Yellow everywhere

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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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?

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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?

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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?

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

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!

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

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.

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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 :)