December

I decided to knit a few Christmas gifts.

Recently I have been following Brittamis Design on facebook. This summer there was a cloth knitting and in November I decided to knit the ZZ cloth for my sisters.

I knitted three washing clothes from three different colors (two shades of blue). All worked out fine and the pattern is beautiful. I bought soaps from Body shop and put them with the cloths and gave my sisters as Christmas presents.

In November, I decided also to knit a sweater for my dad for Christmas. The pattern is from the book "Prjónað úr íslenskri ull" and is knit from light wool. Actually I do like plötulopi better but decided to follow the pattern.

The sweater is very beautiful and the color tones flow very well together. My assumption is that this is a beautifully designed sweater.

This sweater I knitted for my three year old aunt and gave as Christmas present. The pattern is from "Prjónablaðið Ýr" no 58 and I made it from Smart from Sandnes yarn.

The pattern is ok, but I bought yarn for size 4 years and it was not enough for the size. When I saw that I needed more yarn was it was too late to get one in the same color code, so I had to make some changes in the neckline. I ended up buying a yarn that was similar in color and some fluffy yarn and knitted the neckline with both of those threads.

At last I made the sweater below for my mom as Christmas present. I knitted it last summer so it was just waiting to be handed over.

Barbie

I went to a birthday party for my sisters daughter the other day and decided to give her barbie clothes for her birthday.

I decided that nothing less than a golden dress, fur coat and gold bag was enough for my aunt.

I found the patterns in a knitting magazine I bought years ago. It was rather special to knit from the golden yarn because it was somehow stiff to touch and without the softness that I look for in a yarn. On the other hand the fur yarn was soft and nice to touch.

My aunt did like her present a lot. 

Summerwork

What a long time it is since I wrote last time. Time passes fast when you are having fun. 

I finished this sweater early this summer and I am very happy with it. It´s made of yarn that has among other fibers linen.  I dug that yarn out of my stock. The colors are much greener than the picture shows.

Then I knitted Lopi sweater for my husband. I knitted it from a leftover wool. It is knit on needles no. 8 and three-plate plðtulopi.

One of my niece's is a dollmama and she ordered this hat for her doll wich had no hat that matched well on the dollhead.

 The same aunt got this pillow for her birthday.

Then there was the jam  making. I made rhubarb jam, rhubarb- and datejam and red currant jelly.

That´s it. Those are the crafts and agriculture work I did this summer.

Bookstore and knitting

The other day I went to the bookstore Nexus, wich is by the way my favorite bookstore in Reykjavík.

  

There is a range of handicraft books witch are different than the selection in other bookstores.

 There I got this wonderful crochet book. In the book is a girl I will someday crochet and lots of clothes and other items for her. And the pictures, lovely.

 Then there is the world champion sweater I decided to knit while watching the games. It had to be rather easy to knit so I can knit and watch the tv.

 I decided to knit a sweater from Sandnes yarn.

   I did change the pattern so I knit it in circle in stead of flat. Then I'm going to steek it and sew some nice looking band into it so the edges will not roll out like seen in the picture.

And then there is some knitting to do. Go Germany

Granny blanket

This is what I've been doing recently.

 Cute Quilt made of granny squares. Here you can see how granny square is crocheted.

 The quilt is crocheted from a simple plate wool (Icelandic plötulopi) and the size so that it fits well to throw it over me in a couch or chair when watching television or reading a good book.

Now is the time to choose something comfortable on the knitting needles to knit when watching the World Cup. It has to be something TV-friendly so you do not miss cool game and great goals.

Recycle

The cat in the household has selected a chair in our home as a favorite chair. The problem is that, that same chair is also my favorite.

That chair was therefore pretty often loaded with cat hair when I was going to sit in it.

The solution was to sew a little quilt from old jeans to use as a blanket on the chair.

Now that I'm going to sit in the chair, I just have to take the quilt of the chair and it's ready for me. Since I did 2, I can always put one in the washing machine and use the clean one on the chair. A stroke of genius that took me long time to get.

Finally, here is a picture of my little niece in the sweater I knitted for her. I need to find some time to write the pattern and publish it on this page.

New knitting magazine

came with the post today.

