My knitting is on display

That picture above is an announcement for a knitting show at the library where my knitting group meets. We got two cabinets to display our knitting in:



I sent in three of my knits. The sweater (cardigan) I knit for Clint (husband):


and couple of shawls (center)




Here are some of the other knitters knitted projects:




I love the duckie in the tub hat by Andi Stern. She is a very talented artist that hangs out with us mere mortals ;) ha ha. Here you can see some of her work

It's too much for me to document each and every project but in the pictures you can see some ossom (intentional spelling) knitting by the very talented knitters that meet at the Athens County Public Library (Ohio) every Wednesday evening.

Rip-it, rip-it ...

... is the sound a frog makes.

When I ripped out my knitting, it didn't make a sound.

First up was a shawl I knit 2 years ago. It is called the Woodland Shawl and it is made exactly as the pattern prescribes, with one 100gr ball of sockyarn.

It was too small. There was no way for me to use it. So I had decided to rip it out and last weekend I finally did.

Here is the before picture (Ravelry link to the project)



And here is the after picture (I frogged it straight onto the ball winder)

---

The second thing I ripped out was a mitten I had started. This is how it looked:



I have marked out three different sections in the photo. You can see that section 2 is slightly bigger than section 1, which is because I was being super careful knitting all the three colors at the same time. In section 2 I was also being careful that the knitting wouldn't pucker up when I switched colors.

First I knit the mitten up to section 2 and then they got some rest because I was focusing on another stranded project, the Space Invader socks. During the time I made the socks I learned a lot about knitting with two colors at the same time, particularly for the second sock as I wove in the color that was not in use instead of carrying it over long distances, but I also became skilled at knitting with one strand in the left hand and the other in the right hand. That method is both faster than what I did previously (which was to hold both strands in the left hand) and I also found that my knitting was more even and it didn't pucker in like before.

So when I started section 3, my stranded knitting skills had vastly improved. You can tell by comparing section 3 to section 1 that the knitting is more smooth and also that the gauge is different from previous sections, i.e. it is smaller around. When I noticed this I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to rip it out.

So needless to say, the mittens went on a hiatus for a while to ease the pain. I also knew that when I re-knit them I would have to use a larger needle. I had been using 2.25 mm needles (2 circs), but had had doubts that it would be large enough (they are not for me), so when I saw that the gauge was getting tighter, I realized I had to knit them on at least 2.5 mm needles.

I ripped them down to the cuff and they looked like this afterwards:



I was hard to pick up the stitches, not because they would unravel, but because I was using a slightly bigger needles on already tiny stitches. But I prevailed and ended up with the correct amount of stitches.

This mittens have more of a story behind them but it is not the right time to reveal that story now.

Teppi

Teppi is an Icelandic word that means blanket, throw, afghan and whatever else you would call a piece of fabric intended to cover up humans for comfort and warmth.

When my 4 year old started pre-school a week ago we were told we needed to supply a pillow and a blanket. The caveat was that the two had to fit in the child's cubby along with her backpack, extra pair of clothes and (in winter) coat.

I did find a smallish sofa pillow that she took with her for her first day (last Friday). We contemplating different blankets, but most of them were too big. One was small enough, but it was wool and my dear daughter has a very sensitive skin, so even alpaca scratches her (her sister has no objection to any fiber whatsoever).

Hvað gera bændur þá?

I briefly conteplating making a blanket but one weekend was not nearly enough time for me to plan, purchase yarn and knit/crochet a blanket. I had visited our local Walmart for the hope that they had something I could use, but they don't even have fabric anymore, let alone a small blanket. They have changed their whole store, so I might not have been able to find it even if they did have it.

I was getting worried and on the Saturday I was discussing various options with my husband when all of a sudden I remembered a piece of fleece I'd gotten at JoAnn's in Parkersburg, WV (our nearest shopping area). I'd gotten it because it was a remnant and it was a steal. The pattern is great too and I meant to make hats for the girls for winter and even something else. I even bought (later) pattern with hat, mitten, scarf and vest out of fleece but I never got around to making it.



The pattern is pink/gray camouflage with pink skull and cross bone on it. How cute! I had my daughter lay on the floor and try it on and it was a match! The width of it was perfect and I only had to cut off few inches of the length.

I wasn't sure how to finish it or if I should finish it at all. The fleece is not going to unravel after all. I contemplated zigzag-ing with the sewing machine around. But decided it would be best to handsew around the edge with blanket stitch, see below.



I decided to have the blanket stitch large so it wouldn't take too long. I also happened to have black DMC perle floss (thank you TNNA fairies) so I could get started immediately and was able to finish before the end of the day! Score!

The daughter was able to go to school with a blanket (and didn't have to share a blanket with someone else anymore) and the mom was relieved that she didn't have to worry about this anymore and proud to have made her daughter's blanket herself ;)

'Make do and mend' was a theme of a recent (or current?) series of podcasts by Brenda Dayne and I love that theme. I've made do (made a blanket out of fabric I already had) and mended (the socks that had snagged on a nail) and it feels great. Try it!

