Finally a photo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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*

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

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

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

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

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!)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ...

... 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!

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

Another clue

This will help show porportion.

Question

What is this?

Yarn disaster and 4 hour relief program

We got a package from my mom all the way from Iceland. It had Easter candy and yarn :) What a treat! The candy is all gone but the yarn (and Lopi 27) is left.



The yarn was 7 cakes of this beautiful yellow orangish heatherish plötulopi (Icelandic unspun yarn). It is beautiful and it smells like sheep. What more can you ask for?

Yesterday (Saturday) I went on a yarn crawl with 6 of my knitting friends to Williamstown and Parkersburg, West Virginia. That is a story in itself. We found this cute quilting/yarn shop in Williamstown, WV. Williamstown is just across the river from Marietta, OH and both are fairly close to Parkersburg. In Parkersburg we went to a Chinese buffet (I was full for the rest of the day), to Crafts2000 (similar to Joanns and Michaels) and to the Main Street yarn shop.

This took all day and when I came home at 4 pm and looked in my bedroom the kids had gotten into the bag with the plötulopi. They had put their hands through the cakes and they where all tangled up and the middle of all of them had tangled up :(

This yarn sticks together like velcro and it was all but impossible to untangle it. Thankfully that property makes it super easy to pull it apart and splice it back together. I spent the next 4 hours winding the yarn (thank god for my ball winder) and amazingly I got most of the yarn. There is only the mess in the middle left and I think I´m going to leave it for now. It kind of looks felted, I can swear.

At 8 pm it was the girls bedtime and I passed out after they got to bed and probably fell asleep before them. Yarn trip + yarn distaster = exhaustion.

I took a lot of pictures of my WIPs and my yarns and they can be found on flickr. Here are some examples.



The organic cotton I bought in New Orleans. Yummie.



The sweater I'm knitting for Ása Sóley. I was up to the yoke part and was stuck. Then I got Lopi 27 in the mail from my mom and found the perfect yoke pattern in design nr. 17, Él.

Back from the Big Easy

I'm back. New Orleans was a lot more fun city than I had thought. There was music in the streets, there were people throwing pearls, etc. There was also the combination of spring break and St. Patrick's day.

I didn´t do much sightseeing but our hotel was close to the French Quarter, so I got to see that a little bit. I did see Cafe Du Monde, but they had a line and I don't do lines. So instead we (me and couple of guys I work with) walked around trying to find another cafe. In doing so one of the guys pointed out to me a sign that said needlework on it. Lo and behold, that was the yarn shop! I went in there to look at the goodies while the guys got some coffee next doors. I ended up buying 2 skeins of white organic cotton. Man, that yarn is so soft. I can't believe it's cotton.

This was on the last day, Thursday. The conference was over for me at lunch and my flight wasn't until 7 PM. The trip home went fine, even if it was late and I wasn't feeling 100%. Clint and Ása were sick and I got it too, in somewhat milder form. I was able to attend the conference, but not to do much in the evenings. Plus I didn't have much appertite and normally I have a very healthy appertite. One evening my 'dinner' consisted of an orange and some candy.

Yesterday, Friday, I felt like a wound rag (Icelandic expression for feeling crappy). I had no energy whatsoever. Today I feel much better. Just typing on the computer was to much for me yesterday. I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't even browse Ravelry :)

Knitting wise, I made one sock during the trip and started his twin brother. It's a quick, easy and fun pattern called the International Sock of Doom, and was used in the Sock Wars. It's the perfect pattern for gifted socks because it uses size 4 (3.5 mm) needles, sport weight yarn and super stretchy ribbing. So it is both quick, will fit well and looks good too.

Post knitting camp

I know I should have wrote about this a week ago, but I was consumed by lace knitting and a bad knee.

See, what happened was this. When I stepped into the car going home from the cabin my knee got hurt somehow. Just a wrong tension or something. Whatever it was, it hurt. But since we were still at the Cabin I had to sit with my knee bent all the way to Athens to drop of couple of people and then to Albany. I think it took just over an hour, maybe hour and a half before I could finally stretch out the knee. By then it had swollen up and I had trouble bending it. The hardest thing was to get out of the car and to stretch the knee out to begin with. After that I was much better. I had no trouble putting my weight on my knee, but I couldn't bend it.



I ended up staying home on Monday, sitting in bed, trying not to move or use my foot too much and KNITTING. I started Hyrna Herborgar and it was a total social pressure. Cassie was knitting it and Sigga Sif too. Last time (and the only) I knit an Icelandic shawl, Cassie knit one too.

On her blog, Cassie´s been talking about how tedious the ever longer rows of the shawl can be. Especially the spider lace in the middle. I wouldn´t mind the shawl being tedious, I made a silly mistake yesterday and spend the whole evening fixing it, just to mess up some more stitches right next to the first mistake :(

My knee is much better now and hopefully Hyrna Herborgar will be too.

