Current projects

I'm working on a few things at the moment. The oldest project is poor Clapotis which has mostly been staying in the darkness of her bag since I last blogged about her. When I bought the yarn for it at the Álafoss outlet, I asked the nice guy who works there if I could use their computer to check the amount of yarn I needed, which he said was no problem. So I went to the pattern page and saw that I needed 4 balls, which is what I then bought. A few days later when I had finished a ball and not gotten very far into the scarf, I reread the yarn requirements and realized that I had bought 4 x 50g balls and the scarf requires 4 x 100g balls - Oops! The Álafoss outlet is just outside of Reykjavík, maybe a 20 minute drive or so, and considering the issue of global warming and the cost of gas at the moment I decided to wait for an excuse to drive there (this just means that I was too lazy to get up off the couch, but let's pretend that I was being environmental.) The excuse presented itself when Cassie arrived in Iceland. The outlet is naturally on the top 10 list of places to take a tourist knitter in Reykjavík. Now I have all the yarn I need and should be able to finish it, assuming that I'll work on it occasionally. It looks like this at the moment:

A friend of mine recently had a baby, and in my usual fashion I began a gift project just a few days before the birth, despite having known for roughly 6 months that the wee one was going to arrive. Happens every time! I'm making little Kjartan a garter stitch sweater from "Strikk til Nøstebarn". This is a really nice and simple pattern that offers a lot of creativity. The original sweater pictured in the book is in a single color with a crocheted edging and an embroidered pattern in a contrast color. I decided to use up some stash yarn and for the main color I took a beige yarn, of which I had the most, and knit until it was all done. Then I began the striping with yarns that I had only partial balls of. I like the green and yellow combination, it reminds me of spring.

This friend of mine lives in Germany, close to Berlin, and since I'll be going to Berlin with my girl-friends in the beginning of October, I have to have it finished by then. Shouldn't be a problem - baby sweaters are pretty small, right? (Although there's going to be a hell of a lot of ends to weave in!)

The last project I'm actively working on is a sock, of course. Last year my brother was in San Francisco and when he got back he gave me three hanks of hand-painted sock yarn. It was a lovely surprise since I didn't expect it at all. The hanks have been lying dormant since then, but a few weeks ago I took one of them out and started a sock, which will naturally be for said brother. The yarn is quite colorful so I'm making plain stockinette socks with a k2p2 ribbing. Very mindless and very satisfying.

This weekend I've also been knitting a few swatches. It's time for another sweater, it's long overdue in fact.

Hyrna Herborgar

I can't believe that I haven't blogged since the beginning of May! It was a combination of work overload and feeling rather uninspired that led to this awful neglect of the blog. Fortunately Cassie came to the rescue, she arrived in Iceland two weeks ago and not a single day went by without her reminding me that I needed to blog. Apparently it worked!

During the last two weeks, the two of us have been exploring Reykjavík and some of the countryside together. I had a lot of fun. Having guests from abroad is a nice opportunity to do stuff that you would otherwise not do in your day to day life. Unfortunately I hardly took any pictures, but Cassie took enough for the both of us and has posted some good ones on her blog. Check them out!

I have a backlog of finished knits that I haven't blogged about. I think it's fitting to begin with the Hyrna Herborgar shawl because I made it using the lovely handspun that Cassie gave to me when I was in New York last autumn. Cassie is a very good spinner and her yarn was wonderful to work with.

I started the shawl sometime in January and finished it in March. The pattern is from Þríhyrnur og Langsjöl (Three-cornered and long shawls) and it is one of the few shawls in the book that is designed by the author Sigríður Halldórsdóttir. I think it's one of the most beautiful shawl patterns around, and I might very well make it again someday.

Don't you just love the pretty edging on that shawl?

Clapotis

I must be one of the few knitters left who haven't made the famous Clapotis. It's not that I haven't wanted to, it just took me this long to find suitable yarn for it!

Last weekend I went to the Álafoss factory outlet, mostly to keep my SIL company because I'm trying to not buy yarn for a while (I got a small shock when I unpacked my yarn from Helsinki). I went there with the sole purpose of buying the new Eingirni pattern book, which I did. Then, while innocently examining the shelves of yarn I bumped into this beautiful funky merino and realized that I had finally found the yarn for my Clapotis.

The yarn is Løve Symfoni in colorway 8462 and it's a supersoft, loosely spun merino singles. I have a hunch that it's not going to wear very well, but let's hope for the best.

