Yes, I am a year older, who would say, eh? I’m still as silly and childish and playful as a kid!
Anyway:
“Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeee
Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeee
Happy Birthday dear meeeeeeee
Happy Birthday oh Yes!”
(a little egocentrism on *my* day doesn’t hurt, does it? :p)
You can pass by and get a piece of cake and a pot of hot chocolate to celebrate!
Sade
Jan is already back home :( I miss him! But we had a great time together. We were slightly lazy, but we went to see the Portabandieri dil Calcio Storico Fiorentino (pics coming up soon) that was fun to see how they handle the flags, turning them and throwing them.
We cooked pumpking cake (I’ll post the recipe some other time), and had some quiet time alone. Of course I had to go to uni, and poor him came with me to become totally bored there. We did a little shopping here and there, visited a nice soap shop ( Bubbly ).
We enjoyed a nice japanese dinner at Mikado (Calle Pintor Juan Gris, 4 – Madrid), to celebrate my mother’s birthday (late) and mine (early) and it was great (as always – a very good japanese in my opinion).
Saturday eve we went to see Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (in english, of course). It’s a really good movie, loved it. After it, we had dinner at a nearby Ginos – it was pouring, so the closer the better.
We had lots of fun these days, but it was too short – as always.
I also got my birthday presents (a bit early): Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse, and the cutest tiniest digital camera on earth: the Olympus [mju:]-mini Digital S in sexy black (and a spare battery, and a 512MB xD card). I feel totally spoiled! It means, I’ll be able to post more and better pictures from now on (most of the previous pictures were taken with my phone’s camera).
No knitting (as I said) was done during these days. I checked the blogs and tried to keep up to date, and so I discovered some people were curious about a certain reader (see: this post on affiknitty).
Ta-dah!
More updates soon!
Sade
Well, not really out of town, still here, but I’ll be plenty busy ! Cause Jan is here :p better things to do than knitting and blogging.
Be back on tuesday
Sade.
Such a beautiful sunset on tuesday 1st, November. Sometimes Madrid gives out good pics too. It deserved some lyrics to go along.
Lithium Sunset – Sting
Fill my eyes
O Lithium sunset
And take this lonesome burden
Of worry from my mind
Take this heartache
Of obsidian darkness
And fold my darkness
Into your yellow light
I’ve been scattered I’ve been shattered
I’ve been knocked out of the race
But I’ll get better
I feel your light upon my face
Heal my soul
O Lithium sunset
And I’ll ride the turning world
Into another night
Into another night
Into another night
See mercury falling…
On other news, the Hoover Blanket is already at 18% and going up. It’s a small blanket, about 65 x 50 cm – enough to cover the baby in her stroller. You can see the actual progress and how it looks like the double knitting in the next pic:
Also, and action picture of the clown socks!
Now, back to knitting!
Sade
So, I started the baby blanket this past weekend, after finishing the two previous projects. I casted on 110 nice stitches (with stitch markers every 10, so I wouldn’t get lost counting them). The result was a 6 mm. needle (50 cm long, perhaps) totally crammed with stitches. A beautiful sight you can enjoy here:
Then I took my (lovely, adorable, sweet, soft, delicious) Addi Bamboo in size 5 mm. and 100 cm. long, and started knitting away! Garter stitch is boring boring boring! Fifteen rows later, and nearly a 50 gr. skein gone, I start pondering if I bought enough yarn. So I asked my mother what should I do, and she suggested reducing the garter border (bless you!) and start with the double knitting section. Instead of the 7.5 cm. border it will be something around 5 or 6 cm. Since it will be a stroller blankie, the size is more than enough (seeing the strollers now…). Another pic, of the garter stitch border already on my circs:
So at the moment I have doubled all the center stitches, and I have 200(!), and 180 of them are the double knit part: 90 in one colour, and 90 in the other. And I’ll continue along knitting having fun with the blankie tomorrow. I need a side project!
I didn’t get any sewing done. I wasn’t feeling like it. I guess that’s the problem of not having a room dedicated to it, and having to clean the table, set up all, start sewing, then clean again and put all away… I hope I can get something else done soon…
Sade
Halloween‘s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain marks the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter, the end of the light and the beginning of darkness. It’s historical origin is the Celtic Feast of the Dead and the beginning of the new year. It is the day when the gates between the worlds open, and souls are allowed to walk amongst the living and visit their relatives.
For this day, I’ll share a couple of recipes.
Ingredients:
Instructions:
Note: You can dry the orange peel yourself. Peel an orange trying to avoid the white skin as much as possible. Place the orange skin in a bowl, and the bowl in a cupboard, so it doesn’t have direct sunlight, the temperature is cool, and there is a certain air circulation (any kitchen cabinet is fine). Let the peel dry for at least a couple of weeks, or until it’s totally dry. And it’s ready to use!
Edited to add, as Lia says on her comment, that the orange peel can aslo be dried inside a jar with sugar. This way also, the sugar won’t form lumps because of humidity, and it’ll get a slight orange smell and taste.
And a tea isn’t a tea with something to eat. Be brit and serve cool cucumber bite-size sandwiches. Or go along with the Halloween pumpkin crazyness and bake these cookies:
Ingredients:
Instructions:
Have all a happy day. And all hallow’s eve. Don’t forget to put a candle on the windowsill so your ancestors don’t get lost!
Sade
What do you do a saturday evening, when you don’t feel like studying or going out and need to relax some? Handcrafting! I had seen some tutorials to make beaded stitch markers (like this and this) and since I’m planning on making the clapotis, I’ll need some (18, if I recall correctly).
On friday I went shopping, and on the way I took this nice photo of Ex-Wilma, the hurricane that left the Caribbean islands completely upside down, and left some tourists with ugly memories of their holidays and honeymoons. Wilma visited Madrid, and covered the sky with very dark grey clouds. The pic is taken around 6p.m. friday (28th October 2005) and I can tell it was very very dark. Once we got into the ‘eye’, it started pouring like there was no end- but we got a clean car *grin*.
So anyway, I did some shopping and got some materials for making stitch markers. I bought some silver platted eye pins and 8mm. glass beads (with ‘cracked’ effect – they look like they’re broken inside … on purpose) in orange. I added some small beads, jewelry pliers, a metal knitting needle (instead of the pen that shows the pic) and made my stich markers.
Searching the web I had also seen a “rudimentary” row counter, based on an abacus. So I took my jewelry wire and more beads in two different colours and made a heart shaped one (sooo cheesy!). You can see mine in this pic:
And, on the needles (or better, off the needles) is my Windy City Scarf. It only needs sewing in the ends that I will do in no time, because I want to use it on monday. Pictures of my fluffy pimp rabbit modeling the scarf:
Ain’t he cute? It was a present from a dear friend, and now he’s a top-model!
That is all, folks!
Sade
I bought new slippers, they are fun, they have yarn(!) as the person’s hair, and they came with (what I call) a voodoo doll, and a voodoo doll keyring. Wanna see ’em bigger? Click on the pic:
On the knitting side: the Windy City Scarf is already at 65% (and it’ll grow more soon *ahem*) and the Hoover Blanket will be casted on soon – Thinking of getting a smaller project on the side so I just don’t have a big heavy project. I might try making the ‘present baggy’ for the socks mum knitted, with a nice edge. But then, I’ll need something else. Any ideas?
Sade
This past week has been good. Jan came here and we had a nice time. We did usual stuff, and we visited a new restaurant: Taj where we ate mjummy Indian food (oh, the memories… England… THE Indian restaurant…) and we ate Chicken Vindaloo – veeeeeery hot! amongst other delicious Indian recipes (Please, do order Garlic Nan – you’ll love it). We did some (window) shopping, walked around, had fun in all.
On the knitting news: I’ve got pics of that already (nearly) finished Checkerboard Scarf for a yankie friend of mine:
I also took a pic of the Windy City Scarf in progress (already switched colours):
And then, I have to show: the socks my mum knit for me! They’re made in Opal Carnival (for those of you that are a clown like me):
More news are I don’t have 550 grams of that knitting roving silk, but 1036 grams, cause my lovely boyfriend bought me a second batch on ebay. So I will have more than enough for the Clapotis and what not! I want to get some book on dyeing yarn, perhaps, so I don’t screw this silk… Any recommendations (on dyeing, and on books for dyeing)? And I got my new shiny new Addi Bamboo circulars, 100 cm long, for knitting that baby blanket. \o/ *cheer* I will start it soon now!
Sade.
PS: Jan is coming over again SOON! WOOHOOOOOOO