Happy Holidays | Boas Festas

These are my wishes for all of you for the upcoming holidays. I´ll be doing what I like to do most for Christmas: sitting by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, chatting with family and friends and playing with my niece. May your Christmas be as sweet as you want it to be and see you again in 2009!

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De malas (quase) feitas para as férias e a visita à família, quero desejar a todos quantos me visitam muito boas festas. Obrigada por visitarem este blog e espero que o continuem a fazer em 2009!

Last week was the Handicrafts Fair (Feria de Artesanías de Buenos Aires) at La Rural, Buenos Aires. I´m not a big fan of joining crowds for shopping so I managed to visit it during an unsuspicious Thursday early afternoon. I could cruise the fair´s aisles without much trouble and found some interesting knitting-related objects.

(On a side note, found other objects too and finished my Christmas shopping!)

My most precious find there were these sets of double pointed needles in wood. They are incredibly soft and I´m looking forward to using them in the future. I also bought wool - there wasn´t a huge alternative when it came to wool but it was certainly easier to find good quality, naturally dyed wool there than it is on our local yarn shops. Sad but true, they are mostly stocked with acrylics and acrylic blends, and pure wool is hard to find.

So, armed with a bit more wool for my stash and four sets of wooden dpns, I left the fair feeling that my future knitting will be even more pleasant than it has been so far.

See more photos here.

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Uma expedição à Feira de Artesanato de Buenos Aires revelou-se bastante produtiva não só em matéria de presentes de Natal (completei a lista de presentes!) como também me permitiu encontrar alguns pequenos tesouros deste grande país que, infelizmente, não se encontram nas lojas normais.

No rol dos tesouros relacionados com o tricot, comprei quatro conjuntos de agulhas em madeira, todos de duas pontas, para tricotar meias ou mangas (na verdade, para tricotar "tubos"). As agulhas são extraordinariamente macias e espero ansiosamente terminar o que estou a tricotar agora (mais um presente de Natal) para começar algum par de meias que requeira tais ferramentas.

Também comprei lã de ovelha, bastante macia, fiada e tingida à mão com corantes naturais, da província de Catamarca. Perguntei se vendiam estas lãs em Buenos Aires sem ser na feira e... não, não, só por atacado e sobretudo para empresas na Patagónia! E assim se explica porque é que por cá as lojas têm, sobretudo, acrílicos e pouco mais, o que é uma pena. Guardei contudo os contactos dos produtores porque alguns deles fazem vendas por correio, o que sempre constitui uma alternativa à oferta local, já que a Argentina produz lã de primeira qualidade.

Mais fotografias das lãs e das agulhas, aqui.

ev+pp new website | novo website ev+pp

ev+pp arquitectos is an an architects´ studio here in Buenos Aires. They commissioned me to redesign their website and it is now online.

Programming by QB9.

See more here.

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O novo site do atelier de arquitectura ev+pp, de Buenos Aires, já está acessível. O redesign foi feito por mim e a programação pelos QB9.

Mais imagens aqui.

Claudine Caron

I made this illustration back in 2000, to send as a thank you to a friend who hosted me in the friendliest manners. She wasn´t expecting me, to tell you the truth: I was travelling with my two good friends, who are actually related to her, from the south of France back to Lisbon. We stopped on the way, just before the border with Spain, to visit her and spend the night at her beautiful home.

Well, I felt a bit of an intruder at the beginning but this feeling quickly faded away with her warm way of welcoming us, the amazing time we had during and after dinner, the sound night´s sleep hearing the Atlantic just outside the window and the comforting breakfast the following day.

During those few hours I felt my life changing a bit, as I was going through a difficult period in my life and Claudine suggested that light was in a lot more places than I could see at the moment. It was beautiful, ephemeral and life-changing.

Claudine passed away this week. I never saw her again, but never forgot her either. This is my hommage to her memory.

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Em português, aqui.

News on the knitting front | Novidades de tricot

Last week I finished the legwarmers I knitted for my niece,



the ones matching this beret:



I think she will now be ready to face the cold weather expected for Christmas! The pattern is Dancing Legwarmers, here, although I reduced the size to fit my niece´s legs.

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Terminei as caneleiras para a minha sobrinha, caneleiras essas que fazem conjunto com a boina que tricotei antes. A receita é "Dancing Legwarmers", disponível aqui.

Ah, a garota, agora sim!, está preparada para o Inverno... (as luvas ficam para a próxima!)

Countdown for the holidays | Contagem decrescente

Last week was hectic! I´m glad it is over and that I managed to deliver the two most urgent projects on time, but I still had to make it a bit into Saturday to finish things. Fortunately we had a long weekend, as yesterday was a public holiday here in Argentina (it was a holiday in Portugal too, so it was actually fun to have a holiday simultaneously).

One of the projects mentioned above involved Blurb. The ease of the service really surprised me (hey, I come from a traditionally bureaucratic country and live in an even worse one!). I didn´t use their own software for the design part as it seemed a bit limited compared to the professional software I usually use - which is logical, of course - so I designed everything elsewhere and imported it into their own software. The only real hurdle on the whole process was that I had to export my layout as a .pdf, then convert it into .jpg or .png (I used the latter format) and then import those files (one per page) into Booksmart. I read their forum and everyone is saying the same: please accept pdf files directly into Booksmart! It will be a time-saver and it will definitely improve workflow.

Otherwise, working with Blurb was a smooth experience. I´m looking forward to seeing the results!

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A contagem decrescente até ao Natal é sempre agitada, já que toda a gente quer ter os seus projectos terminados antes do fim do ano. Por isso, a semana passada foi muito ocupada e deu à justa para terminar os dois trabalhos mais urgentes que tinha.

Para um deles recorri ao site Blurb, onde se pode produzir livros de qualidade, sem limite mínimo de exemplares. Devo dizer que fiquei surpreendida com a facilidade com que as coisas se processam - e os preços são bem convidativos! Como entregam os livros tanto em Portugal como cá na Argentina, penso que o vou usar mais vezes.

A única parte menos boa no processo - pelo menos para um designer profissional - é que o software próprio que disponibilizam, o Booksmart, é um pouco limitado nas suas opções. Contudo, é possível fazer o trabalho todo no programa com que trabalhamos habitualmente e importá-lo posteriormente para o Booksmart. Aqui, a única crítica é que no processo de importação dos ficheiros é preciso passá-los de .pdf (formato de exportação do programa em que paginei o livro) para .jpg ou .png, e só posteriormente colocar página por página no software Blurb.

Li instruções e comentários dos utilizadores e todos concordam neste assunto: quando o Booksmart aceitar o formato .pdf para importação, então trabalhar com o Blurb vai ser mesmo uma maravilha!

Estou ansiosa por ver o livro impresso!

Time Freeze in Macau

A friend of mine pointed me to this video. This happened in Macau, last week. You may be asking yourself what´s so odd or mentionworrthy about it, and my answer would be "try to find Macau on a map".

I´m happy to see the city where I lived for nine years, even if it is only through a video.Yay!