Handavinnublogg

The year 2011 in knits - Part 4

2012-01-28T09:02:00.006-05:00

I've not quite forgotten this series. Here is the next project. It's a bathmat. Not just any bathmat, but the great Absorba bathmat of Mason-Dixon fame. I'd wanted to make this bathmat since the book came out, but double worsted Peaches'n Creme is hard to come by. You have to order it from the producer and when they were going out of business I figured this was my last chance to make the bathmat out of the yarn it was designed with. It didn't hurt that there was a 50% off sale to get rid of inventory!

The pattern is knit in the log-style knitting Mason-Dixon made so popular, but with double worsted (ca. bulky weight) cotton yarn held triple! Triple! The fabric is thick and squishy and I love it. I even have yarn for another one! Hopefully that will be knit sooner rather than later.

I learned how to do a version of double knitting where you slip the stitch in the back while you knit the stitch in the front so you can knit a tube back and forward. This is really neat for small circumferences, like these soap sweaters. I made 3 pairs of soap sweaters and granny dishcloths for gifts. Very quick project and makes a nice present for someone. I only took a picture of one of the soap sweaters and here it is:

The next project I finished in 2011 actually got it´s very own blog post. It's a pink wool dress blogged right here.

The yellow jacket

2012-01-22T17:13:00.007-05:00

I was very excited about this one jacket called the Sunrise Circle Jacket. I even had my mom send me plötulopi to make it out of. Apparently, I started it in November 2008. That's over three years ago! I worked on it for a while, finished the back, but then it hibernated for a bit. It came out of hibernation in 2009, and I made one sleeve (and front) before it hibernated again. I finally finished the second sleeve and front in September 2010. That was 1 and a half a year ago. I had started to sew it up when I stopped and set it aside.

I figured I didn't have much work left and that it was silly to let this jacket lay in the closet when I could very well need a nice and warm jacket in dead of winter. So yesterday I decided to take it out and see how the pieces fit. First I noticed that the back wasn't all the way done and then I noticed that the two shoulders were far from being even (see the photo below).

Actually, on of the shoulders was much bigger than the other. The two red lines should be the same size in the photo below.

After looking at it and pondering this for a while I noticed that the gauge was hugely different from one piece to the other. It obviously doesn't pay to do one part one year and the other the next! In the photo below the blue and the red box are the same size and you can see the difference in the gauge.

So what to do, what to do!!!!

After talking it over with my mom, I think that the best solution is to frog the bigger half and try to re-knit it, or frog the entire thing and use the yarn for something else!

p.s. this is approximately how it should look. So close, yet so far away!

The year 2011 in knits - Part 3

2012-01-05T19:46:00.002-05:00

Next up are 3 little fun projects that I just had a blast doing. They are all from the same book: Amigurumi knits. I can't believe I never blogged about these. They are the perfect blog fodder!

The first one was a cucumber (Ravelry link). It must have looked very yummie, because the dog ended up 'eating' it.

The second one was an earthworm (Ravelry link).

I actually made two earthworms, one for my kids and the other for a birthday gift for friend's son along with a kids' fishing pole.

The third was a garlic(Ravelry link). Obviously the dog doesn't like garlic because this one has been completely untouched unlike the cucumber - or could it be because it's made out of acrylic while the cucumber is made out of wool!

The year 2011 in knits - Part 2

2012-01-03T19:48:00.005-05:00

Ahem, in my last post I was chronologically showing you my projects from last year, but I discovered I have finished 3 projects before the socks I started the first post with.

The first project of 2011 was started on Jan 1st and finished the next day. It was a dishcloth that was gifted before I remembered to take a picture. It was a dishcloth based on the granny dishcloth but with a twist. The pattern is from Ravelry. I used Sugar n'cream in 'warm brown' apparently. This project was 'obviously' not blogged (since I didn't even take a picture).

My next project was fun. It got a life of its own and ended up as Oscar (ravelry link), the e-reader (Kobo) cover. Oscar was blogged here.

Oscar was a rectangle knit out of Lorna's laces Shepherd Worsted in seed stitch (alternate knit and purl). He is very soft.

So far, these were small quick projects I left out, but the last one was neither. It was Tomten for my daughter. The yarn was plötulopi (icelandic unspun wool) held double and most of it was gifted to my by a dear knitting friend in a birthday game in 2008. I don't know who loved this yarn more, me or my dog, she chewed it at every opportunity.

The tomten was blogged and here is the ravelry link.

The Year 2011 in knits - Part 1

2012-01-02T12:49:00.005-05:00

I can't say I was a prolific blogger in the year 2011. From Ravelry, I count 40 projects I finished in the year 2011. Although these are mostly small projects, it's a lot more than I made in 2010. However, I only had 24 blog posts in 2011, so a lot fell between the cracks.

The first project I finished in 2011 was blogged. It was the socks Sam by Cookie A (ravelry link). Made out of yarn I had previously knit up in a shawl, but resused and some yarn from a friend of mine (see if you can see it in the picture).

Next project was about 7 potholder (counts as 7 in the total number of projects), 5 of which were used for the 2011 Crochet Potholder exchange. The yarn was sport weight mercerized cotton, Reynolds Saucy Sport, which has since been discontinued :( This project was blogged and here is the ravelry link.

The next project was not blogged. It is a sweater called A by Védís Jónsdóttir from Lopi 26, made out of plötulopi (unspun icelandic wool) held triple on huge needles. Very quick project (took only a week), and the shoulder decreases are very interesting. This sweater was made from my coworker who is always cold and ordered the yarn from Iceland for me to make it. A knitter can't resist to knit for someone that's perpetually cold. (Ravelry link)

The next project is one that I've used quite a bit even if it's fingerless mittens. I never took a picture of the finished product, but they match a shawl I made in 2010. I actually have accessories that match! Public Ravelry link but no blog post.

I did blog about the next project, but I never told you I made 2 more. Perfect project to learn knitting backwards. Ravelry 1, Ravelry 2 and Ravelry 3.

This is enough for now. I want to get back to my crochet blanket (afghan for some people) which is almost done!

The Surprise Wash Cloth

2011-11-07T21:08:00.004-05:00

I ordered yarn form Elann.com at one point. One of the yarn was a skein of 100% linen called Linus.

Last spring I needed a quick take-along project to work on while waiting for the kids while they had their activities. I grabbed this skein of Linus and started a crochet washcloth where I did every row with a single crochet (sc) through the back loop of the previous row. The idea was to get a washcloth with a texture. Then I did 'crab stitch' around. Crab stitch is basically backwards 'single crochet' worked from left to right, while crochet normally goes from right to left. This is an excellent edging stitch for crocheted objects.

I made the washcloth last May, but for some reason I never actually did the finishing until couple of weeks ago (October 23rd according to Ravelry). This is what it looked like when I was done:

I used it the next day in the shower and something strange happened. The washcloth grew longways! It did not retain any of the structure but just stretched out and became flat! Completely flat! It was a joy to use though and felt great on the skin.

It's been washed now and it even more soft than before (the yarn is barely spun and therefore soft for a linen yarn even as I crochet it up) and it regained a little bit of it's structure but not a lot.

I was excited though. This was a great washcloth material. It felt great and would make a great gift, but I wanted to try different stitch patterns or different gauges etc. My mind was all fired up. Then I tried to find it on Elann's website. No luck :( Turns out the yarn is DISCONTINUED. AAAAARRRRRGGGG!!!!!!!

Of course.

Back to the drawing board.

p.s. if you know of any yarn that I could use instead (and no not Euroflax), please let me know!

Good housekeeping

2011-10-24T21:21:00.003-04:00

I had Thursday and Friday off last week to recuperate after a very busy time at work. By Sunday I felt so much better. I had energy to do things I normally don't on the weekend, like cleaning. Getting my room/craft space in order resulted in me finishing up some small projects that only needed a little bit of work. One was recent (the Lizard Ridge Dishcloth) and two were some I made in May and only had a little bit of finishing left).

One of the patterns made in May was a potholder / hot pad I made from three strands double worsted weight Peaches and Creme. Unfortunately, this yarn had been discontinued, although the worsted weight equivalent is still being produced.

I made them by casting on few stitches and knitting stockinette stitch for a while (knit one row, knit backwards the next). I made it rather long and then folded it in half on the 'wrong' side and sew together. This thing is like an inch thick! It will protect you or your table well from the heat.

The yarn was left over from a project I had just finished at the time (in May 2011): Adsorba from the first Mason-Dixon book.

I never blogged it, but it is super squishy and soft. A dream to step on after a shower or a bath (I'm more of a shower person). When the Peaches and Creme company was bought out, I figured I better order this yarn (double worsted) so I can make this bathmat before it's too late. I'm glad I did, since the yarn was discontinued. The bathmat is made from Hunter (dark green), celery (light green) and white. I was originally going to get off-white, but they were out of that color, but I'm glad, because the white really makes the other colors pop, whereas the off-white would have made the colors more blend. I bought three other colors, dark and light gray and yellow. Hopefully someday I'll make another Absorba bathmat.

The other project I worked on in May was a linen washcloth. I had gotten the yarn from Elann.com, but sadly it's discontinued. I crochet a square with SC (single crochet - fastapinni) through the back loops to give it more texture.After I had a square, I did a reverse SC on the edges ( crab stitch - krabbahekl) for support since it was rather flimsy. I only had a few crab stitches left because I hadn't secured it well enough and some of the stitches had come undone.

I used it this morning in the shower, and what a luxury. I loved the feel of it and it held the soap very well. But something unexpected happened. It grew! The yarn relaxed so much, I've never seen anything like it.

Perhaps it's because it's linen. Perhaps it's because the yarn is barely spun. Perhaps it's the stitch pattern. Maybe it's all of those things. I wish I could try another stitch pattern or a tighter gauge. I would love more linen washcloths, but unfortunately the yarn has been discontinued.

The final project I finished yesterday (Sunday 10-23-11, 23. október) was another dishcloth I only had a couple of garter stitch rows left on. I saw denim colors of Sugar'n cream yarn - indigo and stonewash - which were irresistible. It's not actually denim yarn (which shrinks and fades with wash), just denim colored yarn, but it's supercool just the same. I made the Lizard Ridge dishcloth pattern, using 'indigo' as the ridges and 'stonewash' as the short-row valleys.

I was looking around for a dishcloth intarsia project to hone my intarsia skills, when I came upon a intarsia 'Dr. Who' pattern of the Tardis. It was designed for exactly the same colors I had in the denim yarn. I got some more of them to be sure I'd have enough and I finished the Tardis pattern a week earlier (Oct 16th) and blogged right away.

If you are a "Dr. Who" fan, you'll think this is super cool. If not, you probably think I'm nuts for knitting a intarsia dishcloth pattern of a Police Box.

Tardis

2011-10-16T17:51:00.003-04:00

If you know what a Tardis is, you'll be thrilled. If you have no idea what a Tardis is you'll be perplexed.

A Tardis is a time-travel machine in the shape of a Police Box, and it's bigger on the inside.

For more information, watch any episode of the British show Dr. Who.

I got the pattern on Ravelry (where else!) and it was knit with Sugar'n Cream dishcloth cotton in Denim colors (Indigo and Stonewash), which incidentally are the recommended colors in the pattern!

This dishcloth will NEVER be used to wash anything.

It was fairly hard to do, including colorwork on the purl side, which was a first for me. I got used to intarsia though when I knit my Stephen West mystery KAL. I actually came across this pattern while looking for intarsia/colorwork dishcloth patterns.

Earth and Sky - Stephen West's Mystery KAL

2011-09-17T16:55:00.007-04:00

I participated in the Mystery KAL organized by Stephen West that took place in August. Since I had over 2 weeks off in August, it was perfect timing for me. I knit at least half of this shawl while I was in Iceland. I finished casting off last Saturday and I blocked it today (also Saturday).

The pattern is called, Earth & Sky, and is supposed to be made with fingering weight yarn. However, I didn't have any fingering weight yarn in 3 colors that I wanted to use for this project. I did however have a lot of Icelandic lace weight yarn, Einband, so I decided to use it with white as the main color and yellow and turquois as extra colors.

This is clue nr. 1:

Already we had intarsia! Yep, this pattern has intarsia in it. It's a very simple intarsia, but intarsia nonetheless. (It's a lot of fun to write the word intarsia).

The clues came every Monday (except for clue number 3 which came on Friday and included the bulk of the knitting). This is clue number 2:

And clue nr. 3:

You could knit the shawl in 3 different sized (small, medium, large) depending on how many repeats of clue 2 and clue 3 you did. It was very tempting to do a large size, since I´ve been wanting a larger shawl and I'd made a good progress while I was in Iceland.

It was not easy to knit this shawl unless you could focus on it and have a lot of space. With the exception of the white stripes, you had 3 balls of yarn going and this yarn (Einband) sticks together like it's made out of Velcro! But I got more and more used to handling the yarn and the yarn tangling up was less and less of an issue. It was never a very portable project though.

Finally, one of me wearing it.

It was a lot of fun participating in this KAL, along with over 2000 other people!

Cooler weather - socks number 4

2011-09-06T20:31:00.005-04:00

Yay. The weather is cooler. Instead of being 28 - 35 °C (82-95F), it's more like 14C (57F) and rainy. We can start wearing our woolly goodies. First wool thing: socks.

I made these socks out of dk/sport weight leftover yarn in July, and now I can finally wear them.

The pattern is 'International Sock of Doom' which was a pattern made for the Sock Wars with the intent of being super quick to knit.

This reminds me that I never finished blogging about the socks I've been knitting this summer, plus lots of other stuff too. These are the 4th pair of socks I've knit since the start of summer out of a total of 5 pairs! Socks are great traveling, summer kind of knitting :)

10 lbs of yarn

2011-09-04T17:02:00.004-04:00

Have you ever wondered how 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of yarn look like?

That's how much yarn I brought back to the US from my trip to Iceland in August.

Here is the plötulopi (unspun Icelandic wool):

I put the yarn in a small suitcase, but didn't end up using that suitcase. It was funny though that it filled up a whole (tiny) suitcase.

Here is the rest of the yarn stacked up:

Here is how it looks all vacuum packed. That's how I fit it all in one suitcase (along with the unspun yarn).

Most of it is Icelandic wool, but a little bit of Norwegian and Danish yarn slipped in too. I have a lot of knitting ahead of me :) Not all the yarn is mine. I bought most of the unspun yarn for my friends in the US.

Finally I have a picture of most of my Icelandic wool stash:

At the top is a blanket (throw) I have in progress made out of Kambgarn, which is Icelandic yarn, although it's not made out of Icelandic wool. It's merino wool, dyed in Iceland.

The top most box is full of Álafoss lopi (10x 100 gr skeins), which is the bulky weight Icelandic wool. The next one has my lace weight yarn (Einband), and the bottom one my plötulopi (the unspun) and létt-lopi (the worsted weight). Good times :)

Westknits Mystery Knits

2011-08-01T22:46:00.002-04:00

I'm so excited. I'm participating in a Mystery knit-a-long (Ravelry link) organized by no other than Stephen West. He has some beautiful shawls out there. His designs are more about color and texture and less about lace and delicacy.

You can follow both the knit-a-long and other Westknits news on the Westknits fan Ravelry group. The first clue of the KAL came out today (it's not too late to start!). I'm using einband (Icelandic lace weight) with white as the main color and yellow and turquoise as the accent colors. I have no idea how it's going to come out but I can't wait to see.

I finished off the first clue earlier tonight, but when I checked in on the spoiler thread in the Ravelry group, I noticed I'd made a mistake. It's easy to fix it though and I'm almost done.

Husband Hat

2011-07-24T10:51:00.004-04:00

Few weeks ago, at the start of summer, end of spring, my husband asked for two things of me: a knitted hat and felted slippers. He's had hats before, but has the habit of washing them until they can fit the kids, and then even more! He's also had couple of pairs of felted slippers before, but worn them through. He really loves these things and uses them a lot in the winter time.

My go-to pattern for felted slippers is from a Norwegian booklet for knitted/crochet items for Christmas presents, and I've made them about dozen times. The yarn that is required is a heavy worsted and although I have substituted it in the past, I like to use the original yarn. It's hard to come by in the US and so are any other heavy worsted yarns. I'm not inspired to use any of my leftover stash for this project so I've decided to get the yarn (Fritidsgarn) in Iceland when I visit in August. Fritidsgarn is ideal for felting and will make hard wearing slippers (even for my husband). Here is a blog post where I show unfelted slippers, probably the last pair I made for my husband.

I've been inspired lately to use my leftover stash, especially since I took over the kid's play room. I looked at my leftover worsted weight yarn, which I don't have a lot of in wool yarn, but I managed to find some colors that would look good on a hat for a grown man.

The pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and it called "Kim's Hats". I used 5.5 mm needles (two circular) and started out with the man's size, but it was coming out too wide, so I started over with the woman's size. I made a garter stitch black ribbing in the bottom, then stockinette gray-black-gray stripe combo and worked the top decreases in black. I made the hat shorter than in the pattern so it comes out as a beanie. Originally, my husband was dead set on ear flaps, but he seems to like the hat quite well as it is ;)

The black yarn is left over from a hat I made for my uncle. Him and Clint were close when we lived in Iceland, and his health has deteriorated in the years since we moved away and I quite like this connection between my husband's hat and my uncle's. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to have blogged about the hat (it was a Christmas gift), but here is the Ravelry link. The two shades of gray come from a vest I knit with lopi yarn I got last time I was in Iceland (2,5 years ago!).

I think the hat looks great (especially in person, it looks a lot more bland in the photos) and the last photo shows him wearing it, with artwork we got as a wedding present (almost 10 years ago) in the background.

LOVE

Sock Saga - Pair number 1

2011-07-23T14:08:00.003-04:00

Now it is getting close to the end of July, but this story begins in May. The first installment of the Saga is about the first pair of socks I made in a series of sock knitting that took place from end of May until . I have my trusty ol' Ravelry to help me remembering the details since some of this knitting took place 'long' time ago ;)

The first pairs of socks I made were for my (almost) 8 year old daughter Kamilla. I named them 'Yankee Socks' on Ravelry, since she was playing in Rookie league (baseball) and her team was called the Yankees. Serendipitously, the Yankees played in blue uniforms (T-shirts and baseball caps) and I got blue striped (light and dark blue) yarn at the library's yarn swap, and blue is her favorite color! To top it off, I knit on the socks while watching her play baseball.

At first I tried to swing it, starting from toe-up, which is my favorite way to do socks. Especially when you are not exactly following a pattern because you increase for the toe until you have enough stitches to go around the foot. It's very straight forwards. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've knitted socks, so I was a bit rusty on the increases as well as the cast-on. I then turned to the trusted Ann Budd, who made a pattern for Interweave Knits in the Summer 2007 issue about toe-up socks starting with the Turkish cast-on (my favorite, which she calls Eastern cast-on) for an array of sizes and gauges.

My gauge was 9 stitches per inch (yebb, 9) on a size 0 needles (sturdier socks). Ann's pattern only goes to a 8 sts/inch gauge, so I had to improvise a bit on the number of cast-on stitches (20?) and the final number of stitches (56). The yarn is called 'Cascade Yarns - Sassy Stripes'.

I had the first sock more or less finished (all except the cast-off at the top) when I went on a road trip with my friend Nancy and my friend, who was visiting from Iceland, Ingibjörg. We drove from Ohio to Alabama where Nancy's aunt and her aunt's husband have an house by a lake. We had a great time visiting them and spending time at and on the lake. I couldn't get much knitting done on the way down there (I was recuperating from having being sick with a sore throat), but I finished the second sock when I was there.

The second sock was finished with about a foot length of yarn left! That was close! It means that my daughter has come to an end of an era. These are the last socks I'll knit for her out of one 50 gr. skein of sock yarn. My baby is growing up!

A Craft Room

2011-07-10T18:37:00.005-04:00

Now that my two daughters (almost 8 and just turned 6) are spending the summer in Iceland with their grandparents, I took the opportunity to turn their play room into a craft room. How selfish of me ;)

I put my leftover yarn into the toy bins:

Then I put my sewing machine on their table:

As a result of this I've been inspired to use my leftover stash and do some of the sewing projects I've wanted to do for a long time, but never made the time to do.

But first I finished up some two projects that were a one seam away from being finished.

The first is the bandana pillow. I sewed two bandana's together and stuffed them with polyfill. The problem was that I ran out of polyfill, and when I finally got more (from a dear friend), I'd put the sewing machine away. The pillow has a red bandana on one side

and blue on the other

I also fixed a pillow case I made long time ago. My husband and daughter picked out the pattern and insisted I made a pillow case out of it. How could I resist. I just had to fix it a little bit, and now it's functional again ;)

A Story of a Dress

2011-07-10T17:33:00.007-04:00

Last time I was in Iceland, year an a half ago, I got some pink plötulopi (unspun Icelandic wool) for my daughter. I got purple for my older daughter, from which I made a vest shortly after we came back to Ohio.

However, I had a little trouble with what to do with the pink yarn for my younger daughter. I had been trying to ignore the fact that she had a slight (or not so slight) aversion to wool. It just seemed as she had a sensitive skin and it would itch her and she just wanted to take it off. I didn't loose hope and kept the pink yarn.

I even kept adding to the pink yarn, since she was growing and I came across a perfect pattern for her, And All Things Nice, by the very talented Harpa Jónsdóttir.

I never lost the hope that I would be able to use this pink plötulopi for a dress for her. And finally the time came this last winter when it seemed that she didn't mind too much to try on some woolen things ;)

I had made another clothing item for her sister, a tomten by Elizabeth Zimmermann, and it made me even more anxious to knit the dress for her from the pink wool.

So I started this at the end of April and finished knitting it at the end of May. It was actually a fairly quick knit and it helped that a big portion of the main body was knit during soccer games (AKA extra knitting time). The pattern is well written (even if it had some minor errors, that didn't slow me down any) and the dress just flowed off my needles. I made the 8 year old size (she just turned 6 in June) but with the length for the 10 year old size. The pattern is a little small to begin with, so it fits her perfectly now.

Here is a close up of the stranded color pattern:

And here are couple of pictures of her wearing it:

As you can see, she is tolerating the wool just fine. Neither complaining nor trying to pull it off ;) Yay!

More details on Ravelry.

Bulletin board

2011-06-26T19:12:00.003-04:00

What you see in the picture is a bulletin board I made today. It's made out of regular store bought cork board, and half a burlap coffee bag (evidently from Guatemala).

The whole project took about 10 minutes and 2 months. The 10 minutes was the actual time it took to get the burlap ready (I'd already washed it long time ago), iron it, cut it and stable it to the cork board. The two months is how long it took to actually get started.

It helps that my two daughters are in Iceland with their grandparents, and it's just me and my husband now.

Expect me to be more active on the blog in the coming weeks.

Potholder swap 2011 - the receiving

2011-05-01T18:54:00.001-04:00

Potholder swap 2011
Originally uploaded by rajnos.

Remember these babies? Well, here are the potholders I got in return.

It was so much fun to participate in this swap. I can't wait for the next time :)

Gotta love quick projects

2011-03-27T13:27:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I started a Swiffer cover. And this morning I finished it. Sometimes you just need to make a super quick project.

Now, normally I dislike things like Swiffer and wouldn't even think of buying it. The reason is that it's one of those things that they sell you the stuff for cheap, but then make a lot of money on the consumables. In this case disposable cloths you put on the Swiffer for cleaning your floors.

We have a parquet (parket) in our bedrooms but nowhere else in the house. Sweeping them only goes so far, so I thought the Swiffer was perfect to shine them up and get rid of the extra dust, plus it's small and easy to get in and under stuff. But instead of getting the disposable cloths, I wanted to make reusable cloths.

I'd made some for my mom in the past and now it's my turn ;) The pattern was free and I used Sugar'n cream cotton (Green Twist), and voila:

(since I took these photos I added some velcro on top to keep the cloth in place).

Another thing that made this project so enjoyable (and even quicker) was that I tried knitting backwards for the first time. It was much easier than I thought it would be and it made the knitting easier too because I didn't have to keep turning my work. I could just go back and fro and then it's hard to quit. I was a little bit afraid that the tension would be different, but the resulting fabric looks very even. I'm very excited about having this new weapon in my knitting arsenal.

The View from the Clothesline

2011-03-26T23:31:00.003-04:00

I've watched and admired the Potholder Swap of 2009 and 2010 (they don't have the 2010 separated out, they are mixed with the 2011 potholders).

I first heard about it through Grumperina and at first was mildly amused that people were interested in making potholder, but was increasingly intrigued by the beauty and quality of most of the potholders. The second year I was basically drooling over the photos, but didn't have the opportunity to participate. This year, the time was right. A local yarn shop had the correct yarn (100% cotton, sport weight). It is called Reynolds Saucy Sport, which is 100% mercerized cotton at a reasonable price and I got a bunch of colors, because I wanted the potholders to be colorful.

I looked at different patterns to try. Originally I wanted to try some vintage patterns but ended up with a pattern I've wanted to do for a while. It's called African Flower and is a fun pattern, a hexagon (always a plus) and has an interesting construction. The back is plain sc hexagon (Ravelry link) (a pattern from Lion Brand) and the joining of the front and back is done by using the Bobble-shell edging from Attic24.

In the first prototypes, I changed color for every line (after the flower), but I didn't like so much how it was working out. It wasn't until I thought off 'framing' the flower with the white background that I was happy with how they were turning out.

These were a pure joy to make. They were quick, maybe 3 hours total, so I could do one in an (long) evening and you don't see the full effect until you do the edging, so you are very motivated to finish all the all-white sc rows on the plain side so you can see how it looks in the end with the complimentary color on the edging.

Oh, and I used a smallish hook in order to make the fabric sturdier. It is size D/3.25mm and the potholder is so thick and scrumptious. I will send them away next week and will be receiving 5 other ones in few weeks time. Exciting.

p.s. the Ravelry group for the swap has all the info.

Hexagon love

2011-03-06T19:07:00.003-05:00

I'm halfway done with my blanket. Four skeins out of the 8 I had for the main color are gone and 72 hexagons are done (that is 18 hexagons per main color).

The pattern is from a tutorial by Attic24 (hexagon how-to).

The yarn is Kambgarn - a sport weight merino yarn, processed (dyed? packaged?) in Iceland. They have great colors in this yarn.

The hook is 4.5 mm (US 7). The one I'm using is from Susan Bates and it has a nice wooden handle on an aluminum hook.

I have about 10 colors, plus the main color. It is so much fun to always have different color combination. I don't select the colors randomly so it is a bit of a puzzle to select a color without repeating the same color too much at any one point. At the same time I don't have to worry too much about what all the other hexagons are, only the ones closest to the one I'm doing at that moment. So easy-piecy lemon-squeesy (as my 7 year old would put it - the one in the picture).

p.s. the blanket has been blogged before, here and here.

Periodic table of fibre

2011-02-23T11:34:00.002-05:00

The geek in me is thrilled. Click for full size.

The Shopping Socks

2011-02-13T17:39:00.002-05:00

I finally got some photos of the finished socks.

You can see that the navy blue that Jodie gave me blends in nicely with the rest of the sock, even if it is obviously not the same yarn, it's not glaringly obvious.

The flash exaggerates the difference quite a bit and the real colors are somewhere in between the photos with and without flash.

Photos of the Tomten

2011-02-09T22:10:00.005-05:00

I finally have photos of the finished Tomten, complete with zipper and all. It's been a while since I finished it, but I have not been able to take a photo. First the kids were sick, then the parents were sick and when we were finally all well again, the snow was all gone (I'd hope to get a nice outside photo).

When it came to putting the zipper in, my mom came to the rescue with a link to a Knitting Daily video, showing how to prepare a zipper for attaching it to a knitted garment. You use a knitpicker, and put stitches on the zipper.

This is a bit fiddly, and time consuming, but boy, oh, boy. It's a great way to attach a zipper to a knitted fabric. Sewing a zipper in a machine is hard, because you tend to pull the fabric out of shape. Handsewing the zipper in is better, but it's still a bit awkward, and stiff. By running these stitches up the zipper, the knitted fabric isn't restricted as much as for a sewn-on zipper.

First I marked the location of each garter with a permanent marker (sharpie) and then I made the stitches run up the zipper (using black einband (Icelandic lace weight yarn), which is stronger than the plötulopi) . Then I used crab stitch (reversed single crochet) to attach the zipper to the jacket, using one strand plötulopi and one strand einband, and to outline the hood while I was at it. I think it looks great and I'm very happy on how the zipper is attached.

The younger daughter wants one too, in pink. Oh my, oh my. There is no way a pink jacket is going to look nearly as good as this one. I have the yarn, had planned to use it for a pink dress, but she´d rather have the jacket. Wow, now that's a compliment. Just that she'd prefer this jacket over a DRESS, is saying a lot about it. Of course, she'd also just want what her sister has!

Sam socks finished!

2011-01-21T21:53:00.002-05:00

I'm done! Wearing the socks now. The fix using a different yarn really worked. For some reason it took me forever to finish the toe (kept making mistakes and going back), but now I'm blissfully done :)

I hope to get some good pictures tomorrow and also of the finished Tomten Jacket, it has zipper now :) I'll tell you all about it later.

Racing socks

2011-01-17T14:34:00.005-05:00

ETA: The fabulous Jodie, AKA Queenie Knits, saved the day (or should I say the socks). She gave me some leftover navy blue fingering weight yarn that blends nicely with the original colors.

Ok, where do I begin. Hmm....

The beginning is always a good place isn't it? Well, the beginning is 3 years ago. Here is my first post from October 2007 about the Woodland shawl and then I blocked it couple of months later. What does a shawl have to do with socks you might ask?

Well, I ended up ripping up that shawl because the size of it wasn't working. it really was too little for me to use it. I've had the ball of the ripped yarn in my yarn cupboard (What! doesn't everyone store their yarn in a yarn cupboard? - and no, that's not all the yarn I have, I have more) for a while, meaning to make one of those one-sock yarn-skein shawls out of it. However, the weekend before Thanksgiving I had the sudden urge to start socks. There were two reasons, one, I want more knitted wool socks for myself, and two, my friend was coming on the Monday for a visit and I knew I'd be taking her shopping so I wanted a very portable project to take with me.

It just so happened that I had two sock books on loan from the library. One of them being Cookie A's 'Sock Innovation'. I chose the socks called Sam (Ravelry link), because they had an intersting leg pattern but then it was smooth sailing for the foot (just plain stockinette). I like to have something interesting but I also love to speed along, so this pattern had both aspects for me.

Believe it or not, but the ripped out ball of sock yarn was the only skein of sock yarn I had (with one exception - Wisdom Yarn Poems Sock, which is a single ply sock yarn and I'm not so sure how it will hold up as socks. It was originally bought for a shawl but might turn into mittens) so I cast on for Sam.

The cable pattern was too complicated for mindless knitting, but it sure was portable. I did have to rip back and tink back couple of times, especially with the first sock, so it started to take a long time to finish. I did, however, finish the first sock during my Christmas break. When I finished the first sock I noticed that I didn't have a lot of yarn left and doubted that I had enought for the second sock.

I started the second sock right away, curious to see how far I would go until I ran out of yarn.

I actually got a lot further than I expected. I was at the start of the toe decreases when I ran out of yarn. I never thought I would make it that far. It was actually very exciting in the end, how far would I go? I was considering taking bets from people ;)

The photo above shows the two socks and how little was left. The finished sock is blocked, and the other one is not.

The photo below shows the pattern off better. The photos above don't do the pattern justice, but the one below should be closer to the real thing.

So what to do now? I have these lovely socks, all but a toe missing. I considered getting another skein, even if I got this yarn 3 years ago it's still being sold (on the Internet), I even saw a skein on Ravelry for sale (much cheaper than the online stores too). But with only a toe left I'm considering using another yarn for the toe, the problem is that I don't have any leftover fingering weight yarn that could do.

So I want to ask around. Do you have a leftover yarn I could use? This yarn is Zitron Trekking XXL color 184. I don't necessarily need the same colorway, but perhaps dark blue fingering weight yarn, preferable sock yarn (so it will hold up to wear and tear). Please look around and check if you have anything I can use? I would be forever grateful.

p.s. The pattern totally lied, the yarn requirements were 383 yards (1 skein Fleece Artist 2/6 Merino) and I was using Trekkin XXL with yardage of 460 yards and still ran out!

Something new today

2011-01-16T21:00:00.005-05:00

It's been a productive day. It doesn't hurt that it's a 3 day weekend and tomorrow (Monday) is off too. Often I have the feeling that the weekend ought to be one day longer. I don't know if you can relate to that? Anyways, this one was so I decided to use it for good.

I'm also inspired by my knitting group, who is have decided to pay more attention to unfinished projects this year. So what did I do?

First I put some patches on my kids trousers. It only took about 10 minutes, which makes me wonder why they sat patiently in my room for months and months waiting to be repaired! I even had patches and everything - and they were iron-on!

I'm really proud of myself for finally doing the patches, and it was liberating in a way to finish a task that was just sitting there in the corner of my craft/bedroom. But I didn't stop there. I finally pulled out my 'brand-new' sewing machine.

