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!

Stitch markers

Lately I´ve been feeling like my stitch markers don´t fit my knitting needles - it might have something to do with the fact, that I've been knitting a lot with needles nr. 10-15 since last summer :-) That´s why I decided to make my own, perfect sized stitch markers...

I went to a great craft store (í Holtagörðum) with some stitch markers I´d bought&liked and simply asked them how they where made. They were really helpful and showed me all the right stuff...

I used pearls in different sizes and shapes and felted balls I made with my boys the same day - you could use so many different things, just use your imagination! (mæli með búðum einsog Tiger og Söstrene Grene í perlukaup). 

I can´t wait to make more of those and some special people 

might even get some of those for christmas...

The story of a mitten

On my daily walk the other day, I found a beautiful, handmade, old, torn mitten lying around on the street. I felt so sorry for it and just couldn´t leave it there all alone... I guess nobody wanted it anymore, since the poor thing was in a really bad condition. 

But what´s it´s story? I wonder who spent a lot of hours, knitting this beautiful thing? Did the knitter make it for her/him self or for someone special? Was it a birthday present? Who has it been keeping warm and where has is been? Why did it get so torn up (beyond repairable)...

                             

Traditional icelandic/skandinavian pattern, maby soft and cozy kambgarn

 

  the back... poor thing - so far beyond repairable!

 Love the pattern on the thumb - very inspiring...

I also wanted to share a few wonderful moments with you... 

my big boy on a walk this weekend - wearing the lopi-sweater I dyed with flowers and lichen

he loves talking a long walk and helping me pick plants for my salves and yarndyeing

 

I used horse tail for dyeing...

Like usual we found some beautiful things on the beach like...

... feathers

... beautiful blue flowers growing on stones...

... crabs - dead and alive

... seaweed and an amzing view on Esjan (mountain)

... birdwatcher´s house

lucky me, living only 4 minutes from this place

 

our beach

isn´t it amazing how nature provides us with those colours??

A diary of positive thoughts

 A few months ago, I decided that I was going to think of one little thing at the end of every day, that made me happy. My plan worked out fine and I´m actually still doing this every day and enjoying it... it´s so good for your soul and for your sleep :-)
The other day, while waiting for my my friend Rodprjonar at the city center of Reykjavík, I went into a bookshop (Mál og Menning, Laugarvegur) and found this wonderful little diary/notebook, called "Jane-a-Day 5 year journal. - with 365 Witticisms by Jane Austens". I thought it would be so very perfect for this positive-thought-a day-thing I'm doing. I really love this little "diary" and the fact that it reminds me of that wonderful, amazing day at the city center of Reykjavík with my dear friend, makes it even more precious to me :-) 

  (click on the pictures for a full-size)

A "Jane-a-Day"

 From the inside: every day has enough space for 1-2 sentences - enough for a happy-thought!

Every day has an interesting quote by Jane Austen - on my birthday it says: 

"Happiness must preclude false indulgence"...

 And some knitting: Mittens for 2 year old, pattern: "Kríli" and yarn: léttlopi.

The lopapeysa

Have I ever told you how much I love lopi? Here you have some lopipeysa/Islandpullis/lopisweaters I have made in the last 5 years...

1. Green one on the left: yarn: léttlopi, horses: I got them on the Istex-homepage; shaping: I made it up... 

On the right: unspun, one strand (really thin) - the pattern: "Bokki" from the book Prjónaperlur

2. yarn: léttlopi from Istex; pattern: "Fjör" from Lopi 25

3. on the left: sweater for my dad, yarn: álafosslopi; Pattern: from Lopi 12; shaping: myself

on the right: Sweater for Bidenam; yarn: léttlopi; Pattern: Lopi 12, adapted for a child; shaping: myself

4: this one is one of my favorite child-lopisweater-pattern, so pretty and classic; yarn: Álafosslopi; pattern: from Lopi 2

5. Yarn: Álafosslopi; Pattern: The stars/roses/snowflakes from "Fjör" (Lopi 2) adapted for a child;     shaping: myself

 6. in the front: also one of my favorites... classic and so pretty! Yarn: léttlopi: Pattern: "Barnahettupeysa",    a free pattern on the Istex-homepage found here;

And here you have something else I love: driftwood... so beautiful... this one was taken in the south of Iceland, near Höfn in Hornafjordur

Landmannalaugar, what a magical place and a wonderful, adventurous drive... you can bath in natural, hot springs there...

