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.