This week has been a week of meeting knitbloggers by surprise. At the outlet I bumped into Dísa, who was having fun spending a gift certificate she received as a gift from a friend. What an excellent gift for a knitter! On Tuesday I started a class on wool preparation and spinning at the handicrafts association, where I met Carola who's also taking the class! At the class we learned how to separate the fleece of Icelandic sheep, pulling the tog out and then trying to get the hærur out of the þel (which requires a lot of patience, I've discovered). We got to take the wool home and by Tuesday we're supposed to have finished preparing it so that we can start combing (tog) and carding (þel). Great fun! Here's a picture of my progress so far

(þel on the left, hærur in the middle and tog on the right)

I've been doing more sewing than knitting lately. We're supposedly having an economic recession in Iceland, so I figured I could let that inspire me to re-use clothes I've stopped wearing. While unpacking the boxes from Helsinki I realized just how much clothes I have that I hardly ever wear. Right now I've got a pair of trousers re-cut and ready for sewing, but I'm trying to decide if I want to dye them black. The fabric color is sort of beige and I'm not sure if I'd use pants of that color much. On the other hand, it feels like a lot of trouble to do the dyeing. All of this means that I can't start sewing because the thread color will have to match the final color of the fabric! Unless I want black pants with beige stitching, and I'm not sure I do. Choices, choices.

That's the news from here. Happy knitting!

My new home

I guess I should do a post on the thing that has been keeping me occupied and away from blogging for a month! I moved into my new apartment the weekend before Easter and I've been slowly (oh so slowly) settling in. It's amazing how much small stuff you need to do/buy when you move to a new place. I've realized that it's going to take me a few months before it's fully ready. How about a tour of the place, even if it's still a bit empty (and messy)? Here's the kitchen

The previous owners recently renovated the kitchen and I think they did it in a really nice way. They kept parts of the original 50's cupboards, and for the new part chose a white, high-gloss front which fits nicely with the old cupboards. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow an old, red fridge from my friends and I'm so thrilled with it!

I think it gives such a nice accent to the extreme whiteness all around. Oh, and there's a great view from the window, I can see the ocean:

(the kitchen window is a bit dirty, as you can see from the blurriness!) The living room is pretty big, on the right there's a sofa corner

and on the right there's room for a dining table (to be found)

From the living room you get to the balcony,

from which you see the backyards of the surrounding buildings.

You can also see the mountain tips of the Reykjanes peninsula peaking over the roofs of the opposite houses.

I also have a craft room - at the moment a seriously messy craft room!

Lots of sewing is going to happen there in the future. I'm still trying to get all of my things organized so that I can keep the desks free of junk and ready for sewing action at all times. The desk in the foreground has extendable legs and will be used for pattern cutting. I've actually been sewing a bit since I moved in. I finished quilting the black and burgundy blanket, and practiced attaching a binding on a cute pot holder.

The apartment also has a bedroom and a bathroom (surprise!), but I didn't include pics of those...

I love love love my new place! It felt like home already after the first night there. It has totally brought out the home-y side of me, I've been baking bread (I bought a fancy mixer that has become my new favorite appliance), sewing and doing home improvement stuff, and I love every part of it!

Although I haven't been knitting too much lately, I have a heap of finished projects to show because I have been a lazy blogger. Blame it on the apartment.

Big news

There has been a lot going on for the past month. The big news is that I bought an apartment! It's a lovely place close to the city center and I'm very much looking forward to moving in, which will hopefully be in a week or so. It'll be awesome to finally unpack all the stuff that has been occupying my parents garage since I moved back to Iceland, especially all my beautiful yarn and all my beautiful knitting books. I can hardly wait!

I've been knitting quite a lot but I haven't been so diligent in taking pictures of what I've finished. The bank-friendly Lopi sweater was ready a while ago and I've worn it with great success to work! I've finished a couple of hats, four pairs of socks, a couple of pre-emie caps (for charity), a shawl (still unblocked) and I started a coat.

I have a picture of the shawl in its half-finished state.

It's the hugely popular Hyrna Herborgar which I've been planning to make for ages. Although my Icelandic shawl book is in the parent's garage, I was fortunate enough to have an old Hugur og Hönd issue in which the pattern first appeared. I used handspun yarn that Cassie gave to me when I was in New York, she spun it herself and it's been such a joy to work with.

