Knitting fever

Today I have been home alone with a stubborn cold. Somehow it is not so bad being ill when you can knit, and today it was actually quite nice. Just days before that volcano erupted I ordered a few things from overseas, and today the first item finally arrived. Prjónaperlur is a book about all the facets of the current knitting fever in Iceland. Women of, literally, all ages present their own patterns and there are classics next to crazy and childish. The patterns are a bit too easy for my taste, but there are a few gems. I just finished reading the presentations and thoughts between the patterns and it warmed my heart almost as much as my own fever. Being half Icelandic I like those moments when I feel part of that community and the book really sucked me in. It will soon be published in English and there is a part two in the making, so if you have an interest in the culture of knitting or a love of Icelandic wool I can recommend it. It is small but has a soul.
















Before the post arrived I finished the first project from the huge stash of Icelandic Einband (1-ply) that I brought home last October. It is the fabulous Faux Russian Stole from the book A Gathering of Lace. The yarn only lasted 180 of the 185 cm needed so the last centimetres are slightly paler, but it is like one of the mottoes from Prjónaperlur says: "There has to be a mistake in each project, because then you can see that it is handmade". This is especially true if the result is as amazing as this. This is lace in garter stitch, which I had never made before, and it is actually easier than it looks but requires a lot of patience. Most of it was made during the Christmas holiday, but the problem with the yarn made me wait with the finishing until I had convinced myself how to deal with it.















And a detail...

Sweets

Last summer I found that I had three shawls named after drinks and this Easter I seem to be into sweets. The first yarn is named Dubbelnogat and it is a tasty, shiny silk. The yarn is from a small collection of hand dyed silk from Färgkraft, where they usually dye lovely, thin woolen yarns in unexpected colourways. I spotted this yarn last summer at Cina's garn and hinted to Mr P that if no one else had bought it by Christmas I wouldn't mind taking care of it. I got two 400m skeins to wrap myself in and after a lot of dreaming about the result it is finally on its way. It is interesting to see what happens to the mix of colours when you start working with a yarn that is hand dyed, so I took pictures of the process from skein to swatch.











































The yarn is actually very shiny in silver, gold and bronze but the pictures were too bright for the screen. The pattern is Tuscany by Amy R. Singer from her book No Sheep for You. This pattern is made for silk and suits the drape of the yarn and the pattern works with the colours. The first swatch is on 4mm needles (right) but it was too loose and 3,5mm (left) works much better, I will just have to add som extra repeats at the end.

Another sweet project is the Madli's Shawl by Nancy Bush from Knitted Lace of Estonia. This yarn is Nef Lace from Fyberspates in Toffee Chocolate. I made most of this on my trip to Iceland last year. Short wooden needles worked well on the plane. The yarn is extremely soft and the pattern isn't very well defined so I am not quite sure if I will follow this through to the end

Happy Easter

This is how we decorate for Easter. The children have filled the plant with coloured feathers, crocheted ornaments from my grand-mother and and new things they have made in school. I put som twigs in a vase in the kitchen like you are supposed to, but they still have no leaves so this is more fun. We use the same plant as a Christmas tree with lights and everything...

We also have a basket of large paper eggs filled with candy, but one of the eggs was also a bit untraditional this year. Two relatives celebrated their birthdays recently so instead of donating money to the postal system we exchange gifts when we meet for the holidays. The egg contained a set with a small bag a top for a four-year-old and socks for her mother.





























The orange set is from a DMC crochet kit for beginners. A friend of mine sold the kits in her yarn store, but this one remained unsold. I thought about buying it for my daughter and ended up getting it for free. I didn't start making it until my daugther was too big, so it went to her cousin instead. There is some yarn left, so I will probably make another bag so they can match their outfits. The yarn is called Senso and is of great quality, as you would expect from DMC.

The socks are a beautiful design from the book Sock innovation by Cookie A. called Wanida. It is one of those great patterns that look simple but is quite intricate when you take a closer look. The stripes become more subtle when they are stretched out on the foot but they are also lined with borders of lacey holes. The yarn is Austerman Step, which is usually too stripey for patterned socks but this purple and blue (132) is calmer.

All about my girl

In my last post I wrote about who inspired and full of energy I felt. A short time after that I slipped and fell badly. After that I could hardly sit for two weeks and lets just say that one part of my body has suffered a permanent dent. Knitting came to a halt, but now I'm back in the game again.

Some projects at this time of year have to wait another week to be revealed here, but I will ad them to Ravelry where my family can't see them. Instead I will focus on some stuff that my daughter has gotten this year. Starting with the most recent project: she got an icelandic dress for her birthday two weeks ago. The pattern is really cute (Teikn from Lopi 28 by Ístex), but what won me over was the yarn. Létt-Lopi colour 1408 is a bright and happy pink and when I saw it on the shelf there was no way to resist it.















