Buttons

If you follow my blog or even know me personally you know how much I love buttons. During a trip to Akureyri I found some beautiful buttons in an antique shop. Some of them seem to be handmade/homemade and what they all have in common is that they are made out of wood and leather. 

I went to the national museum with my boys... as you can see they enjoyed it a lot

My 7 year old

My 6 year old

The national museum in Reykjavík is a beautiful building and there are always 

some new things to discover

macro

I´m fascinated by my new macro-lens and all it´s possibilities. Looking at those pictures, one can discover things that normally aren't visible. I guess it takes a lot of practice to learn how to manage a macro-lens but it´s really worth it and practicing is so much fun! Here are my first shots:

one thing I didn´t realize was how interesting portraits can turn out, using a macro-lens.

this one is one of my favorites...

Diversity

I have a mission. I really want my boys to be proud of what and who they are. I also want them to be tolerant of other people and to understand that diversity is a wonderful thing. Wouldn´t the world be a boring place if we where all the same? 

 

origami mobile

On a weekend in August, we went on a short road-trip and took walk on one of our favorite beaches on the south-coast. I found some really beautiful pieces of driftwood - two of them where just perfect for a origami-mobile I´ve been wanting to make for a long time now.

Material:

2 long pieces of wood (I used driftwood)

nylon-thread

glass beads

felted beads 
washi-tape
for the cranes: this tutorial on youtube

 

 

 

Hexagons for a baby-girl

I´ve been wanting to make the hexagon-sweater from the book "Þóra heklbók" by Tinna Þórudóttir Þorvaldsdóttir for a while and since I was going to become an aunt for the second time this winter, I started working on it a couple of months before the little one was born.

It was really fun, exciting and surprising making this one. The interesting thing about this sweater is, that it is made out of 2 hexagons.

I used wonderful, soft, warm and practical Yaku superwash merino wool by Strikkebogen (bought in "Litla Prjónabúðin") and hook nr. 3,5. My sister  told me she wanted happy colors for her baby and that´s why I went for this strong/intensive color-combo.

I had fun making it and I really like the outcome - I´d love to try making this one, using léttlopi...

Front

Back

Back: close-up

Button from my button-stash: buttons are important and I really LOVE this one!

the only one

When I was 6 years old one of my biggest wishes was to have a pink woolen sweater. 

For my first day in school my mother fulfilled this wish and put some pink pants on top... 

I can still remember how happy I was wearing my new pink pants and my sweater - the only pink one I ever got...

 

Here I am, wearing my pink pants and pink woolen sweater that day, 

with my wonderful friend Ásthildur

not my creation

About a year ago, we went to visit my parents at their cottage. There was a lot of leftover wood & nails lying around, since the house had just been built. My boys (including my husband) went out with nothing but a hammer in their hands, picked up some of this wood and nails and decided to build a small chair (stool) for the boys.

The result was the most wonderful thing and shows so well, how much imagination and creativity my 3 carpenters have... it´s so amazing to see, what one can create with only a hammer, leftover wood&nails (they didn´t even have a saw!) And the best thing was that this action was an unforgettable experience for my boys.  Exactly those things are the aspects that make this stool so beautiful and perfect

Since we´ve been building a tall fence in our new garden, we have a lot of leftover wood lying around in our backyard and I´ve asked my husband to create some stools we can use at home together with the boys.

creative in another way

I´ve been creative in an unusual way: creating the right atmosphere in my new home

my favorite things at my new home are...

This wall: it´s made out of special stones (Drápuhlíðargrjót) and I loved it the minute I walked into the house for the first time

the table: it was left in the house by the former owners & it looks like it was made 

for this house

this whole room: the livingroom, it´s so big, bright and beautiful

... having my own garden: can´t wait to grow my own herbs, veggies and flowers

... having my own working-space/craft room with this view: 

sneak-peek on my working space I: I carved the fish myself with a little help by my mother

the rest was found on the beach in Arnarfjörður (Westfjords) last summer 

sneak-peek II: from the Westfjords

sneak-peek III: remains of my youth

 my boys love our new home too... 