It's probably been about 9 months since I got it - sometimes last spring, and today I finally used it! I had another sewing machine before that I was trying to use. I say trying, because the tension was all wrong on it. It was probably fixable, but I ended up giving it away. Besides, I would have had to take it somewhere else, since there is no one in my small town that could have fixed it. So I get this brand new sewing machine (at a sale too!), and what do I do? NOTHING

Well, today I finally used it and I couldn't be happier. It's a simple machine, it's even called 'Singer Simple' and I got it at JoAnn's for $100 ($30 off), but it works so much better than my old sewing machine :) I wanted a simple sewing machine because I want to master the basics before I invest in a big, fancy machine (if I ever will). I know I will use straight and zig-zag stitch 99% of the time anyways. There might come a time where I will want a fancier sewing machine, who knows. It depends on how much I will be sewing and what I want to use it for. But for now all I want is as simple of a machine as possible.

Happy, happy, joy, joy (you get extra points for knowing where this reference is from)

The first thing that I sewed was fairly simple. A bib, actually two bibs. The front is a quilting fabric that looks like bandana (kúrekaklútur eða gamaldags snýtiklútur) and the back is a terry cloth (handklæðaefni-frotte).

The pattern was from One-Yard Wonders, a wonderful book with very diverse selection of patterns - all requiring no more than a yard of fabric (and maybe backing as well). I will be making more from this book for sure.

The sewing went well and I love how they turned out. I put another patch on the backside that says 'Crafted with love'. I don't know if the recipients will appreciate handmade things or not (one of them is my husband's sister-in-law - svilkona - and the other is my husband's cousin), but this way maybe they will at least realize that it is handmade and not bought. Not that I mind whether or not they appreciate it. Once a handmade gift is out of my hands, it's no longer mine and I don't worry about it. If people like it and appreciate that's great. But if they don't that's fine too. I make it sound like I don't think that the recipients will like the bibs, but I think that they will. I've just never given them anything handmade before. That's all.

Finish it!

2011-01-13T20:58:00.003-05:00

This year in my online Icelandic knitting group Garnaflækja we got fed up with our unfinished projects and decided to give each other a little support to get them finished.

I made this shawl last summer, while traveling from Ohio to California and back again (to Ohio) on a road trip. The knitting was no problem. Shawls are the perfect travel project, especially this one since it has a lot of stockinette stitch. You start with the outer border, which is knit back and forth into a long band, then you pick up stitches on the edge and knit the lace panel. After that it's a smooth sailing, where the frequent color changes keep you interested (mile after mile after mile - 500 miles a day). Top it off with a picot trim at the top and voila, you are done!

However, as smooth sailing as the knitting the shawl was, it's been sitting in a zip-lock bag for 6 months now, unblocked. I even got blocking wires for my birthday 2 months ago and the shawl remained unblocked. Until this weekend, when I finally got it out of its plastic bag, washed it and blocked it. Blocking with wires, rather than pins, is a dream. It still is a lot of work, but once you have threaded the wire through all the picots and tips of the shawl you don't have to adjust all the pins to stretch it, you just move the wire. It's such a luxury :)

I've had the yarn for a long time (well 2 years at least). It was the rare occurrence of me actually buying yarn without having something planned for it. The reason was that the yarn (Dzined- Ravelry link) is from a local independent dyer and she was quitting her dyeing business so it was the last chance to get any. Her yarn was a gem, wool/hemp blend. Not something you see every day. So I wanted to do something special with it and it took me a long time to find the right pattern. For the longest time I meant to do a capelet with it, but then I saw this pattern for Andrea's shawl and I was sold. There's even enough yarn left for Andrea's mitts.

Meet Oscar

2011-01-08T14:15:00.003-05:00

I want you all to meet my new friend Oscar.

Oscar is nice little fellow, made out of Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted. Oh, how soft it is and beautiful and how irresistible it was in the sale bin for 40% off.

Once he was done, I got some buttons for him and then couldn't resist adding a smiling face. Oscar is quite a little charmer.

But Oscar has a secret. He's nut just an adorable green rectangle. Oh no. He is a protector of something very valuable and dear to me. My Kobo e-reader.

I wanted something to help protect dear Kobo and I loosely followed a Berroco pattern, Baobab. I got some buttons for the cover and after I put them in I saw how remarkably they looked like eyes so I couldn't resist adding a nice smile and that's how Oscar was born. Doesn't he just look like an Oscar?

Oscar is a fierce protector of my Kobo as I just mentioned. On Kobo, I can store all my knitting pattern, put journal papers and of course read books. All of this is very handy, and very portable and easy to use. The documents are put on the Kobo by 'drag-and-drop' (i.e. you plug it into the USB port on your computer and copy directly to the Kobo - no special programs needed. It also has a SD slot, so I can put memory cards in it to increase the storage even further (it comes with 1 GB of memory).

The Kobo came in handy yesterday (Friday), when I had to see a doctor and then get an X-ray and wait at the pharmacy for pain killers. Thankfully the bone is just bruised, but not broked, but I had a lot of waiting to do and got through a big portion of the book I borrowed from the library (Marley and Me). What happened was that I fell, knees first, on concrete. I don't recommend it.

End of the year

2010-12-31T10:18:00.004-05:00

Judging from Ravelry, I only finished 18 projects this year. This is considerably less than the usual ca. 30-40+ projects I normally do, and I've noticed me knitting far less than I'm used to (0-5 hours a week, compared to ca. 10 hours previously). This year I didn't even make any Christmas presents, even if I started one in July and got the yarn for another one! Ehemm...

I did finish a hat for my husband in November (only just photographed it today). I guess it could have been a part of his Christmas present, but I'm glad I gave it to him right there and then because it turns out my daughters could wear it too and it came in handy in the freezing temperatures we've been having in December.

The hat is actually a balaclava and is made in Cascade220, so it's warm and soft and the pattern is easy to do. This might be one of the few patterns I knit again and I recommend it.

I've been knitting a tomten for my daughter out of plotulopi (unspun Icelandic wool). It's been a great fun making it, as all of EZ patterns are. The problem was that the dog loved the yarn as much as I, or even more, since she tried to eat it every chance she got. I guess it's the sheep smell. She ate through two cords of the needles and quite a bit of yarn. I had to get new cords and more yarn from Iceland. The knitting is all done and when it came to sewing the sleeves up I ran into a little bit of a problem. The unspun wool does not (at all) lend itself to sewing. I ended up using einband, the lace weight Icelandic yarn for the sewing. It went much better, although the einband was weaker than I anticipated. I used a black yarn for the sewing and it doesn't show at all, even with the lightest color. Now I need a zipper and sew it in and then it's all ready to go :)

There are more tomten pictures on Ravelry.

"I wish you would have said something in June"

2010-11-14T21:37:00.003-05:00

Check out the video in this blog post .

Never mind that the blog is in Norwegian. The video is in English. If you look at some older blog posts as well, you'll see some awesome knitting.

Yummie yarn

2010-09-19T08:51:00.003-04:00

The Icelandic yarn is yummie. I know. I love knitting with it, it's very 'organic' somehow - or I should rather say 'alive'. Especially the plötulopi, or the unspun variety of lopi. On top of all this, the yarn smells like sheep. How much more down to earth can yarn get?

As it turns out, I'm not the only one in this household who loves this yarn. The dog loves it too. But she is sneaky, and pretends she doesn´t care when someone is around, but when no-one is looking she goes and tears it up!

As I mentioned in the last blog post I started knitting Tomten by the great Elisabeth Zimmermann out of plötulopi. I started with the dark brown and Ruby (the dog) got into the cake twice! She did ruin a bunch of yarn, but I still have some left, and I think it will be enough.

Then yesterday morning on a Saturday morning I went back to bed to sleep early in the morning and when I woke up at 10 AM the dog had gotten into the tomten, took it out of the knitting bag and ruined the cable of the knitting needle and torn some of the knitted fabric. Thankfully the knitted fabric is mostly intact and very salvageable. The rest of the cake of plötulopi was ruined however. Thankfully, I have more then enough of this color.

As you can see from the picture above, the fabric is mostly intact. I did unravel few rows to get past a stitched that had been snagged and torn out. There is another snagged stitch in the second part (one dark, one light color) but I´ll have to fix it, it's too far down to unravel.

However, the remainder of the cake of yarn is in pieces. This is how it should look. I can´t use this yarn at all. It is possible to some extent to piece it back together, even if it is in small pieces (8 inches or so), the dog had torn it up so the ends were just shredded, so it´s very discouraging to even try.

As you can see in the photo of the shredded yarn, the dog is so interested in it, I couldn´t even take a picture of it on the floor without the dog coming after it. You can see her paw as she is coming toward it while I try to take a picture.

I´ll have to outsmart her and put the project somewhere she can´t reach it and not forget and leave it out while I'm not looking.

Brown Theme

2010-09-12T18:39:00.007-04:00

I uploaded pictures for few of my projects, both finished and in progress on Ravelry. I noticed a trend. They are all brown!

When I was in San Francisco last July, I went to a yarn shop in the Mission (or Castro? I´m not sure where one neighborhood ends and the other begins) called Imagiknit. They had this exotic yarn (Japanese) made out of rice paper. How could I resist? I originally planned to make a basket out of it, but found the fabric too flimsy, so I made these coasters instead. I've made 3.5 so far. They are wonderfully variegated brown color and the texture is very special, almost leathery. The pattern starts with 6 sc in a circle and then increases 6 sc every round.

Another brown thing I'm making is a Tomten. Yes, I'm finally making my Tomten :) Oh, the wonderful, wonderful garter stitch. I can just knit and knit and knit back and forth. I can even read articles on the internet and knit at the same time (hint, it helps to use this: Readability (just click on the badge on the right and drag it up to your bookmark toolbar - top of your browser, below the URL).

I'm making the Tomten for K. (age 7) out of unspun Icelandic wool (plötulopi), double stranded. At the bottom there are 6 dark brown garters, followed by 12 garters with one strand dark brown and one strand light brown yarn and the rest will be 2 strands light brown. By the way, these are natural, undyed colors. Yep, actual sheep colors.

The third brown object coming of my needles is a ball band dishcloth.

It's made with a dark brown (Espresso) Lion Cotton background and a light brown (camel?) Peaches n Creme foreground. (Actually, Lion Cotton is Peaches'n'creme! It´s the same yarn. )

I continued to use the dark brown yarn and made a grocery bag dispenser. It's very quick and satisfying project and in the end you have a very utilitarian object. Anyone that has done grocery shopping in the US will come out with multitude of small little grocery bags and no good place to put them ;)

I wonder what other brown objects are in my future? (if any!)

Floppy Fish

2010-09-05T13:04:00.006-04:00

It's been a while since I bought the book Amigurumi Two! , which I got at my LYS. I remember that last summer (2009) I got yarn meant for a project from this book. I loved the little amigurumi toys in there and wanted to make bunch of them. Well, I finally made one.

The yarn is Berroco Comfort with 4.00 mm hook, which is totally fake (i.e. made out of Nylon and Acrylic), but it´s soft, so I wanted to try it for toys. It is indeed soft, and maybe even too soft. The fins are a little floppy for my taste, and hence the title of the post 'Floppy Fish'. But I stuffed him very tightly so the body of the fish is not fluffy.

Now I want to make the little fish out of Cascade 220 and see what difference that will make. Then I can decide for future toy projects (whether or not from this book) what to use.

Here are some picture of the kids and the dog playing with the floppy fish. They like him and at the end of the day, that's what matters most.

Weekend blanket

2010-08-29T21:58:00.002-04:00

There you have my weekend project. On Friday evening I bought the yarn on Final Fridays, which takes place the last Friday of the month in Nelsonville, where the shops and the galleries (majority art and craft related) stay open until 10 PM and often have something to eat or drink or special happenings. This time it was the 'dog days of summer' theme and people brought their dogs and they had competitions and such (King and Queen, dress-up, etc.).

The weekend project is a baby blanket for a office mate of mine. She is due in a month and I wanted to make something for her. The yarn is Plymouth Yarn Encore, worsted weight. I've never before used this yarn, although it is the most popular at the local yarn shop (Spinning Turtle in Nelsonville). I can't say I enjoyed working with it a lot, although I loved the colors. The yarn is 70% acrylic and 30% wool and is washable. I didn't want to make the mother-to-be's life too complicated by giving her a wool blanket, so I went with the washable yarn.

The pattern is 'Easy ripple afghan' and is a plain ripple pattern. I love the pattern. It was hard to stop and you just wanted to keep on going, especially with the frequent color changes. But other than that, it is a very easy to learn pattern and consists of only double crochet stitches (dc, stuðull), which makes it very quick.

I used 6mm (J) hook and started with 66 chain stitches. I started out with much more but ended in 66. It ended up as 23"x28" (60x70 cm) or 5 repeats of 4 colors (plus an extra stripe of blue) and used quite a bit less than a skein each of the 4 colors (each skein is 100 gr and 200 yards).

I still have to weave in the ends, and as you can see, there are plenty of them.

Here is another photo with our new dog, Ruby, included. This one has not been altered to fix the colors (unlike the first one).

A thought

2010-06-02T00:33:00.003-04:00

I need a portable project.

I'm totally in love with crochet hexagons. I'm up to 38 hexagons on the blanket now (the picture shows the blanket at 22 hexagons). The endless possibilities of color combination and the fact that you never do the same hexagon twice in a row and that the blanket basically makes itself (finish ends and combining hexagons as you go). However, it's not very portable. I'd have to log around all these skeins of yarn, and they would be all over the place.

The other project I'm working on is a sweater I started on March 1st. It's pattern nr. 18 on this Danish site. Yes, it's been that long and I finally just finished the sleeves 10 days ago (while at a knitting retreat with some great (knitting) friends - where the hexagon blanket got a lot of attention) and started the main body of the sweater shortly thereafter, but after I made the whole ribbing (this was during the last episode of LOST) I realized I'd made a mistake. I can't go on and ignore it and the mistake only came along because I didn't read through the sentence describing how do do it :o In my defense, it was hard to concentrate with LOST on, especially the very last episode!

This is not a very portable project either, not until I've finished the very bottom piece with all the color changes. Once I'm up far enough that it's just knitting around and around, it will be a portable project.

I guess I know now what to focus on now. All I have to do is restart the body of the sweater and I'll end up with a portable project.

Problem solved

Of course I could always start a new project.............

Crochet goodness

2010-05-17T15:53:00.002-04:00

Do you want to see some crochet goodness. Feast your eyes on these flickr groups:

Crochet Potholders and Hotpads

Crochet Afghans

'New' fad

2010-05-16T21:51:00.006-04:00

It's not exactly new (to me) but I've been bitten by the crochet bug. I mostly knit lately, but crochet once in a while. For an Icelander crocheting is not a craft on it's own, as much as another side of the coin for knitting. No one only crochets there, or at least no one I've every heard off. So I found it interesting that there were people in America that only crocheted and knitters that said they could only knit, not crochet. That's beside the point.

I'm crocheting now.

It started with crochet mittens.

My grandmother gave me a whole lot of Einband, in bright and beautiful colors for Christmas, and I've been wanting to make something out of it. Normally you would make shawls out of this yarn, but it has the potential for much more. It´s gained more and more popularity as a sweater yarn, and I've started a sweater (hoodie even) from this yarn (the never-ending-sleeves I've been working on since March 1st). This idea wasn't mine, I saw a similar project on Ravely, but I made a pattern of crochet mittens from Prjóniprjón, an Icelandic knitting book I bought (from one of the the author) the last time I was in Iceland.

I combined two threads of Einband, pink (1768) and magenta (9142), and used a 4.5 mm hook. I started off with 32 chains for the base and the only changes I did was to do a SC decrease but the pattern suggested to skip a SC for a decrease.

It's a quick and easy project and I basically just 'molded' the mittens to my hand (i.e. kept trying them on to see if the size was correct). They do have a potential for some cool embroidery too, but for now I'm not going to go that way.

Before I had even sewn in the ends for the mittens, I had my next crochet project started. One that I'm obsessed over. I'm making another blanket (what is it about blankets and me????) and it's made out of hexagons. I can't even describe how much joy I'm getting out of this project. I'm following directions from Attic24, which are just brilliant (Attic24 is brilliant too, especially at color - take a look at her blog and see for yourself). What is so genius about this pattern is that there is minimal finishing (I'm not too big on finishing). Each hexagon only ends up with one end to weave in, even if I use 4 colors for it! And that's not all. I don't even have to sew the hexagons together, but crochet them together as I go. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

The yarn I'm making the blanket with is Kambgarn. It's a sport weight yarn, dyed and distributed by Istex (Icelandic yarn maker). I was collecting this yarn, most of it I got gifted to me, but some I purchased last time I was in Iceland. I had intended it for multicolor mittens and hats, but never seemed to actually make these things. The yarn is perfect for the purpose of making a blanket, I have 22 50 gr skeins in 10 colors, thereof 8 in one color (moss green), which I can use for the main color of the blanket. The challenge is that the colors are a bit haphazard (three different shades of red and green), I would not have chosen exactly these colors if I had chosen them from scratch for the blanket, but they are not too dissimilar, so they will work.

