A quicky

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I didn’t do more sewing this weekend, due to lack of time and space. So the bag is still at the same (unfinished) point. *sniff* I wanted to give it a push this weekend, but seems it’ll have to wait two weeks now.

The Windy City Scarf is going well! I’m already 33.5% done! The buttonhole is already passed, and looks cute. The Irish Pure New Wool knits up wonderfully, and it’s very soft and nice. I went up from 5.5mm to 6mm needles and I got the *exact* gauge the scarf calls for. Also think the yarn called for gives 120m per 100gr, and this one is 190m per 100gr, it’s much thinner. And still the fabric doesn’t look too loose or too thick. I am also thinking of making a second buttonhole at the other end, instead of just one…. Suggestions? Votes for the second buttonhole?

On other news… I can’t wait for wednesday to arrive!!!! Cause I’ll pick up Jan at the airport and he’ll be here until sunday! WEEEEE I should look up some restaurant to go to… mmm

Sade

Sewing, Shopping, Knitting

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Yesterday was a holiday here, so I used the free time to cut all the pieces for my tote bag ( and needle case, and make-up bag) from the fabrics I had already bought (and washed… and being careful because they gave off dye..). That made a bunch of parts from two pieces of 120x150cm of different cotton fabric (red for the outside, stripes for the lining). And I started sewing the lining with its pockets – all done! This weekend I’ll try to sew the outside and maybe the straps and nearly finish it (I still haven’t found two cute buttons for it).

And today I did some more shopping, since I had to return the needles and won’t start the baby blanket until 2 weeks, I needed something else to knit. I’ve decided for the Windy City Scarf by Jennifer Mindel, that you can find in the Stitch ‘n Bitch Handbook that you can see on the right on the picture below:

Windy City Scarf on the right

I visited Lanas Sixto (Atocha, 9 – Madrid) and bought some Superwash Irish Pure New Wool, from Ornaghi Filati (yes, an italian yarn manufacturer, and irish wool…) in two shades of red (red rules, I love red) (picture below). It’s not the same thickness, but it’ll make a nice scarf nonetheless! I also bought some row counters (a set of two, actually, and cheap-ish, only 2.40e for the set). I will start knitting either tonight or tomorrow!

Irish New pure wool

I finished the checkerboard scarf a couple of days ago, only need to work the ends in and block it, which will happen next week probably. Then I’ll take a picture, and it’ll be nicely wrapped and packed and shipped across the ocean to reach a friend of mine. So that’s the first (nearly) F(inished) O(bject) on this blog, since the poncho still needs blocking and sewing, and putting the fringes… Need… More… Knitting.. Till… My… Circs… Arrive… (thus the windy city scarf *grin*)

Sade

I’ve been sick…

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I’ve been sick for a couple of days already. Nothing too serious, just a nice flu/cold, with sneezing feasts and runny nose and fever (me and fever don’t get along well… the slightlest fever makes me feel really sick *sigh*). Anyway, I’m on my way to recovering! Which is fast and good news, this would take me usually a week.

I knit some too. The scarf is already 150cm long, and it will be around 180cm long (at least) so I have around 83% done (yay!) – considering this scarf will cross the ocean to get to its new home, I wanted to be pretty on time. You never know how long it will take to ship or if it’ll get delayed or anything. I’ll post a pic when it’s done!

Oh, and since tomorrow is a holiday (WEE!) I will start sewing my tote bag and needle case (self design – using Ikea’s fabrics, makes it very cheap) and some new courtains that need to be cut shorter. And of course, more knitting! And still waiting for my needles.. hope they get here this week… they should…

-update- the needles arrived today too… but they’re too short! I wonder how someone can knit a double knit blanket that is about 70cm wide with 60cm long (from tip to tip) circulars! I can’t! The fabric just won’t compress that much, it has twice as much stitches… I guess I should have thought of it before, but well, I trusted the pattern :( So I’ll exchange them *sob*

Sade

Knitting News Summary

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Let’s start this new blog with a little something about knitting.

In the last days I finished knitting the pieces for my poncho (two pieces of 50 stitches and 102 rows in stockinette stitch, plus cast on and bind off). Now I need to block them to shape before I can sew them together and add the fringe and all that. The problem is, I don’t have room to block at the moment, so I’ll wait till Jan comes over and I can use my bed for blocking.

On a second note, the checkboard scarf in knits and purls, with a yarn that simulates three thinner yarns held together (in cream, and two shades of brown), is around 130cm long now. It’s a work in progress, and probably a present that will cross the sea. It’s a work in progress, but I hope it can make a Christmas present *g*

Then, I finished swatching for the baby blanket. It made a cute little blankie! And I ordered two circular needles, to knit the actual blanket. Double knitting here I come! It’s slow to knit, since it’s 15 + 80×2 + 15 stitches, two yarns held together, and wraping at the end of the double knit section etc… But I have some months to finish this – until the baby is born! It’s not my baby, the blanket is a present!

