Viktoría

The first little thing I finished this year was the collar Viktoría from the book María Heklbók. This quick little project only took me an evening to make (while watching a movie) and it´s perfect if you want to use up some of your leftover yarn. Viktoría has been on my to-do-list since I got this book and since it was so quick & easy I´m sure I´m going to make more of those. I always feel like I´m wearing my Sunday-dress when I put on a nice collar - just love them & want them in thousand different colors! 

 

Details:

I used 2 kind of cotton in my favorite colors,

Schachenmayr nomotta Catania Fine in mustard-yellow and dark brown (from "Storkurinn") 

Strikkebogen pimabomull blue/green (from "Litla Prjónabúðin")  

Crochet hook nr. 3 

I added one, last row

Apps used for this picture: Rhonda Designs (letters) and Instapicframes

For my sweet little Gerður Lilja

Remember this Hexagon sweater I made the other day? Since I finished that sweater, I´ve been wanting to make another one using totally different yarn, a bigger crochet-hook and only 2 colors... just to see how it looks and how quick this project can be.

When it came to choosing yarn for this sweater, it was really important for me that it would keep my sweet little Gerður Lilja warm... it really is getting colder here in Iceland at the moment :-) I went to Litla Prjónabúðin (lucky me - this shop is just around the corner from where I work) and bought some amazingly soft baby-lama-wool in wonderful purple/pink/blue. I also used icelandic unspun (tvöfaldur plötulopi) in grey and crochet-hook nr. 5. I almost couldn´t believe it myself, but it took me only 1,5 day´s to finish this piece... so quick!

I found out the hard way that the lama-wool and the icelandic unspun don´t have the same gauge... but the good thing about it it , that the sweater got "shaped by accident" in a really interesting and nice way. Just take a look...

Balloon-shaped sleeves

soooo soft!!

 

Buttons: a gift from my sister, Guðrún Dröfn 

new things

Since just about everything in my life has been changing in the most positive way lately, I thought a make-over for my blog would be the appropriate thing to do :-) 

I really hope you like it - I think it looks more calm, clean, "grown-up" and just like Johanna from knittingmydayaway put it: "crispy". At least, I like it this way and I hope you do too! 

I´ll see you later this week, with a new baby-cardigan I made (crochet) for my irresistible little niece, Gerður Lilja. I used baby lama from my one of my favorite yarnstores, "litla prjónabúðin" and icelandic unspun wool.

(as you can see, I´ve been playing around with instagram and our cute little samsung tablet)

small things - big things

 When it comes to creating, I have a thing for "unusual material". Everywhere I go I´ve got my eyes open for interesting things (some people might say I´m crazy, but that´s why I love spending time at big hardware stores like Bauhaus). 

The other day I went to  a place where they sell material for the fishing industry: chains, ropes and yarn to make fishnets among other things. I fell for some white, shiny, soft and flexible yarn they use for fishnets. I didn´t know what I was going to do with it, but it was way too pretty to just leave it there :-) 

I started by making a crochet-cover for a mason-jar I use for pencils at my workspace, just to get a feeling for the material.  I used one of my biggest crochet-hooks and now I´ve got a lot of  ideas on what to do next with this exciting material! 

A LOT of beautiful yarn for fishnet-making...

... makes an interesting texture when used for a crochet-cover

I used really thin cotton-yarn for this one - a interesting contrast to my fishnet-yarn-cover

 

together in peace and harmony 

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!

Baby blankets

Two people I know recently got a baby - both of them happen to be boys...

 ... and I really wanted to create something that would keep those little ones warm and cozy

The rules I set up for myself where:

1. No typical baby-boy-colors

2. What´s the best material to keep warm? Icelandic wool (unspun/plötulopi) of course, my favorite. 

 3. Since I have enough wool in my stash, especially leftovers, I also decided,

I could only use this material, meaning: no buying yarn.   

4. It had to be a quick project, since I really don´t have time for anything else at the moment

3.stranded-unspun icelandic wool, (þrefaldur plötulopi)

So thick and cozy!

1.stranded plötulopi - so thin, light and warm (einfaldur plötulopi)

So yummi!!!

looking at this one... I might have to crochet some pillows...

pan

Did I ever tell you, that my PAN-pattern was published in a icelandic magazine?

(Húsfreyjan - alltaf skemmtilegar uppskriftir í þessu tímariti - mæli með því að kíkja í það annað slagið)

 

 My beautiful cousin Guðrún was my model...  

