Updates and a sale!

It's been a long time since I've blogged (again, I know). But work and teaching at the University have really taken most of my time last months. Now, I'm temporarily only teaching one seminar at the University, because my workplace had some economical issues. Not the greatest moment to not have a day-job, but hey, at least I can do other things for a while. Like crafting! And I'm quite positive I will find a new and even more interesting job soon.

Meanwhile, I've been updating my Etsy shop. You can find for example this... (Yes, it is a real fossil, an orthocerus fossil).

...this...
these cute earrings...

.... these crocheted snowflakes...

... and many other things, like stitch markers and knitted toys. And the best thing is that everything will have 10% discount until Wednesday 30th of November! Just use a coupon code "November" if you shop, and you'll get the discount automatically.

Finally blogging again

My good intention to blog more often has been complicated by the fact that we still don’t have internet in our home. I hope there will be some kind of change in that in very near future; I’m tired of going to the University every day just to check my mails. But well, we’ll see.

Otherwise everything is going fine. I finally got a job last week. You can’t imagine ohw happy and relieved I am! Especially because my new job seems to be interesting and challenging. I can’t start until I get my working permission, but at least I don’t have to look other jobs anymore. It also seems that I might graduate some day! The tesis has been practically ready from the beginning of December, but due to the vacations, university bureaucracy and especially some problems with one of my Committee members, I haven’t been able to get through all the necessary procedures. But it seems that next week the biggest problem could be overcome and I could go on with the process. So, if I’m lucky, I might have my exam by the end of this month, or in the beginning of April at least. Wish my luck!

I have also been knitting quite a lot. Boyfriend got a new sweater as a Christmas present (yeah, in January ;-). I made it with Tuulia’s Tailored Sweater Method, but the spreadsheet gave me some pretty strange numbers, so I just made up the numbers. The yarn is an old yarn granny gave me last summer; it must be from the 50’s or something. I’m not completely happy with the sweater. Maybe it’s the neckline. (sorry about the bad picture, but it´s the only one I have!)

In January, I also finally finished my own Tangled Yoke Cardigan, started in February 2010. It became a UFO (unfinished object) when I had to think how to make the sleeves top down and not bottom up, as in the instructions. The yarn also seemed to pill a lot already while I was knitting, so this cardigan was left to wait for months. Finally I decided to give it a try in December.

Well, I’m happy I finished it, but I’m quite disappointed with the result. I love the colour, love the pattern, and the yarn is really soft and has a great stitch definition. But. It pills like hell. I have shaved it many, many times, and it seems that the moment you stop the shaving, it starts to pill again. I wanted this to be my “good cardigan”, something I could use in public, but it looks all worn out. That´s why the sleeves are short too - I didn´t want to buy any more yarn for them. Definitively will reclaim to the yarn company, because the yarn is not that cheap either.

Welcome 2011

I hope you don´t mind seeing some Christmas pictures, even though it already middle of January. It´s just a bit hard to update the blog - I still don´t have internet at home.

The Christmas evening´s dinner was sooooooo much fun...

No, really, we had good time. The nephews (boyfriend´s, not mine) were just a little tired after playing all day and after opening the gifts.

And here´s the welcome to the year 2011 - with the 12 grapes of course!

Coming back

It´s been a long time since I´ve been here... Mainly because I haven´t had time to write, and when I had, I wanted to write about so manyt things it seemed a bit overwhelming. But my intention is statr writing more often again from now on.

These are some of the things I've been doing these months:

Travelling in Chiapas when my family came to visit in June...


Knitting...

But mostly I've been working with this:

My thesis. It's almost finished and I hope I can give it to my committee members by the end of the month. I just want to finish it!

And then there's also The House, that boyfriend and I bought and are renovating. But that's another story and I'll write about it more later.

Also, I'm going to open a new Etsy shop this week, so stay tuned!

Welcome the death

Day of the Death or Día de Muertos is celebrated here in Mexico in the beginning of the November. It's my absolute favorite of Mexican fiestas, so even though it was already couple of weeks ago, I want to show you some pictures I took this year from the altars in Coyocan (my favorite part of the city) and at the University.

