The secret project

The secret project was secret because I intended it to be a birthday present. It got finished in time, despite a little battle with the sewing machine but as I finished it, I tried it on Kamilla and it fit her perfectly. I just couldn't give it away. Plus if it fit her so snuggly, it was probably too small for the intended birthday boy. I'm sorry :(






The secret project is a jacket I knit from Bulky-lopi. I used 7 mm needles (they recommend 8-9) so the fabric would be tight and I put a zipper in (thank's Sigrún G. for the zipper :). Everything went smoothly up until the zipper part. I used the raglan (laskerma) pattern Sigrún taught me (see my raglan lopi sweater) but adjusted it to 1 year old size. I used Kamilla and a wool sweater she owns as a guide. So no wonder it fit her so well :o I did make it bigger than Kamilla, especially the body of the jacket but the sleeves were tighter. I didn't have her as a guinea pig (mental note to self: Kamilla doesn't like to be a guinea pig) when I did the sleeves and they should have been bigger but are good on her.

Then we come to the zipper thing. I don't have much experiance with sewing machines and I guess bulky lopi does not make an good beginner's project! I stretched it out too much when I zig-zaged the edges after I cut the jacket open. So the front (where the zipper came in) was about 7 cm bigger than the body! On one side was worse and I ended up cutting of the sewn edge (and therefore making the jacket even smaller). But I fixed it at the end. The sewing stuff was much more difficult than the knitting!

Long time no blog ...

... and long time no knitting/stitching. I was going to report on my secret project last weekend. I hope I can this weekend! Thing is, as I was uploading the pictures of it my internet connection broke down. There are still some minor problems so I can't do it right now. :(

Not much to report. I haven't touched anything beside my dissertation since last weekend. I've been working until the library closes virtually every evening (unless I'm too tired to work). I'm on the clock, only few precious weeks until the baby comes. I wouldn't mind going a week or two over the due date, just to get few days of calm and peace.

First day of summer.

Don't worry. I didn't get handcraft-overload in the summerhouse on the weekend. The lack of blogging is due to little internet time and little craft time. I've been working in the evenings (mornings/evenings you name it) so little is there to report.

Today is a national holiday in Iceland. Why? Because today is the first day of summer (Sumardagurinn fyrsti). Am I sitting at home knitting or stitching? No! I'm working. I would have been working last night too but friends called me up to go to a café. Since they called couple of hours before they could come I decided to use the time wisely and knit. I finished the knitting on my secret project (which will be revealed on the weekend, promise) and now 'all' there is left is the finishing touches.

p.s. Do I have to point out the irony of Iceland celebrating the first day of summer in April? Here is the weather right now. It is actually not so bad 50°F (10°C) and not raining, nor stormy ;)

Post-Weekend

The weekend was just great. Couldn't have been better (well, it could have been longer!). We stayed up until morning stitching or knitting. I actually was a chicken and went to bed early (around 2 AM). I feel so rejuvenated (endurnærð), no pain for once (incredible) and I got a lot done.



See how much I got done on Cresent Dreams while I was there (here is a before picture).

I also did a lot of work on my secret knitting project - until I ran out of yarn :(

Thanks a lot to the 8 great women I spent the weekend with (Jóna, Guðbjörg, Ásta, Linda, Rósa, Björg, Steina og Sissú). There are some pictures online, please let me know if you need a password.

Pre-weekend

This weekend will be great. I am going to a summer house with bunch of crazy cross stitch ladies. A lot of stitching and knitting will be accompliced, I can promise you that. Just wait for after-weekend pictures.

Right now I am focusing on Cresent Dreams in cross stitch but most of my craft time is devoted to knitting. I don't have a lot of craft time since I am working like crazy, evenings and everything. Knitting wise, I am doing the baby outfit and a secret project. The secret project is secret since it might be a gift. However, it should be a quick project so you'll know about it no later than a week from now.

Time for pix

I think it is time for some pictures.

First, Cresent Dreams. I've only been working on it a little bit lately. I've mostly been knitting lately.





So here is a knitting picture. This is one and a half sleeve of baby's suit from a Dale pattern (with Dale baby ull yarn). I intended it to be white and yellow at first but then changed my mind and turned the yellow in for dark blue. I remembered how nice Kamilla would look in dark blue. But when I see this unfolding it looks very boyish. Hopefully it will be a boy (if not then a tomboy - strákastelpa).
I'm done with one sleeve (leg) and started on the other one. Then they will be connected and knitted upwards.





Finally the shawl I've been working on. It 'only' needs to be stretched. Only I say. I have parquet (parket) except for a rug in the living room. I was going to stretch it on the rug but then I realized there was no way of doing it without Kamilla getting into one or more of the apprx. 200 pins required for the job. So mom to the rescue. I can stretch it at her place.

Knitty is up!

The new issue of the internet knitting magazine - Knitty - is out! It's a spring/summer issue so much of the designs are hardly practical here in Iceland (with very mild summers, and yes that is an understatement). But who says practicality has anything to do with knitting???

I'm looking through it. I found this scarf - it looks like it could cure my scarf phobia. When I was about 14 I had to knit a scarf at school. We only learned to knit (and not to purl) and the garter stitch scarf did not channel my creativity but instead burried the little interest I had in the art of knitting. I was so indifferent about this scarf that when a woman working at the school (gangavörður) saw it (as I was turning it in) she sent me home and told me to fix it. I can't imagine what the teacher would have said (probably nothing and flunked me!). I took it home to my mom and asked her to fix it so I could turn it in, and she did (thank's mom). I didn't start to knit again until about 8-10 years later and still today ( I will be 30 this year) I shrug when I see a scarf pattern. Well, until I saw the Branching out scarf in Knitty that is.

Progress

I got a change to work on the shawl again yesterday. I discovered that it is not possible to work on it while watching TV ;) I finished the knitting part of the shawl (the whole row (back and forth)). There was a small error that I had to correct so that held me back a little bit. I had to be able to concentrate to go back, find it and go forward again.

I didn't understand the direction for the crochet finish but I figured it out. It helped that my shawl is displayed when it is being stretched so I could see the details very well. I was at the library today and found the shawl (Litla hyrna Huldu) in a magazine from Heimilisiðnaðarfélagið (Hugur og hönd). It is slightly different there, knitted from the top down and in garter stitch (garðprjón).