Here is the belly...

Here is picture of the belly al naturale with no make up... HA HA
I took this picture really fast one morning with the automatic shutter of my camera to send it to my mom in C.R. so I didn't really prep for it, but I guess what they want to see is my belly not my face... LOL
Yesterday I saw the doctor and we were able to hear the baby's heart beat. Everything is looking great with my pregnancy thanks God and I feel the presence of the Lord and his blessing in this pregnancy. I know He is with me and we all feel very blessed...

Aquí tienen una foto de la pancita, me la tomé el otro día sin maquillaje ni nada a la carrera para mandársela a mi mamá con el disparador automático de la cámara. No es mi mejor foto pero lo que interesa no es mi cara sino la pancita que es lo que todo mundo quiere ver allá en C.R. Oficialmente cumplí 3 meses ayer y fui donde el doctor y dice que todo está muy bien e incluso le oímos el corazón al bebé... Asíque todo va bien y tengo mucha paz de Dios de que El me esta cuidando y que este bebé será sano y una gran bendición para todos en la familia.

FUN FAIR

Today we went to the County Fair. We had fun. R loved to pet this snake so I decided to buy her the picture. As you can see, she is not afraid at all. Her mom watched from the distance though. I still don't understand what was going through God's mind when he created this one...

Hoy fuimos a la Feria del condado. Fue divertido, a R le gustó tocar esta culebra. Como ví que no le tenía miedo, le pregunté si quería que le tomaran una foto. Ella posó sin ningún problema. Yo encambio me quedé bien lejos... Todavía no entiendo en qué estaba pensando Dios cuando se le ocurrió crear este animal... Qué horror!

Baby colors...

Of course I have been thinking about new projects for the baby. I have been giving a lot of thinking to the fact that most baby items are knitted in yellow, an ugly hospital green, baby blue or baby pink. Since I don't like the two typical "neutral" colors (yellow and green), I have been thinking in other options that are also neutral and more cheerful like RED, TURQUOISE, APPLE GREEN, WINE, PURPLE, ETC. Why does everything has to be either pink or baby blue? Debbie Bliss was one of the first knitting designers to make baby items in very no-traditional colors like brown, Grey, wine, and even black. Why not? It gives babies a grown up look that is very cute. Don't you think? Since I still don't know the sex of my baby, I would have to stick to the neutrals. I have a project in turquoise and another one in red., but I won't start until R's sheep sweater is ready. My one project at a time rule... remember? This is not very promising because of my morning sickness (which by the way last all day not just the morning) which includes a desire NOT TO KNIT. I just want to lie down all day. The nausea is starting to go away so my knitting might pickup anytime... I hope...

Por supuesto que ya estoy planeando tejer algo para el bebé, pero esto me hace pensar en que quiero usar colores no tradicionales. Por qué todo tiene que ser celeste o rosado o amarillo pollito? Hay diseñadoras como Debbie Bliss que han introducido colores muy de adulto en los diseños infantiles tales como café, gris, vino, verde oliva y hasta negro. Por qué no? Hace que los chiquitines se vean como adultos enanos y para mí eso es adorable... Así que como no se el sexo del bebé todavía empezaré con colores no tradiciones neutrales, como rojo y turqueza. Aunque no pienso empezar hasta que termine el sueter de ovejas de R. Ojala que sea pronto porque con los achaques no me han dado ganas de tejer para nada y ando un poco atrasada con ese proyecto.

The Ostrich Farm

Solvaing has become our favorite vacation spot. We went there again for Labor Day weekend to scape from the heat. Surprisingly it was just as hot there, but we did have a lot of fun visiting the Ostrich farm. Initially, the plan was to raise the birds for their meat and eggs but the FDA only approved the breast for human consumption, therefore, if only that part of the bird was to be commercialized that meant the price of the meat was going to be really high. So the investors walked away the project and the farm owners decided to keep the farm as a zoo. It was very fun to be able to feed the ostrich and watch them. No one enjoyed it more than J who was for some reason, completely fascinated. I had to remind him several times to give R the opportunity to feed the birds too.

Can you see my belly already growing in the pic? Yeah, I think the older you are the quicker the belly shows up... I am not even two months pregnant and I already started getting maternity clothes because my pants won't close all the way. Wow! I remember with my first girl, I did not need maternity clothes until I was 5 months... LOL!

