Yarn Aboard!

On thursday evening the postal service brought me a package and a very nice package it was.


In the autumn I signed up for Yarn Aboard! - a very nice swap organized by Amanda of clothesknit. All the packages were first sent out by Amanda, and all of them were supposed to end their journeys on her doorstep. I was the last stop on Vasco de Gama's travels, but unfortunately he got stuck in Canada so instead of him going to Shelby, then me and finally Amanda we decided that Shelby and I would send our gifts to each other.

Shelby really spoiled me. First, she wrapped each item individually and I just love opening wrapped gifts

Opening wrapped gifts is even better when what's inside is something you really like! And wow, was I amazed. Inside there was yummi chocolate (already tried and loved),

very nice lip balm, hand salve and lip shimmer (all tried and loved),

there were two lovely sock patterns

and a cute tool bag from Knit Picks (it's black and very difficult to photograph). I think my favorite was a set of five stitch markers that Shelby made herself. This is the one thing that I have been dying to get. In every yarn shop I visited during my trip to the US last year I looked for these fancy stitch markers, but couldn't find any. They're not available on this side of the Atlantic, so I was a little bit disappointed. Now I have them, thanks to Shelby!

which means that this

is history! Last but not least, Shelby sent two hanks of fabulous sock yarn

Socks that Rock is something I have wanted to try for a long time, as they seem to be the number one hit these days. I have to say that it is really impressive in person, and I love the colorway Shelby chose. The other hank is from Crown Mountain Farms and also there, the colors are wonderful. I haven't heard about that sock yarn before, so I'm excited to try it out.

Thank you so much Shelby for all those wonderful things, and thanks to Amanda for organizing such a nice swap!

Merike's Gloves

Yesterday I finished knitting Merike's Gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush. It's funny that this pattern didn't speak to me at all until I saw a picture of gloves that Ineke made. I think that the gloves pictured in the book really don't do the pattern justice, they look a bit boring in white and gloves don't look their best without a hand in them.

These were knit using sock yarn I dyed on the first day of the year, and had intended to use for lace socks. It seems that my obsession with socks has been replaced temporarily with an enthusiasm for hand coverings, which is fine by me. I'm sure socks will return to me, at least I have enough sock yarn to burn through in Helsinki.

For the past five or six weeks (I'm starting to loose track of time) I've been working on finishing a self-study course I've had hanging over me for a long long time. After sitting and doing calculations for what seems like an eternity, I felt extremely relieved today when I solved the last problem. Yay for me!

Yarn and more

Yesterday I drove to Álafosskvos (Álafoss-valley) to visit the Álafoss factory outlet where Ístex sells their yarns at lower prices. It's located in Mosfellsbær, a town right next to Reykjavík. It's a really lovely place, the outlet (yarn!) and the surroundings. It's like a tiny little town inside a bigger one. The Álafoss building used to be a wool factory, but I think that the processing has been moved elsewhere. Behind the factory there's a small river and a waterfall which used to provide electricity to drive the factory. Now it's a residential area and there are a bunch of artist's studios and Sigur Rós (the band) has a recording studio there.

For the past two weeks the place has been in the media spotlight. The town council has decided to build a road right next to it, to connect a new residential area to the town. The inhabitants of Álafosskvos and the artists who work there are really angry about it since it would spoil the beauty of the place and bring a lot of noise pollution. I totally support their cause.

I bought a bunch of yarn, some kambgarn for a shawl, a little bit of plötulopi for a sweater, some sock yarn, and a book. I was innocently strolling around there when I noticed Solveig Hisdal's Poetry in Stitches ("Ljóð í lykkjum" in Icelandic) on a shelf with a price tag saying 1500 kr, which is ridiculously cheap (about 20 dollars and if you don't think it's cheap, remember that Iceland is one of the most expensive countries in the entire world. I recently read that it has become more expensive than Norway. I'm shocked.) Of course I bought a copy, how could I resist?

I have officially begun a yarn collection in Iceland. I'm flying off to Helsinki in just under 3 weeks and there's no chance I'll manage to finish two drawers worth of yarn in that time.

I started a sweater a couple of weeks ago. I bought a bag of plötulopi in a beautiful red heathered colorway before christmas and finally an idea struck me. Plötulopi is a thin, unspun thread of Icelandic wool and around here it's very popular for the lopi sweaters. You use two strands for a thickness similar to létt-lopi (lopi light), and three strands for regular lopi thickness. I've wanted to try knitting with a single strand for some time now, and that's what I'm doing with the sweater.

I've done both sleeves, and am about halfway to the waist on the body. With 2.5 mm needles (in between US 1 and 2) I have a gauge of 26 stitches per 10 cm (4'') so as you can imagine it doesn't grow that fast, although it goes much faster than I had anticipated. Right now I'm at the point where I've realized that there's hardly any chance I'll get it done before I go back to Helsinki, so I'm pondering my options. I don't think I'll take it with me. I'm moving back to Iceland in June and will have a lot of stuff to pack so why add to it? I already have a sweater ongoing in Helsinki (a single sleeve, heh) in addition to a pile of yarn that's intended for a sweater. So, right now I've come to the conclusion that I'll lay the fine-gauge sweater aside until summer arrives and instead I'll cast on for something that I can finish in the time I have left here. What a great excuse to start a new project, don't you think?!

The Bearfoot shawl

When I was in the States last spring I bought a bunch of yarn. I have been struggling ever since to find use for it. The thing is that it's all so special to me that no pattern seems good enough.

Among the yarn I bought were two hanks of Mountain Colors Bearfoot (in different colorways). Apparently it is meant to be a sock yarn, but seriously, it's such a wonderfully soft and beautiful yarn that I just couldn't face sticking my sweaty feet in it. After much thinking, I decided I'd make a scarf or a shawl out of it. I began the Trellis scarf using one of the hanks, but after the border and one repeat of the lace pattern I did some weighing and some calculating and realized that I'd probably not have enough to make a scarf of a decent length. I was sad.

During the handball world championships I found myself needing a simple project to knit while watching a game that was starting in 20 minutes. I was flipping through an old copy of Hugur og hönd (magazine of the Icelandic Handicrafts Association) and noticed a neat looking triangular shawl done in moss stitch. I remembered the hank of bearfoot I had brought with me to Iceland and thought "perfect!". The moss stitch would go nicely with the variegated yarn and I could start with a few stitches, increase ad infinitum until I ran out of yarn.

I have to say that it was a really enjoyable experience to knit a triangular shawl like this. I feel like I didn't really put any effort in it. I brought it along to the knitcafé that the handicrafts association, the handknitting association and Ístex organized in the beginning of the month (fun, fun fun!), I knit on it while chatting with Sigurlaug when she came to visit, and occasionally while watching tv. All of a sudden, on friday evening, it was done.

When it came off the needle (4 mm circular) it looked rather small, but saturday morning I washed it and pinned it out to dry, trying my best to stretch it as much as I possibly could. And blocking worked its magic once again, turning this tiny little shawl into one of a pretty decent size. I love it!