The Day of the Death is not like Halloween, although you can see more and more Halloween stuff in the shops, which is a great shame, I think. I much prefer the traditional sugar skulls, cempazutchil (the orange flowers you can see in the photos), the paper decorations and happy skeletons to all those comercial monster stuff.

During the Day of the Death celebrations you see skulls, and skeletons and other symbols of the Death everywhere, but they are not scary. The death come to the Earth to visit their love ones, who build them altars with their favorite foods and drinks. There's nothing scary about that... '


That's exactly why I love this fiesta. The Death is not something scary, it's familiar and close, something that happens to everyone. You can even joke with it, and the skeletons are often represented drinking tequila, partying and doing other earthly stuff. Or smiling gently, as the lady in this picture:

Great attitude towards the Death, colourfull and ingenious decorations and the yummy pan de muertos (bread of the Death, special holiday bun made only for this fiesta) - how could you not love it?

Updating...

On Firefox the images and everything seems to work, so here you, some updates...

I have spent the past months mainly with the thesis (vacations from the university are for thesis writing, right? At least my advisor thinks so...). But I also had a nice guide/interpreter job in June. A group of Finns came here for a wedding, and although I didn't know any of them before, it was a nice week, even with little sleep. Simultaneous interpreting wasn't as difficult as I thought (of course I didn't have to translate totally exactly, which helped a lot). I also got to travel a bit with them. Most of the places where we visited, I already knew, but I got to know some new places too. And I definitively learnt a lot, as I had to find and learn by heart lots of information that I then told to my group.

Here are some pictures:

The Xochicalco piramids near Cuernavaca were very impressive. I hadn't visited there before, so it was really nice to get there. Not only the pyramids are awesome, but also the view from the top of the hill is amazing.



Taxco, the silver city (there a lots of silver smiths in the city and you can get good deals on silver jewelry), was one of our stops. I have been there two or three times before, but it's always a nice place to go.



Even though the thesis is taking a lot of time now, I have also knitted something. My Wilhelmiina was ready already on the first of June and I'm very happy with it.

Pattern: Neja's Wilhelmiina

Yarn: Novita Bambu

Needles: 3,5mm

I used Neja's pattern, but did some modifications. I added a lot of purl stitchesto the underarms and made the cable part much longer than in the original pattern (it wasn't supposed to be as long as in the pictures though - the upper part stretched quite a lot).

I have also been knitting a wedding shawl for my friend, and started also a top down tunic, but you'll get pictures of those later.

Back to (almost) normal

The life here in Mexico City is getting slowly back to normal after almost two weeks of influenza epidemic. The primary schools are still closed 'till next Monday, but the highschools and the universities opened again today. Also the restaurants and movie theatres could open up today, but with some restrictions to garantee enough space between each person.

So, everything is almost as normal again, and there are lot less people on the streets with surgical masks. There are other signs remind about the influenza though. The subway, for example, was quite empty compared to normal days (which is nice, but that might chance when all the schools start again). At the university they gave everybody antibacterial gel at the faculty doors. There's supposed to be also at least one or two metres between every student in the class, but that's simply impossible in the small classrooms.

It seems the influenza hasn't been as dangerous as it first was thought, but it might get worse again later. Many seem to think that as the authorities let the schools open again, the influenza is magically gone and you can forget all about it. I was personally never really scared about this, but still prefer to take some precautions, like washing my hands all the time. The influenza might be unlikely to kill you, but it doesn't seem like a nice desease to get anyway. And it would be nice if we didn't have a new epidemic later on.

Well, lets hope this really is time to get back to normality. Meanwhile, please don't discriminate against the Mexicans, if you live somewhere else. The actions for example China has taken, are just absurd. You don't get a flu by just seeing a perfectly healthy person, even if he/she is from Mexico.

And now something different: just wanted to show you the second swap package I got from the grad school swap!

Wool yarn in lovely blue tone, lots of cool pens and highlighters, chocolate and a lovely note pad that has a magnet behind. It will be greatly needed. I always write lists (especially to do lists) on little pieces of paper that I later lose (and might or might not find even later), so having the notebook on my fridge will be very helpful.

