Animated knitting

I'm a little muggle for technology, I discovered Youtube quite recently. And I found this animation about knitting. Enjoy it!

To see it: The Last Knit

Christmas Cookies

This is my fourth year trying Jeff's grandma's Christmas Cookie recipe and it's the fourth year I've struck out! I think it's going to take me a while before I perfect the recipe. And I think the dealing with the altitude makes it even more difficult. But after baking all day I came out with OK cookies. They're too crispy and the flavor is off (I'm not really sure why), but they're still decent. They're not like Grandma's but I tried! There's always next year I guess!!

What I eat today

This is what I cooked today for lunch. There was a salad of tomato, olive oil, and anchovies ( I know in America they are quite unpopular, but here in the Mediterranean, everything salty and fishy that comes from the Romans is really woven in our culture)
As the main dish I cooked a Fideua, is similar to a paella, but you use a special kind of short noodles with a small hole in the center, and it's made with fish broth. I didn't have a lot of shrimps to decorate, so I used surimi instead (trick discovered while being at the University, how to eat well with small money) You also need tomato, onion and garlic. I though they were cute, so they deserved a sok post!

Banana Bread!

I'm not sure if I'm doing this right because everything is in Spanish! I've realized that it's because I'm signed in as the School of Knitters. But here's my posting of Carol's World Famous Banana Bread, and after one failed attempt, it finally came out they way it should... ¡PERFECTO! The first time I was too careless with mixing the ingredients, and this time I kept everything seperated. More importantly, I remembered the baking soda! That made quite the difference!

Christmas heart

This is the prototype of my Christmas ornaments for this year. The other alternative was to knit small green botties to hang in the tree. For some reason, I already had enough of booties (I still have to knit the las pair of the year before Christmas) And even if I have to sew them by hand instead of a sewing machine it lloks like a bootie rest for me. In fact, when I made it, I discovered that I should have strated sewing it in a different point. So now, I know exactly where to do it, and a stitch that you can barely see to end it. The plan is making it with the fabrics you can see in the previous post, (if you can't see them, wait a couple of days, sometimes blogger is a little lazy and it takes me a while to upload the little images) and, if I fell adventurous enough, maybe adding lace to some of them.

Fabrics

Here are the fabrics I'm intending to use to do some of the Christmas ornaments and presents. I have some problems with wome of the accesories I need, (how much do I miss Michael's) but I will try to hand sew everything. I also, please don't laugh, found a sewing machine I had when I was a child, the bateries no longer work, but it has a manual botton I haven't tried yet. The whole thing is tiny, but if it works, it will help me get some straight lines. If id doesn't, please excuse my wavy hand sewing!

Karen's scarf

Well, just the half of it. The yarn is purple and grey and shiny, looks better in the original. I had some problems losing and re-capturing stitches, that yarn is so fluffy and hairy that you can barely see! Those are Karen colors, and I added a photo of her I put in the beach house when we arrived. The other gorgeous brunette is Lily, the wonder dog.

Liz's shawl

I finished it!!!
It's really warm and stretchy, you can give it any shape you want. I added a little "broche" the thing that closes it, I think Luke's grandmother will like it. I will be sending it in the net days, and in a couple of days I will be ready to post Karen's Christmas scarf. Keep tuned!

Sweet Wednesday

Today I cooked a lot. While the oven was hot, I tried two cakes. The first one is an apple and peach cake. I think I put too much filling, even when I used half of the quantity of eggs and milk required.
The second one is an invention. I wanted to try something simiar to a cake that I tried once. It's a pumpkin dark chocolate cakes, and I really like the results.
I felt like sharing them with you, hope we can eat them together in a SOK meeting!

Burgundy hat

My little tiny hat, made with Lell's yarn! I love it! Really warm!

This is Luke's luxurious scarf. He wanted it before Chirstmas, that means now. It's wide, long, soft, and he is using it a lot. I love the color in him.

Baby blanket

Originally this was going to be striped, pink, orange and white. Somehow, It got only white, but it's going to grow a pink crocheted shell pattern all around at the end.

Liz's scarf

I know the image is not right. The other one was blurry.
Liz's is Luke's grammy. She's 97 and she came to the States long time ago, speaking only a dialect of German spoke in the bavarian jungle. She's really nice at the phone, and I want to meet her next time I'm there. She alqays send as cards, and somehow, reminds me of my own grammy, who died on the Christmas day, 20 years ago. Both grammys took care of us when we were little. This is going to be a shawl for Christmas. I hope she likes it.

For Sara

These booties are for Sara, she just arrived to this world, and I know the color will bring her luck!

Awesome yarn

This fabric is awesome. I'm going to knit a lot of Chirstmas presents with these, and also one for myself and one for Luke.

