Birta

I finished my lopapeysa last week. I have been wanting to make myself a lopapeysa for about 5 years, but I had difficult time picking out the pattern I wanted, the colors I wanted, the fit I wanted and what kind of wool mix I wanted to use. After some thought I was almost decided on using a mix of single ply plötulopi (unspun Icelandic wool) and einband (Icelandic lace wool) as I love that mix and it makes the most light and airy fabric that is still warm and nice. I even thought about substituting the lace wool with some alpaca or something luxurious and soft to go with the unspun wool.

For the last few months, I have been a regular at Litla Prjónabúðin as it is one of my favorite knitting stores and quite a few of my knitting friends are regulars there and there is a great area for sitting down with your WIP and have coffee and chat. It is close both to my office and my home so it is very handy to stop by after work or on my days off and meet with kindred spirits and pet some yarn and do some knitting. Litla Prjónabúðin (The Little Knitting Store) carries great yarn called Snældan. Faroese wool with Falkland wool mixed in it. It is softer than the Icelandic wool and after seeing some items knitted with it, I was sold. I had found the yarn I wanted to use for my lopapeysa. Knit with 5mm needles, I got the same gauge as for léttlopi so substituting Snældan was easy! Perfect!

Pattern: Birta by Bára Þórarinsdóttir
Yarn: Snaeldan Nappað tógv 3tr – grey, brown and yellow
Needles: 4.5mm and 5mm

The pattern is very classic, just what I had imagined. I am very happy with it and now I want more and have plenty of ideas. I am on a sweater  roll and have some lined up in my queue already, both for me, my daughters and some friends and family. If you can get this wool, I do recommend it. It knits up beautifully!

I only have 2 days left at work and then I am on summer holidays until July 4th! Oh the joy! The list of things to do while I am on vacation is long and fun and I am finally going to go through my stash and organize it properly and hopefully get it all photographed and into Ravelry.

I started a new MKAL, this time I am doing socks by Kamilla. The first clue came yesterday and I am almost done with it. I am also participating in Stephen West’s Summer Shawl KAL and am going to start by knitting Vertices Unite in the bigger version. I did some stash diving and picked out some yarns that that could work for the project. Me and the man arranged some color settings and I took some photos of them for me to look at and hopefully make the decision making a little easier. If you want to take a look, the photos are here and I would love to hear what is your favorite color setting!

Bits & Pieces – May 19th

The weeks fly by. I just noticed that I am working this week and two days next week and then I will be on summer vacation until July 4th. My school is not over until June 14th though, but it is only about 15 hours a week and I can spend the days with my girls and have some fun. I then start school again in early August and don’t finish until December. That is going to be one busy season, both at work and at school so I should put my organizing skills to good use.

Karítas Árný made this bunny at school. I think it is just about the cutest thing ever!

New FM Belfast album on vinyl. So good!

I started working on the yoke of my lopapeysa on Saturday after school

And I finished it that evening and did the finishing on the sweater on Sunday.

I still have to go and find the right buttons for it (I am thinking about some old fashioned metal ones), steek it and crochet up and down the front of it. I can’t wait for it to be finished and I will share better photos of it when it is all done. The colors are not right in these shots.

Cardigan, with a twist!

I finished my green cardigan last weekend and it has been attached to me ever since. It is so light and comfortable, yet warm enough for these cool spring days. I found the pattern (free in one size) on the Pickles site, it has a great range of patterns and most of them are offered free in one size and then you can buy the other sizes. The patterns are simple and easy to follow. I have done a couple of projects from them, and they are always great so I can recommend them.

Pattern: Jakke med tvist by Pickles
Yarn: One thread of Plötulopi (un-spun Icelandic wool) and one thread of Isager Strik Spinni Tweed (Wool 1)
Needles: 7.0 mm

The pattern says that you are supposed to knit it back and forth. I started out like that, but I really, REALLY do not like knitting sweaters like that since it is so easy to knit them in the round and then just steek them in the sewing machine. So I quickly changed to knitting in the round and it just flew of the needles. I then steeked it and crocheted one row of single crochet around the bottom, up the front and around the neckline and to the front of the sleeves.
When I first saw the project on the Pickles website, I got the image in my head what color combination I wanted to use. At first I thought I would use plötulopi and einband, but the einband (Icelandic lace weight wool) was not available in the color I wanted. I thought about just dyeing the right color, but then I found the Spinni in the exact color I wanted. Even though it is a bit over priced in my opinion, I got it anyway. I do not regret it one bit, it is just perfect with the other yarn and I love the outcome. And how rare is it to get a vision of what you want in your head and then get the exact outcome when you are finished? So I am one happy knitter!

Pattern: Súld by Rósa Tom
Yarn: Araucania Aysen
Hook: 4mm

A very fast project, only took me about 3 hours from start to finish. It was a birthday present for our little friend, Þórkatla. This is my third time doing this hat, I just love it.

Happy Mothers Day yesterday! These two daughters of mine are the best! And then there is my own mother, who has always been my safe spot to fall when I tumble, my strength when I am drained and the push I need when I am unsure of myself and my own strengths. I love you, mom!

A new shawl and more

I participated in Romi’s new MKAL. After Ysolda’s Follow Your Arrow MKAL, that I had so much fun with, I was on the hunt for a new one and this one popped up in my friend activity on Ravelry, so I decided to join in the fun.

It was challenging, but not difficult at all. What I love the most with MKAL’s is the fact that you only get a small-ish portion of the pattern at a time and with that I do not get overwhelmed with a HUGE pattern that covers many, many pages. And you have a week to do each portion so keeping up is usually not a huge deal. The portions are reasonable and I have learned so much from both of these.

Pattern: It’s a Mystery by Rosemary (Romi) Hill
Yarn: Grey is Design.club.dk Duo Merino – Orange is Isager Strik Tvinni (Wool 2)
Needles: 3.5mm

I have been wearing it pretty much every day since I finished it. It is very light, yet warm and I adore the colours and how well they work together. I got the grey yarn some years ago while traveling in Denmark and the orange I got on sale as it was being discontinued.

I finally picked out a pattern for a Lopapeysa for myself!

I have been wanting to make myself one for a long time (we are talking about years, people!) but I have always been struggling with what design to pick and then what colours would go well with it. After being introduced to Snældan (wool from the Faroe Islands) by my friend Dagga, I absolutely fell in love with it and yesterday after school I went to her store and bought the colours I wanted. I casted on last night and this yarn knits up like a dream! Very excited about this project.

When I got home from school yesterday, my girls were wrapped in in their blankets I made them and watching cartoons. Warmed my heart!

A pile of projects. That green cardigan is now finished, but I haven’t managed to take photos of it yet as it was raining heavily all day yesterday. I’ll share photos as soon as I take them.

School started again yesterday and I am looking forward to finishing this part. It is harder than the previous one, but I am up for the challenge. Then we have an exam in June and the summer off and then it starts back up sometime in August and is ongoing until December. Bring it!