In the ghost town

As probably everyone knows by now, Mexico is suffering from swine influenza epidemic. I have been well and so everyone I know, so you don't have to worry about me. In the worst case scenario, there's a hospital two blocks from my house. And if someone heard about the earthquake (last Monday), nothing happened either. I felt how the house moved, but it didn't scare me or anything. It's always just very strange to feel how the Earth moves. But yes, it felt like "oh great, just what we needed, a quake, as if the influenza wasn't enough"...)

The epidemic is scary, but I think there is no reason to panic, we just need to be careful. There are lots of hysterical people now, buying tons of food from the grocery store and looking at everybody as a potencial source of infection. (Well, everybody is a potencial source, but you should just see the look in their eyes!) And on the other hand, there are still people who are sure this is all a huge conspiracy (of the Government, of the USA... and probably there are other theories too). Then there are also people who think they are not going to get the flu because they've never got ill before, so why worry... I have to say that of these groups, I prefer the hysterical ones. At least they take care of themselves, even if excessively, which helps others too. Happily, most of the people seem to be careful but reasonable.

After the epidemic was announced late last Thursday, I have mainly stayed home or at boyfriend's house. I'm glad that I can write my thesis home, as the University is closed at least until the next week. Today I had to go to the bank and the supermarket, and the city really seems abandoned. There are lot less people on the streets, and all the bars, restaurants, cafés, movie theatres and schools are closed. It was strange... But I have to admit that it was kind of nice to go out after four days, even using the uncorfortable surgical mask. It was nice to feel the sun and the wind. Staying inside all the time is really boring, even if you know it's good for you.

I'm back!

I have been really busy lately with the thesis, which have kept me from writing... And right before Easter, my parents visited me and we traveled together to the beach. And then I was just very sick last week.

I'll be writing about my parents visit later, now I'll just want to show you my first swap package ever! In Ravelry, there's a group for grad school students. I love it and think it really helps me to stay motivated and achieve more, because the idea is to post about your progress with the studies every week. And to spoil ourselves little, we have also swaps! I have never participated in a swap before, but I'm glad I did now! Look at this lovely package Sobeknofret (ravelry-link) send me! So much delicious chocolate and good tea (both quite hard to get here) and other fun things! And lovely, soft yarn... That will become something nice and warm for me.

I haven't had time to knit too much, but here's a baby set I made for my friend's babyshower. I think she liked it! I haven't knitted baby stuff before, but I have to say it's very nice. Kind of instant gratification: you get cute things made in couple of hours. The instructions for the Baby Berry are here.

I have also been knitting Wilhelmiina with Neja's instructions. No photos yet...I started it already on March, but it's advancing very slowly, as the cable charts are quite complex and I can't knit it while I watch TV or am in the car, when I usually mostly get my knitting done. I'm also not very enthusiastic about Wilhelmiina right now. That's probably because being quite stressed with the thesis, I really don't want to knit anything complicated. Buuut... I also don't want to leave it now, because I know I wouldn't pick it any time soon, and I really want to use it. I'm actually waiting to get to the mindless stockinette part. I am!

Random things

Some time ago, Jaana from Metsän takana challenged me to tell six random things about myself. Here you go!

1. I'm very curious. I'm not generally intersted in cars, for example, but start to fix a car in front of me, and you'll soon see me looking over your shoulder and asking questions.

2. I have studied several foreign languages. The strangest one is probably Northern Sami, spoken by the Sami, the indigenous people of Finland and other Nordic countries. No, I don't have any connection - more than mere interest - to the Sami, and I have only used the language on my University classes and reading some Sami poetry. I still think it hasn't been a waste of time at all. Some day I just might need it, who knows? Besides, the more languages you learn, the easier it gets... And it's wonderful to learn about new ways of thinking and seeing things, and a foreign language is a good way to open perspectives. And well, I said it already - I'm very curious.

3. Walking clears my head. If I'm stressed out, angry, sad or worried, I take a walk. Sometimes when I'm writing my research and feel that some idea is coming, but can't quite get it yet, I walk in my room.

4. Some day I want to travel to Siberia. By train, of course, and for several weeks, without mayor plans, so I could got off the train whenever I wanted and just stay in some village for a while. But before that I would have to study Russian again (I have forgotten almost everything) and learn to sleep in the train.

5. I love mangos. The mango season is about to begin, hurray!

6. I like to keep my curtains open to get as much sunlight as possible. And to see the sky.

I'm not going to challenge anyone else, but if you want to continue the meme, please tell me, so I can visit you!