SOK

This is the only (for the moment) SOK official photo. Now that our first anniversay is coming, I wanted to tell you that I think about our meetings often. Start thinking about your knitting again... Love, sokettes.

Quilt

I took some photos of the finished quilt and instead of putting them here I made a comic with it. But I don't know how to make it bigger, I think I saw a way this morning, but this evening, when I'm in front of the computer, I don't know where I saw what I saw. I hope you can see it, If you can, it means it didn't work, and I will upload some photos instead.

Happy wedding!!!!

Happy wedding to you!
Happy wedding to you!
Happy wedding dear Lindsey and Lucas!
Happy wedding for both of you!!!!!!!

I wish I could be there. It's going to be agreat day, unforgettable, and you are going tobe so beaturiful, and make a photo, and then show it to auntie Carol... Lots of love, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.......

Happy birthday!

Sera is having her birthday today, I want to wish her lots of bones for tonight.
Tiger is spending the night at the vet's. Tomorrow we will pick him and he has to wear a "sonda" (sorry girls, I don't know the traslation) for 5 or 6 days.
When it's Tippy's birthday?

Good wishes for the "other" significant others

UPS! HAT

Remember I had several "recipes" to knit a hat? Some looked easier but were done in circular needles and I was afraid of the "switching to 3 double pointed needles at the same time" point. And some looked complicated, even when they were knitted in the normal "straight" needles. Well, I know you remember too that hat that I started for my dad. I fnished it this week. I had to put it in a box and send it, so it finally got here and I managed some time while my husband was visiting one of his friends. I was knitting, and I knew that the feared moment was approaching, so I was prepared to see "switch to double-point needles" at any time. But it didn't. I finished the hat and I realized that, UPS!, somehow, I was knitting in the round one pattern that was meant to be "straight". So it's possible. So I lost all fear to double-point needles. So, and more important, you can do it! I write the recipe here, so you can chose how to do it:
a) circular needle, use a 16", mine are 6, but you can chose your size. I highly recomend bamboo needles if you have to buy them. The only thing is that the last two rows (especially the very last one) will take you more effort, because you don't change to 3 needles knitting, but it's totally possible, you can do it. At the end, just grab the thread and pull tight, that's all.
b) straight needles, the recipe will work perfect too. The only thing is that at the end you will have to sew it to make it round. Don't worry, it's easy too, if any of you decide this metod, I will explain how to sew them in another comment.
Finally, you can chose just one color or make stripes, and Lindsey, if you are moving to Hawaii, that's no excuse, you can chose a cotton instead of a wool yarn. No snow doesn't mean no hat :) -Now that I know you are going in March, you may need it for the Boulder snow-
I think this is a project we can do at the same time (I will do another one) and we can feel we are still in the SOK meeting. Wish you lots of luck!!
(p.s. I tried the medium size, but it's too small -my dad can't use it, I fit but it's quite tight- I will write here the large. And it can be cute for us or fun for our significant others. Just think about it as a way to have fun, stay in touch and learn some more "knitting techniques". Don't forget to post your achievements)

In my experience, a small skein will do it. I did it with the leftovers of a scarf, made a ball with then and it worked great.

You will be working in rib (stretchy) pattern: time to remember those purls. You knit 2 stitches and purl 2 stitches and repeat this through the end. Easy. The abreviation for it is K2 P2 (knit 2, purl 2)

For the shape of the hat, you will be asked at the end to knit two together. So you will insert your right needle in two, not one, of your left hand needle stitches and knit as if you oly had one. If you knit tight this may be a little work at the beginning, but a couple of them later you will be an expert. The abreviation for this is K2 tog (knit two together)

Let's begin!
-Cast on 64 stitches (for medium size it will be 60)
-Work 35 rows (32 in medium) in K2 P2 rib (If you chose strips instead of just one color, rememer to change every two or four rows)
-When you've done the 35 rows, we are going to shape the crown. The first row after the 35 will be:
Row 1: *K2 tog, p2. Repeat from * to the end. You will have 48 stitches at the end now.
-The following, final rows, are like these:
Row 2 *K2 tog, p1, rep from * to the end (32 sts remaining now!)
Row 3 *K1 P1, rep from * to the end.
Row 4 *K1, P1, rep from * to the end.
Row 5 *K2 tog, rep from * to the end (if you use circular needles this will be not as easy as the previous row, but still fine)
Row 6 *K2 tog. Rep from * to end. (this will be tight, because there are a few stitches left in the needle. Be patient and at the end, pull tight and that's all it needs to recover shape). We are done, my dear sokettes, that was the final row.

