Lots of Little Houses

The outbuildings on this side are coming along nicely; I should have them done soon.

Lady Browning

Brown, brown, brown, brown... still going on brown.  Mainly, I did the flounce on the right.

Performances - Murga and Humorista - February 13th

I think it's a requirement that murgas have to dress up like Italians at Carnaval.  They are, basically, a capella singing groups and based on the traditions there.  When you don't understand Spanish, though, ten minutes is about all you can take before boredome steps in. 

And these are the humoristas.  They were pretty good, and I wish I remembered their names, but I don't.  Anyway, they had a girl!  And she was the main singer for them!

Toque Done

The top half of this third jellyfish looks a lot like a knitted toque now that I've got it done.  I've started the underbelly and will hopefully have it finished when I get back to it next week.

Sixth Square

Sixth square done, I'm only eight behind... on the other hand, I really do like the combination of threads and fabric I picked for it.

Madame Gotica February 13 - Part 2

More Madame Gotica photos.  They were onstage for a full hour, so there's a lot to show!

I think it's a requirement that each dance group have a primitive-themed dance.  At least, each one that I've seen does.

This is where The Electric Company's outfits went when the show was cancelled by PBS.  I always wondered.

And this was part of the finale.  You can see videos of some of the performances and such at http://www.carnavaldeluruguay.com/.  It's a fan site where they post all the information about Uruguay's Carnaval - in Spanish, of course.  Google Translate works pretty well on it, though.

Carnaval Performances- Madame Gotica - February 13 - Part 1

So yes, this is the kind of woman's costume one expects at Carnaval in South America.  The group is Madame Gotica, a revista.  Revistas are dance review groups.  They're the only category in competition here who do more dancing than the jiggle wiggle, and they're pretty good too!

I am certain I saw this print at Target last summer...

And the show goes on despite a wardrobe malfunction mid-dance.  They are on the stage for a full hour, and go through six or seven costume changes.  It's got to be exhausting.  None of these people are professional dancers, either.

Two shots in one!  One person caught mid-jump and a tower being made.   I have more pictures of this group to put up.  I just thought six was enough for one post.

Made for Ginny

Since she got it yesterday, I'm able to post pictures of the temari I made for Ginny in the Lunar New Year GITS.  It's one of lunar new year colors - red, gold, white and green.  The red isn't Christmas or bright red like usual, though.  I used Claret Watercolours from Caron.  I think it came out pretty well, and she says she likes it along with my explanation of the symbology I used.

A New and Mottled Heart

I'm stitching another heart for Hilfe fuer Kranke Kinder.  This one's by Asya, who's six.  His is rather colorful and with interlacing colors.

My First

I now own my first temari made by someone else.  I LOVE it!  It was made by Ginny in New York, and I got it because I participated in the Lunar New Year Great International Temari Swap in the TemariKai Yahoo group.  She was my partner.  I normally hate orange, but this just glows and it's sooooo pretty in person!  I'll treasure it always.  It also gives me reason to participate in more swaps of temari.

Ginny also sent me a temari-themed badge holder and a pen with Temari is a Ball on it.  They're so cute, and since I now have to wear a badge every so often, I'll use the holder.  Thank you Ginny, you've made my first temari swap so much fun, despite my anxiety about not being good enough.

Shuttering Up

This week it was the middle shutter, all green.  I put in three needlesful in two colors.  The break from just earth tones is kind of nice.

Still Crossing

I haven't broken down and done any of the specialty stitches yet.  The skeleton for them out of cross stitches is coming along pretty well, at least.

Still No Purple

More done on the piece, but no purple.  I added a lot of light green, though.

Asian Round Robin - Nicki's Block

Here's Nicki's block before I worked on it.  As you can see, I was the first!  I also decided not to do the obvious fan or geisha - to leave them for someone else.

And here's a picture after what I've done.  I made rickshaw wheels in the right upper corner, added a Buddha medallion, did some seams, and also did some maple leaves.  I hope she likes it.

Momosapiens First Round

Here are some pictures of the Momosapiens parodista group in their first round competition in Teatro Verano a week ago.  The light blue, yellow and white are the Uruguayan national colors.  Some of the performance was the same as what they showed us at the Marine House, but they had to do a full, nonstop seventy minutes for the competition.

Twenty Parts Done

I finally finished the part of the kaleidoscope mandala I was working on.  It took a lot longer than usual.  I don't know if it was because it was so much more stitching or if it was because I was busy with Carnaval.  Anyway, twenty squares done and a lot more to go.

Starting the Zigzag

I started the zigs and zags to make the rectangles of the piece this week.  I decided to do this to make sure the counting's correct before I go any farther.

One World One Heart Winners

I drew the winners for my One World One Heart giveaway on Monday morning, Uruguay time.  All have been notified and two of the prizes are already in the mail.  Congratulations to mitz_zee (Wishing Ewe ornament), Susan (birds at the shore print) and craftytokyomomma (bargello ornament).

Thursday's Murgas

Murgas are a capella-ish singing groups that perform during Carnaval.  They consist of between twenty and thirty singers, a leader, two drummers and a cymbalist.  We saw two murga groups perform last Thursday.  This first one - I'm not sure if their costumes were supposed to be borg or homeless people or what.  They sang well, though.

This is a better picture of those costumes.

And this picture and the next are during the same group performing a song about showering in less than four minutes.  Really.

Here's a picture of the second group of Thursday evening.  They were, I believe, the better performers.  They also had a woman singing in there!  I'm not at all sure why the troupe leader is dressed as a Yanomamo, though.  At least it was a body stocking!

Just Peachy

I did peaches this week.  The building has a lot of them.  It looks like next time is starting another green shutter.

Biscornu Stitched

I finished stitching the two biscornu this week!  I'm going to let someone else put them together so I don't mess up on my first time.  Anyway, here are the pictures.

Teatro Verano - Tronar de Tambores

The Teatro Verano is host, during all of Carnaval, to the official performance competitions.  We went to see some on Thursday and again last night.  All these pictures are from Thursday, and there are four acts. 

First group up was a lubolos group.  That meant drums and a full hour on stage.

Here's a good-ish picture of the drummers behind the central figure of the story.  If the constumes look familiar, this group marched in the parade I did pictures of last week.

Political correctness hasn't found its way to Uruguay's Carnaval.  All through the parade and in some of the performances we saw these Mammy and Pappy couples dancing.  They just seem to mill around.

This is a picture of the female dancer from a really badly danced sex scene in this group.  She wasn't the problem - it was the guy.  He was old, had to suck in his gut, and had the emotional range of a stick of wood.  Anyway, the photo's pretty.

Lots of jiggle wiggle dancing on the stage.  It seems to be the one step all Uruguayan women know how to do.  It was also the only step exhibited by the women of  this group.  Well, they exhibited a lot of their bodies, too.

More jiggle wiggle and lots of feathers.

More of the panoply.