A Modern Writer's Adventures and Misadventures: 2012

New Year

Before I set goals for 2013, let's see how well I did for 2012:

1. Lose 10 pounds by May. That should be doable.
--Not doable. Oh well. I switched gyms, have lost a bit of weight, but I have lost inches. I'm still working on this one.
2. Learn to knit lace. I already know how, but I want to get better and to do more than a rectangle. Craftsy.com is helping me accomplish this goal.
--Accomplished. I knit one lace shawl and have a second one on the needles.
3. Learn to knit socks. Craftsy.com is again going to help me learn this.
--Still not done. I have a few more must-knits before I get to this, but I will this January!
4. Organize my place 5-10 minutes a day. It's a habit I need to hone...I'm good at cleaning and chores, just not putting my stuff away!
--Done! thanks to google calendar, but whatever works, right?
5. Start designing hats.
--Done! Nothing exciting yet, but I can knit a hat without a pattern.
6. Blog more.
--Maybe? I have good and bad weeks.

2013 goals!

1. Keep getting results from the gym. Rather than lose weight, I'd like a lower BMI number.
2. Be able to do 5 pull ups.
3. Stretch out my hamstrings.
4. Learn to knit socks.
5. Learn to knit Entrelac.
6. Finish the Masters Level 1 Program.
7. Do and finish the Masters Level 2 Program.
8. Save more money.

8 goals. I think I can do it :) Now to post more pictures of my completed sweater and accomplish more goals!

Happy New Year!

NaKniSweMo 4

The sweater is seamed together! It's a bit longer on me than I intended, but it fits great. I just need to add the ribbing to the sleeves and add the cowl. It is actually a really easy piece to knit. I did have to look up ssp (slip slip purl) and I will have to pick up stitches. However, if you know how to do ribbing, increases, decreases, and knit in the round, it's really easy (beginners out there, those techniques are MUCH easier than they sound). Here are some pictures! More to come later this week.

Happy knitting!

The front of the sweater is done.

Laid out and ready to seam. :)

The pictures of me in it didn't turn out so great (the angle that the picture was taken in was not the most flattering). So I will re-do those pictures and post more either today or tomorrow.

NaKniSweMo 3

It's November 9th, which means I have been working on my sweater for less than two weeks. I would be ahead of where I currently am if I hadn't had to work this past week. I knit maybe two inches from Monday through Thursday. However, I made up for lost time tonight when I nearly finished the front side of the sweater. I hope to finish the other sleeve and the back tomorrow, and seam the pieces together. Then, all I have to do is pick up stitches for the sleeve ribbing and the cowl! Perhaps by this Thursday I will have a new sweater! I will post pictures tomorrow :)

Happy knitting!

(In all honesty, the knitting is going so quickly because it's an easy pattern--stockinette--with big needles and yarn. Still, it's exciting!)

Sweater Update

This is the second entry for NaKniSweMo. I've been knitting my head off, since the last sweater I knit took me two months. It turns out that a sweater for me (smaller than the last one), in one color and simply knit in stockinette, goes by much faster. So far, I have knit about 15 inches and am on my third ball of yarn!

For my friends who do not knit, this sweater is knit from the bottom up. The cuff is slightly wider to accomodate hips, then it is decreased for the waist. By tomorrow, I should be up to the arm pits if I have enough time to knit 3 inches, which really only takes an hour or so. It's knit in a cotton/nylon blend, so it's a bit more stretchy than 100% cotton. Another interesting fact about the yarn is that it is made from Pima Cotton--from Pima County! It was my favorite cotton before I knew it was from Arizona. It's extremely soft and, being cotton, won't make me sweat in the winter here in AZ. Of course, my winter is the world's fall...if that.

If I finish this early, which is likely based on my current rate of knitting, my mom has already told me that I have other knitting assignments. Here's to working hard!

Happy knitting!

November 1

I have officially started NaKniSweMo! A little behind, I finished a prayer shawl for a friend who will be ordained in a little over a month. I then swatched and started knitting my sweater. Below are some pictures. It's an easy pattern, so I think it should be fairly easy to knit in a month, perhaps sooner. I am knitting the Cloudy Sunday sweater from Knitpicks.com: http://www.knitpicks.com/cfPatterns/Pattern_Display.cfm?id=10205220 in a size medium.

