May 31, 2006

Congratulations would be in order

My beautiful sister Brisa has just graduated from college with a major in Industrial Engineering. She shall be known from this day onward as the Ing. Brisa, congrats sis I love you, may you achieve all you want in life.

May 23, 2006

Blue Gable

Pattern: Green Gable from Zephyr Style
Yarn: Cascade Sierra (80% Prima Cotton 20% Wool, 100g, 192 yds.), Color 23, 3 skeins.
Needles: Addi Turbo US 6 32" Susan Bates DPN US 4
Cast On: ?
Cast Off: May 9
Mods: Minor ones. I did seed stitch instead of ribbing in both the bottom of the top and the sleeves. I also did 3 more reps of the lace pattern.
Comments: Great pattern, most of it easy mindless knitting and a bit of lace to spice it up. I love the shaping of the waist, it makes a nice well fitting sweater. I would only knit a stitch between the K2tog in the decreasing rounds next time.

Delicious yarn, a lot easier on the hands than cotton and a lot more forgiving with mistakes, makes nice even fabric but is just too hot for 40 C summer in Monterrey.

Thanks to Raz for taking the pictures, I will finish your sock in time for winter honey I promise.

I went to Mc Allen this weekend and scored 2 books that I been craving: Mason-Dixon Knitting and Knitting Nature.

The patterns on KN have a very clever construction and the textures are beautiful. Most of the motives are inspired by nature (duh) like waves and spirals, but I particularly liked the ones inspired on fractals, they appeal to my geeky side.

The M-D girs are terribly funny and quite persuasive because they rave so much about washcloths that they convinced me to start one, although I have no use for them, with some leftover Bernart cotton.

May 14, 2006

Je suis belle et ca ne demande aucun effort

Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty by Kate Gilbert
Yarn: South West Trading Company OASIS (100% Soy Silk, 100g, 240 yds.), Color 502 Napa Valley , 3 balls.
Needles: Addi Turbo US 6 32"
Cast On: April 6
Cast Off: April 20
Mods: I didn't get gauge and I wanted more a scarf than a shawl so mine is narrower and longer, 14" wide and 80" long instead of the 21"x 55" the pattern suggested. I casted on the recommended number of stitches and did 20 pattern repeats of the straight section rather than the 12 recommended.
Comments:The yarn is heaven, it's light weight, cool and easier to work than cotton (cotton makes my hands hurt) a perfect yarn for summer. My LYS carries only SWTC Oasis, which is a ribbon like yarn, I would love to make a top from this fiber but I don't like ribbon for tops. If only they carried the normal type of soy silk.

The pattern is really clever, easy and the results are stunning. Some have said that this project takes forever and that it quickly becomes real boring but I didn't find it so, I love knitting mindless things for when I'm watching TV. I was a little bit nervous because I have read in other blogs of problems with snagging when dropping the stitches. I needn't have worried the stitches dropped easily.

I busted my hands again damn! no knitting on the trip to Cienega tomorrow(another neighbor little town) to eat scrumptious Machacado con Huevo for lunch.

I have decided to finish the Electra Vest before starting anything else. The Trellis Scarf and the Bomber Jacket from Denim People are next. I aready got gauge for the Bomber Jacket and I so exited to try the denim yarn.

Half way to go

I finished one lacy sock and I aready turned the heel of the second one, but they are so lovley I can't wait to blog about them. This is the first time I got to graft a toe, and I suck big time, I tried to re-do the grafting but couldn't. I'm not a perfectionist anyway.

Myrth is just as thrilled as I am to have found another knitter in our city who is not in their 50's. We may just start a knitting group.

May 12, 2006

Olympic Project Finished (at last)

Pattern: Generic Seamless Raglan Sweater from Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-ease, colors Dark Rose Heather, 4 balls and Dark Grey, less than 1 ball.
Needles: Addi Turbo US 8 24", US 7 12 " and Susan Bates US 7 DPN.
Cast On: February 11
Cast Off: April 4
Mods: All the pattern is a sort of recipe and not a proper pattern so no mods here, everything is custom.
Comments:I started this as my olympic project, but my career as an athlete was frustrated. After I got better I didn't feel like finishing it, but now is done just in time for the summer. Anyway, the sweater turned a bit big, but that's ok, I kind of like it actually. 

The construction was easy,  first you start the body from bottom up in the round and make the sleeves separately also in the round , when you get to the armhole shaping, the sleeves are attached to the body and you continue knitting in the round making decreases for the raglan shaping, pice of cake. A thing I didn' like about the raglan shaping is thai it's bulky, I'm going to try next the top down construction. 

