For believers

So did you believe? Below is a pre-view of the angel, all of the x-stitching done and 'only' beading left.

But this isn't the big news - I got a package yesterday evening. That's the big news. I never get packaged (except for the results of occational internet shopping). So far Kamilla's been getting all the packages.

So what was in the package - see for yourselves: (You can click on the picture for bigger picture.)

Homemade socks from Cassie, who believes (quite rightly) that the mom should be reciever of gifts after childbirth. I can't thank of a better gift to give a new mom because I need good socks so my feet wouln't get cold, which could result in engourgement (I think it is called - stálmi in Icelandic). These are the first handknit socks I have been given and I love them. I can't believe someone made the time and effort to make these. They have a very small gauge (probably 2 mm needles?) and the pattern is beautiful. I've seen Cassie's feather and fan socks on her blog (e.g. here) and loved them. I have always planned to ask her where I can get the pattern (so I'm doing it now - Where can I find the pattern?).

One more thing, did I mention how much I appreciate these socks already? :) And they fit like a glove (well, actually like a sock!).

Do you believe in angels?

The picture is asking you to believe that an angel will appear below. I was going to fix the picture but the program kept teasing me, shutting down or freezing.

I wove in all the ends of the overalls but when I was going to do the finishing (around the edges) I couldn't find the pattern book anywhere :( I ended up going to the LYS (local yarn store = Storkurinn) and they photocopied the page I needed and gave me an advice (the pattern didn't make complete sense). But when I came home, very excited to start I discovered I needed a 2 mm needle and I only have 2 mm dpn (sokkaprjóna) and not bigger round needles needed to go around the edges :( Since I don't just run out to the store these days I still have to wait.

Don't worry I'm never idle. I've been working on the angel and started a hat for Ása Sóley knitted with Kambgarn. Finally I found something I could use Kambgarn for :) I stocked up on materials for it before Ása Sóley was born. Thankfully. It's a quick and easy project but as soon as it comes to finishing I loose interest but I promise to finish soon :o

News of the baby

The baby's name is Ása Sóley (Á is pronounced like ow in how, Sóley is prononced like the french word soleil). More news on my two girl's on Kamilla's blog (http://sonja.richter.org/kamillublogg).

I haven't been doing a lot of knitting or stitching. I'm doing the finishing work on the overalls right now - baby steps ;)

It's a girl!

I had a little girl on Thursday (June 2nd). The birth was amazing. It was a homebirth, took 4 hours and I ended up having her in water. We haven't named her yet, but we are working on it. She was 3700 gr and 51 cm. Kamilla doesn't seem to mind her and helps out sometimes but mostly she's just herself.

Blogging at the library

I'm at the city library, using my wireless for the first time. It's exciting. There are several hot spots in the down-town area were I can go on-line - I can just picture myself taking the little baby for a walk and browse the internet at a cafe while it sleeps (see it really is a romantic gift, lol).

I put my pictures online. Here is one of the baby's overalls:





I used pins to hold it in shape, an idea I 'stole' from Cassie. This is since May 23rd, now almost a week later I am practially finish knitting the back piece and 'only' the finishing left (knitting around the edges). Finishing is not really my thing. I hope I'll be motivated enough to work on it, the trick is not to start anything new!

I have also been working on my MillHill kit.

This is how the border looks without beads:





and with the beads:





and just for fun, a close-up on one of the stars:





I just love my camera :) I couldn't take this picture yesterday night because I had to use flash and the lens got in the way so the flash couldn't shine on the beads. It focuses for distances as small as 1 cm - how cool is that!

Gifts, stfig, figts

I've been waiting all week to blog because I was going to put some pictures online first and show them here. I haven't been online much and not at all with my own computer. Clint was so sweet though to give me a wireless card so I can connect at the library (or anywhere else for that matter). Isn't that sweet? It's my 'mom' present he says, because I'm going to have a baby. How romantic! Men do think different than women and for them it is probably very possible that a computer component can be a romantic present! Who knows? I am greatful, especially because he got it at a good deal!

I got a present for myself actually. I ordered the new Stina Nordenstam CD, The World Is Saved. I couldn't help ordering a knitting book, I've been wanting to have more (any) knitting books. It is hard to decide on a book online - what if you don't like the patterns!!! So it is a lottery really. Well, I got lucky. I love this book - Weekend knitting. It has a lot of good patterns, made out of nice yarns and they seem to be quite quick or fun to make. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it but the more I read it the more I love it. I can't wait to make my first project - the trouble is choosing and finishing other stuff first.

