Yarn disaster and 4 hour relief program

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



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

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

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

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

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

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



The organic cotton I bought in New Orleans. Yummie.



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

Back from the Big Easy

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

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

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

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

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

Post knitting camp

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

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



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

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

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

Knitting retreat recap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Knitting retreat

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

Over and out

Is there really such a thing as practical lace?

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

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





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

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

It worked!

It worked! It worked!

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

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

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

My WIPs

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Polygamous knitter yet again

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

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



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

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

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

Well, time to get the kids to sleep. Adios

Turkish slippers

Turkish slippers - crochet
Originally uploaded by rajnos.

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

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

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

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

Live Traffic Feed

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

It´s been 3 years!

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

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

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

SBQ

I finally answered one of those.

Toasty toes

Aloe sokkar
Originally uploaded by rajnos.

Now my toes will be warm and soft with these socks knit with Austermann Step aloe vera/jojoba oil yarn. US 1 needles (2.25mm), 2 circs, toe up.

I wanted these socks to be fraternal instead of identical. I think they would be more boring and predictable if they were both the same. This way the pattern looks more random.

We are getting settled in the new house. Hopefully I can start to knit more in the future than I have in the last few weeks.

Finishing up couple of things

I put some photos on flickr.

Progress photos on a felted bag I´m working on. Pattern from Tinna.is.



I´ve saved up leftover yarn from slippers I´ve made from Fritidsgarn from Sandnes. Like these I made for Clint (again):



I made this ´Tribble´ from a leftover yarn as well. This time from a 4 corners dishcloth. The pattern of which can be found on the same website as for the Tribbles.



Lastly and finally I present The Woodland Shawl.



It is finally off the needles and is blocking as we speak. It´s quite small. I´m thinking about making it into a shrug.

Attention all knitters!

Go see 'The Golden Compass'. Do it now. Now I said!

Seriously. There is some fantastic knitting there, although they can't pronounce Ragnar Sturluson to save their life. Despite having an Icelandic pronunciation consultant listed in the credits. He he Sólveig, wherever you are, at least you tried.

Lyra´s jacket is awesome but this this hat is a little weird. I liked this one a lot better. Another photo, which shows the back.

I got it! Eureka!

It seemed odd to me that people around me seemed to be able to felt just fine with top loaders but I only with front loaders.

Talking to a lady at the library knitting club last Saturday I found out what the difference is. It appears that the standard American washers don't heat the water like their European counterpart, but use water preheated by a water heater. This explains many things, like why American washers are much faster than European and why they only have cold, warm and hot settings and not the actual temperature you are washing with.

So in Iceland I threw the objects in the washer and they came out all felted and nice. Here I throw things in the washer and they come out all limp and pathetic :(

But the 'felt-by-hand' method seems to work for me so I'm just gonna stick with that (and keep my eye out for a water heating washer).

p.s. does anyone know what are the temperatures behind the cold, warm and hot? Does it perhaps depend on the water heater in question. If you have a formula for it, all the better :)

A short sock post

This post will be short and it will be about a short pair of socks.



CO 48, k2, p2 down to heel, short-row, double wrap heel.

Pooling, flashing, you name it. Thankfully my 4 yo. doesn't read knitting blog and has no idea that could be undesirable. She loves them.

Felting by hand

You gotta do what you gotta do. Since I'm stuck with top loaders (washing machines that the laundry goes in on the top instead off the traditional front loaders) I haven't been able to felt. The pieces come out all limp :( I miss my old front loader in Iceland. Maybe it's just Icelandic washer that are different from Americans, who knows?

I had my French Market Bag. I had run it twice through the washing machine on low water and with couple of pairs of shoes. But the fabric was still limp and hardly felted at all. I use coin laundry and there is just a limit to how many times I can wash a single item.

Along came a hand felting article in the latest Knitty.

I decided to try that. Bought a plunger and a bucket in Family Dollar for the total of $3 (only if all my knitting supplies where so cheap).



After plunging away at the bag, with a little dish soap and some 'help' from my daughters I felt (ha ha ha) I had made some progress.



Then I dried the bag by rolling it up in a towel and shaped it by putting a plate in the bottom and filling it up with plastic bags. I also folded it in on the sides because it was a little too wide.



When it has dried I will sew in the sides and then use it as a knitting bag.

The forgotten blog

I just realized I never wrote about my knitting retreat on the blog :o I don't even think I mentioned I was going. Úpps.

Well I did go and it was great. We were 8 knitters, all women, who meet on Thursdays at the LYS for couple of hours. Well, sometimes couple of hours just aint enough so we rented a cabin by Lake Hope, which is close by and spent last weekend knitting and eating (little bit of sleep in between).

I worked on slippers for Clint and finished a hat for Kamilla (about 5 times!). When I cam home I immediately started gloves. These are Cigar from knitty.



I made all the fingers whole and knit the smallest size for me in one color. It was a quick knit on 3.5 mm needles.

I also finally got a decent photo of me in the jacket/sweater/cardigan whatchacallit



I wear it all the time. It´s just great.

I just started socks for Kamilla. These last weeks have been all about knitting for the extremeties for the family. Then I want to do a big project for me.