 

 

another "Kría"

I finished another Kría-shawl the other day and gave it to a very dear friend.

I used my own, naturally dyed yarn (dyed with Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) and some normal kambgarn from my stash... 

once again, I made an scalloped edging

 the brown colored yarn is my natural dyed yarn... can you see the wonderful irregularities?

this shawl was so perfect for my friend...

crochet pendant

I improvised this crochet pendant the other day. As a base I used a coppar wire from a piece of an electric cord an electrician gave me. I crochet around the wire, did some embroidery and used a beautiful vintage flowerbutton from my button-collection. 

I like this little flowery-thing, but I'm having trouble finding the right chain for it... maby I should use a leather cord??? 

Do you have any ideas?

Done!

Remember this post  and this one about my crochet-blanket I started 2011?? Well... I finally managed to finish it! 

I used icelandic léttlopi and hook nr. 5

It started up as a scrap-afghan, but of course I ended up buying a lot of extra yarn - especially since I´ve been adding more and more rounds to the about 105 squares. 

I added 3 extra rows in 2 colors to  each square for two reasons: 

1. To  keep it a bit more calm and organized - all those colors made it look so crazy and unorganized

2. To make the squares bigger so I wouldn´t have to make&join over 200 to reach the right size:-)

I joined them with my favorite color: mustard-yellow and it´s huge

Me and my older one love this blanket so much & we will be using it a lot! 

bottle cap crochet-flowers

I improvised those flower-brooches for my girls 

during a girls-weekend in a cottage on the countryside

I used icelandic lace (loðband,einband) and bottle caps for the center 

and léttlopi for the flower pedals

one more thing: I´m starting to miss "the word of the week" photo-challenge so I'm starting with that one again next week...  next weeks word "outlines" is chosen by my sister Guðrún

Have a wonderful weekend ya´ll!

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

 

Gifts

This year, almost every Christmas-gift we gave, was handmade by me :-) 

My goal was only/mainly to use things I had at home  (yarn, wax, paper...)

What I like about handmade gifts is, that you put so much thought into it - you can choose the perfect yarn, perfect color, perfect picture, perfect words, perfect button, perfect beads, perfect pattern, perfect herb-combination (salve) - depending on the recipient.

Unfortunately I didn´t make pictures of everything - but here are some of the things I made: 

This Pan-collar (my own pattern) was made for a little girl in Sweden 

yarn: acryl-yarn from Trysil (soft&shiny)

button: vintage button from my collection (yes, I actually have a button-collection)

I made this hat up for the same little girl

yarn: soft wool from Trysil

butterfly-pearls from Tiger (you could use them as buttons too)

 I made 3 of those in different colors. Once I started knitting this pattern, I just couldn´t stop making those hats :-) it was so much fun - easy, quick and so cute! It´s a really good project if you want to use up some yarn from your stash

yarn: Álafosslopi

pattern: Capucine by Adela, a free pattern found here

 I also made those candles - I bought big, white candles (ódýrust í Bónus), 

found some pretty pictures on the internet

found the perfect font on dafonts.com

used Illustrator for the rest (took some colors from the pictures for the letters and surrounding outside of the picture)

 The words on the other side of the candle mean:

friður = peace

kærleikur = love

styrkur = strength

sæla = happiness 

... and this is my wish for the recipient...

I also made some candles in a cup, slippers, another collar and more...
Did you make any Christmas-gifts this year???

crochet stool cover

Since I first saw pictures of wood&wool stool I´ve been dreaming of making my own crochet-stool-cover. I searched a long, long time for the perfect stool for this project... and last summer in july I finally found it in my favorite thrifstore (I blogged about it here - it took me 2 attempts to get it :-)!!

After painting the stool with some white wall-paint, the next problem was that I simply could not decide what pattern and colors to use for the squares  - that´s why I haven´t finished the cover until now.... crazy, I know... but when I realized that I could simply make another one if I didn´t like the first one anymore I could finally get myself to finish this project.

Details:
yarn: cotton from Söstrene Grene (2 shades of grey and mustard yellow)
hook: 2,5
Patterns:
grey squares: Sarafia by Handóð
yellow squares: chart found here

We use this practical and pretty chair as a side table, play-table, a seat, a chair for the feet, we put our food-plaits on it, our laptops, toys, our cups of coffee... we just love it - and since it got covered even more! :-) Now I just have to find 3 more so that everyone in the family has it´s own stool with it´s own unique cover!