Finishing: Break off the yarn, leaving a tail (if you used straight needles, leave it 20" long, to sew with it). Thread a yarn sewing needle (the ones with big eyes) and thread needle stitches, drowing them tight and sliding them from the knitting needle.
a) for circular needles: now that you have them passed to the big sewing needle, pull tight, secure with two points and weave the ends back to the hat with a crochet needle (it's invisible if you do it close to the rib)
b) straight needles: with the reverse side of the hat (they look the same in this pattern, just chose your favorite) facing you, sew back seam and weave in ends. If you need help on how to sew them, I can walk you through it or give you interesting pages with videos and information, or send you copies by mail)

This pattern appeared in Stitch n" B%$#^ (blogger doesn't allow the real name, sorry, I didn't know it) made by Alex Zorn. I just, accidentally experienced it in the round. I think it's a great project, both easy and fun for us to start the new level! (Next time, maybe a sweater?) If you don't have inernet access all the time, I find it helpful to print the pattern, it helped me a lot at the beginning of my knitting. Girls, are you interested in dog sweaters? They can be knitted too.

The last tip to work with the circular needles:
It's ultra easy, ultra fast, the only tip is how to start (in case, like me, this was your first time)
Start by casting on the requisite number of stitches, Then bring the ends of your circular needles if front of you, with the first cast on stitch at the end of the left-hand needle, and the last on the right-hand needle. Make sure all the stitches are not twisted. Start knitting. Place a marker before the first stitch to know where everything began, so you can count the rows. Move the marker any new row. Enjoy!

Wedding Invites

Lindsey, I hope you don't mind, but I'm posting the invitation card from your wedding packet for Carol to see. Carol, this was the first card out of four; card 2 had a map of the town highlighting different "hotspots", Card 3 had the itinerary, and Card 4 was an RSVP postcard. I changed some of the information so there won't be wackos inviting themselves to the wedding, but this is a blog about our projects and I had to include it! You guys look so happy, Lindsey! And just think... you'll be back there in a few glorious months!

"I Do"... again

We just got our photo back from our anniversary vow renewal in Las Vegas! The place has definitely changed since we were there seven years ago. A lot more bells and whistles, but we were bummed that our old Elvis didn't perform our ceremony. I'm not sure if having our names in lights on the Vegas strip made up for it!

Swimming

Lately, swimming is one of the things that five me pleasure. My beach is a sandy one, but sometimewe grab the car and go to close beache, made out of rocks, pebbles... This is a photo of the last one. I hope you like it.

New addition

I know everyone is busy with novels and weddings and such, but I'd like to take a moment to introduce the newest member of the family... my first tomato! For some reason I felt compelled to grow something (probably because it's been so warm and sunny, but mainly to try and get over my "black thumb" paranoia), but a few weeks ago I bought a little tomato plant seedling and I'm happy to say that I've managed not to kill it... hooray! With any luck, I'll be "harvesting my first crop" in a few more months. HA! Just call me Farmer Lell! Where's my pitchfork and overalls?!

My Needle Case

Hooray! I'm glad we're all online! Thanks again for making this happen Carol; you're not the Big Pink Mama Fish for nothing!! Anyway, as promised here's a photo of my FIRST big "SOK-endorsed" sewing project! It's REALLY REALLY shotty craftsmanship... the stitching is crooked and it starts and stops randomly because the thread kept breaking. In all honesty, it looks like it was sewn by monkeys! But I'm just proud that I tried it and after MUCH MUCH difficulties, it's completed and functional. YAY! Besides, I've got no where to go but UP from here!

It works!

Hey, I´m so glad that everybody is writing!!!! We can be in touch and post amazing photos!!! I can´t put me right side down, but that was a photo from when I was àcking. I miss you girls so much! I keep thinking that in the summer we will have had more time for meetings... I will keep you updated with my little progress (already got a small project to add to the other big ones) Lots of love!!!!!
The pink mama fish.

Hello Fishies!

From Spain and Florida and New York to boulder and then away again! This blog is so cool... I"m surprised I've figured it out. I hope all is well with you Carol in Espana!! Miss you already.. and I just just telling lell how I wish I got to spend more time with you when you were here... but there's always vacations to Hawaii.. and Spain... and LA maybe so we can reunite again!

I'm at work-- totally not working... hope all is well ladies!

Getting my stuff together...

This is Green Fandango fish reporting in! I'm so exicted that you started this up, Carol (Pink Mama Fish)! I'm still working to take pictures of my completed needle case, but I'll post them as soon as I can. But in the meantime, here's a picture of Sera!

Three little fish

Once upon a time, there were three little fish of different colors (one was blue, the other was green and the last one was pink) They liked to swim in the threads together, share knowledgeabout how to grow a scarf and cakes and movies too. The little fish have to move to different parts of the Earth, always getting nearer the beach, and they missed each other so much, that they decided to write done their adventures in the Ocean of the swimming projects.