Electric Blues Mittens

After some months of labour, voilá the blue mittens I have been making.

The yarn:
Sisu by Sandnesgarn 80% norwegian wool and 20% nylon
and
Kid Merino by Crystal Palace Yarn (for the fury look)

The Pattern:
Drops Design's last winter collection


The Result:

(ok, ignore the fact that the pictures could be much better and consider I have not had a moment of good natural daylight for a long time)


The soft rainbow pullover has issues. Hopefully will be sorted out in Portugal and so I will be able to post the complete and final project. Oh, and the greek cotton pink top/tunic is also under way.

That's the state of the knitting drawer these days....

Mandara Mountains, Cameroon

Today I finished watching "Chocolat" 1988 by Claire Denis, a movie about the life of a family in northernn Cameroon during the last years of French colonial rule. The film is no doubt complex, well-done, captivating, controversial and very very beautiful.

What I cannot get out of my mind are the landscapes, the scenery surrounding the characters. This film has pherhaps the most beautiful shots of mountains that I have ever seen. It is my kind of place: dry, flat yellow fields and then, mountains. Pieces of rock one could marvel at for a life-time, to try to figure out the secret the monolith seems to keep. To try to understand how did such greatness come into existence. The landscape of peaceful comtemplation, of tension and of beauty. The film could not have a better location.



After some reseach I discovered the mountains are the Mandara Mountains, a volcanic range between Northern Cameroon and Nigeria. They are off the tourist track (which does not include Cameroon for a start) and are well known for their rich cultural and environmental value.

It takes less than 600 euros to fly from Lisbon to Cameroon and back, by Marroc Air. I think one could probably get around with a working knowledge of French (at least in the bigger centers).

Some day, some day soon, I am going to the Mandara Mountains. I will go to Cameroon.

Portrait of a junkie

When you describe yourself in the first day of class as a "Political junkie", when you stutter apparently out of excitement, tremble enought to take you half an hour to turn a page, have your eyes open (no blinking) for over 5 minutes, gesticulate in discordinated manner, jump in the direction of the people you are speaking to and cannot stop shaking,

... maybe Politics is not the only thing you are getting high on.

Knitting is sexy!

Knitting and crochet : associated with grandmothers and unnatractive middle aged women with nothing better to do.

I say: wrong! And I ask: cna knitting be sexy?
You bet!

If not, take a look at the designs I found on a Brazilian website:


And it comes with instructions....

More patterns:




Take that, stereotype!

Bring back the Spice Girls

So, let us skip over Christmas, NEw Years and all that.

Over the last weeks I have gathered a number of concerns. Here they come then.

First, PLEASE bring back the Spice Girls. Let me contextualize the claim.

Some weeks ago I came accross a channel airing "Hannah Montana", the show. After 3 minutes I felt itchy all over and had a small "ihhhhhh" sound on my head. It was that annoying. Then, after some days I get "Party in the USA" the viodeclip, thrown at me on another channel. That is when I decided to by the vintage radio that is now my company and joy. Back to topic, I had a chance to share a couple of days of the holiday celebration with a lovely little girl that I've known for a while. She is quite bright. I thaught her how to knit and told her about Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. You can imagine my surprise when she tells me how Hannah Montana is her idol, the highest exponent of her world, values, wishes and desires.

Troubled I cmae home and asked myself (and my mom, who has a better memory) what silly pop songs did I like when I was 6. One answer: the Spice Girls. We loved them back then. The ice-breaker in kindergarden was: "Which of the Spice Girls would you like to be?". Time for a comparative study. I watched numerous videoclips, listened to interviews, etc. Then I put "Party in the USA" on. Seriously: bring back the Spice Girls!!!

1 - They had awesome clothes, outrageous, creative. The platform shoes.... We dreamed of those shoes! This other character/person dresses like she is either going to the super maket, or she is going to work at some dubious bar where old truck drivers stare at the waitresses.

2- Her dad! Always everywhere ... it is weird, and disturbing. The Spice Girls were those independent grown up people.

3- The Spice Girls didn't just sing on stage, they shocked, they challenged, they were loud, they were eccentric, they were theatrical . Myley Cryus is boring and the example of american teen conformity....

4- The Spice Girls were sexy and they were old enough to drink. They had short skirts and thight outfits and they were totally in charge of what was going on. This other comtemporary pseudo-star is so little, fragile, YOUNG, and slutty.

5 - Spice Girls imagine = "girl power", friendship, originality, different personalities (their alter-egos were the embodiment of that diversity). Hannah Montana: mid west America, being nice, friendly, "dreams can come true"... give a break.

6 - the ultimate argument: what kind of name is Hannah Montana???????


So, please, bring back the SPICE GIRLS, so that this new generation of little girls can look up to some slightly more interesting pop singers.

And, by the way, Geri was my favourite.