Spring.

Today I received a gift from my nephew, his first Easter eggs done by him. He was so excited in giving something he created on his own. I decided to start my post with a picture of such special gift. Gracias Juan Carlos!

So now we are almost at Spring and almost at Easter. The weather in Mexico City has been quite hot and my winter projects are now kept deep in my drawers. I decided to start a new project for this coming season. It is inspired by a downloaded pattern at the Vogue Knitting website from Vladimir Teriokhin, a very good designer. Although the original pattern is quite nice just the way it is I decided to add a little something to make it a bit more "coquete". Something simple really: a set of lace hearts that I will keep on knitting on all the project vs. the simple St st suggested by the designer. Here a picture of Teriokhin's "Off-The-Shoulder Pullover".


And here is a picture of my version with my favourite model posing -he loves to sleep on top of my stash!-. I am following the lace heart pattern from a book and think it looks quite nice. In this project I am trying to improve my "lace" technique.
Aside from the lace pattern I also changed the color to make it more vibrant and "loud" and as always I am not using the type of yarn suggested because I already had a very nice french cotton. Hope to finish it before Spring ends!



Still on the Lace theme I an trying to finish a very old project, my own design......oh how difficult it is to retake a lace pattern! It is a long foulard and I am glad that I left some notes and so I must finish it soon. Its starting date? well....March 2004. :)


Some news: I am now at Ravelry!

Finally all this hot weather has put in season oranges everywhere so I baked an orange cake to celebrate. From Margaret Fulton's "Encyclopedia of Food & Cookery":
Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup of butter or margarine.
- grated rind and juice of one medium orange.
- 3/4 cup caster sugar.
- 2 eggs, separated.
- 2 cups self-raising flour.
- pinch of salt.
- 2 or 3 tbsp milk.
- sifted icing (confectioner's sugar)

Cream butter with orange rind and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time and beat well after each. Sift flour with salt and fold into creamed mixture alternately with strained orange juice and milk, beginning and ending with flour. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and gently fold in. Spoon into 20cm round or square tin pan greased with melted butter, bottom lined with greased waxed paper and dusted with flour. Bake in a preheated moderate oven (180 oC/ 350 oF) for 35 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. Turn out on to a wire rack and when cool dust with sifted icing sugar.
Enjoy!

Hasta Pronto!

Special Things.

I love to knit, but I also love to sew. Before I ever took a pair of needles sewing was already a very active part of my life, especially because my grandmother's sewing machine was left at my home. This Singer sewing machine (pictures above and below) was bought by my grandfather in the early 50's and it still works like brand new. Of course I have a modern sewing machine now, computerized with the latest technology, but I can't help having a special feeling towards my grandmother's sewing machine. It reminds me of her and enjoy using it.

My grandmother never knew how big her influence would be in my life but knowing her I am almost sure she saw in my early years of age a shared love for certain things. She left her Singer at my home perhaps with the plan to tempt me into sewing one day only to see that designing clothes became my profession later in life. Perhaps she saw something when she taught me how to crochet. I was about 7 or 8 when I crocheted a little carpet for the first time. All the patience I took to finish it, the many hours seeing how the work would grow...... finally discovering how I could create with my hands something. Sewing came natural to me.

Unfortunately she was not around anymore when I started getting curious about knitting although I was always amazed of the beautiful things my aunt would knit -it was like magic to see the many things she could knit-, so if I already knew how to crochet I self taught myself to knit. Of course, I made mistakes and now I am trying to fix one of them!

Here is a picture of one of my first knitting projects. It is a pullover knitted with three strands of mohair. It had very little to do with what I wanted to achieve and then what resulted was a very bulky and very warm piece!
I always liked the yarn (100% New Zealand mohair) so I have decided to unravel it. I am amazed as from one sleeve I got 3 skeins of 100grams each. No wonder it was warm! I will wash it and then use all the yarn for a nice pullover that I will later post about here.

I am still trying to finish my first project knitted in the round from the neck. I have discovered that it was voted by readers to be one of the few projects included in a compilation of the best knitting projects by Interweave Knits from the past ten years. I like it, I have now started knitting the waist (still missing the sleeves).

And last but not least, I have finished another scarf for the chilly nights. It is from Robin Melanson, a Canadian knitter whose sense of style resembles mine.

It is from Interweave Knits Winter 2004 and as usual I had to replace the yarn but I do like the results. I used Katia's "Azteca" (50% wool, 50% acrylic) -funny name for a yarn with colors never liked by the Aztecs!

See you soon!

Finally some peace.

It's been a while since I have made a post here, but now I am back!

These past months have been quite hectic basically because I moved. OMG! it was exhausting having to move again in less than a year and anyone who loves having yarns around understands my frustration when everything had to be packed again.


Oh, but soon enough I have started unpacking and while setting things up around my home I managed to finish a scarf made to match with the cherry beret I did some months ago.

Too bad days over here are so hot, I will have to wait for the next winter to use it!

See you soon!

Life is a Celebration.

I find it amazing having to wait an entire year to see a plant bloom like this. It is a much awaited celebration for me as this little plant, my Wheinachts cacti, have come a long way together. Born in Switzerland and now living in Mexico it reminds me that many wonderful things in life are worth waiting for!

Just like my little cacti that starts blooming whenever the temperature goes down I have started to knit winter hats. Besides the Cherry beret, last week I decided to knit another hat of a "Zhivago-esque" style from VK that was fast and fun to do. What do you think?
Oh! and I finally finished my "Granny Smith" top! It took me more time than it was supposed to but I am happy with the results. It was knitted in a 100% cotton yarn and it will be among the first things I will wear as soon as the weather goes up again.