Below are the pictures of my progress. I hope to update this every few days so I have more motivation to knit--as if I needed it!

Happy knitting!

The completed prayer shawl with fringe. No, he probably won't wear this, but maybe he will bring it with him to comfort those in need. Here's hoping it will have some good use!

The beginning of my sweater :) From this perspective, I think it will be quite slimming :)

Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, this Halloween was very low key for me. I sang a mass and then walked my dog outside for 10 minutes. Unfortunately, no one saw him in his cute little costume because it was too late :( Perhaps I will be able to celebrate the holiday this weekend.

I hope you all had a safe and Happy Halloween!

NaKniSweMo

Sorry I have been MIA. September and part of October are always very busy times for work. Nonetheless, I still had time to knit (incredibly).

One of the reasons I was so busy was that I had a knitting deadline: to knit 10 prayer shawls by the beginning of November. I started in mid-July and finished in early October. It calculated to about one shawl a week. So rather than blog about the process, I simply knit.

Mr. Darcy posing with the ten completed prayer shawls. I had wanted to lay them out evenly across the couch, but there were too many. Seeing it like this, I couldn't believe how much I had knit!

I am currently working on a prayer shawl for a friend who will be ordained as a priest this December. I have been working on it for about two weeks and hope to finish it this week.

A work in progress. I will have a better picture of the completed shawl. You can find the pattern here: Seven Sacraments Shawl

There are also a few holiday projects that I'm working on: dish cloths with my extra yarn, jewelry for friends and co-workers, and decorative scarves for my mom's friends. I still need to re-submit some swatches for the Master's Program (just haven't gotten around to it). And I need to finish a shawl from a craftsy course.

Did I mention that I want to knit my first socks?

THEN I find out that November is knit a sweater month: NaKniSweMo. There is a sweater and a vest that I have been wanting to knit for myself for about a year now. So, I will do my best to finish the prayer shawl so I can start that sweater...and all of the other stuff.

Needless to say, I will be busy and far from needle-less.

Happy knitting!

Botín

I've been to Madrid a few times now, and only recently have I gone to Botín. It is the oldest restaurant to keep its doors open. Since 1725, it has been open and serving food in the same location. Hemingway also enjoyed eating there. Being a literature lover and a lover of Spanish food, I had to go there. The menus are in English and Spanish. You can sit at Hemingway's table on the "top" floor (you may want to make a reservation), which is the floor on street level, or you can eat in the "cave." We chose to eat downstairs, which definitely felt like going back in time. In general, you may want to make a reservation, which can be done online as well. The wait staff are friendly, courteous, and professional, which is something the average Madrid restaurant does not offer. We were told to order a soufflé for dessert, which is not on the menu. However, be sure to order it with the rest of your food because it takes a while to prepare.

Me in front of the restaurant.

This was where Hemingway sat.

Me standing near his table.

This was the roof of the "cave"

The old-fashioned doorway. We were in a smaller room downstairs, which was cozy, but I would not recommend it if you are claustrophobic.

My suckling pig. It looks small, but it was filling and delicious. They cook it in an old-fashioned tile oven, which is quite uncommon. It's a specialty of the house.

The other dish was a steak with mushrooms. I heard it was good, but I didn't try it, since I don't like mushrooms.

Also, the house wine is great. It surprised me, though it shouldn't have. Does bad wine even exist in Spain?

Food in Madrid

Sometimes it seems like I travel simply to eat. Wait, that's exactly what I do. I think my ideal trips include lots of walking, museums, seeing important sites, and food. If I had to choose two vacation necessities, they would be walking and food. I think the best way to talk about it is via pictures.

This is a tea/smoothie/cocktail bar near C/Mayor in Alcalá. The tea was amazing, as was everything else. They also have wifi. If I were a student living there, I would totally study here. It is right next to Hemisferio--I just can't remember the name!

A typical tapas bar in Madrid.

I love taking pictures like this for my students. They freak out that so much ham is in the window. I love the cheeses and the wine as well. Spaniards don't know how good they have it!

Another food place in Madrid.

This is rabo de toro: bull's tail. I ate it at an Asturias restaurant, even though it's not a specialty from there. However, it was delicious!

In Asturias, they specialize in Cider. The waiters have a special way of pouring it as well. Since I couldn't get up there, the restaurant had a toy to pour it for me!