El pueblito de Solvaing se ha convertido en nuestro lugar favorito para ir a pasear. El fin de semana parasado fuimos tratando de escapar del calor y para nuestra sorpresa estaba igual de caliente que aquí, lo cual no es normal. Sin embargo, la pasamos muy bien en la finca de avestruces. El plan era criarlas para vender la carne y los huevos, pero el FDA solo aprobó las pechugas para el consumo humano lo cual encareció el precio de venta de la carne y los inversionistas decidieron no seguir con el proyecto. Los dueños de la finca decidieron quedarse con las avestruces y abrir un zoológico y gracias a Dios les ha ido bien. Es muy bonito ir y darles de comer y verlas de cerca. Al que más le gustó fue a J por su puesto... él estaba fascinado con los benditos pájaros gigantes... ni dejaba que R también les diera de comer...

No se si notan en la foto que ya tengo pancita... Uno a los casi 40 ya no lo esconde. No tengo ni dos meses y ya tuve que empezar a comprar ropa maternal, qué barbaridad! Me acuerdo que cuando tuve a mi primera hija no me salió la panza hasta que tenía 5 meses... Ya uno seguro se va poniendo todo suavecito por dentro... JA JA JA

Schachenmayr Men Socks

Date Started: 7/12/2007
Date Completed: 8/18/2007
Pattern Design: Basic pattern from "More Sensational Knitted Socks"
Yarn Used:Schachenmayr Nomotta Regia 4 Strato Color
Source: Elann

Breaking news...

There is a reason for the lack of knitting and for the lack of posting. It has to do with lots of nausea and this picture.
No knitting going on here. All I want to do is rest.
Can you guess why?
Hay una razón para la falta de tejer y de escribir. Tiene que ver con mucha nausea y esta foto. Nada de tejer, solo quiero dormir y descansar. Adivinas por qué?

4 Seasons Sweater

Here is the 4 Seasons sweater progress. I am using a different gauge because the pattern goes up to size 6. I am making a size 12, so I added 10 stitches and increased the gauge from 24 to 20. I hope this will be enough to fit my girl loosely.
I was checking the receipt for this yarn purchase. It is dated 5/30/2006. That means it took me over a year to get to this project. Isn't that ridiculous? I need to stop buying projects until I get done with what I have in my stash which I think will take me at least 10 years or so... LOL

Esto es lo que llevo hecho del sueter de las 4 estaciones. Los materiales los compré desde hace más de un año, no lo puedo creer!

Sand Dollar Swatching...

Here is my swatch for the Sand Dollar Sweater. I had to do one and a half more pattern repeats to get gauge. I don't like the fabric. I think I am going to sell this yarn or use it for something else (maybe double ). Before I make a decision I want to swatch two more options:
One is the Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere and the other one (and probably the best choice) would be a Guernsey yarn like this guernsey wool So, I will look into it later. Right now, I decided to cast on the sheep sweater for R. This could be a great X-Mas present.
Este es el cuadro de medida para el sueter de Sand Dollar. No solo no me esta dando la medida correcta sino que además no me gusta el resultado como queda el material, así que voy a buscar otras opciones de lana. Por ahora empecé el sueter de ovejas para R. Este puede ser un buen regalito de navidad para ella.

The Lavender Farm

In Los Olivos, right next to Solvang, there was also a Lavender Farm. The lavender was being harvested when we there. It was so beautiful. The farm's name is Clairmont Farms. They make all kinds of stuff with the lavender; soap, lotions, oil, sachets, etc. Even lavender flavored Honey... Humm delicious!
As you can see in the picture our honey is almost gone! This small jar was $8. But we have really enjoyed it in our tea. We also got cooking herbs. Lavender is an important ingredient of French cooking and my daughter Luz M. loves to cook with it. She speaks French and is into French cooking. She was thrilled to see the things we got at the farm.