And to end up another week of celebration I baked some pear & granola muffins to accompany a nice cup of espresso (Lavazza please!), Twinings English Breakfast tea or a hot coco.

If anyone cares for the recipe feel free to ask for it.

Hasta Pronto!

Getting ready for Winter.

Hello again! This time I want to share with you a small project that took less than 3 hours to knit and helped me put my mind a bit away from the other knitting projects I am currently working on. I do not consider myself to be a fast knitter, but I am also not that slow. It depends on the project, still, this one was so much fun to knit!
It is from Vogue Knitting Holiday '06 issue and it has already setup my mind for the coming winter season. Gosh! I wish there would be snow in Mexico City.



On other more delectable things I finally learned why we name peanuts in a particular way in Mexico. We call them "cacahuates" and more than once people abroad would find it funny that they were called that way as, for example in italian they are called "arrichidi" and in french "arriquides". Spanish being also a latin language I never understood why we would call them with such a particular name, but now I know. It is because of the aztecs and this fact made me smile. The aztecs language, the "mexica", was very interesting. All words were composed of particular roots with a unique meaning. In the case of peanuts the aztecs would call them "tlalcacahuatl", tlalli meaning "earth" and cacahuatl meaning "cacao bean", resulting in "cacao bean from the earth". Nowadays we just call them cacahuates!

Rita, this one is for you,

Chocolate Glaze
(from Margaret Fulton´s "Encyclopedia of Food & Cookery")

Melt together 60 g/2 oz (4 tbsp) butter and 60 g/ 2 oz (1/3 cup) dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Gradually beat in 2 tbsp boiling water, 140 g/ 4 1/4 oz (1 cup) icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted, a pinch of salt and 1/4 tsp vanilla essence (extract). Use as a glaze over chocolate cake.

Late Autumn.

Chocolate. One of Mexico's gifts to the world used during precolonial times as both currency (cacao beans) and as and exotic beverage enjoyed only by the aztec emperors. Today Mexico produces a very characteristic type of chocolate, the most famous coming from the state of Oaxaca. It is the result of mixing together cacao beans with almonds and cinnamon. This type of chocolate is used for hot chocolate drinks traditionally prepared with boiling water (not milk), and for different mexican recipes, like for example our famous "Mole Poblano" where chocolate is mixed with hot chiles to make an interesting sauce for meats and rice.
I have to recognize that although I love chocolate in Mexico, it is in Europe where I have tasted the most exquisite chocolate. Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland....european chocolatiers transformed the mexican cacao beans in one of the most loved delicacies in the world. Who can escape a piece of chocolate cake? not me! I baked this cake for my mom's birthday and tried a new recipe for the glaze. A mix between dark chocolate, butter and flour that resulted in an easy to spread glaze that would keep its shape. Excellent! if anyone is interested feel free to ask me for the recipe.

Now writing about chocolate I decided to name one of my current knitting projects "Praline'". It is a V-neck dress pattern from Vogue Knitting Holiday '06 (pattern # 33), and I am almost done with the back!

Aside from chocolate I have also been enjoying the most wonderful autumn weather in Mexico. It has been a rediscovery as I have spent the two last autumns out of my homeland. We are now at 25oC and the sun shines everyday. Flowers are blooming in the garden like these ones called "Orejas de Elefante" (Elephant Ears) that remind me of the color of another of the knitting projects I am working on...

.....it is a pattern from Interweave Knits Spring '07 that is giving me the chance to knit my first sweater from the neck down. It is a cable down raglan by Stefanie Japel that I hope to finish before Christmas!
Last but not least here is a picture of the top I talked about previously. I have already added small sleeves and I wish to finish it anytime soon, as it should no longer be just decorating my room!

Color.

Hello Everybody,
It is now the turn to write a bit about color, particularly color in Mexico. Have you guys ever noticed how vivid color can be in my country? The first time I realized how color was different in other places of the world is when I started travelling abroad. It never occured to me but I always thought that the intenstity of color was the same everywhere. I was very wrong.
Color is something you grow up with. It surrounds every aspect of your life and once you are confronted with the way other cultures view color you realize that no matter where you go, you will always see the world according to the colors that were always next to you.
Here is a little example, it is a picture of the church infront of my house. A flower arrangement was setup at it's main entrance because of the October festivities (Saint Francis of Assisi). I love it.


Now talking about color and knitting I should say that green color has always been a favourite of mine. In fact, I used it to knit my first ever knitting project back in 1996. I taught myself to knit, it was rather easy as my dear grandmother taught me how to crochet at age 6, so knitting came natural. I copied a model from one of my mother's old time knitting magazines, a "Bettina" magazine from 1968! I only decided to make the sleeves a bit short. I used a very nice english acrylic yarn, I thought it was the easiest type of yarn to start knitting with. I was not wrong and the color has never faded.

I still keep the magazine, it is amazing how some models still seem to be contemporary.

Now here is another picture of yet another green sweater I did a year ago. It is my "mint" oversized cowl neck sweater that is so soft and comfortable to wear, preferably with a belt, so it does not drop. It is my own design and I used a mexican boucle yarn, 100% acrylic. Finally, I am about to end another green project that has taken sometime to be concluded. The problem is that I got the yarn in Switzerland some years ago and almost at the end realized that I needed a bit more. This is the problem when you buy yarns abroad and even more so when the design is your own like this one is. I have only one skein left and still need to do small (very small!) sleeves. It is a summer top so I am not worried, the yarn is a 100% cotton. I should finish this project soon as it was left for a while in my knitting basket waiting its turn.......anyway it was lovely to see it decorate my room with its lovely green hues! :)

Hasta Pronto!