Knitting retreat recap

I wrote this a few days ago, until I got interrupted. My computer has mainly been used in the evenings to watch DVDs or videos online, which doesn't give much time for blogging.

The knitting retreat was great. We had a lot of fun. There were 7 of us in a small little cabin by Lake Hope. Lake Hope is right outside of town. It´s easy to get there and the cabins are inexpensive, especially compared to more touristic locations like Hocking Hills that are a little further North of us.

We had good food and I had them watching the first shows of Arrested Developement. We ended up watching the whole first DVD. I don´t think they wanted to watch more than couple of shows but these shows are just too funny.

On the Friday night we played Wii. Everybody tried it. The oldest of us is over 60 and she did better than most of us. This game console is one of the best inventions of the 21st Century so far. My 4 year old plays it and I´ve heard of 100 year olds playing it too. We don't have one for ourselve and we only have a tiny 14" TV so I don´t think we´re getting one any time soon.

I knit on this and that during the weekend. I knit on my traveling socks, the one I started on the way to Boston last month. I knit on a sweater I´m making for my daughter. I made a secret knit. I don´t want to spoil the suprise. I was going to finish that particular item last night but couldn't find the pipe cleaners!

I was really proud of one of us. Nancy B. tried 3 new techniques over the weekend. She tried intarsia, lace and cables. She like the cables the best and she designed her first cabled knit by herself (with a little help from Abbie and me). We called the design 'SAN of Green Cables'

p.s. I went to Walmart today to get couple of things, one of them being pipecleaners, but I forgot to pick them up. So the surprise stays that way for a while :o I hope I can finish the surprise knitting before I leave for New Orleans on Sunday. I have a conference there.

Knitting retreat

Sorry about the few posts. I haven´t been much on the computer in the evenings lately. Tonight I´m going on a knitting retreat with some of my knitting friends. It will be so much fun :)

Over and out

Is there really such a thing as practical lace?

I´m back in Ohio. I went to take a SEM class in Massachusetts. I started socks from the toe-up in the car going to the airport and I started the second sock in the airplane coming back. I made the ribbing a little more interesting than plain k2p2 ribbing, but at the expense of time. They are more time consuming but look better. The socks are made with Online Supersocke 100, my favorite multicolored sock yarn on US size 1 (2.25 mm) needles.

I only had about half-an-hour of work left on my market bag when I left for MA and I finished it last night.





It is made from a pattern called 'The Shetland Shopper' and can be found on the designer's web page for free. I had the right yarn for it. I bought it (on sale) last summer and intended it for a market bag/shopping bag. It is hempathy in black. The pattern was very enjoyable. If you like knitting lace and if you like knitting practical things, this pattern is perfect.

I´m very happy about how it turned out. I put some apples in it to test it and it GREW. It seems the more you put in it the bigger it gets :) Farmer's market, here I come!

It worked!

It worked! It worked!

In my last post I posted a list of my WIPs hoping that it would spark my interest in them. I probably should apologize for using my blog in such a selfish way, but it's my blog and I can do what I want with it :) ha ha ha.

So I finally finished the pillow, sew in the buttons and all. The finishing is less than perfect to say the least. You'll see once I take pictures. I was making it up as a went along and didn't know what was the best way to go. I only thought I had two buttons but found the third one after I was done. I might even have to get some more in order to make it work.

I also finished knitting AND sewing up my slippers. Now it's ONLY the felting left. I tried to felt Clint's slippers in the washer, but it was a waste of time. Toploaders are a terrible felting machines, I've discover. It would have worked better if I wasn't so scared of clogging up the washer with fiber, that I had them in a pillow case. One escaped the pillow case and felted considerably better. I did the rest by hand (or rather by plunger) but it wasn't enough. I have to revisit that.

My WIPs

Thanks too Ravelry I have a good overview of my projects. At the moment I have 7 WIPs in my project list. Below is a description of them in the order they appear in my project list with the name (in bold) which I identify them on Ravelry.

My own slippers: After I´ve made this very slipper pattern for each of my grandmothers and total of 3 times for my husband, I´m finally making one for me. The first two for my grandmothers were a Christmas present 2004, then a birthday present for my husband in March 2005. He wore them out so I made him another pair in 2006 but since we had moved to the US (from Iceland) I was unsuccessful in felting them so they got tossed out. I made yet another pair for him after I learned how to felt by hand (from an article in Knitty). My pair of slippers were born out of necessity rather than want. It´s not so much that I want the slippers but I´m using the leftover yarn to make a felted bag and I need more yarn for the strap. You see, all but one of these pairs (plus 2 pairs of children socks in a different variation) have been knit with one yarn, Fritidsgarn from Sandnes.