Too late!

The Knitty sping suprise is up. A little too late in my humble opinion. Why, because I wish I had had this pattern on my to-do list earlier. Much better than some baby knitting stuff :o

The pattern is a tank-top which allows for nursing. Pure genius, especially since I'll be doing a lot of nursing (I hope) this summer and I also hope for good weather :o

Finally shawl!

What is this?




Isn't it obvious? It's a cat-proof shawl blocking device! See:





And voila: Blocked shawl

When it rains it pours

It's been a good day today. It's my day off. I plan one day off every week to charge my batteries. The weather's been great. I put up the hamock :) I knitted and cross-stitch and I went to a great exhibition of Dieter Roth's works in Listasafn Íslands (Iceland's Art Museum) with my friend.

Here is a progress photo of the baby's overalls:





Here is how it looked May 10th:





And here a month earlier, April 10th:

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I got a Mill Hill Holiday kit at a sale. I'd been curious to try these kits. They have cross stitch and beads. This one is too old to be presented at their website so I can't link to it. It came with aida fabric but I would rather make it on perforated paper and I actually had some in my stash.





Here is a picture of my progress sofar and the packing.

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On Friday my cousin celebrated his 7 yo. birthday. I sent him felted slippers but turned out they were too small :( they were big enough for his 4 yo. sister. The slippers I made for her fit Kamilla. Usually I've had the problem of the slippers not felting enough! Now they felted too much.

You can find a picture of them on my pbase.com account.

Recap

I spend most of my time at the library these days. There are a lot of people since there are exams at the University (it's a University library). One day I sat next to a woman in a wool sweater with this nice pattern. I liked the pattern so much I tried to sketch it but it looked like I was staring at her so I secretly took a photo of her sweater with my phone instead. The image is not very clear but I can still make out the pattern, or most of it!





Since I'm spending so much time on the library there is not a lot of time left for knitting and stitching. Actually the time is so sparse that I seem to have forgot to put the updated picture of my knitting on the computer! Hm... I planned to show it. Well I've done quite a bit since I took this picture so maybe it is time for a new one anyways.

CD update

Just a little update on Crescent dreams. I couldn't resist adding the backstitch to the face. And since I was doing that, also to the hat and hands. This project really is a quick one, much quicker than it seems. I only work on it few hours a week, 5 at most.

Father Winter Ornament

It's done! I finished it, got the beads yesterday and finished it today. I would have finished yesterday but I was getting too tired. So tired I started to drop the box of beads. It's not the most fun thing in the world to pick up tiny beads with a 115 cm waist (3'8'').



Tiny as the beads were, they were a little big for the piece. Thing is I used 32 ct. evenweave instead of 28 ct. I didn't realize it would cause problems with the beads, but I think it's not too bad. I used the 32 ct. because of the color, I don't have that many evenweaves and I wanted to use light-brown so the white work would show better. The color is actually called 'bone' and I used it also in Bless our Home, so at one time I was stitching two pieces in the same piece of material. I finished the other one lot faster though (don't ask if it is on the walls yet but I just found a frame for it!).

p.s. you can see the design better if you click on the photo!

It's about time

I worked on my Father Winter ornament tonight. I only had about 1 hour of work left! Why hadn't I done it sooner? Good question, one reason is that I was doing white work and the last few things were in different colors (so I had to find them), another reason was that the last thing was a lazy daisy stitch and I've neven done that before and the last reason is that I suffer from 'can't finish-syndrome'. I tend to lay projects aside as I am close to finishing. Well, I'm not done completely. I still have to put beads in, but I don't have any beads so I can't do it right now.



This design was the August 2004 monthly SAL at my cross stitching club. Yes, August 2004, that's when I began this little project! I was even the one to pick it because I was the first to complete July's SAL. So what's SAL. SAL stands for Stitch-A-Long and the monthly SAL is a little design that is for free on the internet, which anyone can make. The one that is quickest to make it get's to choose next months SAL.

Nordiske strikkeblogge

Skal jeg skrive på dansk nu jeg har været set in på Nordiske strikkebogge list :)

No, I don't think so, I'm out of practice. Can hardly write in Danish anymore. Haven't had to for about 12 years now so I'm a 'little' rusted ;)

But anyways, I was kindly added to the Nordic knitting blog list so please check it out :)

This will surely help me post regularly.

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.