Happy Thanksgiving!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

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...

-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!

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

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

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?

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 :-(