I'm going to make the blanket as big as it will get with the yarn I have (or at least that is the plan to start of with). Each hexagon is quick (I haven't timed it yet), so it is a nice project to grab when I sit down and take a break on the weekend (I've only really worked on it over the weekend!) or any other time I'm not sitting down for extended period of time.

I don't know how long the honeymoon will last but at the moment I'm quite enamored by the little hexagons and want to continue with hexagon nr. 9, which I had just started before I started writing this post.

Latest FOs and soul searching

2010-05-02T10:24:00.007-04:00

My latest FOs (finished objects) are all from March. That's how little I've been knitting lately. Not only have I knitted less, but I've also had less desire to knit. This is a new feeling for me, and partly it's because I've been busy and sometimes too tired at knit to knit, but also because knitting is no longer a way to save my sanity. In a way I am relieved because I'm more free (not as obsessed) and the creativity has more ways to flow, including work.

So back to the regular program. Here is a t-shirt I made for my younger daughter. She is sensitive to wool, but was drawn to this yarn from my stash. She'd obviously studied the stash quite well, since she was able to dive right in and get it. It's a mix of cotton, wool and nylon and is meant as sock yarn, which got for my birthday just over a year ago.

The pattern is Country Kiddie by Pixie Purls, which I adopted for a larger size. In reality it is very simple top-down raglan design, but I bought it originally to have the sizing for babies. That was before I decided to use this yarn to make a shirt for my 4 yo. daughter. I started this project a long time ago, in August 2009, but it was largely ignored until couple of months ago, when I started to knit it again. After the New Year I was very interested in knitting out of the stash and finishing projects I've already begun.

The size of the shirt can be decided as you go, because you can just keep knitting the raglan increases until it is big enough, and I wanted it to be on the bigger size, so my daughter could use it for a while. However, the larger size meant I needed more yarn, the 100 gr. skein of sock yarn wasn't enough, but I was visiting a yarn shop in Parekersburg, WV, when I saw yarn that looked identical! It was completely different brand of yarn, but it looked similar enough that you could never tell that the shirt is actually made out of two different yarns.

The original one was Plymouth Yarn - Sockotta (nr. 6065) and the other (the second one) was Marks & Kattens - Clown (color nr. 1907)

As excited the younger daughter was about the shirt I was making just for her, she wasn't as enthusiastic about wearing it, claiming it was too scratchy (what else is new), but here you can see a photo of her sister wearing it.

See, you can't see the difference in yarns, can you :)

Other than that, I've been knitting these tiny little socks for few unborn/newborn children, which are plentiful these days. A coworker, my brother and my sister-in-law have all been having babies lately. Here are two of the pairs (two out of three)

You have that matchbook in one of the picture to appreciate the small size of these socks. They are made out of leftover sock yarn (what a great way to use up small amount of yarn, which is leftover when you make adult socks (women size)) and take couple of evening to do. The pattern is called Spring Daffodil baby socks which I found on Ravelry (where else). The pattern really shows off the variegated socks nicely.

The only thing I've been knitting in April is more on sleeves I've been working on since beginning of March (still not done) and a cowl.

A package

2010-03-30T20:27:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we got a package in the mail from Iceland. It turned out to be from my mom (Amma Rósa as she is better known in our household). In it was clothes from the girls, including these handmade, knitted by Amma Rósa, shirts for the girls. Just in time for the warmer weather we are having more and more.

I just had to share these. They are too beautiful not to. The pattern is interesting and the color combination great.

It wasn't just the girls that got handmade clothes from Amma Rósa, the doll got an crochet outfit. Ása loved the outfit, but was quick to point out that Amma had forgotten about the hat :o She knows her way around clothes already. I tried to start a hat yesterday. I had some fine cotton yarn, but was having problems with it and was too tired to figure it out.

The doll outfit had a sweater, pants, a purse and socks. Of course the first thing Kamilla did was to put the socks on the cat!

Takk fyrir okkur amma Rósa :)

Christmas knitting

2010-03-27T21:53:00.007-04:00

March is almost over, so I think it is time to show you some of the Christmas knitting I did for last Christmas.

This is the biggest project I made for Christmas. Mittens knit with 2.5 mm needles, with Knitpicks' Palette yarn. I had seen this pattern last summer and it is perfect for my stepmom. She has these Polish coffee cups that are the inspiration for the mittens. (Ravelry link).

I actually made 3 mittens, because the first one was too small. I learned a lot on stranded knitting from this project and in the end had more even knitted mittens compared to the first ones. I love making these stranded mittens with fingering weight yarn and have a lot in my queue on Ravelry to choose from.

When my husband saw these mittens, he wanted me to knit a pair for his mom. I finished them last month (these take a while) and were blogged here. They ended up being a Christmas/birthday present for my MIL.

For my dad, I made the Cigar gloves from Knitty. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of them before I sent them off, but they were knit with 4.5 mm (US7) needles with Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes in Mocha Twist . (Picture from the Knitpicks website)

I didn't make these for him because he likes to smoke cigars. He is a very talented photographer, and I made them for him to take photos in the cold without his hands getting too cold. I have made another pair of these gloves. Two years ago, I made a pair for me, and I have used them a lot. For my gloves, I closed all the fingers, so it's complete gloves.

My dad's mittens came out nicely in this yarn. The color was good, but my knitting was a bit off, since there is a noticeable size difference between them. I decided not to worry about it too much because it would have been stressful to knit them to perfection and at the same time send them to Iceland in time for Christmas.

Other than this I made the Elephant and the Bunny (blogged previously here) for my daughters. The elephant was ready just in time for Christmas and went into K's stocking.

But the bunny wasn't even started until after Christmas and was delivered at Christmas as a pattern and yarn.

Last, but definitely not least, are slippers. This is not the first pair I make. I think it was the 11th pair I've made. The pattern comes from a booklet from Sandnes (Norwegian yarn company). Of the 11, these are the second pair made out of plötulopi (the Icelandic unspun pensil roving). I knit them with double strand of the wool, started with the light color on top and then mixed the yarn, one light and one dark strand and ended with two strands of the dark yarn. The slippers went to my mom, but it took forever in the mail and she didn't get them until few weeks after Christmas.

In the photo you can see one slipper which have been shaved and one unshaved slippper. They got very hairy after they felted. I had to run them twice through the washing machine before they had felted enough and then give them a good 'haircut'.

It's so good to get this out on the blog, finally. Soon I can show you what I've been doing in March ;)

Finished items - February

2010-02-28T19:13:00.006-05:00

I've been knitting and finishing some big knitting items lately, including my February Fitted Sweater :) So this is going to be a post with photos of finished items.

The first item is not finished in the strictest sense of the word. It still has no buttons. I did get buttons for it but then decided to have a double row of buttons so it could be more wearable (or maybe that's a silly idea???). At any rate, the jacket still doesn't have buttons. I'm thinking to give it as a Christmas present, so I still have some time to put the buttons in.

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket, by Elizabeth Zimmermann (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Ella Rae Classic and Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Superwash.
Needles: 4.5 mm (US7)

For some reason I figured that 100 grams of wool would be enough for the sweater. Well, I was wrong. I needed twice that amount! Last time I made this sweater, it was kind of small and now it's kind of big. Maybe I'll have to do it at least once more and then I'll find some good middle ground. Good thing about babies is that they grow and chances are that he (my unborn nephew) will be able to wear it at some point.

The extra yarn I got came out nicely with the first yarn. Then I had to wash it while it was still on the skein because I managed to spill Kung Pao sauce on it. Out of all the different items in my knitting bag (including the BSJ itself) only the skein of yarn got the sauce on it. The yarn bloomed when I washed it and when I washed the entire jacket it grew a lot, but thankfully it came all back together once it's dried. The two different yarn have completely different qualities. The red one didn't bloom or grow as much when wet and its not a superwash, so I really hope this sweater will never accidentally felt, because only half of it would shrink.

The next item I finished this month were mittens for my MIL. They were originally meant as a Christmas present. My husband saw other mittens I'd made and really wanted me to make a pair for his mom. His mom is a really nice and kind person and so I obliged. It wasn't easy to give these away (I just packed them up and they are ready to be sent out as we 'speak'), but I got used to it. Maybe one day I will make nice stranded mittens for me.

Pattern: Vespergyle Mittens by Elinor Brown (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette in Navy and Green Tea Heather.
Needles: 2 mm (US 0)

Both of these items (mittens and the jacket) I finished on February 12th. So now it's time to reveal the latest finished item. My February Fitted Sweater. I'm so thrilled about it. It took me 2 months (along the other knits as well) and I just barely was able to finish it in February (although I didn't even realize it until I added the date in Ravelry). I love to have a nice looking sweater for myself. This is my first real sweater (i.e. not Icelandic sweater, they don't count, ha ha) and my first set-in sleeves. I tell you, set-in sleeves in a lace pattern is NOT a walk in the park. But I made it through. Today I even got a white shirt so I would be able to dress it up.

Pattern: February Fitted Pullover by Amy Herzog (a take on February Baby Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann) (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Cascade220 in Sapphire (5 skeins)
Needles: 4 mm (US 6)

Of bunnies and elephants

2010-02-14T20:08:00.006-05:00

I see that I owe the blog adorable pictures of a knitted bunny and elephant.

And together

And a proud owner

Although tonight she threw Sophie (the bunny) into the corner rather than sleeping with her. However, Ellie (the elephant) is a permanent fixture in her sister's bed.

I made them scarfs from the leftover yarn, CO 100, knit 4 garters, BO. It was a quick knit, but sort of a waste of time since they tore the scarfs right off them and used them as anything but scarfs (such as a robe, pulling a basket with the dolls around the house).

Over all I'm really happy with Sophie and Ellie. The pattern was well written, the yarn was soft and I've wanted to knit toys for a long time.

Update

2010-01-23T18:37:00.003-05:00

Finishing the third skein (100 gr. Cascade220) for the sweater, and so-far I've knitted the sleeves and about 11 inches of the body. This yarn sure goes a long way.

Yarn Cupboard

2010-01-17T12:17:00.001-05:00

Yarn Cupboard
Originally uploaded by rajnos.

I had the first week of January off from work. One of the things I did was to organize my yarn cupboard a little bit better. Since it looked half-descent, I took a picture of it and put in on flickr.com. You can put your mouse over the picture to learn more about what is there.

On knitting a sweater

2010-01-12T23:01:00.002-05:00

After I started the body I realized that this will take longer than I anticipated.

Number of projects

2010-01-12T22:07:00.003-05:00

I was going over my projects on Ravelry. Last year (2009) I completed 30 projects. The year before that (2008) I completed 44 projects!!! Quite a difference. I did knit less in 2009, but I was also working on bigger projects, such as the yellow blanket.

In 2007 it was 44, with a lot of small projects. In 2006 it was 39 (including about 10 ballband dishcloths). In 2005, it was 15 projects. In 2004 it was one. In 2003, it was 2. The list is pretty extensive. I can't help setting this up in a table (just be glad I don't make a graph ;)

So:
2009 30
2008 44
2007 44
2006 39
2005 15
2004 1
2003 2
Undated in Ravelry/not listed in Ravelry 7

In 2010 I will not be setting any records in number of projects. Instead, I'll be knitting bigger, slower projects. This is my prediction anyways, we'll see what happens. Maybe I'll get into dishcloth mania again :o For 2010, I'm very excited about sweaters and shawls and also about using the yarn I already have. Can't wait :)

Sweater progress

2010-01-11T06:59:00.002-05:00

Both the sleeves are done. Made good progress on the second one while on a road trip to Parkersburg, WV with my knitting buddies, Nancy and Stephanie. The first stop was the fabulous yarn shop, Market Street Yarn, then lunch and Old Navy. All excellent and the company no less so.

I started the main body yesterday and finished the garter stitch (in-the-round) section at the bottom. So tonight I can start the lace pattern.

My older daughter reminds me not to forget about Sophie, who now has head, body and one leg.

I've been on vacation for the last week and today I'm going back to work again. Oddly enough I didn't knit as much as I thought I would. Maybe it has something to do with the kids only going to school last Monday, the rest of the weekdays were snowdays, so no school. The timing was good though, I could spend more time with the kids. Plus the house is half-decent. Some organizing got done ;) but more is still left.

February Sweater Update

2010-01-07T14:31:00.004-05:00

I've finished one sleeve of the February Fitted Pullover. I've knit two sleeves worth but only have one to show for it. In last post I talked about how I was using the sleeve as a gauge swatch and started over on smaller needles. The smaller needles gave me 19 sts/4inches, so that the piece is smaller than it's supposed to be (17 sts). Smaller is better in this case. I can block the sleeve (and the rest of the sweater out more) and I'm hoping to be smaller myself. I lost 40 pounds in 2009, which explains why I have not been knitting much for myself lately. I never wanted to knit for the bigger me because it was harder (bigger sweaters, few (and unflattering) designs) and I didn't want to put the effort in it and then end up with a too large garment in the long run.

In the beginning of the post I said I knitted the sleeve twice. First I ripped out half the sleeve due to gauge issues. Then I knit through the decreases on top only to find that my stitch count was off. What I was doing wrong was to continue in the lace pattern without taking care to pair every increase with a decrease. The second time around I kept a tally of the decreases on paper (see photo) as well as what the stitch count was supposed to be and counted the stitches regularly, at least after every decrease row.

It was well worth the extra effort. It made things simpler and more 'Zen'. I really enjoyed the process. Much more than when I was just knitting and hoping it would all add up in the end.

A New Year - New Beginnings

2010-01-04T22:25:00.004-05:00

I never actually finished my Christmas knitting.

While my older daughter got a little knitted elephant (Elijah by Ysolde Teague) in her stocking, the younger daughter only got a skein of yarn and a pattern (Sophie by Ysolde Teague). The patterns are a joy to make. Well written and clear and you fill them up as you go so there is not a lot of finishing to do in the end.

They are both knitted out of Louet Gems Sport wt. yarn. This yarn is a pure pleasure to knit. Elijah (renamed Ellie) is knit out of a colorway called 'Cloud Grey', while Sophie is being knit out of a hideously pink color aptly named 'Pink Panther'. I love my daughter so much, I'm willing to handle this horribly pink yarn long enought to knit the thing :)

The gray yarn I purchased from a fellow Raveller (from Ravelry.com). It was marked 'For sale or trade' and I recommend you to look at Ravelry stashes for yarn. The yarn is both economical (compared to buying on-line, or even at a LYS) and since I don't have a lot of yarn shops near by and the ones that are here are not very big. Therefore this is especially nice for me to get yarn I would have to order anyways. Of course you are not guarantied exactly what you want and in the quantities you want, but this is a good place to look. I didn't find a skein of a pink yarn, but instead my LYS owner got the pink yarn from another yarn store for me. They sell yarn for each other if a customer is looking for something they don't stock, sort of a co-op.

The other Christmas present I'm not done with it a pair of mittens. They are knit on 2mm (US0) needles and somehow I managed to lose the needles, all 5 of them! I have no idea how I did it.

Sophie is also on hold right now because I also managed to lose my little red purse with knitting knit-knacks, including my tapestry needles. I need a needle to finish off the body of Sophie so I can start the legs.

Beside UFOs, I have one other project on the go. I had a big report to finish before the end of the year and I was working long hours, especially in the end. I ended up finishing it and sending it out on Dec.31st. As a reward for a job well done (or at least for a job finished in time ;) I cast on that evening a sweater for me.

I heard about this sweater from Jessica, a knitting friend of mine. She mentioned it on her blog, provided a link and I was enchanted. It is called February Fitted Pullover and is a version of the famous February Lady Sweater, which in return is a grown-up version of an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern for babies.

I got the yarn for the February Lady Sweater last spring, with the best intentions to knit it. It never even came close to my needles but when I saw the new version, I was smitten.

Taking a cue from another fellow Wednesday Library knitter, Stephanie. I started knitting a sleeve as a huge swatch. The gauge is measured in a blocked piece, so I wet-blocked the sleeve (still on the needles, a circular) and measured it. It had 15 sts per 4 inches instead of 17. I decided to rip it back and start over on smaller needles (4mm instead of 4.5mm - US6 and 7 or 7 and 8, not sure). The picture is off the sleeve as it is now, started over on the smaller needle.