The yarn was better then I expected a little tweedy looking, a bit harsh on the hands but nothing too critical and machine washable. As the sweater was in the round the R is done in duplicate stitch which was a pain, but looks nice enough and was easier than stranding all my way around. I haven't blocked the sweater yet can you tell?

I found a fellow Regia Knitter/blogger (well she found me actually), Myrth from Dejame terminar esta fila. I now know I'm not alone in the world.

Also I finally decided what I'm going to do with the cream cashmere that I got in Chicago:

Trellis scarf form the Spring 2006 Interweave Knits nice huh?

May 09, 2006

Oda a los Calcetines

Me trajo Mara Mori
un par de calcetines
que tejió con sus manos de pastora,
dos calcetines suaves como liebres.
En ellos metí los pies
como en dos estuches
tejidos con hebras del
crepúsculo y pellejos de ovejas.

Violentos calcetines,
mis pies fueron dos pescados de lana,
dos largos tiburones
de azul ultramarino
atravesados por una trenza de oro,
dos gigantescos mirlos,
dos cañones:
mis pies fueron honrados de este modo
por estos celestiales calcetines.

Eran tan hermosos que por primera vez
mis pies parecieron inaceptables,
como dos decrépitos bomberos,
bomberos indignos de aquel fuego bordado,
de aquellos luminosos calcetines.

Sin embargo, resistí la tentación
aguda de guardarlos como los colegiales preservan sus luciérnagas,
como los eruditos coleccionan
documentos sagrados,
resistí el impulso furioso de ponerlos
en una jaula de oro y darles cada
dia alpiste y pulpa de melón rosado.

Como descubridores que en la selva
entregan el rarísimo venado verde
al asador y se lo comen con remordimiento,
estiré los pies y me enfundé
los bellos calcetines y luego los zapatos.

Y es esta la moral de mi Oda:
Dos veces es belleza la belleza,
y lo que es bueno es doblemente bueno,
cuando se trata de dos calcetines
de lana en el invierno.

Pablo Neruda
Nuevas odas elementales, 1956

English version on the extended entry.

Maru Mori brought me
a pair
of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheep-herder's hands,
two socks as soft
as rabbits.
I slipped my feet
into them
as though into
two
cases
knitted
with threads of
twilight
and goatskin.
Violent socks,
my feet were
two fish made
of wool,
two long sharks
seablue, shot
through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet
were honored
in this way
by
these
heavenly
socks.
They were
so handsome
for the first time
my feet seemed to me
unacceptable
like two decrepit
firemen, firemen
unworthy
of that woven
fire,
of those glowing
socks.

Nevertheless
I resisted
the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere
as schoolboys
keep
fireflies,
as learned men
collect
sacred texts,
I resisted
the mad impulse
to put them
in a golden
cage
and each day give them
birdseed
and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers
in the jungle who hand
over the very rare
green deer
to the spit
and eat it
with remorse,
I stretched out
my feet
and pulled on
the magnificent
socks
and then my shoes.

The moral
of my ode is this:
beauty is twice
beauty
and what is good is doubly
good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool
in winter.

May 06, 2006

Orangina

Pattern: "Orangina" from Stefanie Japel
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cathay, color Teal 07, 5 balls.
Needles: Addi Turbo US 5 24"
Cast On: March 13
Cast Off: April 6
Mods: I knitted this on a larger gauge so made 94 sts to get a 35" chest. I also made the ribbing a little bit longer.
Comments: I'm really behind on my FOs, but Im getting there. Anyway, let's get to the review, this yarn feels like heven but is splitty, but not too difficult to work with and creates a fabric with great drape, it was a very good choice for this pattern and a quick knit. The lace itself is everything lace should be: easy to do, fun to knit and looks very impressive. As for the pattern I would recomend a bit of waist shapping on the lace part or at least make the ribbing with smaller needles. Frankly I expected more of this pattern. I will (someday) rip and add some shaping because this just isn't working for me.

Also I'm happy to announce that I have found a fellow mexican knitter, the lovely Andrea . She does amazing stuff, and as far as I can see she's very good with math, be sure to check her blog.

May 01, 2006

Bustamante

This sunday I went with Raz and some friends to Bustamante, a little town just an hour drive form Monterrey. We had a blast, grilled some arrachera meat and quesadillas with cheese made on the town (Y U M M Y). Then we visited the canyon and took a walk near the little river. After that we lazed around in Raz's house, ate a semita (local bread) and coffee, watched the stars and the fireflies in the garden. It was an ideal day with lots and lots of time to knit and make some progress on my Green Gable, which I'm making with the light blue Cascade Sierra that I bought on my trip to Chicago. Hope you had a really great sunday too.

Edit: Agrege todas las fotos del viaje en una cuenta de flickr

www.flickr.com