But speaking of blankets. Do you remember the yellow blanket I was working on. I made 24 squares and then I crafted them together and knitted up the hole that was formed where the corners met. This was a pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann and appeared in Knitter's Almanac as the April project. Here is the link to my ravelry entry.

Well. Last Monday I was knitting up the last holes and thus finishing the main part of the blanket when my husband's allergies starts acting up to the point he has to get an allergy tablet in the evening time. I figure he is allergic to the mohair in the yarn. This is Lamb's pride, which is 15% mohair. :(

So I spent a lot of time and a lot of money on a blanket that my husband is allergic too and we don't realize until it is almost finished. I only have the border left at this point (and to craft stitches at the edges). So I'm not sure what will happen. My husband assures my he doesn't mind and that I can just use the blanket myself. But I still wouldn't be able to use it sitting next to him so that's only marginally better. I'm contemplating giving it away, but it would need to be for a VERY special occation and/or to a VERY special person, who will appreciate it. Hmmm......

Or maybe I can use it and it wont bother my husband so much when the actual knitting is over.

We'll see.

Darn-it

Look at that ugly mess in the middle of my knitting. I couldn't be more proud of it ;)

I just darned my first sock. Usually when my socks get holes in them I just put them away and don't use them anymore. These are my Hedera socks I made from corn yarn.

I really hadn't worn them that much when I got them caught on a nail in a doorway and it made a hole in the bottom :(

I'm also excited to be doing a little be of 'Make do and mend' courtesy of Brenda Dayne. She had a series of podcasts devoted to mending and finding clever ways of using things around the house and to make-do with what you have. It was very inspiring. I want to do more of that. In the past I've bought sweaters at thrift stores (nytjamarkaðir) and even partly unraveled them and tried to knit with the resulting yarn, but I want to do more of that. So watch this spot. Don't wait around. It might take me a while to get to it ;)

And not to forget. If you are thinking about darning your first sock, or freshening up on the technique; this is what I used:

Socks - long time in coming

See that. That's me playing Space Invaders wearing my bmp socks :)

I finally finished the socks. When I looked on Ravelry it said I'd started them in February 2008. That is not correct. I started them this year and must have made a small mistake recording the event. I still can't believe I started them in February. I guess I just started them and then came a very busy time for me and I didn't pick them up until May, but I could have sworn I'd started them in May or around that time. At any rate, here you can see the reason why I don't knit many socks. It takes me forever ;)



The second sock ('high score') went much quicker. One thing was that I'd learned was to knit two colored knitting with both hands AND to wrap the yarn as I went. Big revelation. That way you don't have to let the yarn you are not knitting be carried in the back for long distances and the motives don't pucker in like they had a tendency to do when I knit with both colors in the same hand. The pattern was a pure joy to knit, and after the two color part it was also a pure joy just to knit in one color round after round for the foot ;) I did that (for the second sock) on a road trip to Chicago. On the way back, I had knit half the toe (it's knit in short rows) when I spilled coffee on it.



Immediately when I came home I rinsed the coffee out of the toe and laid them out to dry. The next morning I'd noticed that although the coffee stain was gone, the white yarn had turned gray! Hmm... The black yarn bled. The socks went to 'time out' and now I'm not so sure if I ever dare to wash them!!!! Although the bleeding could have been due to the fact that the stitches were still on the needles when I washed them so they were more wet then had I been able to wash them properly (cross fingers).




Recently, I ripped the half toe back and re-knitted it with new yarn. The 'only' thing I had left to do was to hide the ends and do the dublicate stitch part (the shooter). The duplicate stitches was a challenge, because I didn't have enough light to see the tiny little BLACK stitches (did I mention they were black?). But couple of days ago, my husband dug out a little lamp that fits perfect next to my knitting area and I grabbed the chance and finished the deed ;) This is the second time I do duplicate stitch and both times it was white on black fabric - will I ever learn ;)

The socks were knit on 2 mm circular needles (2 circs) with Sisu yarn (and scrap Hjertegarn yarn for the green part).

Finished objects

This summer has been slow on the knitting front. I hope it picks up because I have a lot of nice yarn to play with.

I did manage to finish some things. One was a hat that took me about a month of knitting. I'm not kidding. It was a month of little knitting but a month just the same. Then I finish it and block, only to discover that it is way to big!

But lets start with the beginning. The hat is made out of yarn I got for my birthday last year. We had a birthday game in my Icelandic online knitting club, and this yarn came from my Aunt. It was two skeins of Silke-Tweed in burgundy. It was a beautiful yarn and since it is 52% silk, very luxurious as well.

It took me some time to find the right pattern for this yarn. I finally found Fern Glade from Knitty.com. It requires 2 skeins of yarn, which is the same fiber (50/50 silk/wool blend) as I had. Perfect!

Well, it took me 3 tries to knit it up. First two were because I didn't bother reading the pattern and was trying to make a slouchie out of the fitted version and couldn't figure out why it was so fitted!!! The third time I knitted the slouchie version, but because I had had so much trouble getting it slouchie, I might have been a little to generous with the needle size. At any rate, when I finally blocked the thing it turned out way, way, way too big.