I've been wanting to knit more wearable items for me. I think that's the big knitting emphasis I'm bringing into the new year. Hopefully, a year from now I will boast a few sweaters, cardigans and such that I can wear.

Big finishes

2009-11-11T21:21:00.005-05:00

I have two major projects finished. The first one was a pair of mittens that really took me to the limit. I learned a lot from this pair and it was a labor of love. However, they are a gift, and even if I don't think the recipient reads this blog I don't want to post a picture here. However, if you have a Ravelry account (which she doesn't), you can check it out there. Hopefully I'll remember to do a proper post after Christmas but let's just say I damn nearly knit 2 pairs of mittens on 2mm (US size 0) needles ;)

I am, however, able to show you another finish. This one was finished this evening at the library, about 15 min before they closed! Those of you (you know who you are) that left early, you didn't get to see the blanket in it's finished glory. The photo is a little consolation for you ;) He he he

This blanket is another labor of love. I started it in April 2008 (not 2 years ago as I claimed at knitting) and have been taking it slowly. It's the April project from EZ's Almanac. I made it with 15 skeins of Lamb's pride bulky in Lemon drop (yellow), prairie goldenrod (yellow-brown variegated) and Persian peacock (blue) on 7mm needles (I don't think there is an US counterpart to that needle size, but it would be 12 or 13 maybe).

I'm so happy it's done and I have this beautiful warm blanket, just in time for winter and happy that today was a holiday (Veterans Day), which gave me extra knitting time as well as special one-on-one with the younger daughter (the older one was at school but the younger one doesn't have school on Wednesdays).

How to get started knitting again.

2009-11-01T21:40:00.004-05:00

I didn't really stop knitting. I was just working so much I didn't have energy to knit when I came home and/or I came home from work so late that I went straight to bed.

Twice a year, our sponsor come and see what we have been doing, and it is always very busy right before. But now this is over for the time being.

During this busy time, I'd come across a pattern on Ravelry for slippers that I was dying to make for the girls. The pattern is called Peter Pan Slipper and was really just a diagram of a granny square that turns into these cool slippers.

I had no idea about the gauge or the weight of yarn/size of hook, but I ended up using worsted weight yarn and 5 mm hook. That fit perfectly for both the girls.

Kamilla got red ones but when I was going to make orange ones for Ása Sóley, she revolted. She wanted the slippers but not in orange (I was trying to use yarn I had). We ended up going to the LYS (prjónabúð) and Ása Sóley picked out pink yarn, that was more to her liking. With a little help from her mom she even picked out a yarn that was on a $2 discount.

We came home and I started the pair immediately after the girls went to bed and, voila, I had them ready before I went to bed, or about 3 hours later. These are so fast and easy. The girls love them. We call them their 'Elf slippers' and that's my name for them on Ravelry - Álfaskór (Ravelry link).

Ok, so the title of the post was 'How to get started knitting again' but here I am going on and on about a crochet project. Well, after finishing this quick and easy crochet pattern I was ready to start tackling my more demanding knitting projects again. I have a stranded colorwork mittens on the needles, that are destined for a Christmas packet and I better crank them out soon. The fact that I have to make the third mitten doesn't help. The first mitten was too small. I knit the second one with same size needles, but took care not to have the fabric pucker up too much and it came out much better. So now I have started on the third mitten.

I have other projects calling out for me. But I want to focus on Christmas knitting for now.

Crazy for towels

2009-09-27T19:09:00.002-04:00

I have a finished object. My other projects were stalled so I started a towel. I really like it.

The pattern is called Chili Pepper Red Kitchen Towel and is a free Ravelry download. I made it in Lion Brand Cotton in the Avocado colorway on 4.5 mm needles.

Now I'm hooked on making towels. I started another one based on the garterlac pattern in red and orange. It should bright up the kitchen :)

My knitting is on display

2009-09-26T22:33:00.008-04:00

That picture above is an announcement for a knitting show at the library where my knitting group meets. We got two cabinets to display our knitting in:

I sent in three of my knits. The sweater (cardigan) I knit for Clint (husband):

and couple of shawls (center)

Here are some of the other knitters knitted projects:

I love the duckie in the tub hat by Andi Stern. She is a very talented artist that hangs out with us mere mortals ;) ha ha. Here you can see some of her work

It's too much for me to document each and every project but in the pictures you can see some ossom (intentional spelling) knitting by the very talented knitters that meet at the Athens County Public Library (Ohio) every Wednesday evening.

Rip-it, rip-it ...

2009-08-29T22:17:00.007-04:00

... is the sound a frog makes.

When I ripped out my knitting, it didn't make a sound.

First up was a shawl I knit 2 years ago. It is called the Woodland Shawl and it is made exactly as the pattern prescribes, with one 100gr ball of sockyarn.

It was too small. There was no way for me to use it. So I had decided to rip it out and last weekend I finally did.

Here is the before picture (Ravelry link to the project)

And here is the after picture (I frogged it straight onto the ball winder)

The second thing I ripped out was a mitten I had started. This is how it looked:

I have marked out three different sections in the photo. You can see that section 2 is slightly bigger than section 1, which is because I was being super careful knitting all the three colors at the same time. In section 2 I was also being careful that the knitting wouldn't pucker up when I switched colors.

First I knit the mitten up to section 2 and then they got some rest because I was focusing on another stranded project, the Space Invader socks. During the time I made the socks I learned a lot about knitting with two colors at the same time, particularly for the second sock as I wove in the color that was not in use instead of carrying it over long distances, but I also became skilled at knitting with one strand in the left hand and the other in the right hand. That method is both faster than what I did previously (which was to hold both strands in the left hand) and I also found that my knitting was more even and it didn't pucker in like before.

So when I started section 3, my stranded knitting skills had vastly improved. You can tell by comparing section 3 to section 1 that the knitting is more smooth and also that the gauge is different from previous sections, i.e. it is smaller around. When I noticed this I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to rip it out.

So needless to say, the mittens went on a hiatus for a while to ease the pain. I also knew that when I re-knit them I would have to use a larger needle. I had been using 2.25 mm needles (2 circs), but had had doubts that it would be large enough (they are not for me), so when I saw that the gauge was getting tighter, I realized I had to knit them on at least 2.5 mm needles.

I ripped them down to the cuff and they looked like this afterwards:

I was hard to pick up the stitches, not because they would unravel, but because I was using a slightly bigger needles on already tiny stitches. But I prevailed and ended up with the correct amount of stitches.

This mittens have more of a story behind them but it is not the right time to reveal that story now.

Teppi

2009-08-28T22:09:00.003-04:00

Teppi is an Icelandic word that means blanket, throw, afghan and whatever else you would call a piece of fabric intended to cover up humans for comfort and warmth.

When my 4 year old started pre-school a week ago we were told we needed to supply a pillow and a blanket. The caveat was that the two had to fit in the child's cubby along with her backpack, extra pair of clothes and (in winter) coat.

I did find a smallish sofa pillow that she took with her for her first day (last Friday). We contemplating different blankets, but most of them were too big. One was small enough, but it was wool and my dear daughter has a very sensitive skin, so even alpaca scratches her (her sister has no objection to any fiber whatsoever).

Hvað gera bændur þá?

I briefly conteplating making a blanket but one weekend was not nearly enough time for me to plan, purchase yarn and knit/crochet a blanket. I had visited our local Walmart for the hope that they had something I could use, but they don't even have fabric anymore, let alone a small blanket. They have changed their whole store, so I might not have been able to find it even if they did have it.

I was getting worried and on the Saturday I was discussing various options with my husband when all of a sudden I remembered a piece of fleece I'd gotten at JoAnn's in Parkersburg, WV (our nearest shopping area). I'd gotten it because it was a remnant and it was a steal. The pattern is great too and I meant to make hats for the girls for winter and even something else. I even bought (later) pattern with hat, mitten, scarf and vest out of fleece but I never got around to making it.

The pattern is pink/gray camouflage with pink skull and cross bone on it. How cute! I had my daughter lay on the floor and try it on and it was a match! The width of it was perfect and I only had to cut off few inches of the length.

I wasn't sure how to finish it or if I should finish it at all. The fleece is not going to unravel after all. I contemplated zigzag-ing with the sewing machine around. But decided it would be best to handsew around the edge with blanket stitch, see below.

I decided to have the blanket stitch large so it wouldn't take too long. I also happened to have black DMC perle floss (thank you TNNA fairies) so I could get started immediately and was able to finish before the end of the day! Score!

The daughter was able to go to school with a blanket (and didn't have to share a blanket with someone else anymore) and the mom was relieved that she didn't have to worry about this anymore and proud to have made her daughter's blanket herself ;)

'Make do and mend' was a theme of a recent (or current?) series of podcasts by Brenda Dayne and I love that theme. I've made do (made a blanket out of fabric I already had) and mended (the socks that had snagged on a nail) and it feels great. Try it!

But speaking of blankets. Do you remember the yellow blanket I was working on. I made 24 squares and then I crafted them together and knitted up the hole that was formed where the corners met. This was a pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann and appeared in Knitter's Almanac as the April project. Here is the link to my ravelry entry.

Well. Last Monday I was knitting up the last holes and thus finishing the main part of the blanket when my husband's allergies starts acting up to the point he has to get an allergy tablet in the evening time. I figure he is allergic to the mohair in the yarn. This is Lamb's pride, which is 15% mohair. :(

So I spent a lot of time and a lot of money on a blanket that my husband is allergic too and we don't realize until it is almost finished. I only have the border left at this point (and to craft stitches at the edges). So I'm not sure what will happen. My husband assures my he doesn't mind and that I can just use the blanket myself. But I still wouldn't be able to use it sitting next to him so that's only marginally better. I'm contemplating giving it away, but it would need to be for a VERY special occation and/or to a VERY special person, who will appreciate it. Hmmm......

Or maybe I can use it and it wont bother my husband so much when the actual knitting is over.

We'll see.

Darn-it

2009-08-21T22:00:00.003-04:00

Look at that ugly mess in the middle of my knitting. I couldn't be more proud of it ;)

I just darned my first sock. Usually when my socks get holes in them I just put them away and don't use them anymore. These are my Hedera socks I made from corn yarn.

I really hadn't worn them that much when I got them caught on a nail in a doorway and it made a hole in the bottom :(

I'm also excited to be doing a little be of 'Make do and mend' courtesy of Brenda Dayne. She had a series of podcasts devoted to mending and finding clever ways of using things around the house and to make-do with what you have. It was very inspiring. I want to do more of that. In the past I've bought sweaters at thrift stores (nytjamarkaðir) and even partly unraveled them and tried to knit with the resulting yarn, but I want to do more of that. So watch this spot. Don't wait around. It might take me a while to get to it ;)

And not to forget. If you are thinking about darning your first sock, or freshening up on the technique; this is what I used:

Socks - long time in coming

2009-08-18T22:28:00.007-04:00

See that. That's me playing Space Invaders wearing my bmp socks :)

I finally finished the socks. When I looked on Ravelry it said I'd started them in February 2008. That is not correct. I started them this year and must have made a small mistake recording the event. I still can't believe I started them in February. I guess I just started them and then came a very busy time for me and I didn't pick them up until May, but I could have sworn I'd started them in May or around that time. At any rate, here you can see the reason why I don't knit many socks. It takes me forever ;)

The second sock ('high score') went much quicker. One thing was that I'd learned was to knit two colored knitting with both hands AND to wrap the yarn as I went. Big revelation. That way you don't have to let the yarn you are not knitting be carried in the back for long distances and the motives don't pucker in like they had a tendency to do when I knit with both colors in the same hand. The pattern was a pure joy to knit, and after the two color part it was also a pure joy just to knit in one color round after round for the foot ;) I did that (for the second sock) on a road trip to Chicago. On the way back, I had knit half the toe (it's knit in short rows) when I spilled coffee on it.

Immediately when I came home I rinsed the coffee out of the toe and laid them out to dry. The next morning I'd noticed that although the coffee stain was gone, the white yarn had turned gray! Hmm... The black yarn bled. The socks went to 'time out' and now I'm not so sure if I ever dare to wash them!!!! Although the bleeding could have been due to the fact that the stitches were still on the needles when I washed them so they were more wet then had I been able to wash them properly (cross fingers).

Recently, I ripped the half toe back and re-knitted it with new yarn. The 'only' thing I had left to do was to hide the ends and do the dublicate stitch part (the shooter). The duplicate stitches was a challenge, because I didn't have enough light to see the tiny little BLACK stitches (did I mention they were black?). But couple of days ago, my husband dug out a little lamp that fits perfect next to my knitting area and I grabbed the chance and finished the deed ;) This is the second time I do duplicate stitch and both times it was white on black fabric - will I ever learn ;)

The socks were knit on 2 mm circular needles (2 circs) with Sisu yarn (and scrap Hjertegarn yarn for the green part).

Finished objects

2009-08-17T21:34:00.004-04:00

This summer has been slow on the knitting front. I hope it picks up because I have a lot of nice yarn to play with.

I did manage to finish some things. One was a hat that took me about a month of knitting. I'm not kidding. It was a month of little knitting but a month just the same. Then I finish it and block, only to discover that it is way to big!

But lets start with the beginning. The hat is made out of yarn I got for my birthday last year. We had a birthday game in my Icelandic online knitting club, and this yarn came from my Aunt. It was two skeins of Silke-Tweed in burgundy. It was a beautiful yarn and since it is 52% silk, very luxurious as well.

It took me some time to find the right pattern for this yarn. I finally found Fern Glade from Knitty.com. It requires 2 skeins of yarn, which is the same fiber (50/50 silk/wool blend) as I had. Perfect!

Well, it took me 3 tries to knit it up. First two were because I didn't bother reading the pattern and was trying to make a slouchie out of the fitted version and couldn't figure out why it was so fitted!!! The third time I knitted the slouchie version, but because I had had so much trouble getting it slouchie, I might have been a little to generous with the needle size. At any rate, when I finally blocked the thing it turned out way, way, way too big.

Turns out silk doesn't behave in the same way as wool. I knit almost exclusively out of wool and cotton and have never knit with yarn with so much silk in it before. Silk just doesn't have the same bounce as wool does and although intellectually I knew that, I guess I'm so used to the wool that it totally took me by surprise. Long story short, the hat grew considerably after I washed it (by hand) and blocked it. The lace pattern shows up much nicer though, if that's any consolation.

I only used a little bit of the second skein, so I decided to make fingerless mittens out of them. That lack of bounce (I don't know the technical term) was evident there as well. I only needed 44 stitches for a generous fit around my wrist. I've already made the first one. I'm just making it up as I go along. But I don't know what to do with the hat. The prospect of ripping it, after it is all done and blocked, and knitting it for the fourth (4th) time is daunting.

Maybe I should put it in the naughty corner, or the freezer, like my friend Stephanie did with her naughty mohair yarn that wouldn't behave ;)

Speaking of mohair, or rather a pretty good substitute. Do you think that mohair is a little bit too scratchy? Try Suri Dream from KnitPicks. I had been curious about this yarn for some time, so I added a ball of that yarn to a KnitPicks purchase earlier this summer. First when I got it, I kept it by my bed and petted it before I went to sleep. That's how soft it is. It's made mostly of brushed alpaca with some wool and nylon thrown in. It knits up on large needles and is very soft, airy and light. I loved knitting with it so much, that the swatch I was making turned into a scarf! A kid size scarf, but scarf nonetheless. When the scarf was finished I still couldn't stop so I immediately started crocheting a hat for my daughter until I ran out of the yarn. The hat was far from being finished so I reached for my stash and pulled out a kid friendly yarn. It was dark pink eyelash yarn (Lion Brand fun-fur) I had gotten at a library yarn-swap. I finished the hat in that yarn and then used it to add a border to the scarf. That saved the scarf in my daughter's eyes, who was not very excited about the green color. BTW, the colors are most true in the first picture (enhanced).

The hat seems to be a little bit too small for Kamilla and it fits better for Ása Sóley. Ása might end up using it. She likes it with all the pink on it ;) First when I started knitting the yarn up, I was amazed at how soft it was and was sure I'd found a yarn for Ása. But when I put it around her shoulder's, she said it stung her! She seems to have a very sensitive skin and doesn't tolerate any wool, not even superwash wool. However, after trying this yarn (and rejecting it), she went straight for my yarn stash and pulled out a skein of cotton sock yarn and said she could use that! She was obviously no stranger to my stash! So now I will knit a shirt for her out of that yarn. I had started a shirt for a baby, but I couldn't get the gauge right. But with Ása here, I can try it on as I go. It's super-simple. Knit from the top-down, without sleeves. Couldn't be more simple. I did, however, buy the pattern. Mostly for the sizing for babies, but it is also good to just follow the pattern ;)

Oh, and after I added the pink eyelash yarn, Ása has no problem wearing the scarf as you can see in the bottom photo!