Cross stitch and pretty in pink

 

When my husband and I where living in germany, we sometimes watched this televisionshow where the host used to end every show with this quote in german: "alles wird gut" or something like "everything is going to be just fine". ... we have been using it since and love it - it sounds so very soothing! Soooo... when so my mother gave me this wonderful woven fabric in the perfect colour (mustard of course:-) the other day, I new right away what I wanted to do with it: a "cross stitch piece" with our favorite quote, since I really wanted it on my wall as a reminder and also just for fun! We really like the result and we can´t wait to find the right spot for this piece!

I used my own handdyed einband from Ístex (left overs) for this project:
grey: crowberries
brown: lichen
yellow: Rumex longifolius

Letters: found somewhere on the internet (I picture-googled: "cross stitch letters")
Pattern: from the wonderful icelandic "Sjónabók" (if you picture-google it, you´ll see why it´s so wonderful)
Frame:  from a thriftstore

 

my current knitting-project:

 

Hama pearls and plötulopi

The other day it was my mothers birthday and we decided to make our own birthdaycards for her. I´ve told you before that I really love making my own birthdaycards, but this time we wanted to do something very special and totally different. Inspired by all the wonderful Hama-pearls-projects on Pinterest we came up with this:

I made this one - a classic star from the beautiful icelandic patternbook

"Sjónabók"

Freyr (4 y.) made this pretty thing:
Bidenam (5 y.) made this free-style-Hama, I really don´t know why, but it´s a shoe :-) He thought a lot about the colour-combination!

Of course, we had a lot of fun, crafting together - but what I also liked about the Hama-pearls was, that it really helped my boy´s working on their patience!

We gave my mum/grandma this (among other things) mason-jar-crochet-candle-light, I used my own hand-dyed einband (blueberries)

At the moment I'm working a lot with plötulopi, or icelandic unspun wool from Ístex. The interesting thing about this material is, that it is so versatile. You can use as many threads as you want to: just one thread (single) and than you get a feather-light but at the same time very warm garment that you can wear underneath every jacket or coat. If you use two threads, your garment becomes similar to léttlopi (worsted weight), three threads are similar to Álafosslopi (bulky) or just as many as you want to, depending on your project... the fun thing is, that you get really interesting colour-combinations if you use thread in different colours - like in this hat:

7 threads of plötulopi and 1 thread of einband (lace) in 2 different colours - very warm, bulky and cozy and the colour is so very alive!

It has also been very popular to use one strand of plötulopi and einband (lace) together. I´ve never quite understood why that´s any different from using 2 strands of plötulopi or léttlopi - until now. I just finished my first project, using this yarn-combination and now I really do understand why it´s so popular - for many different reasons:

1. single, unspun plötulopi is very fragile while knitting and splits very easally. One thread of the much stronger einband (lace) solves the problem.

2. Using einband opens up endless possibilities in colour-combinations! This way I get the possibility to use my naturally-dyed einband, since I can´t dye the fragile plötulopi with plants like I did here:

1 thread light grey plötulopi and einband, dyed with rhubarb.

3. This yarn-combination is so much lighter than I thought - it´s nothing like léttlopi. It´s feather light, but at the same time very warm and will last for a long time because of the strong einband.

4. It has a wonderful texture... I just love it! It might even become my favorite plötulopi-yarn-combination!!

Cardigan-restyle and still knitting

Do you have a sweater (or maby more than one), that´s too short and too tight? Well... some months ago, I found a new blog I really love: "Delia creates" and a very cool post (good tutorial) about a cardigan conversion (here). What a creative lady!

Ever since I read this post, I´ve been looking for the perfect sweater for this project and the other day, I finally found one and only paid 200 icelandic krónur for it!! Since I love lace, I had to add some, which makes the cardigan very feminin and girly - and the best thing is: wearing it feels like summertime! I really like the way my new cardigan turned out - it´s a perfect match for my IKEA-dress I showed you in my last post...

my cardigan before:

after:

ahhh... lace and pretty buttons! (It was my first time, making buttonholes)

love my new cardigan... thank you Delia!!!

on the inside: I was thrilled to be able to add some owls... :-D

I also wanted you to know, I´m still knitting like crazy, I just can´t show you anything just yet... but here you have a glimpse of one of the things I'm knitting: