Clapotis

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The clapotis is done! Yay! It took only a couple weeks more than I wanted, but it’s finished, and it’s lovely. It even got a nice bath with shampoo and a lay down on a towel.

Clapotis
(click pictures for bigger)
Folded Clapotis Shawl

Clapotis Shawl From Above

Clapotis Full Length

  • Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert, free pattern on Knitty.
  • Yarn: KnitPick‘s Gossamer (100% Merino Wool, 2/16 NM, 440 yards / 50 grams per hank), two hanks in Rose Garden (dyelot: 60455).
  • Needles: 4.5 mm Bamboo Addi Circulars, 100 cm long.
  • Gauge: 25 stitches and 25 rows to 10 cm / 4 inches in stockinette stitch.
  • Size: 60 cm wide and 176 cm long (24 in wide, 70 in long)

Notes:

  1. First of all, I always thought that the yarn used on the original pattern was too thick for my taste, so I chose a laceweight to make a lighter version.
  2. I also prefered using a looser gauge than the right for the yarn, so it’d be more airy. I wanted the clapotis to become more of a summer night / spring evening shawl.
  3. The math involved! I did 9 whole repeats of section 2 – increases (and of section 4 – decreases), and 16 repeats of section 3 – straight rows. How I got to this amount of repeats? I used 1/5 of my total yarn, that is, 20 grams, for sections 1 and 2, another fifth for sections 4 and 5, and the remaining 3/5 (60 grams) for section 3. Thanks to Suemoon for this tip.
  4. I slipped the first stitch of every row knitwise, instead of knitting or purling, as directed by the pattern.

Clap to VCTOTW

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Cryptic title? Yes, it’s intentional!

First things first. Today was my previous to last exam of the season, and it was about time to take a break after nearly a month non-stop of doing nothing for myself. So, I know at least I passed one of the five courses I had this semester, because it had partials, and I passed them all. Collective YAY! please. Now it’s waiting for the other four, and taking the last one, too.

So, what did I do on my break? I’ve been a very very lazy one. And then I decided it was time for a treat. So here it’s where VCTOTW comes into action. If you haven’t clicked that link yet, I’ll tell you it’s a baking book. A vegan baking book, even. And it’s called Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World (or VCTOTW for lazy people like me). And since I can’t cook or bake following a recipe to the letter, I modified one, and the result was:

Chocolate Mocha Cupcake

That is a lovely tender delicious flavourful Chocolate Mocha Cupcake. However, my version is not vegan, since I did not have soy milk on hand, and had to make-do with what was in the pantry. Maybe you want my version? Here it comes:

Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes
Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World
by Isa Chandra & Terry Hope

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar (I used rice, since it was the only white vinegar I had)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup olive oil (or substitute your favourite oil, but it does taste good with olive oil)
  • 1 cup self raising flour, plus one teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla powder (this is ground vanilla bean, mixed with a bit of sugar)
  • 2 tablespoons instant coffee

Method:

  1. Line a muffin tin tray with cupcakes paper cups. Preheat oven to 200°C / 400F.
  2. In a big bowl, mix milk and vinegar and let to curdle. Once it has started to curdle, add oil, sugar, vanilla and instant coffee.
  3. In a second bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder, until well blended.
  4. Mix the dry ingredients into the liquids in two batches, mixing well until no lumps remain (some tiny lumps are ok, but no big lumps!)
  5. Pour into cupcake liners carefuly. About 2/3 full. Put in the oven, lower temperature to 175°C / 350 F, and bake for 18 to 23 minutes. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean.
  6. Let cupcakes cool down in tray for 10 minutes, then move to cooling rack. Enjoy slightly warm with a mug of tea, a cup of coffee or a nice glass of milk.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

And now, you can clap! And also, you can enjoy my half done clapotis:

Clapotis, 45% done

It’s my de-stressing knitting this semester, it’s doing its job very well, and I hope to have it finished by the end of exams. That gives me till the 27th of june!

On a random note, if you remember this post where I showed a pile of books, four of them were cooking books, and three of them were novels. I can recomend all three novels: The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander, In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant, and Empress Orchid by Anchee Min. I loved them all.

Booties!