Knitting needle commercial

2009-08-10T19:34:00.001-04:00

Crochet this time around

2009-06-13T11:27:00.009-04:00

I haven´t blogged much lately but I´ve crafted. Today I´m going to show you some of the crochet stuff I was doing couple of weeks ago.

I've been secretly following the Potholder swap thanks to Grumperina (what an amazing knitter). You should check out the flickr page (there´s another great group here). What a beauties these are. Who would have thought potholders could look so good?

I started looking around for a potholder pattern and found this one. It's a great pattern. It's simple and clever at the same time. You start the potholder like you would a bag (from bottom up) but once you've crochet enough you fold it over and sew the top edge and it's a potholder.

So I made this yellow one and I couldn't resist adding an embroidered sun (although I did find out that crochet fabric is not the ideal embroidery fabric). This potholder and a corresponding scrubbie (pattern) out of the leftover yarn. According to the theme of this post I should have done a crochet scrubbie. Oh, well ;)

I made a red one for us, but decided against the embroidery this time. My husband has reported back to me that it doesn't insulate very well but it functions well as a hot pad instead. Perhaps it would be ideal to make them a little bit bigger (mine have 35 stitches in the beginning chain) and put an insulating fabric inside before they are sewn up.

Another thing I've done is crochet slobber bibs. Normally bibs are made to catch most of the food but these are for younger babies. When the teeth start coming in (months before the teeth actually come in) they start to slobber and their shirts and onsies (samfella) become soaking wet.

A friend of mine was showing her bibs of on Facebook and she directed me towards the pattern (in Icelandic). But the first one I made came out a little big (the circle overlapped).

So I made another one.

I know they look the same, but they're not. The second one has fewer increases and extra rows. The edging is not included in the original pattern but I added it for extra cuteness. I'm happy how the second one turned out. It's classic and in a neutral color, that can look cute on either a boy or a girl. That was fortunate because the bib was meant as a teacher's gift (end of the school year) for Kamilla's teacher, who is going to have a baby. I didn't know the gender of the baby-to-be so white was a safe bet for me. I love how it looks in white and I'm not sure if I'll try them in different colors! Kamilla brought back a thank you note from the teacher and she says 'he will look cute wearing the bib'. So now I know. She is expecting boy nr. 3! (I was so sure it was a girl since she already has two boys).

Yellow everywhere

2009-06-12T23:50:00.000-04:00

Do you know what happens when you graft stitches when you are tired? Ever wondered about that. Just look at the photo.

Yep, there is a twist!

At the retreat about a month ago I finished the last 3 squares (out of 24) and Nancy´s mom Constance was a lifesaver and wove in the ends for me. Now I´m in the process of turning every 4 squares into this:

Which creates 6 big squares, which will then be joined into a large rectangle and a border knitted around it.

The kids can already see the usefulness of the blanket.

When I got the idea to make this (an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern) over a year ago, I had no idea yellow would become such a popular color, or at least not consciously. I'm really happy with the colors and how it looks so far (save for the twisted square - argh!). I'll keep you posted (I swear).

Another project of mine is also yellow (or yellow-orange). It´s the sunrise circle jaket. I´m getting close to being done with the left front and beginning to wonder if I have enough yarn!

I have finished some smaller projects and there are plenty of stuff that I have taken pictures of (finished or not) but the photos don't always find their way to the blog, which is a shame, but you can find them on Ravelry (username sonjar).

Knitting retreat

2009-05-10T18:10:00.003-04:00

My knitting group had a retreat this weekend. This time we went to a cabin belonging to one of our group member. It is situated in the woods. A great place to sit outside and knit all day and eat good food and enjoy good company.

The cabin is often used for family gatherings and they have an area sheltered by a roof and with a lot of seating space. Perfect for knitting.

I started to piece my blanket together with a tremendous help from Nancy B's mom, Constance. Constance wove in the ends of all the 24 squares!!!! Hurray. She doesn´t knit but wanted to have something to do so she was more than welcome to my squares as well as some unruly yarn :) Thank you Constance!

Thank you all ladies. More photos here.

Almost there

2009-05-03T16:07:00.005-04:00

Almost there - the title of this blog post comes from the fact that two projects that I'm working on are 'almost there' but not quite - and then something comes up.

Do you want to see what a pile of 21 squares looks like?

Voila (I added a coffee cup to help see the size of it).

Too bad it's not a pile of 24 squares, which is the number I needed to make the blanket. The blanket is the April project from the Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann.

Since last month was April, I decided to focus on this blanket and I ended up making the majority of the squares. I had originally planned to do this blanket a little by little but the temptation of doing the April blanket in April thwarted my plans. Last weekend I went to the yarn shop (Spinning Turtle) to get the remaining 2 skeins of each color that I needed to finish (there is one solid yellow and one variegated yellow-brown). This is the popular Brown Sheep's Lamb's pride Bulky, but she only had one of each. Apparently the yarn was back-ordered. However, the yarn didn´t come last week. When I talked to the shop owner the yarn wasn´t shipped because they were out of some of the colors!!!! Out!!! How can a big yarn company like Brown Sheep run out of yarn!!!!

Well, I could have finished all the squares in the month of April. I get 3 squares out of each skein of the variegated (and 7 out of the solid color). Let's hope it comes this week because next weekend is a big knitting retreat with the fabulous gals at the Athens County Knitters Group (AKA The Rowdy Knitters). Can't wait. I had plans to work on the blanket there, hopefully start crafting the squares together. I guess I can start on that whether or not the yarn comes.

The project I worked on after the blanket was the sideways cardigan from Vogue knitting a year ago (Summer 2008). I started the back last summer, then had to change what I had a little so it just lingered. Now I took it back up and did a lot of laborious lace. Imagine K3tog in cotton and knitting 4 sts into a single yo stitch. Not easy at all. The pattern has a lot of errors in it and the directions in the magazine are hard to follow for the lace, but they published a chart as well (which does have a small error, but who's counting, right?) and that chart saved my knitting. That is until I discovered that for some unknown reasons I had a lot more repeats than I was supposed to. Oh no! It might come from a seemingly innocent mistake I made in the very beginning, that I didn't think mattered, but probably did. So what do I do? Start the lace over? Let me sleep on it. I'll probably to the front pieces first and then reconsider.

Or maybe I'll just work on my own medallion sweater, which is the front page project from this year's Summer issue of Vogue Knitting. I could write a whole blog post about that piece. How I love it and hate at the same time. I probably will write that post someday because I already have the yarn for this project and I can see some swatching in my future.

In the meantime, I'm working on my Blaka, which is a small shawl with a bat motive from the Einband book. There is a KAL going on on Ravelry for it (Lopi group I think) so I'm motivated to work on it. Last time I photographed it, I had completed one bat, as you can see above.

More on the homemade laundry detergent

2009-04-11T11:26:00.006-04:00

When I first made the homemade laundry detergent I didn't have a functioning camera. Now 7 weeks later I have to make another batch so I took the opportunity and took pictures.

The first batch lasted 7 weeks! I can't believe it and it was only 1 1/4 cup Naptha soap, 2 1/2 cups Washing soda and 2 1/2 cups Borax! I had to add some washing soda and Borax because the mixture was too strong and I only used half a tablespoon instead of a whole tablespoon per load of laundry (more for bigger or very dirty loads). So this stuff goes a long way. In the meantime I've also discovered that our local Kroger does have the Naptha soap. It was just hard to find :)

What I do now it that I use 1/2 part Naptha against 1 part washing soda and 1 part Borax. And this is what you get:

I grate the bar of Naptha soap (like I would grate a carrot) and then I put it in the mixer to break it up even more. The smaller the soap particles the better. It's all about getting the biggest surface area for the mixture to clean more efficiently. This soap is very strong and you should wear gloves (latex) and wash the grater and mixer very well afterwards. It would be best to have separate equipment to use for the soap that would not be used for food.

Of stripes, miracles and big balls of yarn

2009-04-11T10:27:00.007-04:00

The Sugar and Cream cotton comes in a stripe varigation. These long repeats are a lot of fun to work with. Behold

and

Both made out of the same colorway (natural stripes) and both patterns are free on Ravelry.

A miracle has happened here in the country side. A new yarn store has opened up! It's called Fiber FUN studio. Now there is no longer 30 min. to travel to the nearest yarn store. The new one is in my township (yes we have townships, that's how rural we are) and only about 10 min away max. It opened on Friday and I stopped there on the way home from work. It is very surreal. You go on a country road follow signs deeper and deeper into middle of nowhere and all of a sudden you are at a yarn store! It is very quiet and cosy and the lady has the yarn store in the basement of her house. The basement is at the ground level (the house is build into a hill) and the entrance is very nice. She has a big space and she weaves too and has many looms set up for teaching. I had a look of her inventory and ended up getting lion brand cotton in my kitchen and bathroom colors. I also had a look at her knittery works of art. She made a wall hanging that's just stunning. If you are travelling through Ohio (or live around here) drop me a note and I can give you the directions to this place.

In other news, I just started using my birthday stash. Last year my Icelandic online knitting group had a birthday game where we sent each other birthday gifts. I, as well as the other participants, got a lot of knitting goodies and some great yarn. I'm finally starting to use it. First I had to figure out what I wanted to do with it, then came Christmas knitting (and traveling to Iceland), then a very busy time at work. So now I'm ready.

I started with yarn that came from Rebecca and it's handdyed and local (for her). The yardage is very generous and I started a shawl called 'Simple yet effective shawl' by Cosmicpluto. It is very simple and I love how it alternates between stockinette and garter stitch. It really adds depth to the shawl but keeps it simple and easy to knit but interesting at the same time. Originally it calls for Noro sock yarn and it would be stunning in that yarn.

I wound the yarn up in the biggest ball of yarn I've ever work with. Here is my daughter as a comparison.

It was very hard to wind it up in the end because my hands were starting to hurt from holding it :o

Happy Easter and Passover everyone :)

Knitting again

2009-04-07T08:04:00.005-04:00

March was tough. There were just too many things going on. But now I hope to get back in the knitting groove. I started the sunrise circle jacket again, this time with the left sleeve/front. I´m still debating whether I should buy the updated pattern or try to wing it. Right now I'm on the side of buying it but I'm going to knit the fronts and sleeves first (the back is the part that has the mistake in it).

I've also been finishing up smaller projects and now I have 9 WIPs in my Ravelry notebook. I know I want to have multiple projects going on but if I have too many I feel stressful. I like having my projects in Ravelry because otherwise I'd be worried that I was forgetting a project.

How about some photos.

This is the Blaka I'm knitting. It is a small shawl with lace pattern of bats on it (bat in Icelandic is leðurblaka, hence the name). I'm using the lace weight Icelandic yarn I dyed with koolaid last year. The purple goes well with the bat pattern but since the color is varied, the bat doesn't exactly stand out. I do still believe it is the right pattern for this yarn though so I just keep on going with it.

After I came back from Iceland with a suitcase full of wool, I made couple of vests. One for me out of léttlopi (Lopi-Lite):

And one for K. out of plötulopi (unspun Icelandic wool):

The pattern is a dress originally, but I turned it into a vest. At the time it was freezing (20F for weeks, -6C) and it was just too cold to be wearing tights. Now it's getting warmer but it quickly gets too warm to wear anything made out of wool. I'm still planing to do the dress for Á.S. and last time I asked she wanted it only pink (I have the pink yarn) no white :o So that should be quick.

I have so many projects that I want to do and have the yarn for that I'm getting restless to start them. When I couldn't knit I still was thinking about knitting and planing future projects in my head, figuring out what I could do with the yarn gifted to me or that I've found at Goodwill. So now when I have it figured out, I want to do them right now! I do have couple of days off, but they are pretty much planned for other things. I don't want to wish for more knitting time because god knows what will happen! I don't want to be stuck in bed with a broken foot or something like that. The universe sometimes has a funny way of getting you what you want so the old saying 'be careful what you wish for, because it might come true' certainly applies in this case.

The Sunrise Circle Jacket

2009-03-19T19:25:00.002-04:00

The good news: The pattern has been fixed and made available again.

The bad news: It's for sale, not for free.

First of all, it is an awesome pattern, which is more than worth the $6 it costs. It just kind of sucks to have to buy a pattern I already have (came with Interweave Knits subscription couple of years ago) and that I've already started. I have been waiting for the revised version to come out but now I'm just going to start the sleeves and front part and see if I can't just wing it (I mean everybody else did).

Spring Knitty

2009-03-11T13:14:00.003-04:00

I'm both too busy and too sick (just a cold though) to blog AND knit (and that's saying something!). But Spring Knitty is up!

p.s. The picture in the last post is from a market bag, made out of linen (hör)! Fancy, smancy.

p.s. nr. 2

The spring Twist Collective is also up.

Hurray for the free knitting magazines (although in the second case you pay for the pattern (and the designer gets a fair cut - tres cool), you get to read it for free). How unfairly the knitting magazines pay their designers is a blog post on it's own, but I'm not the person to write it.

Friday News update

2009-03-06T18:59:00.003-05:00

I got my newsletter from Knitpicks today (email version). What do you know! They have organic cotton now, Simply Cotton. I heart organic cotton. It's really soft and nice to work with and now it's more available. Hurray!

But no knitting news I am afraid. I've been too busy to knit or to play with my new camera (yes, I finally got a new camera). But here is a little preview of what I've been knitting on lately.

Have a nice weekend.

Make your own deodorant

2009-02-26T21:07:00.004-05:00

So how do you do it. It's quite simple actually, as long as you have all the right things for it and it doesn't hurt to have a microwave.

I followed this recipe from the Angry Chicken, an inspiring craft blog.

I got the ingredients a long time ago but just finally made it few days ago. The ingredients are easier to get than the ones for the homemade laundry detergent (which btw I forgot to add that you can add essential oils to the detergent if you like a scent, which I don't so I totally skipped them) at least in Iceland.

So here are the ingredients:

3 T (matskeiðar) Shea butter
3 T Baking soda (matarsódi)
2 T Corn starch (það er hægt að nota kartöflumjöl í staðin fyrir maísmjöl)
2 T Cocoa butter
2 vitamin E caps (just squeeze the oil out)
Essential oil (I used tea tree oil, which I love the scent and it's antibacterial)

The Shea butter and the cocoa butter are the hard to get items, the rest can be bought in a grocery store except for the essential oil. The vitamin E is good for your skin, but I'm sure you could skip it. The baking soda eliminates odors and the corn starch gives it the necessary consistency.

If you are in Iceland and you are wondering where to get shea and cocoa butter look on my delicious.com bookmarks on cosmetics. You will also find some more bookmarks for making your own lotions and soaps and things like that.

So what is my verdict on the deodorant. Well, it is supposed to be a cream deodorant but since it is still winter in Ohio, the house is cold and the deodorant is solid. In the summer it will probably not be as solid (same goes with the coconut oil I use as moisturizer. It is white solid now but it was a clear liquid last summer.). I have to scrape of pieces. It would have been better to put it in a container I could have gotten it out of then I could have applied it like a regular deodorant.

But it works really well. I am impressed. I have been doing some intense work this week, which includes sweating and the new deodorant has really kept me odor free. Plus it feels good. I have to admit that it's been a while since I shaved under my armpit. Hey! I'm from Europe and it's winter so I'm not wearing sleeveless anything. Well, mostly I'm just lazy though. But what I wanted to say is that the deodorant works great nonetheless.

Soon we will return to our regular programming

2009-02-25T21:21:00.003-05:00

ETA: As I've gotten more experience with this detergent I've changed the recipe and the dosage.

I'm finally getting a camera. I can't wait. I just put the order in and I will probably be getting it next week (I got a free shipping for 7-9 business days). When I do I have a large backorder of knittery things that need to be photographed and bragged about, he he.

But back to the homemade laundry detergent. I came across a post on a Ravelry group called 'Recaiming the home' and I noticed that people seemed to be very happy with it and that it didn't seem to be too complicated to make.

The laundry detergent consists of:

1 cup Fels Naphta soap (shredded)
1 cup Washing soda (Sodium carbonate)
1 cup Borax (Sodium borate)

If you live in an area where you have soft water you could use only half a cup of the washing soda and the borax (I'm sure).

I found the washing soda and the borax in Kroger, but I looked all over Athens, OH and found no trace of Fels Naphta so I ended up ordering it (this place had the best deal on shipping). When I finally got it (took about a week) I grated one bar in the grater (same as you where grate cheese or carrots) and then I put it in the blender (I don't have a food processor) to make it into as tiny pieces as I could. Then I just added the washing soda and the borax.

