes

I have not knitted much but I wanted to show some knitting content. My mother never ceases to amaze me. She knitted this Fair Isle sweater for my nephew:




And also a Fair Isle sweater for herself and a little cardigan for my niece:





And when I asked her where she'd found the patterns she replied: "Oh, I just made them up". She didn't even make charts. I mean, how can you knit Fair Isle without charts? It's not all Fair-Isle, though, a lot of it is duplicate stitches. But still, I'm very impressed.




By the way, she used cheap acrylic for the three sweaters. That tells me that I do have her genes, though maybe not the right ones.

I went to Mexico

Yes I did. I was there for the weekend and I managed to visit my grandfather and my great uncle, have lunch with a childhood friend, have dinner with my godparents, go to a kiddie party with my sister, nephew and niece, have lunch with a high school friend, have a big Christmas-like dinner with my parents, sister, aunt and uncle, breakfast with a friend from college, lunch with (almost) all my cousins on my mother's side and my grandmother, visit another childhood friend and his baby and wife, get a flu shot and some eczema medication. Now, wasn't that a productive weekend?

The real thing

This is truly self patterning yarn. As much as I liked my homemade self striping yarn, it cannot compete with the real thing:





This is a little dark, but maybe you'll be able to tell that I'm using a different yarn for the toe and the heel, to keep the pattern bands intact. That yarn is slightly thicker, and I hope, more resistant than the socka yarn. If the heel or toe become worn out, I should be able to replace them (or so I hope).



Here's also my Frankenbag, badly in need of blocking and some straps. I have yet to decide what sort of straps I will use and how I will attach them.







My hands are much better now. The coal tar ointment helped a lot. Right now I'm using Aveeno intense relief hand cream and that allows me to knit without being afraid of staining my yarn. I still plan on using the coal tar overnight with a pair of cotton gloves to keep my sheets clean.

A little ranting

I have had eczema all my life and I'm currently undergoing my winter flare. The type of gloves I use at work are making things worse: the acrylic gloves (which aren't good enough for protection anyway) make me sweat, and the powdered latex gloves dry my skin. All I'm asking for is powder free latex gloves, and I don't want to go through occupational health to get them (I'd have to go out of town for that, it's complicated). It's bad enough that I am surrounded by doctors and nurses that tell me I might be developing a latex allergy (everyone here is paranoid about that). Excuse me, but this is just an irritation, my immune system is not yet involved. I stole one box of powder-free latex gloves from a different area in the hospital, I hope nobody minds and, more importantly, I hope it works.




I can still go on knitting since my fingers are not affected, just the back of my hands. However, I'm relieving the itch with a coal tar gunk that stains all fabrics, so I'd rather keep my yarn safe. Well, maybe I'll knit a little bit, right after washing my hands and before applying the ointment again. I finished the body of the frankenbag and decided that the greens I have clash with the earth tones, so I'm using one of the pale colors for trimming. I have yet to make straps.




I started a new pair of socks with my socka yarn. It's been three months since I got it, it's about time I do something with it.

The Frankenbag is growing

I like the earth tones, but it's a little dull. Maybe a green trimming later on?




What else have I been doing? Defiling art. Sorry. I could not resist the temptation. I hope no one finds this too pretentious:





This is one of my favorite paintings. It was partially destroyed by fire and later restored. So I figured I could play a little bit with it... After all, it's already been peppered up by someone else, right?

If you click on the image you can see the whole desecration... I mean, work of art... It's a large file, though. And if you click here, you can see the original.

Flowers in December

I'm so happy about my violet that I couldn't avoid posting a picture. See, when I first got this pretty plant I immedately overexposed it to sunlight and ruined a few leaves with water marks. But look at it now! Thank you Heather, for the beautiful plant and the great advice.



And now, some knitting content:





I started a new project with mystery yarn. When I first got it I planned on making a Frankenvest, but the texture is so rough that I thought it could only be used to make rugs. As you can see, I changed my mind again.

I finished the second sock

Yes, I overcame my second sock syndrome without straining my pinkie:








I would have worn them right away, were it not for the fact that they tend to roll down to my ankles. But I'm going to fix them:




Do you think this will work? I've never incorporated elastic to ribbing, but my mom used to do it, so I'm hoping I'll be able to do it too. If it doesn't work, I'm going to ask her for some help.



By the way, she is the one that taught me how to knit, and she was taught by her aunts and grandmother, so I assume people in Mexico and Spain have been using the "combined" method all along. Can anyone check on that? The so called "English" method is also used in Germany and in Italy, according to Marta (I did ask her once). I'll just call it the popular method, since it's the one most books and magazines assume you will use. Modeknits calls it the "Western" method, which gives the false impression that this method is used throughout the Western hemisphere.