There were lot of nice summer patterns to knit

and interesting articles to read.

It was wonderful to sit out for a little sun and look through the magazine, read the articles and dream about those nice summer knitwear I wanted to knit.

Lopisweater

I finished a "Lopapeysa" wich is not in the traditional style the other day.

It is covered with rope-pattern and lace-holes in between.

I'm not going to say how long it took to knit this sweater but it was a veeeery long time, mainly because I got into trouble with the pattern, and also managed entirely by self to make mistakes in it and had therefore to take some pauses knitting it.

I do not quite understand what wet Lopasweater is irresistable for some cats but this one was sleeping on it for a considerable time.

My Norveginan sweater

is ready.

I'm very happy with it (like with most of the things í knit or crochet or..., hehe). And the buttons, so pretty.

The pattern is from an old copy of "Prjónablaðinu Ýr" (and originally  from Sandnes yarn).  I made no changes with the pattern or the color choice, which is pretty unusual for me. If anything should have been knitted differently, I should maybe have made it 4 cm longer.

The color combination is great and the pattern is beautiful. I had to rip out 11 rounds in the pattern, but it was ok because it was quite okay to knit it again.

Haf - a hat

Knitted measurements:

Medium (for woman and man)

Gauge:

10 cm are 17 rounds

Material:  

Yarn that fits the gauge, 50 g dark blue and 50 g light blue. I used Hubro from Dalegarn

Circular needles size 8mm or size to obtain gauge

Cable needle, tapestry needle

This hat is worked from the lower edge and up. It´s knitted on circular needle so there are no sewing except to sew in the ends.

Cast on 68 sts. with the darker color and join in a round, be careful not to twist sts. Knit rib pattern, *k2, p2; repeat from * to end. Knit until piece measures 7 cm.

Switch to the lighter color and knit one round. Increase one stich at the end of the row (69 stitches on needle).

Now knit the pattern according to the chart (munstur 1 or munstur 2). Note however that the round ends up in a 1 purled sts.

In the third round you have to increase one sts. at the end of the row (70 stitches on needle).

You can choose between two different cable patterns.

In “munstur 1” the cables turns in the opposite direction (pattern 1)

In “munstur 2” the cables turns in the same direction (pattern 2).

*	Takið 2 lykkjur og setjið á hjálparprjón, leggið lykkjurnar fyrir framan og prjónið 2 lykkjur fyrir aftan. Prjónið síðan lykkjurnar fyrir framan. Pjónið síðan áfram.
*	Takið 2 lykkjur og setjið á hjálparprjón, leggið lykkjurnar fyrir aftan og prjónið lykkjurnar 2 fyrir framan. Prjónið síðan lykkjurnar fyrir aftan. Pjónið síðan áfram.

Here is a video from Drops studio that shows how to knit a cable.

Knit until the piece measures 19 cm. Then knit the knit stitches two together the whole round, 63 stitches are on the needle.

After knitting 22 cm all the purl stitches are knit two together the whole round, 49 stitches on the needle.

When piece measures 26 cm knit two stitches together the whole round.
After that you cut a long tail an pull the strand through the remaining loops.

Finishing:

Turn the hat inside out. Bind of all lose ends.

Create a pompom and sewed on the top of  the hat.

Steekin

is something I am always stressed to do. On youtube I found those found these fine instructions how to do it with Eunny Jang from Knitting Daily TV. I have used the sewing machine method but will I will definitely try the crochet method. It looks neat when finihsed. You can find the link here.

Sweater knitting

Now I am well on the way to finish two sweaters. The first one is for me.

Yesterday I had to undo 11 rounds that I had knitted because I used wrong color in the pattern. Because of those mistake the pattern was all wrong. The sweater is knitted on needles no. 3 and 336 loops on the needle so I was almost with tears in my eyes when I was undoing my knitting.

The other sweater is for a 18-month baby and my aunt will get it. It's been a lot of thinking while I was knitting it since I wrote the pattern on the knittingway. I will share this pattern on Yarn fever as soon as I have finished writing it.

.
The colors are very pretty together and will it be a nice summer-sweater, especially because it is made of cotton yarn.