Turns out silk doesn't behave in the same way as wool. I knit almost exclusively out of wool and cotton and have never knit with yarn with so much silk in it before. Silk just doesn't have the same bounce as wool does and although intellectually I knew that, I guess I'm so used to the wool that it totally took me by surprise. Long story short, the hat grew considerably after I washed it (by hand) and blocked it. The lace pattern shows up much nicer though, if that's any consolation.

I only used a little bit of the second skein, so I decided to make fingerless mittens out of them. That lack of bounce (I don't know the technical term) was evident there as well. I only needed 44 stitches for a generous fit around my wrist. I've already made the first one. I'm just making it up as I go along. But I don't know what to do with the hat. The prospect of ripping it, after it is all done and blocked, and knitting it for the fourth (4th) time is daunting.

Maybe I should put it in the naughty corner, or the freezer, like my friend Stephanie did with her naughty mohair yarn that wouldn't behave ;)

Speaking of mohair, or rather a pretty good substitute. Do you think that mohair is a little bit too scratchy? Try Suri Dream from KnitPicks. I had been curious about this yarn for some time, so I added a ball of that yarn to a KnitPicks purchase earlier this summer. First when I got it, I kept it by my bed and petted it before I went to sleep. That's how soft it is. It's made mostly of brushed alpaca with some wool and nylon thrown in. It knits up on large needles and is very soft, airy and light. I loved knitting with it so much, that the swatch I was making turned into a scarf! A kid size scarf, but scarf nonetheless. When the scarf was finished I still couldn't stop so I immediately started crocheting a hat for my daughter until I ran out of the yarn. The hat was far from being finished so I reached for my stash and pulled out a kid friendly yarn. It was dark pink eyelash yarn (Lion Brand fun-fur) I had gotten at a library yarn-swap. I finished the hat in that yarn and then used it to add a border to the scarf. That saved the scarf in my daughter's eyes, who was not very excited about the green color. BTW, the colors are most true in the first picture (enhanced).











The hat seems to be a little bit too small for Kamilla and it fits better for Ása Sóley. Ása might end up using it. She likes it with all the pink on it ;) First when I started knitting the yarn up, I was amazed at how soft it was and was sure I'd found a yarn for Ása. But when I put it around her shoulder's, she said it stung her! She seems to have a very sensitive skin and doesn't tolerate any wool, not even superwash wool. However, after trying this yarn (and rejecting it), she went straight for my yarn stash and pulled out a skein of cotton sock yarn and said she could use that! She was obviously no stranger to my stash! So now I will knit a shirt for her out of that yarn. I had started a shirt for a baby, but I couldn't get the gauge right. But with Ása here, I can try it on as I go. It's super-simple. Knit from the top-down, without sleeves. Couldn't be more simple. I did, however, buy the pattern. Mostly for the sizing for babies, but it is also good to just follow the pattern ;)

Oh, and after I added the pink eyelash yarn, Ása has no problem wearing the scarf as you can see in the bottom photo!

Knitting needle commercial

Crochet this time around

I haven´t blogged much lately but I´ve crafted. Today I´m going to show you some of the crochet stuff I was doing couple of weeks ago.

I've been secretly following the Potholder swap thanks to Grumperina (what an amazing knitter). You should check out the flickr page (there´s another great group here). What a beauties these are. Who would have thought potholders could look so good?

I started looking around for a potholder pattern and found this one. It's a great pattern. It's simple and clever at the same time. You start the potholder like you would a bag (from bottom up) but once you've crochet enough you fold it over and sew the top edge and it's a potholder.



So I made this yellow one and I couldn't resist adding an embroidered sun (although I did find out that crochet fabric is not the ideal embroidery fabric). This potholder and a corresponding scrubbie (pattern) out of the leftover yarn. According to the theme of this post I should have done a crochet scrubbie. Oh, well ;)



I made a red one for us, but decided against the embroidery this time. My husband has reported back to me that it doesn't insulate very well but it functions well as a hot pad instead. Perhaps it would be ideal to make them a little bit bigger (mine have 35 stitches in the beginning chain) and put an insulating fabric inside before they are sewn up.

Another thing I've done is crochet slobber bibs. Normally bibs are made to catch most of the food but these are for younger babies. When the teeth start coming in (months before the teeth actually come in) they start to slobber and their shirts and onsies (samfella) become soaking wet.

A friend of mine was showing her bibs of on Facebook and she directed me towards the pattern (in Icelandic). But the first one I made came out a little big (the circle overlapped).



So I made another one.




I know they look the same, but they're not. The second one has fewer increases and extra rows. The edging is not included in the original pattern but I added it for extra cuteness. I'm happy how the second one turned out. It's classic and in a neutral color, that can look cute on either a boy or a girl. That was fortunate because the bib was meant as a teacher's gift (end of the school year) for Kamilla's teacher, who is going to have a baby. I didn't know the gender of the baby-to-be so white was a safe bet for me. I love how it looks in white and I'm not sure if I'll try them in different colors! Kamilla brought back a thank you note from the teacher and she says 'he will look cute wearing the bib'. So now I know. She is expecting boy nr. 3! (I was so sure it was a girl since she already has two boys).

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