The best thing is that you only need one tablespoon per regular laundry so it lasts for a long time. I had a fantastic experience with it. The clothes came out sparkly clean so not only is it inexpensive but also effective. I've never seen so much difference between using commercial brands.

I doubt very much that any of these products can be found in Iceland. You can't even find decent size baking soda there, only spice containers :( And on the subject of baking soda (matarsódi) and washing soda (þvottasódi) it it not the same thing but very related. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate (natríum bíkarbónat) but washing soda is sodium carbonate (natríum karbónat).

I also made some deodorant the other day. Next time I blog I'll have more experience of it and I will share my thoughts on it then.

Still no camera!

2009-02-19T17:28:00.001-05:00

One thing I don't understand is why a good digital camera has not shown up at my house yet. Doesn't the universe know I need one?

There are some cool blog-worthy stuff to report such as a homemade laundry detergent which works like butter.... (or actually much better because I wouldn't recommend using butter to wash my clothes).

But not now. Soon, I promise.

Inventory

2009-02-01T21:46:00.005-05:00

I took inventory on my yarn today. I actually have a stash now. A lot of it was acquired some way or another (gifted, swapped, bought) last year. So I counted about 180 skeins/hanks/cakes of yarn, plus some crochet thread and leftovers. OMG. I've become a yarnie! In 2006 I didn't even have a stash. About 90% of it is wool (or wool/nylon wool/silk blend) and 10% of it is cotton. I don't count a bag full of acrylic which was gifted to me (leftover stash) that I plan to use to make toys with since it's leftovers and I didn't look at my leftover stash at all. There is barely any unusual or luxury yarn. There is a little bit of linen, little bit of hemp but no mohair, cashmere, alpaca, angora, bamboo or likewise. I guess I just really like wool :) There are a bunch of alpaca farms here close and I must get a local alpaca fiber at some point, but I don't remember ever having alpaca at all nor cashmere. But I've had angora and bamboo that's knitted up now.

What does your stash say about you? I don't think I'm the kind of person that is not likely to try new things and I really enjoy the finer side of life. But at the same time I'm terribly practical. I guess I'm saving the fancier fibers until I can actually afford them. We'll see then.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

There is this interesting trend in Iceland of knitting with plötulopi, the unspun wool. People have started to experiment with it and use it in more unorthodox ways. Usually it was knitted with three strands held together for classical Icelandic sweaters. Now people have started knitting it with two or even just a single ply and on bigger needles so the resulting fabric is thin and flowing. Same with eingirni, the lace weight. People have started knitting it with bigger needles as well and knitting sweaters and dresses, not just shawls.

I heard a story today that is something that would only happen in Iceland (?). A guy came in to a workplace cafeteria in a nice looking (handknit but bought) sweater. He was promptly asked to remove the sweater (or else!) and a group of women studied the sweater and counted out the stitches. Yeah, this would never happen in the US, that's for sure. Apparently the man didn't really mind. Maybe he's familiar with knitters?

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I was going to take pictures of some of my knitting today. It was nice out warm (above freezing) and sunny. Maybe even too sunny. We didn't last long outside today even with the nice weather. It was just too bright. Probably even too bright to take decent photos?

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Oh yeah. And my Sunrise Circle Jacket (SCJ)- it's on hold now. As I was nearing the top of the back something didn't feel right. A quick search on Ravelry.com told me that the author is going to release the pattern after a review and there seems to be an error in the back part of it. I love Ravelry :) First hand information at your fingertips. I love the project though but there are so many other projects that I can't wait to start. I had a hard time deciding but after talking to my mom today I decided to go ahead and do a vest for Kamilla. Same as the one I made for me but based on this pattern. I decided to make it into a vest, since that is more practical and she could get more use out of it. Lately they've worn outdoor vests indoors due to the cold (the houses here are poorly (or barely) insulated, I have to explain this to the Icelandic readers, since cold houses don't exist there). The dress looks great too, but I opt for the practicality. I'm making it out of purple plotulopi, single strand on 4.5 mm. My SCJ is knit with two strands on 4.5 mm giving a very dense fabric. It's an interesting difference between the two projects.

What now?

2009-01-31T19:04:00.004-05:00

I have a finished vest (since Monday) but I only found the iron today so I will block it tonight. Today I had a good luck with my camera. (you can see more photos if you are my flickr friend). Hopefully tomorrow will be a bright day and I will take some pictures of my knitting. Take it out in the snow if I have to. I can only use my camera without flash. The snow really helps with the light ;)

I've been working on the Sunrise Circle Jacket (here are some photos), namely the back. I promised myself that I wouldn't start anything new until I finished the back. This is the first piece I make that is knit in pieces and then sewn up. I like the methods that don't require much sewing, but this jacket was too tempting (plus I didn't realize it was knit in pieces until I started it ;) ). Actually in this case it makes sense to do it this way because the fronts are knit in a semi-circle out of the arms. I started the jacket as soon as I finished the big cardigan for my husband in November, but then put it down to make way for some winter/Christmas knitting. I hadn't gotten very far but picked it up again on Wednesday (my work was closed due to weather so I stayed home) and since then I've managed to almost finish the back. I'm knitting it with a plötulopi (unspun Icelandic wool) held double on 4.5 mm needles. Usually you use 5.5 mm needle for double plötulopi, but this makes a dense fabric (plus I get gauge), which is perfect for a jacket. The color is a beautiful yellow-orangeish heathered yarn.

There are trillion (or maybe just 3-5) projects screaming at me waiting to be started, but I made a deal with myself. I will finish the back first (of the SCJ) before I start anything else. Usually I just start whatever I feel like starting but this will give me some time to think what I want to start first since I'm having a hard time deciding. I brought a lot of yummie yarn from Iceland and am excited about using it, especially in the sub zero (Celsius) temperatures we've been having.

Bolero, just in time

2009-01-25T21:42:00.002-05:00

Here is the bolero I talked about in my last post. It's being dressed by my daughter for her christening. Now, traditionally in Iceland, children are christened as infants. It just didn't happen with Ása and then we moved out of the country. Now that we were visiting, we took the opportunity to have our girl christened. At the same time my cousin's son was christened.

I was sick just prior to coming to Iceland and there were a few loose ends left to deal with. One was to get a shirt underneath the girls' Christmas dresses. They were sleeveless, and in middle of the winter that is not ideal. I couldn't find anything in Iceland (either a plain long sleeve white shirt or a bolero/shrug) that I liked, but my mom had an idea. She had a book from the library: Simple knits for little cherubs by Erika Knight (a big favorite of mine, in fact I had this book at home). And her idea was to knit the bolero on the front page. She would knit one and I would knit the other. We went to a store called Rúmfatalagerinn (not kidding), which have resently begun selling Sandnes yarn and got Kitten Mohair and started on our individual boleros. This was exactly one week before Christmas. We would easily have finished it on the weekend before Christmas (Christmas was on Wednesday this time around), but there was a error in the pattern and we had to frog half the thing back. So the boleros weren't finished by Christmas. Ása's christening was on the 28th and we barely made it before then. I sewed my piece up on the morning of the christening and blocked it at noon. It was barely time to give the girls a bath and get them (and us) ready.

2 month hiatus!

2009-01-18T12:57:00.007-05:00

I knew I hadn't blogged here for a while, but 2 months! That's too much. It doesn't help that my camera is broken and it's no fun blogging without photos.

Here is a photo my dad took of my grandmother wearing the Hyrna Herborgar shawl, which I gave her for Christmas. My grandmother loved it and wore it at least twice over Christmas. It looks really good on her too.

So we went to Iceland Dec.11 and didn't come back until Jan.4. I got some knitting done, finished Christmas presents (only couple of them) incl. blocking the shawl. I made a bunch of crochet dishcloths. At first I used a crochet stitch I found at the lionbrand website, then I started making a LionBrand freebie, Bark Sedge Stitch Washcloth. Crochet fabric tends to be open (with a lot of holes in it) but these patterns are closed (no holes). Unfortunately I have no pictures of them. Neither of my baby surprise jacket! I gave it to a friend of mine who is due any day now. Hopefully she will take a picture of the baby wearing it. That's the best pictures anyways.

What else have I been making? I made felted slippers for my uncle for Christmas. I've been working on socks for my husband and daughter. The latter is done as far as I remember. I was working on them when I was in Iceland last. Maybe couple of rounds and then hide the ends.

I made sure I visited the Lopi outlet store before I left. It was really my only big purchase the whole time I was there. I came back with over 5 kg of wool (og geri aðrir betur!). Not all for me but still a hefty lot. I went to Rúmfatalagerinn and bought vacuum bags just so I could fit it all in my luggage!. It included 20 skeins of hespulopi (the bulky weight) included. A friend of mine will be making an Icelandic sweater and I bought some for a jacket for myself as well. I have already started something from the pile. The léttlopi vest everyone is wearing in Iceland. It's a free pattern from Istex.is. The pattern is in Icelandic, but if you would like to make it I could help you out with it. It's really simple. Knit a tube for the body (with a bit of shaping), cast of for underarm, knit a bit, cast on for sleeves (or sleevettes, since it's a west), knit the yoke and you're done. I'm making it with a natural black main color and I think I got natural grays for the yoke pattern (natural meaning sheep colors, undyed). Once I'm done with mine I want to modify the pattern to make for my daughters.

I'm really happy about having all this Icelandic yarn hanging around. It's such a pleasure knitting with it, not because it's supersoft (which it is not) but it is such a good yarn. I know I'm tainted for having grown up with it, but what I like about it is 1) it smells like sheep (in other words - it's real yarn!), 2) it is really easy to splice it together when you join in a new ball of yarn (no ends to hide when you're done!), 3)it's very warm but at the same time it's light and airy, 4) it doesn't pill, 5) the colors are beautiful. Maybe you that still read this blog can add to the list (one reason could be IF you live in Iceland it is readily available, local and inexpensive compared to the foreign yarn).

I almost forgot. I made one hat out of doubled plötulopi (the unspun Icelandic wool). It was a leftover yarn from about a year and half ago. I also made the above mentioned slippers out of these leftovers (about 2 cakes of yarn). The hat was made with earflaps so my daughters would have a warm hat in Iceland. I only finished one though. I want to make anther and I wonder if I have enough of the same yarn? The pattern comes from the excellent site Garnstudio.no. They have it in English as well plus my Ravelry project. Shall we say this is enough for now? I have to tell you about a certain bolero next time.

ETA: There is an English version of the vest pattern on the English version of istex.is (who would have thought!)

Finally a photo

2008-11-19T14:00:00.002-05:00

I brought the sweater to work today. Both to show of and because there is knitting tonight at the library (as every Wed.). I used the opportunity to take a picture of the sweater. A co-worker of mine volunteered (I had a hard time getting it back, ha ha).

Here it is!

Getting close

2008-11-17T07:08:00.002-05:00

Now Clint's jacket is blocked and all that is left is to put the buttons in. I'll do that tonight. Too bad I still can't find the camera. :(

Instead of starting a new, big project I worked on little projects this weekend. I also worked on Kamilla's sweater I started last spring. I'm having some problems with it. I don't want to go into it in details right now but it is occurring to me now, as I'm writing it, that it might have worked if I had knit it from top-down, instead of bottom-up. Hmm.....

So what did I do this weekend. I crochet a washcloth, which looks great I think. I used this stitch found on lionbrand.com. Ch44, follow the pattern for 20 rows and then fill in the waves at the top. Again, too bad I can't find my camera. It was a quick project too.

I did more crocheting. Crochet is quick and divers (many different stitches). I made a grocery bag dispenser. I made it out of leftover kitchen cotton and it's in 3 different colors. I think it's fugly but my husband likes it. I like its functionality and I want to make one for the bathroom as well. Bathroom! Yes. The American grocery bags are thin and flimsy and perfect for cat poop, so I have a lot of them in the bathroom, where the litter box is.

The epic husbands jacket

2008-11-13T12:37:00.002-05:00

Last night was big. I did the binding off on the second sleeve of Clint´s sweater (or jacket or cardigan, whatever you´d call it). Thereby finishing the knitting on it. Due to the ingenious construction of the pattern, there is no sewing whatsoever. Not even for under the armpits or anything. The sweater is knit from top-down, finishing the body first and then the sleeve is knit from live stitches at the shoulder plus the underarm stitches are picked up as well. Except for one error, the pattern was a pleasure to knit. The error involved some confusion with rows, the written pattern didn´t keep up with the knitted pattern at one point, but I made a spreadsheet that solved that problem. Even though it is knitted in the round, the pattern involves a lot of k2,p4 repeats and it gave me a good chance to practice Finnish purling, which is much quicker than the Norwegian/Icelandic purling I´ve been doing until now. It involves holding the yarn in front of your knitting while you purl instead of behind like you normally do (or at least normally if you learned to knit in Iceland).

I have already begun hiding the ends, from when I changed skeins and such. When that is done, I´ll have to block it and put on buttons. That´s it! If we find good buttons this weekend, it´ll be ready then. Not a moment too soon, because it´s already getting cold, especially at night. Now Clint can don the jacket instead of raising the heat super high. I anticipate that the sweater will save us $$$ in the long run.

I´m really excited about it. I still can´t find my camera, not that I´ve looked much for it, so no photos at the moment. But perhaps more importantly, now I will start something for me. ;)

I can knit again

2008-11-09T21:55:00.002-05:00

Work's been busy lately. Too busy for me to knit even. I've hardly seen my daughters for the last couple of weeks but now it's quiet(er) again. I picked up Clint's sweater (it's actually a cardigan, but I'm still not used to having more than one word for peysa). When I left off, I'd noticed I had lost track on the sleeve part. Now that I can concentrate on it again I realized that I only went about 4-6 rows over where I should have stopped. I finished the first sleeve this weekend and started the next. I can't believe this project is almost over! I think I´ll have 5 balls of yarn left over. At least that's better than having too little. Plus the color is good for dyeing.

The socks I mentioned earlier were frogged, rip-it, rip-it. And I've almost finished reknitting one again. It goes really fast since they are so small.

No photos. I haven´t seen the camera since I got back from Vegas. I really have to get a new one anyways. But maybe now I can start looking for it properly.

The pointy sock

2008-10-22T21:59:00.002-04:00

The socks are too pointy :( Too bad because I would really like Kamilla to be able to use them. It´s getting cold and the houses here don't hold heat very well. She tried them on and they fit ok, except the front of them stands out. They look like those pointy shoes that have been so fashionable. But that extra fabric makes it so the shoes wouldn't fit well. So I have to knit them over again. Children's socks are very quick, but unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to knit. Work is crazy busy right now.

I've been working on Clint's vintage cardigan. I really like the pattern. Everything just adds up and it goes very smoothly. I've finished the main body and am almost done with one of the sleeves. The best part is that when I'm done with the second sleeve, all I have left is to weave in the end and sew on buttons and the cardigan is ready !

Not pictures. Ever since I came back from Vegas I haven't found the camera. Besides, my camera is 3 and 1/2 years old and has seen it's share of trouble (dropped for instance) and now it's started to be very picky. Indoor pictures are usually overexposed etc. So I guess I have to start looking around for a camera. Sitting at home and waiting (which has been my M.O. lately) doesn't seem to work.

Back from Vegas

2008-10-12T22:25:00.003-04:00

Last week I was attending a conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. No yarn shops on the Strip (not that I was expecting them there). I didn't have internet connection while I was there. Turns out that everything costs in Vegas. No free internet, no free breakfast and not even coffee in the hotel room (and no refrigerator)*.

On the way there, I knit a sock for Kamilla from a Sisu yarn, which we had dyed with strawberry Kool-aid. It turned out perfectly. I almost finished the second sock on the way home (I just love kids socks, they are so fast). I didn't get home until 2 AM Saturday and the next day, when I finally came to life (after being insanely tired from a long day of travelling, coming home in the middle of the night and 3 hour time difference) I wanted to try on the sock, but it was nowhere to be found. Only the sock-in-progress was in my bag, but not the completed one.

Since the airport is about an hour and a half away from Athens (in Columbus) and there was a group of us going we rented a van from OU (where we work/study) to get us there and they (two vans) came to pick us up from the airport as well. Today, Sunday, I stopped by work and the student that drove us home was there. He told me where I could find the van, and I went and looked and what do you know. The sock is there!!!! I´m glad it's not lost completely. Now I just have to go to the Transportation services early tomorrow and retrieve it. It was on the seats behind me (there are 3 rows of seats) since I handed it to someone to look at. I guess they never handed it back and I was too tired to notice.

