Mousie

My little niece had birthday earlier this month. I decided she should have a cute little mousie of her own and that this would be the perfect opportunity to finally knit Ysolda Teague´s Mousie from the book Whimsical Little Knits (you can also buy the pattern online here).  

This was the first time I knit a toy and it was surprisingly fun. The pattern starts with the tail/Icord and is knitted in the round, ending with the tip of his nose. I used léttlopi for this one and the pink yarn used for the tail, ears and nose is dyed with madder root.  This irresistible little mousie is not only really really cute, but also an extremely quick knit...

  

  

And just because I was having so much fun with my new lens... 

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)

My joy of the day

I´m feeling inspired by the tumblr joy of the day

My joy of the day

 this monday is...

...that it´s getting cold enough to wrap myself up in icelandic wool

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

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...

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...

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

 

Christmas is coming...

I´ve been busy creating different things lately.

The first thing I want to tell you about is our new advent-candle-holder. I really love driftwood and I found this beautiful piece in the north of Iceland about 2 years ago. I took it with me because I loved it, without knowing what I was going to do with it. Right now, I´m so glad I did! 

Using my pretty piece of driftwood, old candle-holders with a needle at the bottom - the ones you would normally use for candle-wreaths (like those) & tiny wooden stars I bought at Laugarvegur (púkó og smart) I made this really simple and natural-looking advent-candle-holder. :-)   

Ooooohhhh how I love it...

Kría

The second thing I want to tell you about is my second Kria-shawl - what a wonderful project... you can work on it everywhere and in almost every situation (except maby while driving or sleeping)... 

you can take a look at my first one in this post and on Raverly. 

yarn: my own, handdyed einband (icelandic wool), dyed with different kind of plants

made for: my lovely friend Rodrigo for his birthday

Button: from my "button-stash"

And now to my nr. 3: my candle-decorating. 

How I did it: 

1. I found some lovely pictures on pinterest (you can find them over there in my "jól" board), printed them out (normal paper, landscape layout, with black ink only) 

2. Cut the picture out in the right size, depending on your candle

3. Finally, I mod-podged my candle about 3 times, glued the picture on the candle and mod-podged it from the outside. 

It has been burning for a few days now, the paper has still not gone up in flames and we really love the way it looks... 

I´m thinking about making some special designs, using Illustrator as Christmas-gifts...

Crochet snowflakes and christmas in my heart

These little crochet decorations simply make me happy - I´m so glad I learned how to crochet this year! :-)

Snowflake from the book "Þóra"

Crochet hearts, the one in the front is from the book "Þóra" and the one in the back is a free tutorial, found here

I really loved making Lucy´s (attic24) snowflakes - they are so easy to make, quick and really really pretty! I just couldn´t stop making them and had to try out other materials than cotton... bulky lopi, léttlopi and einband (jurtalitað), which I dyed myself with dandelions and Rumex longifolius (njóli)

Since the light was so poor last week (it´s dark most of the time at the moment) I wasn´t able to take any pictures (word of the week). This shot is in a way a little something to compensate for that. Last weeks task was to choose a little spot (a room, a corner of your garden, balcony... ) and look for something interesting to take pictures of.
I went right outside my front door and tried to find something interesting there - not an easy task - but since I love moss, this little spot, covered with green moss is really interesting in my eyes...

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...

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...