Doctor Colibridreams, I presume?

I wanted to blog about my graduation, and show you some pictures of the exam (and mostly, the graduation shawl I knitted). But. All the pics - except the above pic of the lovely roses he gave me - are in boyfriends computer and apparently it is very difficult to send them to me... Yes, I took the exam in the end of March and yes, I have been constantly reminding him of sending me the pics. So, if I waited to get the photos, this blog might be silent for a long, long time.

But - the good news is, I'm a doctor in Latin American studies! I was so happy to finish the studies. The last months before March I kind of hated my thesis, I was so tired of it already. Don't get me wrong - I still love my research subject and plan to write about it more and go on with the research at some point. I just had enough of the thesis and didn't want to work with it anymore, even though I knew it could have been better.

The exam went fine. Well, one of the Committee members was really hard on me. But I already had seen it coming, so it was no surprise. Besides, I know that she is kind of crazy and was pissed of with me for personal reasons. She bashed my work because I hadn't cited her enough (I don´t think there is much to cite, really). So when she tried to question and criticize me, I didn't feel nervious, because I could despise her. I can't really respect her as an academic because the reason she was so difficult with me before and during the exam, is mostly vanity on her part.

Well, the good thing I don't have to try to cope with her anymore. And if I ever have to work with her again, at least it will be on completely different basis, as iguals.

For now, I'm quite happy to work outside the University. It's good to see the "real life" too, although my plan is to go back at some moment. I might be giving some lectures next semester, but that will be something extra, in addition to my real life work.

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!

Grand opening!

Are you looking for handmade Christmas gifts? Here's something for everyone who loves animals!

Rosie, the knitted elephant

I have opened my second Etsy shop, Colibriknits for knitted toys and decorations made from my own patterns. Every toy is unique and has it's own story.

I'm also having an opening sale during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, so until the end of Monday 29th of November you can get a 10% discount on everything. Just use the OPENINGSALE coupon code, and you will get the discount.

Hugo, the knitted bear.

Oscar, the knitted wolf

Amelia, the knitted wolf

Aslak, the knitted reindeer.

Knut, the knitted polar bear.

I'm adding constantly more toys, so be sure to check it often!

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!

Climbing to the highest top (or so we thought)

In January it was our fourth aniversary (well, actually we have been together longer, but we use as our aniversary the day I moved to Mexico four years ago). We celebrated it with a good dinner and a day trip to Nevado de Toluca, an extinct volcano near quite near here.

We left home early, because we thought we woudn't be the only ones to visit the national park on a sunny Sunday. All seemed to go well until about 40 km before the volcano. The signs for the park are quite badly placed, but we managed to find the right way anyway and thought we would arrive early. Well, we were wrong. The road to Nevado was in bad shape and there was a huuuuuge line of cars. The last 30 something kilometres took us no less than two hours! Some idiots had decided to park their cars on the road that already was very narrow, so at some points only one car could pass. The scenenary was pretty, though.


The national park has a parking lot that was full of people already when we finally got there. Even though lots of people visit the place, the parking lot is really badly organized. There are no maps of the walking routes, for example, and no one to ask for either. We wanted to climb to the crater, because I had heard there's a lovely lake in there. Because there were no signs, we just started to follow a path lots of people seemed to use. I'm not quite sure how high the parking lot is (the highest point of the volcano is about 4600 metres, so I guess the parking place must be at over 3000 metres), but after a while, the thin air made me feel bad. My lungs hurt and I started to feel dizzy. Luckily, after resting a while and drinking water I was good to go again. It was strange though, because when we climbed more, I didn't feel the altitude dizziness anymore.


The path passes though a lovely pine forest to the mountain meadows.


I was so happy with the snow! I've missed it. There were also these strange dry flowers.


The shortest way to the crater - climb right up, right?


And so we climbed...

And climbed... At some point my feet just came out on a strike and just wouldn't move. It was not so much that they felt tired or anything, they just refused to take a step even I was telling them to. One step at a time... There's only a little left...



Or so we thought. When we got to the top, we (and everyone who got there) just screamed "Oh noooo!" Because instead of the seeing the crater and the lake in front of our eyes, we saw this:


We probably could have gotten to the crater too, but by the time we were up, it was already almost 4 o'clock and the park closes at 5. There was no way we could have reached the crater and got back to our car in time. So we just ate our lunch, watched the lovely scenes and when we got cold - it was really windy up there, even the sun was shining so hot - we just decided to go back.
Later we heard that if we had walked the old road instead of climbing the paths, we would have probably reached the crater in time. But well, I think the trip was worth it anyway. I loved being in the nature, smelling the fresh air and exercising. We were really tired when we got home, but it was such a lovely day! And a perfect day to go, because there were no clouds at all (guess who got sunburned...).

The only thing we didn't like was the organization of the park. It sucks. The roads are bad (it also took hours to get away from the park, because of the traffic jams caused by non existent organization). The services in the park are really bad too. It's a shame, because it's such a beautiful place and with a bit of work, the locals could get some extra income and the national park could be better protected. But it seems that the state's governor is more interested in glueing his government propanganda everywhere telling what they supposedly have done, instead of actually doing anything.

Coming back

It's hard to start writing after a long pause. Actualy, I have been thinking about writing here for a long time. I just haven't done it. I partly blame writer's block and partly thesis...

I also wasn't sure if to start blogging again about a trip to a volcano or about knitting. Well, even though some of you might prefer the volcano, you'll get knitting pictures for now. There are less pictures of my projects than of the volcano, so it's simply easier. But I promise the volcano pics later!

Even though the thesis has kept me really busy, I have had time to knit too. Maybe it's more like I have taken my time to knit too, it helps me keep sane with all the stress with the thesis. Now more than ever it's really nice to see something concrete to get finished...

This stole I already finished on November to use it in a wedding.

Snowball

Pattern: Melon Stichs shawl/stole from Victorian Lace today
yarn: Lana Stop Reina, less than 50g
needles: 4 mm


I like it a lot, but unfortunately the blocking didn't make it as wide as I had hoped for, so it didn't cover me as much as it should have. This winter I have used it a lot as a scarf though - it's so lovely and light. It was the first time I knit mohair yarn, and I liked it.

Then there's of course the Great Christmas Present for boyfriend that I started in August and finished 24th of December (in the morning, may I say!). Yes, a crocheted blanket.


Otoño blanket
yarn: Novita Puro 2050g, Katia Azteca about 50g, and Ecologico Camel about 130g)
hook: 5mm

It's called "Otoño" or Autumn, because the colours remind me of, well, autumn. It was fun to make (but not to sew together). I just crocheted different sizes of granny squares and then in the end decided how to combine them. I hadn't crocheted in a loong time, but have to say it's quite addictive! I like the rythm of it.

I used mainly Puro yarn, but as my dear boyfriend demanded (as a joke, it results) that he wanted the blanket for his king size bed, I ran out of yarn. That's why I also used a bit of Katia Azteca for some squares and Ecologico Camel for the edge.

I love it and have to say that it was hard to part with, even though it went for boyfriend. I especially missed the blanket during the really cold days of late December and January. But well, when we'll move in together, it will be mine again! Eh, I mean... I can use it. ;-)