Linen Hand Towel: Ever since getting the Mason-Dixon knitting book I´ve been wanting to try to knit with linen. There is a very well known pattern in the book for a hand towel knitted with a hank of Euroflax linen. I started it last weekend but deemed th gauge too loose even if I had already went down in needle size. This project has been ripped until I get the right needles. I was using US 4/3.5 mm and am debating whether to go down to the next US size (3) or the next metric size 3 mm (the US size is 3.25 mm).

Leftover bag: From all of the felted slippers out of Fritidsgarn. The pattern is a free pattern on tinna.is.

Clint´s slippers 2.5: The third pair I make for my husband. I named them 2.5 since I tossed the second pair out after unsuccessful felting. I felted this pair once already but I will have to do it again.

Pillow: A crochet pillow. The front is out of 9 sort of modern granny squares and the back is done by Tunishian crochet. All I have left is to fix up the back a little and add buttons. Pathetic really how little is left and how long it´s been unfinished.


Shopping bag: My newest project, started Thursday. It´s a shopping bag made out of Hempathy. I´ve had this yarn (gotten on sale last summer) which I intended for a shopping bag but with a different pattern but last weekend I saw this pattern on Ravelry and since it called for Hempathy I was very excited, especially since I like the way it looks. I´m done with the bottom part of it and am starting the lace part. Fun. The pattern can be found on the designer´s blog. http://shetlandtrader.blogspot.com/

Bath mat: The last project on my list. A crochet bath mat. It was going pretty fast about 3 weeks ago until I found that I hadn´t ordered enough yarn :( The pattern is from the excellent book 'One skein'.

And there you have it. The linen towel might be on hold for a bit until I make up my mind (I´m a libra so that could take awhile) but the rest of them are quite viable.

Polygamous knitter yet again

Lately I´ve been knitting/crocheting on one pattern at a time but now all of a sudden I´m casting-on left and right. Ravelry is helping me keeping track of everything.

I think part of the 'problem' is that I've stalled with couple of projects. Especially the bathmat I was making. I didn´t get enough yarn for it :(



I do finish projects as well - socks for hubby, a strawberry, finally felted Clint´s slippers (which is fodder for a blog post in itself) and have been working on dishcloths.

Yes, I said I knitted a strawberry. It was a lot of fun too :) Just click on the photo and you can see the source for the pattern. If you have a pattern for knitted fruit or veggies, please let me know. This is fun and can be used as play food for the kids.

The other day I listened to the episode of YarnCraft, where the Yarn Harlot was being interviewed. I found that her and I are very different knitters. She likes to knit for people but not so much to knit stuff that is not for people but I like to knit things that are not for people a lot (e.g. for the home). I think I remember her describing herself as a process knitter but except for lacy shawls I am definitely a product knitter. She came up with the phrase 'Second Sock Syndrom' (or maybe I just heard it there for the first time) but that is something I haven´t experienced (so far at least). What use is there in one sock! I can´t wait to get the second one done so you´ll have a usable pair.

Well, time to get the kids to sleep. Adios

Turkish slippers

Turkish slippers - crochet
Originally uploaded by rajnos.

Yesterday I was pacing all over the house, finding something productive to do, but not really having the energy to actually get anything done (we´re talking housework here). I didn´t have anything on the needles. Project after a project has been stalled due to a lack of yarn! I´m making a pair of socks and a bath mat and I need yarn for them both :(

My husband urged me to relax and knit something. He said it was weird not seeing me with knitting needles in my hands so would I please just start something new. He was right, I should relax. I guess I´m still wound up after the move. In December I basically had to pack and organize stuff every moment I got and it is a little hard to allow myself to relax. I should not do any housework on Saturdays and just charge my batteries.

I didn´t pick up a knitting project, but rather a crochet project. These slippers are called 'Turkish Slippers' and they are on the cover of this book.. I love this book, Simple Crochet, there are many elegant crochet projects there, all for the home. A lot of them are also made with strange thread, like kitchen twine. There are some boxes made out of twine that I really want to do. And this and that.

I didn´t really want orange slippers, but I found this yarn on sale last summer and so orange they became. This is Rowan Handknit DK, 100% cotton and the slippers are crochet with a 5 mm hook (yarn held double throughout). It´s a super quick and easy project but turnes out really nice. I like them :) and I think I got used to the color :o

Live Traffic Feed

I added Live Traffic Feed here on the right column. It's a lot of fun knowing where people are coming from. If you don't want to be recorded on there, there is a link on the bottom which says 'Options' and you can have the gadget ignore your browser, of course you have to repeat that if you change browsers.

It´s been 3 years!

Last Monday marked the 3rd birthday of this blog. Happy belated birthday blog.

I started writing in Icelandic but switched to English later. Here is the first post.

My other blog, the regular diary, has been going on for over years. It is written in Icelandic and no plans to change that :)

SBQ

I finally answered one of those.