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I designed and knit some baby booties for a friend’s new spawn. The result is the following:

Booties
Detail 1 Detail 2

Stats:

  • Pattern: my own, soon to be published for free on this blog, stay tuned!
  • Yarn: Katia Caricia, 100% superwash merino, 50 gram / 175 m (191 yd) in color #3 (also known as off-white). I only used around 28 grams / 1 oz of yarn for the pair, including ties.
  • Gauge: 34 st and 48 rows to 10 cm in stockinette.
  • Needles: 2.5 mm dpns (or US1.5)
  • Size: around 10 cm long and 4.5 wide.

Questions? Bug me! (But not much). I’ll be working on rewriting my pattern notes into something understandable.

Spanakopita!

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No, I’m not cursing in the title of the post :-p Spanakopita is a Greek spinach and cheese pie. Traditionally, the cheese would be feta (damn, what other cheese do you expect to find in Greek dishes!), but I had no feta, and wasn’t planning on going out just to buy it. So I did with what was in the pantry and fridge. You know me, following recipes is hard! The result is in the next two pics:

Spanakopita still in the baking dish Spanakopita already in the dish

Want the recipe I ended using (that is, my version)? Spanakopita recipe.

It seems like I only cook as of late, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not true! I’ve knitted some, slowly, and I’ve been working webdesigning as well. I finished a shrug (pics and specs up some other day) and am finishing the baby booties for friend’s spawn (pics up later as well). I also wound into balls two skeins of KnitPicks Gossamer in Rose Garden, that will become a (hopefully) light Clapotis.

On other news, Jan’s coming next thursday! Expect to see me not for a few days (-;

Book Junkie

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I love reading, love it. I used to read one book per week, now with university and work, I’m down to about a book every two weeks, more or less. So, I was running out of reading material, and after I asked Jan for a few books to read, I decided to order some other books. What did I buy?

  • The Secrets of Jin Shei, by Alma Alexander.
  • In the Company of the Courtesan, by Sarah Dunant
  • Empress Orchid, by Anchee Min
  • Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, by Isa Chandra & Terry Hope
  • Cocina Oriental (Asian Cooking), from IKEA cooking book series
  • Cocina Vegetariana (Vegetarian Cooking), from IKEA cooking book series
  • Cocina Festiva (Party Cooking), from IKEA cooking book series
Pile Of Books
(click the pic for a bigger view)

On top of that pile of books, my first Moleskine notebook. I fell in love with these expensive notebooks a while back, and finally I caved in and bought me a large blank one. It’s being used for random writing and doodling, for collage, for memories, that sort of thing. Where did I buy it? Altaïr bookstore stocks all the notebooks in Madrid! I’m pondering getting a City Notebook for Madrid as well, so I can note down all our finds.

On a side note, I have a five day weekend! The first of may is Workers’ Day, the second is City Holiday, and I’m taking the 30th of April off school (classes have been changed, anyway – so I’m not missing anything). Plans for this loooong weekend include: knitting, sewing (I have some pretty Ikea fabric to make a yoga mat bag and a weekender bag), studying (gotta boost up the study time, exams are coming up, dammit!), taking care of sweet bunny and pet sparrow, cooking, reading, sleeping, working on freelance project, and doing pilates (Yay I’m being a good girl and doing pilates and it shows!)

The story of the forgotten letter….

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Here it’s a meme I picked up from Jeffie Jeff aka Nens. It goes like this: Leave a comment and I’ll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you like starting with that letter. Post them in your journal and give out new letters to your commenters in turn. NO TAGBACKS ALLOWED, unless a commenter specifically requests to be given a letter.

Jeff gave me the letter T. Lets see about ten things I like that start with the letter T!

  1. tea – preferably green, jasmine, or black with lemon, no sugar
  2. tempeh, teriyaki, tomatoes, tacos (vegetarian, of course)
  3. thanking people, people thanking me
  4. time
  5. traveling
  6. Tintoretto (and many other artists)
  7. talent
  8. teddy bears that I own
  9. t-shirts with nice sayings in them
  10. theater, going to, not acting in a play

So you know, if you want to do this, leave a comment and I’ll get to you with a random letter.