And now some random stuff: pics of the yarns that I bought from Finland. I "only" brought 2,7 kg... I normally don't buy so much yarn at once, as I prefer to finish one project before starting a new one, but it's easiest for me to bring yarn from Finland. And I have a plan for almost everything.

The red ones are going to be Sylvi, the white Merinosilk is for my friend's wedding shawl, the blue bambu yarn will become Wilhelmiina (as soon as I finish my current project) and Pirkkalanka on the left side will be some kind of multicoloured sweater that I haven't designed yet.

Mom gave me the lovely Sivilla yarns. I'll make two shawls with them, I think.

M is for meaningful words

I have seen this nice meme in many blogs and decided to give it a chance too. Villapeikko gave me an M, so here are some meaningful words that begin with it.

Mom

My mom is a very important person to me. We are alike in many things, and not in the bad sense. Even though I live far a way from her and my other relatives, they are an important part of my life, and always will be, wherever I am.

Mummi

Mummi is how we call our granny in Finnish. Mummi is 92 years old and still lives alone, knits socks, crochets curtains and cooks and bakes for everyone. And she so witty – she can probably invent something clever to say to someone more quickly than I do (I blame my birth place – in my region people are known to be slow, and where she comes from people are known to be very quick, witty and funny).

México

México (pronounce it as in Spanish!) is so many things to me. It’s my second home country, no doubt about it, and my actual home. México means the possibility to be with the man I love and do what I want right now: my research. I don’t know if I will stay here for the rest of my life – but I know that I’m very happy with my life here now. I have learnt to love the country, its rich culture, its nature, its smells and colourss and all its variety, and the people too, generally so friendly and nice. I have learnt lots of things and the country has changed me (I think for the good more than for the bad). Of course there are lots of problems too. The poverty, the corruption, the violence, the insecurity, the racism and other kinds of discrimination… Sometimes reading the newspapers seems more like reading a novel of Kafka rather than reading the news. There are many things I can’t understand and many things I wish were different and will hopefully change some day. I could rant about the Mexican politics for a loooong time (which I’m not supposed to do in public, though, thanks to the Constitution that states that foreigners can’t take part in politics).

Milky Way

I love astronomy and cosmology. The space has interested me since I was a little girl. If I was a little better in maths, I might be studying astronomy. Not that I couldn’t study it now – I could, and would probably be OK in it. But as astronomy is a passion, I don’t want to be just OK or good in it. I would have to be excellent. So I never even tried to study it, and prefer to have this interest as a hobby. I’m still always looking at the sky, and could spend hours watching the stars, moon and planets and Milky Way. By the way, I think the Finnish word for Milky Way, Linnunrata (Birds’ way or route) is much more beautiful than the English version.

Memory

My doctoral research is about social memory. My thesis is about how past human rights abuses are remembered and treated in Chile and in Mexico. I still love my theme after working with it in my Master's thesis too, so I guess it was a good choice. Sometimes it can be really hard to read about all those awful human rights violations (even when committed in the past), but it helps to remember how important the theme is.

Mother Nature

The nature has always been very important to me. I need to get in the forest every once in a while. I think that's one of the toughest things for me in living in one of the biggest cities in the world - I can't get to wander in the nature as much as I would love to. Luckily there are some forests even in the city, and besides Mexico City is greener than you would think. (The picture is from Finland.)

Making things

I could get crafts in this list after all, ha! I love making things: knitting, making jewelry, drawing, painting... but also cooking and baking. And I would love to learn to make more things with my own hands - wood and metal work are something I want to learn someday. Actually, if I just could, I would make almost everything myself. In my family handmade things have always been valued. Maybe that's why I was very impressed when boyfriend first time said that someday he would like to construct his own house.

