Mittens from Egilsstaðir (Rósastrengsvettlingar)

I am knitting mittens for two young women. At first, I was thinking of making something out of the wonderful and soft kambgarn but I decided not to, since that isn´t really icelandic wool, even if it´s produced by ístex - and I wanted those mittens to be very icelandic, traditional, ladylike and at the same time warm.

These kind of mittens with that lace-pattern, made out of icelandic "einband, loðband" are very traditional icelandic and festive. Of course, I used my own yarn...
the brown: lichen (skófir)
the intensive yellow: rumex longifolius (njóli)... love, love, love those colours! The light was quite good, so that the colours come out quite well on most of those pictures.

I still have to make one more pair of mittens and I´m using rhubarb-yarn (one colour) for them.
This is a very fun and rewarding knit, even if it isn´t really a quick one...

Little treasures

My most precious things, are small treasures made by my two wonderful sons, age 3 and 5 in Kindergarten... when I look at those things, I think of my boys, and that just makes me happy :-)

Bidenam made this wonderful felt-heart for me - it´s hanging in the chandelier in our livingroom

My younger one, Freyr made this felted wool-thing some time ago - I just love it... it´s wooly, incredibly cute and he made it by rubbing together wool, water and soap with his small hands.
It´s hanging in the chandelier in our livingroom, along with Bidenams heart

Love this cute, red worm-like part, that´s looking out of the white egg-like wool

Bidenam made this pretty bird during his first year in Kindergarten with only 2 years... it´s so simple, creative and so very beautiful.

Bidenam made this one last week... I actually wear it because it makes me happy... it´s colourful, simple and made with a lot of love, patience. joy and hard work for me...

Bidenam painted those some time ago - on the left is a girly octopus and on the right: 2 friendly sharks... too cute and they are hanging on the wall in front of my desk - so that every time I look up from the computer I look at those friendly faces.

This one is for you Jóhanna...

Project Restyle: a DIY cake plate

A while ago I posted this about some cool things I found in a thriftstore and told you that I was going to do something special with the candle holder. Today was the big day: I finally finished my special project!!

Step 1: what you need is this:

A pretty plate - I´ve had this one for many years, got it in a thriftstore in Germany

A pretty candle holder - I got mine in a thrifstore in Árbær (Reykjavík)

Epoxy glue, bought in Húsasmiðjan

Step 2:
The next thing to do is to glue the candle holder and the plate together...

... et voilá: you´ve got your new cake plate! :-)

Icelandic mittens

I´ve been thinking about what makes icelandic mittens typical icelandic. After asking a lot of people and a lot of looking around on Google, I came to the conclusion that the most important thing is:

1. the material: icelandic wool (lopi, einband, léttlopi). There is something very icelandic about our wool... it has kept us warm from the start!

But there are some other elements, that are important for icelandic mittens:

2. pattern on the mittens: something that reminds you of an icelandic lopi-sweater or something out of the beautiful book: "Sjónabók" (a book filled with icelandic patterns from the 17th-19th century). Personally, I like minimalistic patterns on my thicker lopi-mittens and something a bit more complicated on my thinner ones.

3. for men: several people mentioned a two-thumbed mitten icelandic seamen used in the past. They had two thumbs for a very practical reason: if one side got worn out, they just turned the mittens around :-) Those mittens where quite thick, a bit felted and of course very warm.

4. for women: I could think of two different kind of typical icelandic mittens for women.

First there where mittens, made out of very thin, of course homespun wool with colorful embroidery (a special kind of cross stitch) called "rósavettlingar" (rosemittens). An icelandic designer, Arndís Ósk published a free pattern in this tradition, called "Beta´s mittens".

Second there where mittens made out of thin wool with a certain simple lace pattern. A pattern on Ravelry that´s very similar is called: "mittens from Egilsstaðir", from the book "Prjónaperlur"). I´ve been using this pattern to make mittens for two young ladies with my own hand dyed yarn (lichen and Rumex longifolius... eða skófir og njóli).

Here some pictures of icelandic mittens I´ve made:

mittens for my mum: rósavettlingar (léttlopi and einband)

Mittens made out of soft kambgarn

"mittens from Egilsstaðir" ("rósastrengsvettlingar" from the book "Prjónaperlur")

with my own yarn (lichen and Rumex longifolius) - I´ve just got one ready, and haven´t blocked them yet... but I really love them! ;-)

Mittens for Edda, made out of kambgarn (pattern from: "Hlýjar Hendur")

Thick lopi-mittens (pattern from the book "Vettlingar og fleira")

Love-Link

I've been really busy making some christmasgifts lately - but I guess I can´t write about that until after christmas! :-) What I CAN tell you is, that I've been playing around with knit, purl, colours and some chunky, icelandic lopi - I´m quite happy with the result of this playing-around and this might even result in my first, very own pattern on Ravelry. My secret christmasproject is: a quick knit, very warm, soooo cozy, elegant if you want it to be and flexible - it´s so hard to wait until after christmas! And another thing: the more I knit with lopi, the more I love it in every way!!

About a week ago I made the cute, warm and cozy Love-Link by Knittingmydayaway. Before I started, I knew it was a cute, quick, warm, romantic and practical knit. What I didn´t know was, how incredibly much fun I would be having, making my "ástlingar" (Love-Link in icelandic)!! I was thrilled from the first moment on until the cast off! I loved to see how the heart-shape appeared, making the holes in the middle, the beautiful colour, the softness of the yarn (léttlopi) and the way it feels to put your hand inside it and meet the hand of your beloved one! :-) The pattern it self was very easy to follow. Here some pictures:

Freyr wearing his new Kindergarten-mittens - just to show you how much he loved them... ;-)

Dyeing yarn with Roiboos-tea and coffee

In front: coffee grounds-yarn; in the back: roiboos tea-yarn

The perfect thing for me during wintertime, while nature is "sleeping" is to experiment a bit with things I have in my kitchen shelfs and yarn :-)
This time I tryed out some old roiboos-lemon-tea (leaves) and coffee grounds. One of the many good things about tea and coffee-yarn-dyeing is that you don´t have to use any kind of mordant - a good thing for nature! I didn´t have very much coffee grounds so I just dyed a small amount of yarn to see what happens. The yarn I dyed is icelandic, and called "einband" - it´s laceweight and the perfect for shawls or really thin clothing.

Result:
I really liked how both colours turned out. The tea-yarn became yellow-orange - but if you use black tea you get a totally different colour: surprise... brown like a cup of tea!!
The coffee-grounds-colour was a nice, soft brown - but I´d like to try using a larger amount of coffee to see if I get a darker tone.

Roiboos tea

Roiboos tea

coffee grounds

Kindergarten-kit by Pickles

A few weeks ago I made the kindergarten-kit by Pickles for my younger one, Freyr. I used double-stranded, icelandic kambgarn because it is sooooo soft, warm and cozy! We both (Freyr and me) loved this set, it covers his head, neck, shoulders and chest perfectly and it´s one of the most quick and simple knits I´ve ever made. Love love love it!
Because of this, I had to make the same set for my older one Bidenam. He loved his new knitted things so much, that the first thing he did in Kindergarten the day after I finished, was to show everyone his new set :-) And if my boys are happy, I´m too!

Freyr

love pom-poms! :-)

well covered

we had so much taking those pics! :-)

gleðigjafinn minn (my "happymaker")