Arroz con leche, a la asturiana. Yes, that is burned sugar on top.

These are two tapas in Alcalá from el Quinto Tapón. The left is chopitos, little fish that taste like calamari. The right are ham croquettes. Amazing!

These are what the croquettas look like inside. SO good!

Homemade paella. It doesn't get any better than this.

Yarn in Madrid

Ever since I started knitting and reading knitting blogs, I have kind of made it my quest to find yarn stores wherever I travel and to buy something. I like to support local yarn stores, even if I don't have a particular store in mind.

However, finding yarn in Spain has always been very difficult for me. I use google to search, but "lana" and "tejer" usually don't show me the stores I'm looking for. They tend to show sewing stores, a craft I cannot do, though I'd like to learn to sew someday (especially to hem my own jeans!). It took a Madrileña to tell me that all of the yarn stores are just south of Sol! Even the streets have the names: Calle de la bolsa. I ended up buying yarn in the modern part of the city, but there are yarn shops in Sol, the heart of the country! That just shows you how important knitting/crochet is nowadays.

This is a yarn shop in Sol.

A plaza near Sol with a bunch of yarn shops

A close-up of another yarn shop.

Madrid

Sorry about waiting so long to write! I left my connector in Spain, so I couldn't upload any pictures. I will be doing my best to write about my trip to Spain this summer. So far, I am planning posts on: yarn in Madrid, food in Madrid, Botín, and Santander, though I am sure there are many most posts in there!

I love Madrid. For some reason, I never get there as often as I would like to. This time, I made it there a few times. I love going to Retiro, walking around Sol and Plaza Mayor, and just being there in general. The tough part about being in Madrid in the summer is that it is so hot! So it is kind of hard to be walking around all day.

The lovely lake in Retiro. This summer I finally got to row a boat. It was a lot of fun. It was also refreshing to get out on the water. For only 4 euros and a bit, it's well worth it for 45 minutes of fun.

Calle Arenal near Sol. I love the actual street, and, of course, the stores. There used to be a great ice-cream place, but alas, it is no longer there :(

I can't believe I didn't notice these signs before! It became a bit of a game to try to find them. They are so beautiful and each street has a different picture. One day I will have tile work in my home! I just can't get enough!

Sol. Always busy and always breath-taking. It's nothing fantastic in pictures, but the feeling of frenzy is constantly there.

The new train stop for Renfe! I think it's supposed to look like a fish. The station looks very sci-fi downstairs. It's very convenient.

Again, somehow I missed this statue on previous trips to Madrid. How could I miss the city's symbol?

Plaza Mayor. The detail on this building is really cool. It is yet another thing I overlooked on previous visits.

The tower in Plaza Mayor. You can see some of the detail here.

Spanish Wine Tasting

I love my wine! In the USA, I enjoy wine tasting at bodegas and wine shoppes. In Spain, I do the same. Esencias de Gourmet, a shoppe in Alcalá de Henares, does wine tastings either in the shoppe or in tapas bars. This time it paired up with Posada del Diablo and paired all of the wines with gourmet tapas. For 25 euros, it's a steal. It turns out that Posada del Diablo is from the 16th century. At that time, it was outside of the city (barely) and "witches" lived there. Hence "place of the devil." There, students would go and have their fortunes read by the cards. Here are some pictures:

This is the downstairs of Posada del Diablo. It's like old bodegas and stays at a consistent, fresh temperature year round.

The first wine we tasted. Except for Australia, Spaniards usually only drink Spanish wine, with the occasional Italian or French one thrown in. Napa Valley wines are almost, almost a legend. We paired it with sardines.

Javier: the owner of Esencias de Gourmet. He knows TONS about wine tasting, gourmet foods, whiskey, and gin, and used to have his own TV show.

The second wine we tasted, very strong in strawberries. We ate it with sardines.

Another shot of the group. Except myself and the girl at the left, everyone else was Spanish. I was the only non-native speaker.

The third wine. Very earthy. We ate it with pate.

The last wine we tried. We had this with a blood sausage spread that was amazing, along with a bell pepper jam. It's dry, but I think it's the ideal red for both men and women.

The wine tasting started at 9:30pm and I left at 1am, though I think the party went on longer. You must do this in Spain!