The color is great. It is red-orange with random white specks. Only trouble is I made a mistake with the toe. I didn't realize what the mistake was until I was almost done with the toe on the second sock. I couldn't figure out why the toe was so pointy and it warped as well. I made the sock toe-up on 2 circs, but only increased on one side of the toe instead of both sides, only on the right side of each needle. I still don't know if it will actually fit. If it fits ok I will keep them as they are, but otherwise I will start them over. I hope that will not happen (crossing fingers).

*Our hotel was the Flamingo, I don't know how things are at other hotels.

Garter stitch - Garðaprjón

2008-09-14T18:38:00.004-04:00

I didn't used to like garter stitch. I thought it was the most boring thing to knit, that and scarfs. I wonder if my compulsory garter stitch scarf school project had something to do with it, ha ha. Seriously, my youngest brother got to knit cool toys in school but I had to make boring scarfs.

Then I discovered Mason-Dixon and the joys of the garter stitch. Sometimes you just want to knit and knit and knit and go with the flow. You don't have to stop to figure something out (well, depending on the pattern) or keep your place.

The garter stitch blends the colors somewhat, not as well as moss stitch, but when you have a jaquard type yarn. The garter stitch 'takes the bite' out of the color changes, makes them more subtle.

Another nice thing about garter stitch is that it stretches, so it is ideal for baby clothes, like Elizabeth Zimmermann, the knitting genius, knew. I'm knitting a Baby Surprise Jacket and to come up with this construction is the most clever one there is. The tomten jacket is tempting as well. I've been looking through some of them on Ravelry. I'm picturing a jacket for the girls, knit with Álafoss Lopi on 5 mm needles. I guess I'll have some wool to buy when I'm in Iceland for Christmas :)j

Weekend projects

2008-08-24T18:35:00.002-04:00

I often have weekend projects. Something I am obsessed with, but only over a weekend.

Couple of weekends ago I decided I wanted to make a hat. I had been reading Knitting Workshop by Elizabet Zimmermann, and in it she has a hat in the beginning to teach the basics of knitting. I thought I'd pick up a point or two, which I did, although I don't remember at the moment. It called for thick yarn and I grabbed bulky weight yarn on 6mm needles. Actually it was supposed to be worsted on 4.5 (or thereabouts). So the hat was too big.

I did the rational thing and threw it in the wash. The color bled of course, it's red, red almost always bleeds. Plus it's a Knitpicks yarn (wool of the andes bulky) and they have a reputation for bleeding. I can't believe how well it felted though (Knitpick yarns also have a reputation for felting well, even if they are superwash!).

It fits quite good now. A little short, but not too much.

This weekend, however, I was obessed with Hyperbolic planes. Normal Euclidean plan is flat but a hyperbolic plane curves.

The first one I made was too big. I used too big of a hook (5.5 mm instead of 4.5), but it is perfect as a washcloth.

The second one looks great. I was hoping it would turn out to be more of a bath puff, but it is rather a decoration (hang it up in the kid's room?) or a playtoy. They like playing with it K. put it on a stick like she had caught it in the sea ;)

K. also requested one out of variegated yarn white/purple/pink. It ended up as a barbie hat ;)

This was fun. Now I have some laundry to take care of :o

The one with everyone dyeing*

2008-08-03T18:19:00.004-04:00

So this weekend was the big weekend. We all (meaning the majority of the knitting group) went to Nancy B's house and ate and dyed :) It was a lot of fun and I got really into it. The scientist in me got out and I was experimenting what would happen if I did this or that, ha ha.

I brought only one skein. It was a white skein of lace weight Icelandic wook (eingirni), but Nancy had a tub load of yarn. She buys it, dyes it and then sells it at Shows with her Mother-in-law. They also sell knitted items and felted item (made into purses and all sort of stuff). So we practiced on Nancy's yarn before we did our precious yarn and Nancy got all of her yarn dyed ;) I commented that we would also end up buying the yarn that we dyed back from her at a show ;) he he

We also had some good food and Nancy taught me how to fry zuccini ;). We knitted into the night. I was actually the first one to go to bed. I'm so used to waking up early with the kids.

While I was there I manage (finally) to separate Clint's jacket at the sleeves. Now it's just knitting the body down to the waist. I say just because although I have 366 stitches on the needle, it is a vast improvement from having 466!

Curious on how my skein came out. Here are couple of photos.

I wanted it to be variegated so I put the kool-aid mix in the bowl first and then layed the yarn on top. I pushed on the top of the yarn so it would all soak, but the bottom was submerged in the dye while the top was in air. It was heated in the microwave for 2x2min with a 2 min break in between. Super easy. You don't even have to use vinegar!

I made 2 skeins with food dye (one neon green and one regular green) and then I needed the vinegar. The vinegar makes the solution acidic enough for the chemical reaction between the fibre and the pigments to take place. Kool-aid has added ascorbic acid (vitamin C), which makes it acidic enough so we don't need vinegar.

On Flickr you can see more photos. I had a great time (thanks Nancy) and the weather was good (for drying the wool after the dyeing part). The food was awesome.

*No, this is not a Friends episode altough it does involve a lot of friends.

Hedera finished

2008-07-27T09:47:00.003-04:00

I've only been knitting these since April! They've never been a focus project. I've carried them around in my purse and knit on them during knitting group or waiting at the post office.

This brings my WIPs down to 10! I want to start finishing stuff. Lately all I wanted is to start stuff. But finishing makes for a better blog material, right?

I've been focusing on Clint's vintage jacket. It's knit from top down and I'm done with the raglan increases, which means I have 466 stitches on my 3 mm, 40" needle (that would be 100 cm). The fabric is heavy and the stitches are small and the inevitable happened. The cable broke.

While I'm waiting for new needles, I've revisited my projects. It's great to have Ravely because then I have a good overview of what I have on the needles and what I want to work on. Last January I posted a list of WIPs hoping it would inspire me to finish them. The list had 7 WIPs on it. Out of those I finished 4 (the slippers, the pillow and the market bag) and frogged 1 (the linen towel). That leaves 2. Those two are the bath mat which I ran out of yarn on but have since made another one in different colors. This really is a quick and easy project (if you pay attention. I had to frog the finished piece half way back because I had accidentally increased) and I'm thinking about finishing the old WIP up in a different color. It'll look weird but if it's only for us, who cares (Mental Note: Hide it before guests arrive). I'm not a big fan of asymmetry.

The other old WIP is my leftover bag. It's all knit up. I just have to sew on the strap and throw it in the washer. Very complicated :o Well. I better go and take a look. Chiao

Knitty surprise

2008-07-24T09:55:00.002-04:00

I'm breaking my blog silence because I can't keep quiet about the Knitty Surprise. There are 3 new patterns, one of which is so fantastic I can't not blog about it. I'm talking about Sea Tangles. First of all it looks great. Second of all it is knit with stainless steel (the engineer in me wonders if it is 316). Third of all it is a random pattern. Each time you open the excel file with the pattern it changes. I'm impressed. The pattern has random cables so you have no idea how it is going to turn out. How exciting.

Photo Meme

2008-07-17T13:01:00.001-04:00

See what I did during my lunch break.

1. Sonja Binzuru Sonja at Todai-ji, 2. Lamb united we stand, 3. Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík Nosferatu, 4. Red Gizmo, 5. Michael C. HallDEXTER (Season 2), 6. Water water droplets in the shower - o.k. bokeh, 7. Australia 'So what are you doing this Australia Day ?', 8. Ice cream Good News Ice Cream!, 9. Expert expert, 10. Knitting Momma, 11. Friendly Happy Girls Under a Rainbow12. rajnos - Not available

Rules of the Meme
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your Flickr name.

Do you wanna play too?

Illusion knitting

2008-06-17T12:48:00.003-04:00

Your encouragements to this post motivated me to take a better look at the slightly felted top. It still fits. Maybe I can knit edging on it and use it as a capelet?

I'm throwing in some dishcloth photos.

This one is done by playing with the varigation in the yarn. The yarn is two-colored and one color is knitted on front and purled on back and the other is purled on front and knitted in back. Super easy pattern but unique results. The pattern depends on how many stitches you cast on and of course I forgot how many I cast on. My best guess is 39 sts on 4.5 mm (size7) needles.

I stopped doing the Monthly Dishcloth KAL a while back but am back on the wagon. The mid-March cloth was based on illusion knitting technique, where you alternate knitting and purling with two colors to come up with a pattern which appears at a certain angle. Look.

I made that cloth with Knitpick's CotLin which is a super soft cotton (tanquis), linen blend. I want to make a top out of this yarn. It's really nice. Those two colors go very well together.

Crochet all day (and it rhymes too!)

2008-06-15T21:38:00.003-04:00

What a great day for crafts today. First of all I had to take it easy because I had mosquito bites on my feet, some of which were close to my knees and they have a tendency to swell up and I could hardly walk yesterday. I was much better today (Sunday) but still decided to take it easy. For instance I sat outside while my daughters were playing in the back from noon until 6:30! It was very comfortable in the shade and there I sat and crochet. I finished this bathmat, which is a part of a gift set I'm working on. And I finished a square for a Crochet-a-long on Ravelry, where you make one square a month. I have been making them with 8 mm hook, but consistantly ran out of yarn before I was done. I planned to purchace an extra skein to fix that later or have it one row smaller but then had the brilliant idea of using a smaller hook. Problem is that in the US there is no hook awailable between 6.5 and 8 mm. I thought 6.5 would be too small and had my mom send me a 7 mm crochet hook. It did the trick. I made the March square and I even had a little bit of yarn to spare. It work out perfectly (except that now I have to remake January and February and get caught up with the other months).

I took some photos of finished objects. For instance this cool illusion dishcloth, made out of Knitpicks CotLin (which is part cotton and part linen and for some reason super soft). The pattern is not obvious (although it is in the photo I took straight on) until you tilt it and then it pops out.

Let's not forget the german crochet bag I made out of Sugar'n Cream stripes.

I love it. I loved making it (although putting it together was a little tricky unless you had the diagram in front of you). And I am considering to line it although at the moment it sound like a good idea to use it only for things that wouldn't fall out of the holes! In the background you can see my shade, where I sat all day and crochet.

I also finally took a photo of my womb I made from knitty.com. I finished it a while ago but never took a photo. Now I just have to send it to my midwife, who delivered both of my daughters, at home. Maybe she can have it decorate her office.

Hedera by Cookie A and crochet mania continues

2008-06-06T21:33:00.003-04:00

I'm knitting Hedera. The pattern is well written and the first socks fits perfectly. Here is a picture of it unblocked.

Like all lace it blossoms when blocked (in this case worn)

I'm just knitting it when I'm away, at S'n'B or waiting rooms and such, so the progress is slow. BTW the color on the lower photo is more correct.

The blanket in the forground is a blanket I'm crocheting out of crappy yarn. What can I say. It came in a huge skein and beautiful colors and I needed a mindless project. I believe I talked about it few days ago.

I'm taking next week off. I don't know if that will mean good quality craft time, but I hope so. We are all (me, hubby and kids) going to Washington D.C. Unfortunately, the 6 hour car ride will not result in much knitting, since I'm going to be driving.

I hope to have the bag I was crocheting ready soon (provided I do the dreaded sewing ;) ). I can't wait to have it done, so I am very motivated, but not motivated enough to not work on other projects. My bathmat is coming along very well. I love the pattern. It's a crochet V-pattern.

Anyways, tomorrow is the first Saturday of the month, which means the library knitting club will be meeting. This month we are going to have a yarn swap. I have some yarn I can part with (I think) ha ha.

Adieu mes chers amis, a bientot.

A little accident

2008-05-31T18:44:00.004-04:00

I don't know how it happened, but one of my projects got in the washer and felted! It was on the needles and everything! It was the tshirt I was making out of eingirni (Icelandic laceweight yarn). Yeah, it's sad. I was at the point where you separate for the sleeves. The fabric is surprisingly soft after felting and probably 'geðveikt' warm.

Here is a preview of the crochet bag I'm working on. I love the colors. I can't wait to get more of this yarn. I have to make 16 squares. That is not going to be a problem since they are quite addicting to make, and none of them looks the same. Only thing is that I'm using a tiny little hook (3.5 mm) so it is a little hard, but I wanted a tight fabric so I think it's worth it (to use such a small hook). Normally they recommend 5 mm hook.

Crochet crazy

2008-05-26T22:23:00.002-04:00

I'm crazy for crocheting at the moment. There are at least 3 projects I want to do all at once, two of which I've started. I think a part of the reason for this craze is that all the things I have on the knitting needles are complicated. Not difficult, just complicated enough so I have to look at a pattern every once in a while (or figure something out if I'm not using a pattern).

What I've been working on all weekend (and it's a long one) is a impulse buy I made in Joann's on Saturday. I've been looking for 7 and 7.5 mm crochet hooks (which apparently don't exist here) when I saw this hugh ball of crap yarn in nice enough colors. With that and 10 mm hook I'm making a blanket, or a throw, or an afghan (there are too many words for teppi in English). I'm making the ripple blanket. I remember this pattern from my childhood and now it's become popular again. I can see why. It is very addicting. The colorway I have doesn't show of the pattern very well but it looks nice enough regardless. I will have to make this pattern again in nicer solid color yarn. I love making blankets, but I don't have the budget to make them in gorgeous yarn yet.

I'm also finally starting a crochet bag (link to a pdf file), which seems to come out quite nicely in the new Sugar'n'cream stripes yarn according to Ravelry projects. I'm using the green varigation. I'm using a 3.5 mm hook, which is borderline impossible. But it will make the fabric tighter and the bag better (this yarn is normally knit with 4.5 mm needles).

The third project is a bathmat. I finally got some yarn for it. I started one a while ago, when we moved here but ran out of yarn. I finally got some more yarn for it and I can't wait to start it. Maybe tomorrow. The pattern is from the book 'One Skein'.

I haven't been feeling like blogging lately. One reason is that I was sick a week ago. I was in bed for 3 days and didn't knit at all or do any other crafts. I've also just been busy with work and stuff and at night, when the kids go to sleep, I use the laptop to watch movies or TV shows through Netflix.com. I was going to take some picture of the little I've been upto lately (mostly Hedera), but the card in the camera wanted to be re-formated. That was too depressing. I had some photos from yesterday when we build a patio with bricks (or 12"x12" stepping stones). We got a table too and now we can sit outside and chill :)

Slacker

2008-04-25T17:37:00.002-04:00

In stead of knitting my socks, I´m watching sock knitting on the Internet.

Kinda makes you want to have a knitting machine doesn't it?

Green sweater

2008-04-14T23:03:00.002-04:00

I finished the green sweater I was making for Ása. It is a little big, but not too big. It will be perfect next winter :) I already have an idea for a sweater for Kamilla and can't wait to get the yarn and get started on it.

Here are some pictures, mostly modeled by Kamilla, who asked me what kind of smile I wanted and then supplied me with great many. I couldn't choose so you'll get most of them. If you click on the pictures you will get the full size version.

There is one of Ása Sóley modeling it. She likes it.

There are even more photos on flickr. You can see those by choosing one of the photos above and look around a little.

EZ´s April blanket

2008-04-14T22:45:00.002-04:00

One skein of this:

With a dab of this:

Produces 2 of these:

Oh man, I'm hooked. I love the yarn and I love the pattern. The yarn is Lamb's pride Bulky in colorways: Prairie Goldenrod (the variegated) and Lemon Drop (the solid). The variegated knits up beautifully and the colors are lovely. Too bad I don't have more of the variegated. Originally I planned to have the blanket in two tones but once I got started I changed my mind. I have couple of green skeins I hope to exchange for the yellow and that will give me 4 more squares. I'm planning on making 24 a little at a time.

The pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac and is the April project (the book has a project for every month). It's construction is interesting a la EZ. The squares are not sewn together, but crafted. That's why the stitches are kept live.

And the answer is ...

2008-04-09T12:39:00.002-04:00

... a swatch!

Yebb, that little cylindrical thing is a swatch!

Thing is. I was swatching my plötulopi knit double on 4.5 mm needles and got 15 sts per 4 inches (10 cm). I need to get 18.5. But the thing is I was knitting the purl stitches too loosly because I was afraid to break the yarn and it showed on the swatch. So I want to see what my gauge is if I knit in the round and lo and behold that little cylindrical thing appeared. I cast on 20 sts and knit around with the magic loop. It worked just fine and I got 18 (or maybe even 18 and a quarter) stitches per 10 cm/4".

I was really happy to have outsmarted the old swatch until I realized that the jacket I had in mind for the yarn was knit back and fro.

Back to the drawing board, maybe I´ll swatch again and this time be less lenient on the purl stitches.

The jury is still out on this!

2008-04-07T13:49:00.001-04:00

I wouldn't actually ask you a question you could answer, would I? Nope, that would be too trivial.

Another clue

2008-04-06T20:02:00.000-04:00

This will help show porportion.