... but THEIR favorite thing about it is this football-game that was left in the house 

by the former owners

I must say, I love almost every little thing about this house - and the longer I live in it, 

the more I like it    

... and it has such a wonderful ´60/´70ies flair to i

flying on the wings of imagination

 (quote: Muhammad Ali)

crochet blanket

I´ve been creating so many things for other children than my own lately, so I decided it was time to make something for my boys. My older one loves Icelandic wool - he want´s to cover himself with it, swim in it, dig in it... he loves everything about it, even the smell :-) So.... why not make him a crochet blanket of his own, big enough to wrap all around himself? 

Details: 

I decided to use the traditional granny square pattern for this blanket. What I like about this blanket is the simplicity&at the same time "happiness" of the colors. It only took me 1 week to make it since each square only has 2 colors.  

I didn´t make an edging because I want to be able to add some rows around it when he grows...

hook: nr. 7 

material: icelandic unspun, 2 strands (tvöfaldur plötulopi). I mainly used wool from my stash.

Do you recognize the system behind the color-arrangement?

dig in...

my big boy enjoying&loving his new blanket

 

a cozy weekend

Last weekend we went to my parents cottage near Skálholt - it was wonderful... 

Our amazing view

my parents interesting stone-collection

another self-portrait :-) 

pictures of my mother art-work

I couldn´t believe it when I found some growing green kale, at the end of january - but I really did and made myself some yummi "kale-chips" in the oven

What a cozy weekend - can´t wait to go again...

Yarn dyeing with kool aid & knitting for a baby

I´ve been knitting quite a lot for a baby that will soon be born

I started by knitting a baby-hat, using this pattern - it´s in Icelandic but there are so many similar patterns out there for free - but if you read Icelandic I really do recommend this one: it´s so simple, extremely quick and you get a beautiful, really practical hat for your little one. 

I loved this kind of hats when I had my two sons and think you just can´t have to many of those. 

For all those projects I used the same yarn: Trysil baby-yarn from my stash. I really liked working with it - it´s sooooo soft, light and wonderful - perfect for baby-clothing... so sad that we can´t buy this yarn in Iceland anymore :-(

For this one I used needles nr. 2,5 - that makes it a newborn-size

For those hats I used Trysil-baby-yarn I dyed with Kool-aid (keypt í Megastore), 

using this tutorial by Xandy.

Blue: red/blue/white Kool-aid (needles nr. 3,5)

green: lemon-lime Kool-aid (needles nr. 3,5)

red: cherry Kool-aid (in the small packets/bréf í Megastore - I didn´t get the same deep-red color from the one in a tub/dunkur í Kosti), needles nr. 2,5 (newborn size)

 I really had fun dyeing yarn with kool-aid and I really loved the way it turned out - I´ll definitely be using this dye-material more in the future. 

... just can´t wait to see those hats on the baby´s head :-) 

I also made a sweater - I really don´t like knitting cables, 

but I decided to try to get rid of my cable-phobia for this project. 

I used a pattern from the book "Fleiri Prjónaperlur"

about the pattern:

I really had fun knitting this sweater - I even enjoyed knitting the cables for the first time ever.

It´s a quick and simple knit - the only thing is, that I didn´t like the way the pattern is written and a beginner could have some serious problems getting through the second part of the instructions (lack of information and not very clear).

But I DO LOVE he outcome - and more importantly: the mother to-be did too :-) 

(even my husband said: can´t you make one for me, using the same yarn and pattern - only bigger?)

Yarn: Trysil baby-yarn from my stash

buttons: from my button-stash... got those from my mother and they where so perfect for this project  - it´s almost like they where just sitting there, waiting to get on this sweater!

I love knitting baby-things... so quick, cute and soft - instant gratification!