Finished

The first crochet blanket I actually finish is ready! It was a quick project (at least for me, making a crochet blanket), since I used hook nr. 7 and two strands of unspun icelandic wool for it, from Istex and Thingborg. 

But... something happend to it, when I washed it: the lopi from Thingborg (grey) got slightly felted and the lopi from Istex almost nothing at all! Strange enough, I actually like it even more that way; it´s warmer, sooooo cozy and the baby (not mine :-) will never, ever get cold covered with this one! :-)

I had a lot of fun making this funky blanket and really like it. My oldest son really loves it too and has been testing it for the baby for the last few days... I might even have to make him one too...

You can read more about it and the pattern I used for the squares in this post.

the perfect size: not too big, not too small so that it can be used used from age 0-100

funky, a little bit retro and happy

partly felted and very cozy

Elves at home...

A few years ago I found an interesting slipper pattern on Ravelry (felted) - I really wanted to knit them for myself but at that time, I was overchallenged by this pattern beeing written in english and filled with short rows, so I ended up just dreaming about those slippers... until now! On a relaxing cottage-trip at the countryside with my boys the other day, I finally had the time&the right skills to make them!

This pattern, "Elf Shoes" really is a piece of cake if you know how to knit short rows (I recommend using youtube if you don´t), it´s interesting, fun, goes really fast and I learned a lot about sock-knitting while working on this project. 

Details:

Yarn: léttlopi (aran) for the shoes and my plant-dyed einband (laceweight) for the freehand embroidery 

Needles: 6 mm

Modifications: I made my slippers longer than it says in the pattern, since I´ve felted léttlopi several times and know how intensely it feltes.

I really, really love those shoes and I´m sure the elves do too!

Freehand-embroidery with plant dyed einband (onionpeel, lichen, lupina and calluna vulgaris)

 I used some iron-on-patches to make them last longer...

ohhh how I love those colours of nature... 

I also wanted to show off my new button - a very dear friend of the family gave it to me, knowing that I have a thing for buttons :-)  

It´s probably one of the most beautiful buttons I´ve ever seen...

Autumn

Autumn has arrived in Iceland and I´m a big fan of this time of year. 

What I love is: 

- the beautiful colours of nature

- the refreshing frost in the morning  

- frosty plants

- wearing a lopapeysa in the fresh air 

- enjoying a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate

But most of all, I love talking long walks along the seashore on sunny, calm autumn mornings, 

tucked up in my warm handknitted things. 

What´s your favorite time of year and what is it, you love about it?

Here you have some pictures of my walk yesterday... 

the seashore

 

frosty plants

a magical moment

Unfinished

Like always, I´m working on several projects at the same time - it seems to impossible for me to work on just one project at a time. But I think it´s important to adapt the choice of knitting-projects to your mood - it´s just more fun like that: sometimes you´re in the mood for something complicated like a lace shawl, and sometimes you´re just too tired to do something that requires too much thinking (simple crochet squares or my Pan are perfect) ... or you get sick in the car if you have to look on what you´re doing (I prefer the body of sweaters without shaping)...and sometimes there are just things I have to knit like socks, mittens, hats and sweaters for my boys no matter what!

This weekend I added one more project to my long list of things I´m knitting/crocheting! The reason is, that I was recently told, somebody very close and dear to me is having a baby and since that, I´ve been browsing different babypatterns like a crazy person... hats, shoes, socks, sweaters and blankets. I want to knit them all!!! I decided to start with a crochet-blanket. while I decide what to knit next. This baby is arriving in the middle of winter, and  really needs a warm blanket to stay warm. I decided to use only plötulopi (icelandic unspun wool) from my huge stash.

Details:
The pattern I'm using is this free Bullseye Squares Pattern by Little Tin Bird (with a step by step photo-tutorial) - I´m adding one row around each square because I like it more that way... it´s kind of funky, retro, cool and minimalistic and reminds me of pom poms! The best thing about this pattern: it´s so quick and easy. It´s going to be a bit bigger than my livingroom table, perfect for the stroller. 

But what to knit next? What´s your favorite thing to knit for a baby? 

the colours - not sure about that white... (she doesn't know if it´s a boy or a girl)

I still have to make about 12 squares... 

Kría

I think crochet-projects like shawls, collars and squares make the most perfect on-the-go-projects. It´s just one hook, one strand of yarn and you can easily choose a pattern that´s just a constant repetition... you can therefore easally work without counting and making mistakes all the time AND it fits into most handbags. 

Because of this, I started making my first crochet shawl during a campingtrip this summer. It´s the wonderful pattern "Kría" from the beautiful book "Þóra heklbók" by Tinna Þórudóttir Þorvaldsdóttir.
Making this shawl is totally addicting - once you´ve started, you can´t stop and now that I´ve finished one, I can´t wait to make another one in different colours!! Crazy! What I really like about this shawl is, that I was able to use my leftover-natural-dyed-yarn... it´s so hard to find use for leftover einband (lace)... and the strange thing is, that no matter how many colours you use for this project, it will always look nice (that´s not the case for knitted lace shawls).
I added a scalloped edging (5dc each) and I´m so glad I did - it makes it even more pretty!

My new shawl reminds me this wonderful summer I had with my boys, all the fun campingtrips, nature and sun... thanks to all those memories and the warmth of the colours it will keep me and my soul warm on cold, dark winterdays.

Details: 
Yarn: icelandic einband (lace), dyed by myself with many different plants
Hook: 3,5
Repeats: 62 since I like bigger shawls 
Modifications: I added a edging
Resumé: love this pattern, love this book!

amazing and surprising how the combination of many different colours really works for this shawl

love the size...

so warm and cozy!

love those colours... 

scalloped edging

Bus Yarnstorming in Reykjavík

Remember my Granny-a-day-for-2weeks-challenge? Well, I actually made about 17 different crochet-grannys for the bus-yarnstorming-project. Our bus turned out to be so beautiful&perfect and you can read all about it on the Reykjavík Underground Yarnstormes blog and thanks to Litla Skvís, you see some pictures here. ! :-)

I found some pictures of my work in the bus here:

1. heart granny
2. huge Granny (the seat)
3. 9 different grannys together (the seat)
4. 3 big ones (the wall)

But here you have the last grannys I made: 

I can´t figure out, where I got the tutorials/patterns for those two.. but they where so much fun to make so I guess I'll have to have to find the patterns eventually... I used léttlopi for both of them:

Granny Flower Square (yarn: léttlopi): you can find a pattern and a good tutorial here

This one is just the classic granny square, you can find a pattern/tutorial here - what makes it unusual is the fact, that it is made with my giant, homemade crochet hook, with 8-stranded léttlopi... 

that makes it HUGE! :-)