Next up are a couple of socks that she picked the yarn for. The pattern is a modified version of Serpentine socks from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson. In the book they are made from a thicker yarn and the pattern repeat has more rows, but I made them for a 7-year-old and scaled it down and used Regia sock yarn.















Last here, but knitted first, is this sweater that she wore on the last day of school in June. The yarn is Rowan Damask in the colour Lava. The design is from Rowan´s The Organic Cotton Collection and its name is Cherry Pie, which suits the colour very well. This was truly a last minute effort. I literally ran to the school to put on the sweater over her white lace dress only minutes before the program started. What caused the problem was my firm crochet, which made the edges to small and the sewing a nightmare. After redoing it a couple of times I finally got it together.

Positive thinking

Dark evenings, grey weather and too much to do... Time for some positive thinking inspired by dear Maria, who has given me a prize.













She asked me to list ten things about myself, and I will list ten things that are good in my life right now:
1. My husband turned 40 last week, and his vest is almost done. Hope to post pics this weekend.
2. My son was 5 the same day, and he is so wonderful. The confidence they have at that age.
3. My daughter who is the perfect person to knit for, style concious, grateful and very small!
4. I actually like the garden when it is getting to rest, the last phase in the changes over the year with great, earthy colours.
5. The yarn stash is in excellent shape, and I feel quite content to draw my knitting inspiration from it for a while.
6. Apart from the vest there are a number of projects that are close to finishing, and since we plan to redecorate my study as soon as I get through the piles of stuff in there I am well motivated to do something about my UFOs.
7. I have a job that gives me energy and I look forward to getting there every morning.
8. I can't believe how lucky I am to be surrounded my so many wonderful people; friends, colleagues and relatives.
9. I am preparing a knitting café about new techniques for cabling on november 19th, and there is just so much we could do but we only have two hours.
10. In a few weeks MrP and I celebrate that it has been ten years since our first date. Amazingly enough I just won a lottery and got a dinner for two at the restaurant where we had our wedding dinner.

I think this just boosted my energy, so back to that pile of UFOs!

Icelandic shopping

Under a bed in my house there are two big boxes. One is filled with knitted items like shawls, vests and sweaters. The other holds lopi and létt-lopi and some lace yarn. I also have some hand made yarn and buttons from Ullarselid as well an embroidery kit and some of their products made from rabbit wool. So what do I really need to buy? Anything I don't have of course!

There has been some great pattern books coming out in Iceland since my last visit in 2003. Védis Jónsdóttir is a designer who has envigorated the traditional woolen sweaters with a line of booklets from Istex, the leading yarn company. I'm especially glad to get a hold of her patterns for garments in lace yarn, einband. Another favourite is the new book on mittens Hlýjar hendur that is currently the third best selling book, all categories included, in the largest chain if Icelandic book stores.















When it comes to buying yarn there is a limit to what a suitcase can hold. To get the most out of the trip I decided to focus on einband, the lace yarn. I got all the natural wool colours and a few balls each of white, brown and natural black. The large skeins at the back are dyed with herbs in a beautiful, dark green. I also wanted som red, which I found at the Álafoss store where we made a quick stop. There I also couldn't resist getting some unspun, green yarn that will look great with the natural brown in my stash. My brothers got some blankets, and somehow managed to get them into their small bags for the trip home. I had of course planned ahead and brought a half empty, big suitcase.





























After reading all my new books I got an idea for a Christmas present and got some more yarn at a supermarket, but that has to remain a secret...

Icelandic wool

I went to Iceland last week, and although I was there on other business I managed to squeeze in some wool. My cousin owns some 170 sheep and the week before they had been brought down from the mountains were they graze freely during the summer. The farmers still go out on horseback for several days to collect them, but they use airplanes to locate the sheep. Then the sheep are brought to a place where they are held in a circular enclosement and then separated into smaller pens, one for each farm, as seen in the picture. These days they don't have to herd them the last kilometres to the farm, but load them on trailers. After the sheep have been brought home the lambs are slaughtered before the remaining sheep are put in a barn for the winter.















Later that day we went to a local shop where people with an interest in crafts in the western parts of Iceland sell a selection of high quality products. It is called Ullarselid and was started in 1992 on the grounds of the university of agriculture at Hvanneyri. The products are mostly made from wool, but there are also buttons made from bone and horn, stones and other souvenirs. The following three pictures show some of their hand spun or herb dyed yarn, sweaters designed for the hand spun yarn and their special take on the traditional Icelandic sweaters with a patterned yoke.











































I made my not so interested brothers come along, and here is what they bought: socks, mittens, a hat and some felted soles. Not as expensive as the larger items but still great quality and perfect gifts to bring home. What I bought? You will see in the next post...