New year!

Happy new year!

Inspiration by my ancestors

Yesterday litlaskvís posted this really interesting link on Facebook, showing some amazing Japanese temari spheres - something I didn´t even know excised. I would love to try making something similar one day... 

Those Japanese pieces of art made me think of a treasure I have myself: two "balls" made by my great-great-grandmother. Since I have nobody to ask, I can only guess how they are made and how they where used. Both of them seem to be made by using scrap-yarn and I think they might have been used as pin cushions? At least that´s how I use them... as decorative pin cushions with a soul and history. Lucky me.

 

The bigger one seems to be a ball of yarn or wool, covered with chain stitches (embroidery) in the round - the yarn used is some kind of wool

The smaller one is covered with 8 knitted triangular´s, in 8 beautiful & different colors and therefore I guess she must have been using scrap yarn. 

Those triangular´s seem to be knitted in the round (purled and knitted). 

The yarn is really thin, soft wool yarn  I wish I could buy today

The triangular´s are sewn together with a method I don´t really understand...

On one side the smaller one has a small loop... I wonder why?

My big boy was looking over my shoulder while I was shooting those pictures...

 

New iphone, new possibilities

I was given an iPhone for Christmas (my first ever), which opens up a lot of new possibilities for me... I'm really loving it and having a lot of fun with all those different photo apps :-) I also just discovered that I can create new posts, here on my blog directly from my phone... Fun fun fun

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 

Joy of the day

 

My joy of the day... ohhh.... what a beautiful morning...

 

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