Morning light

I love the soft light in the summer mornings in Finland, right after the sunrise (Not that I see it a lot, but anyway). The light in general is very important to me and I can get a bit blue or depressed if there’s not enough light in my home. I always have the curtains open during the day to be able to have daylight in the room and to watch the sky. I love to observe the different tones of light at different times of the day and in different places. I can still remember the light in Chilean Patagonia. It was as if the sky was closer to the Earth there, as if you could touch the sky if you reached a bit more, as if the light was raining down…

Miles

I love travelling. My parents always took us children with them to their trips to Europe, and I guess my travel bug is from them… Travelling and getting to know new places is fun. And you don’t even have to travel very far; sometimes a travel in your own city can be an adventure. I also like travelling in the bus or in the train. Watching the scenery that passes by can sometimes be even better than getting to the destiny. I like flying too, even though it’s not at all ecological. But at the moment it would be impossible to travel to months in a ship just to see my family once in a while.

I could write about other M words too, like moral, mediocrity, and meanignful job, but I think my list is long enough as it is. Who knows if anyone gets even this far...

One year and one day - a blog contest!

I have been writing this blog for one year and one day now. (Yes, I did notice my blog birthday already yesterday, but was just too busy to even think about writing!) It's a quite long time, and has passed so quickly. That's why want to have a little contest to celebrate the ocasion. Just leave a comment in this post and tell me your favorite animal and colour. I'll make a little yarn painting (about 12 cm x 12 cm) for the winner of his/her favorite animal. You'll have until next Monday to participate! (You can leave a comment in English, Spanish or Finnish.)

These last weeks have been very busy with the studies. I have made various presentations and the University, written essays and tried to advance in my researh too. Of one presentation I'm particularly proud of: a short afro dance show my dance group made. Yes, you read correctly. I have been taking an afro dance class this semester and I love it. But when the teacher told us we had the chance to make a public presentation, I had my doubts. I'm not really that good at sports, so my first thought was: "Me, dancing afro in public??? No way!" Especially because our group is very small, so every one really would stand out.

But then I thought again. It was a great challenge. I don't feel shy speaking in public about my research, but even the idea of dancing in public made me nervous. So I decided I had to do it, just to overcome my fears. It wouldn't really matter if I would look stupid or if I couldn't keep up the correct rythm. I would do it or myself.

And so I was one of the six persons of my group dancing in public. I'm so happy I did it! We weren't perfect, but I think no one noticed our little mistakes, because we were so happy and had lots of energy. At least we got lots of aplauses. I felt really good afrterwards, even though I think those were the quickest 4:30 minutes of my life (the presentation seemed to pass so quickly that I was almost disapointed when we had to stop dancing).

Shocked

I wanted to write about the Day of the Dead Celebrations here in Mexico, but I'm too shocked and it really doesn't seem apropiate right now.

Yesterday, while I was waiting for the first results on the presidential elections of the U.S., suddenly there were thes extra news on an airplane accident. The small plane that carried the Mexican Secretary of the Interior and some other civil cervants had crashed in the street in the center of the Mexico City. The people in the plane died immediately and the were other victims - at least 5 - that had been on the street. And at least 40 persons got injured, as there was a huge fire. Luckily the plane didn't crash into any of the high buildings there are near, the damages could have been even worse.

The accident happened only about 30 metres from the Finnish Embassy. Yesterday I still thought "Well, at least no one should have been in the Embassy that late". But I just heard that a a Finnish friend was just leaving the building when the plane crashed and she's now in hospital. I really hope she gets well soon.

Skeletons and trees of life

I'm still alive... I have thought about many things to write about, but I just haven't gotten into it lately. Well, I'll try to get more active again. And I will write about my trip to Finland too, but not now.

On Friday a friend of mine invited me with her to Metepec, a village near Mexico City. It's known for its crafts, mainly pottery. I have never been there before, so it was a nice day trip. As my friend needed to buy things for a restaurant in Finland, we spent the whole day looking for different kinds of ceramics.

We found some very nice places. I especially loved the Ortega family's workshop. The place itself was very beautiful, with pottery all over. They had even decorated the ground with it.

The main themes in the pottery in this village are trees of life and different kinds of skeletons, like the Catrinas (elegant skeleton ladies). Also the Ortegas had there workshop full of them. I liked a lot for example this Noah’s ark tree of life, which was about 75 cm high and had taken them more than a month to make.

I fell in love with this lovely lady, although unfortunately I couldn’t take her home.

Although there were so many lovely things, I only bought two gifts and well… these boxes for myself. You’ll see them in the future here, after I have the time to decorate them.


I have finished some things too, like a cable sweater for myself and a hummingbird themed yarn painting, but you'll see them later.