En Solvang tambié fuimos a una finca de Lavanda. La estaban cosechando. El nombre de la Finca es Finca Clairmont. Ellos hacen toda clase de cosas con la lavanda; jabón, cremas, aceite, saquitos de aroma, y hasta miel de aveja con aroma de lavanda. Como pueden ver en la foto ya casi nos la terminamos porque sabe riquísima en el té. También compramos lavanda de otra variedad que es la que usa para cosinar. Mi hija Luz M. sabe hablar francés y le encanta cocinas recetas de Francia. La lavanda es un ingrediente impresindible de la comida francesa. A ella le encantaron las cosas que le trajimos de la finca.

On the way home...

An obligated stop at the beach to stretch our legs and knit a little bit. R couldn't resist getting in the water with her clothes on. En el camino hicimos la parada de rigor en la playa para estirar las piernas y tejer un poco. R se metió al mar con todo y ropa!

Click on the pitures to enlarge

Vacations at Solvang

We had such a great time at Solvang. The first stop (of course!) the knitting store. I got the courage to inquire about spinning and the lady took the time to actually give me a small lesson. I am so eager to start doing it. I purchased this beautiful roving and a the little spindle you see here in the picture. I will let you guys know how my first adventure with spinning goes... Here is a picture of R and I right outside the yarn shop and a picture of the roving purchase. I couldn't pass on some gourgeous sock yarn too. Estuvimos de vacaciones en Solvang. Es un pueblito Danés bellísimo. Por supuesto la primera parada fue en la tienda de tejer donde me animé a comprar los materiales para hilar la lana. Es mi primera aventura hilando así que veremos como me va. Aquí les enseño las cosas que compré.



Here is a picture of the cute little trolley that takes people around town. Rachel was able to feed the horse. Esta es una foto del trecito jalado por caballos que lleva la gente arededor del pueblo. Rachel le dio de comer al caballito.



There are little gardens and fountains all over the town to sit and take a break. Hay bancas, jardines y fuentes por todas partes del pueblo para sentarse y tomar un descanso.



There are several of this wind mills around the town. They are actually little stores. The streets are full of candy shops, souvenirs, etc. Hay varios molinos de viento como este pero por dentro son tienditas de suvenirs, chocolate, etc.


On the way out of solvang there is a beautiful flower field. We enjoyed walking around and taking some pictures. Saliendo de Solvang hay un campo de puras flores precioso. Ahi paramos para caminar y tomar unas fotos.

Felting Patterns

I went to Barnes and Noble and checked out the new issue of Interweave Knits "FELT". I was not compelled to buy it.

Fui a Barnes and Noble para ver la nueva revista sobre fieltro y no me gustó nada de lo que trae.



I much rather buy the pattern booklet form Ella Rae N. 8. It is more expensive but it is worth the extra money. I think I would knit almost everything in it. The bags are truly gorgeous. Check out the designs here.

De hecho me interesaría mucho más comprar el Libro N. 8 de Ella Rae que trae unos bolsos lindísimos. Creo que yo los haría todos. Pueden ver los diseños aquí.

The swatch is looking good in double stranded and size 1. Judging by the garter ridges I always knit first, it seems to work out the right amount of stitches and rows, however I am going to put it away until I get new metal circular needles. This one is a bamboo needle and it is not strong enough to keep up with the tension. The fabric is a bit stiff, but that doesn't bother me too much. The stitches do pop up more with this extra tension and I like that. I can't wait to see how the swatch looks like when I knit in pattern. I think I am going to start something else while I get the needles that I ordered online.
Por lo que veo esta parece ser la solución correcta, sin embargo voy a guardarlo hasta que compre agujas de metal porque estas son de bamboo y no creo que aguanten la tensión extra. La tela que produce es un poco firme pero eso no me molesta. La tensión adicional hace que las puntadas se marquen mejor y eso me gusta. Sin embargo, tengo que tejer todo el cuadro para realmente estar segura de que esta vez si va a funcionar. Creo que voy a empezar otra cosa mientras que me llegan las agujas que pedí.

Swatching for the Sand Dollar Sweater...