And then, I am waiting for my silk to come home along with my boyfriend (Hey, no, it’s my boyfriend bringing my silk… priorities *cough*). I bought some roving knitting silk on ebay, that I will dye in some variegated style (probably deep orange and red – make it colourful for winter!) and I’ll knit a Clapotis out of it. And since I’ll have leftover silk, I’ll have to look for something else to knit. The silk is 200 yards (about 182 m.) per 100 grams, and I got 550 grams – So, any idea what else I could knit with it? It’ll end being warm, so it’s a no go for a summer-anything.

Oh, and on a side note, I got my mother to start knitting again! She’s got into sock making! Socks anyone? We got enough yarn for two pairs and their respective present baggies. And yarn for two more pairs is coming this way with my circular needles.

I think that’s about all so far.

Except… maybe… WEEEEEEEEEE Jan is coming the 19th! *happy*

Sade

R.I.P. My Old Site

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Due to some technical problems, all my site, and the blog, has been moved to a new location. My old site will be deceased soon, and no more content will appear there.

Lets all enjoy this new site, and this new blog. My old entries will remain in a private archive, but I might post them here (or some of them) when I have time and if I find they must be here too.

Le site est mort, vive le site!

Sade

And I’m Back

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So I went to Belgium :-) And it was really fun. The flight to Brussels was a little pain in the ass. Since 2nd and 3rd of may were holidays in Madrid, seems all the people here wanted to fly outta here. So the airport was full and we had some delays first thanks to some people that didn’t pay attention to the arriving two hours prior to departure time, and they got stuck in the police check and then didn’t get on time to the gate. And then the control changed our take off lane, so we had to wait more, since they put us at the end of the queue. After the flight (I wanna kill kids, honest… well and parents that don’t teach them how to behave). That night we went to have dinner to a chinese restaurant. Very good food. But we came across some people we weren’t expecting to find there (or anywhere). But it was okay :-)

Saturday we woke up early-ish cause we were going to The Efteling! We spent the whole day there :-) taking a ride in (almost) every attraction: rollercoasters and bobsleight and even the boats. Really really fun :-) Then we headed to our hotel in Den Bosch (I’ll skip thewhole name of the town, too complicated for this little girl), Moevenpick Den Bosch. We had dinner in a very good vegetarian restaurant, called Samtosa. We had a mjummy crep with courgette and mushroom and cinammon oil! And then a thai fondue (cheese fondue with spices and veggies and bread to dip in), and tiramisu and tea. All verry good. And a looooong sleep night.

We actually didn’t hear the room service knocking on the door with our breakfast ready! So after a very hearty breakfast, we headed back home. It was too early, so we stopped by a kind of zoo, called Plankendael where we spend the whole afternoon. Luckily i had taken along my sunscreen, cause it was HOT and SUNNY! The poor animals were all taking a nap and ignoring most of the people. Very peaceful. The evening at home was nice. Played some with the computer and had icecream! They still have a guy that sells icecream cones door-to-door *sob* I wanna… We had dinner at home: left over cauliflour with cheese sauce, boiled potatoes, and quorn burguers (that omg I cooked). And watched Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a very good movie :-) very fun.

Monday morning we spent the time looking for colours to paint a room. Djeezs, we’re doing normal couple things again :p *panic*. We decided for bourdeaux and a very light yellowish for the walls… And we chose another colour for the ceiling that didn’t turn out that well, so we have to change. I cooked lunch: quick pasta dish with orange, apple, tomato and carrot ;p sounds weird, but it’s tasty. We spent the evening playing a bit with the computer again, and deciding where we’d have dinner. Another chinese, called China Garden. We had china garden soup, mini chinese loumpias (*ahem* “mini”… they’re the size normal loumpias are in Spain). And duck in prunes sauce, icecream (we want traditional chinese desserts!) and Jasmine tea. We had rented Shark Tale to watch after dinner, but I fell asleep half through it (again…).

Tuesday was leaving day again… Waking up, packing, eating something, heading to the airport… It’s so hard to leave once more… The plane had technical problems… the light for the landing gear didn’t work, so we had to change planes, and that was another hour delay… and getting home…

Diana

Belgium Is Not Rid Of Me!

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I will be going again to Belgium from the 29th of April till the 3rd of May. We’re planning to behave as kids (again) and go to The Efteling, a theme park in The Netherlands. So far is an option, we have nothing sure yet. I guess we will be making more use of the Belgium guide we bought during easter :-) it was a good buy :D

So, hide everybody! I’m going there again! :-)

-Diana

27th.. Quiet day…

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Today we’ve had a quiet day, with lunch with the family (too soonish tho, around 12.30) – french fries with quorn-burgers and provencal-sauce, then went off with my sister-in-law and mum to Arboral (green-stuff-shop) to look for some plants and pots my sister-in-law wanted

Afterwards drove off to put those things at her new place, and we got a show of the house too. It still needs plenty of work tho, before it’s finished.

We spent some time at home, checking mail, burning CD’s, went for a little walk in the garden to feed the neighbour horsies (Willem and his friend)

In the eve we went to pickup The Stephord Wives from the local videostore and watched that together with some sweet popcorn… (Weird people these belgians, they have sweet popcorn as a rule, and no salty one…)