The other picture I have is of a sock that's done and its partner as well.

This was based on a pattern in the Finnish sock book, Sukkasillaan, and it's a perfect pattern for leftovers. The colorwork pattern is very simple, and it's fun to dream of lots of color combinations. Before I finished these, I made another pair in this stitch pattern using Lopi leftovers that my mom gave me. It's that much fun!

Hopefully I'll have pictures of the other stuff very soon. The light is already returning (and it feels so darn nice) so picture-taking is now possible outside of the weekends. I have no excuse. But tonight I'm going to the monthly knit café. Fun fun fun!

The bank-friendly lopi sweater

I think I mentioned once that I couldn't wear handknit lopi sweaters to work and that I was going to try to knit more elegant sweaters for the workplace. I work at a bank, if I haven't said that before. Last summer, the new part of the headquarters, which has been under construction for quite a while, was opened and my department was one of the first to move in there. The construction has continued since then and part of it included ripping down the entrance of the old building, which means that there has been a gaping hole in the building through which the wind could blow. The building has been seriously cold all winter, in fact it was bad enough to make the bank buy designer wool cardigans for the reception ladies. (I envied them a lot.)

So. I've been pretty frustrated not to have any bank-friendly wool sweaters to keep me warm at work. Then, a few weeks ago, I noticed that one of the reception ladies was wearing a classic lopi sweater. AHA! thought I. If the reception lady can wear a lopi sweater to work, then I damn well can. She's out there for all to see, and I'm sitting in front of a computer screen all day long. I never meet clients, I seldomly have important meetings. No one's going to mind.

I drove to the Álafoss factory outlet last saturday (a week ago) and bought some grey plötulopi (unspun singles). I thought I'd keep it simple and in muted colors so as not to draw too much attention to myself. Then I drove home, but instead of casting on I went cross-country skiing with Sigurlaug and Böðvar.

Ok, that doesn't have anything to do with the sweater but I just wanted to show you the beautiful surroundings and gorgeous weather. It was so much fun!

Back to the sweater. Initially the plan was to do the body in charcoal gray and then a single-colored yoke pattern in light-gray. Probably the pattern on the Él sweater from the last Lopi book. But one night last week, as I was falling asleep I had the idea to do the yoke in different shades of gray, starting with the charcoal and going gradually to white at the neck. There are of course very few original ideas left in the world, and this was most certainly subconsciously inspired by a Michael Kors sweater in the fall 2007 issue of Vogue (sorry, can't find a picture online).

Yesterday I finished the body of the sweater and I had already done the sleeves last weekend (I usually get the sleeves over with before I start the body). Last night I knit and knit and knit and finished the yoke. I had done minimal math before starting the sweater, just figured out the approximate stitch counts and then I tried it on as I went along. I probably tried it on three times while knitting the yoke, but apparently I was at first blind and didn't notice that it was a tad on the tight side and later my brain did an excellent job of convincing me that really, I wanted a tight fitting yoke. Really. Despite the nagging suspicions, I knit on and finished the sweater today in the afternoon. I grafted the underarm stitches and wove in the ends and thought: I can try to stretch it a bit when it's wet. Mhm. A recipe for failure.

Fortunately, my brother and nieces came to visit at that point so I had a few hours to let the feelings brew. When they left, I had come to my senses. I dug out the woven-in end at the collar and ripped right back to the beginning of the yoke. And I'm really glad I did. I spent the whole week knitting the body of the sweater and half a day doing the yoke. I'd rather redo half a day than wear a wool sweater that's so tight over the chest that there's a risk of me choking! And I like the sweater a lot. I think it's very bank-friendly and I'm already picturing myself wearing it at work.

So, back to yoke knitting. Fun fun fun.

I'm on a roll

The coming of the new year has obviously had a positive effect on me. I'm feeling very enthusiastic about my knitting and I've knitted quite a lot. This morning I finished the pink log cabin socks so I cast on for a Foliage hat using my first handspun yarn. Before I knew, the hat was done! I have to remember this pattern when next in need of a last-minute gift. The newest additions to my stash of handknits were quite crumpled in they're pre-wash state

but they're having a bath together at the moment which should make them more presentable. This has been a great weekend! Four FO's, and two blog posts. I'm afraid to jinx it, but I'll say it all the same: I might be back to my good old self. Here's hoping.