I started to swatch for the Sand Dollar Sweater. Substituting the Starmore yarns is a nightmire. No wonder people get so frustrated. The pattern calls for the Scottish Fleet yarn which was a 5-ply Guernsey yarn (no longer available). The Starmore's relaunched the Scottish Fleet as a worsted weight yarn recently, so even though the yarn is called the same, the weight is different, therefore additional modifications are required to use the new "Scottish Fleet", these will be included if you purchase the yarn from their website. (virtualyarns.com) Buying the yarn from them is worth it if you want to avoid the gauge issue and you have plenty of money to spend in yarn. This model is over $150 for the medium size. I personally would consider saving money to buy it from them if it wasn't for the fact that I don't like any of the only 3 colors they have available. (a navy blue, a forest green and cream, no pink!). My strategy here is to go by the gauge and forget about yarn weight. Since the gauge is 28 St, I purchased a beautiful 4 ply Rowanspun yarn (now discontinued) that is fine weight and knits up to 28 or 30 st.
My first swatch that I made last night was knitted in a size US 3 needle. The fabric was too airy for my taste and the swatch way bigger than needed, so I ripped it off and started all over again with a size US 2. I like the fabric look but the swatch is almost one inch wider than needed as you can see in the pic. My other problem is that I am missing an inch vertically (in the row count). This could be a problem unless I manage to calculate how many repeat rounds I would have to add to achieve the same length. Unfortunately, the pattern does not tell me the length of the work as it goes, only the number of rounds. Therefore unlike most patterns, having the right number of rows in this case is critical. My next try will be knitting double stranded in size US 1. I am hoping that by adding one strand I will achieve the right number of rows and by going down one needle size, I would be able to get the horizontal gauge.
The issue with this yarn is that the original yarn used by the Starmores is very fluffy and bouncy, giving them the capacity to be knitted at many different gauges, therefore even though the yarn is "heavier" it can still be knitted at the same gauge of a lighter weight yarn. I don't know of many yarns in the market that will do that. In my case, using a fine weight yarn is ideal because I live in California and I don't want my wool sweaters to be too dense. Anyways, I will let you know if my idea worked...
Empecé a tejer la muestra para el sueter de la estrella de mar de dollar, pero no logro conseguir la misma medida. Ya lo intenté con aguja número 3 y número 2. Ahora voy a intentar hacerlo con doble lana usando Rowanspun 4 ply en aguja número 1. Es un problema substituir la lana original porque ya no existe. La nueva versión de esta lana es más gruesa lo cual cambia la cantidad de puntadas, se puede conseguir en el sitio de las diseñadoras (virtualyarns.com) junto con las modificaciones necesarias, pero los colores son muy limitados y lana bastante cara. A ver como me va... ahí les contaré.

My new toy

This is my finished sock. As you can see, the leg is not too long. This is because I was afraid the yarn was not going to be enough for the other sock. The foot is quite wide (about 10 1/2 inches), so I had to calculate a small leg, and did not cast off, until I make sure there is enough yarn to finish a second sock. Now, the only way to really know this is by weighting what's left in the ball to make sure that I have 50 gr of yarn left. So, my sweetheart got me a small digital scale on Ebay for only $23. I love it! It works great and takes very little space. As I was now able to weight the yarn, I was surpriced to learn that the left over was 48 grams with the toe already done, so I think I have a good chance to finish the second sock with no problem. Here is the scale that I got, the brand is Scali. I was trying to locate the seller on Ebay to post the link but I was not able to. I remember that he had it in different colors including red, blue, white, etc. Mine is kind of silver.
En la foto se ve la primera media terminada. No pude cerrarla porque no se si voy a tener suficiente lana para la segunda media, la unica forma de averiguarlo es pesando lo que queda de la bola para ver si tengo exactamente la mitad. Si la bola era de 100 gramos debo tener al menos 50 gramos en lo que queda para garantizarme que tendré suficiente para terminar la segunda media. Por eso tuve mi esposito me regaló esta pequeña váscula. La encontré en Ebay por solo $23.

My next purchase will be a yarn swift and a ball winder which I have been wanting for a long time. I am trying really hard to stay away from yarn purchases to decrease my stash (currently worth $3000). Yes! I don't think I need more yarn! What I need is more knitting time! However, I do want to buy some tools and some more metal circular needles, this time from Knitpicks.com.
Mi siguiente adquisición será una sombrilla y un arrollador de lana ya que aunque no necesito lana, si me hacen falta algunos utensilios importantes como estos y tal vez unas agujas circulares de metal que pienso comprar en knitpicks.com.