Half way

I'm up to the waist on the second dress and I'm all out of white plötulopi. Luckily Víkurprjón is open in Sundays. I sure hope they have some.

Tásur

Tásur, originally uploaded by Harpa J.

I finished these a while a go - but I didn't have any ribbon for them.
They are a bit different from my other baby shoes - the embroidery is raised and not quite as muted as in the other pairs. But the palette is still soft as fits the material.

The shoes are 100% Icelandic wool - dyed with rhubarb stalks. The embroidery is done in 100% linen floss.

Christmas fun

Yesterday afternoon was a big day in the local school. All the kids and their parents and the teachers go together and made Laufabrauð and all kinds of christmas crafts.
I volunteered in the crafts department and taught how to make a small beaded embroidered wool heart.

I was so busy helping and having fun that I almost forgot to take pictures. So my youngest "students" are missing. But they were really talented and fast.

The list

The first of the two dresses is finished - that is I still have to hide the ends and block it - but that is all. It took four nights to knit and I'll cast on the second one tonight. That might take me a bit longer since it's considerably bigger. But it should still be finished relatively quickly.

Today's rock picture

Today's rock picture, originally uploaded by Harpa J.

Mismatched

Mismatched, originally uploaded by Harpa J.

The mitten picture - finally.
The mitten pair follow the same improvised pattern (not written down yet) and they are in the same colours - but they are just distributed a little differently. Because what laws state that a pair of mittens must ne exactly a like?
These are made for a man - the next pair will be a little smaller.
Last night I made good progress with the first of the dresses so things are looking a little more hopeful in the Christmas queue.

Today's rock picture

Today's rock picture, originally uploaded by Harpa J.

The mitten are finished, but I forgot to block them yesterday so the picture must wait a bit. I cast on a second pair straight away, no rest for the late starters - December is alarmingly near and I have so many gifts to do.

Two

Now there are two socks, all finished.
I like them, but they are not going to be mine. The intended recipient has tried them on and they fit very well. I decided to offer the surprise factor to ensure a good fit.

I cast on a lopi mitten last night and got almost half way when I discovered I didn't like the pattern. So I ripped to the cuff and started again, and with an improvised pattern this time. That is more fun anyway.

Not dead

2, originally uploaded by Harpa J.

I have been away for a few days - but I'm very much alive. The socks are finished and drying - a picture will come later today. Mittens (pretty this time I hope) are next on the Christmas agenda and the two dresses also. They are not going to be a new design as I planned - I simply don´t have the time now. Instead I'm going to make a new yoke pattern for this dress - I'm thinking white snowflakes on a light blue dress.

Bad

The small pins used for the socks were hurting my fingers so I started a pair of mittens as a relief. I have finished one - and it did not turn out well. I have some hopes of it being a little better after blocking - but the mistakes are just to glaring and it's just plain ugly. I'm still not going to rip it - and I'm going to make the other one. They are going to be good enough for rough home use.

One

One sock is done. I think it's cute and not at all like clown barf.
No second sock syndrome here - I cast on the second one last night and started on the cuff.

Cool!

The guys from the music school are really rocking these day's! The blonde one is mine and the grown up one of course. They played right after my reading on Saturday- which went very well by the way - and the audience was speechless! I really must get my hands on a decent video camera to give you an audio sample. Hopefully next time!

FO's

I finished this dress last summer - (and sent it to a competition) but I didn't get a chance to take a modelled picture until now. Not that this is a proper one - I wanted to take a lovely one outside, but the weather didn't really allow that. I tried to negotiate a pose in front of a better background indoors - but the little one was not in the mood - so this will have to do.






This little scarf is the first Christmas FO.

The Gift Knitting Season

The scarf is finished and is drying on top of the freezing box as we "speak". I've started on the next gift, some Broadripple socks in a multi coloured brown toned Regia yarn that looks much better in this pattern that you might think. The yarn was a gift so I'm being extra thrifty too.

Cheerleading

The Katla cheerleading team is now a reality!

Cheerleading has been my daughters dream for years, but we don't have that here in Iceland, and certainly not in tiny villages like ours.

But this year I decided it's now or newer and it was up to me to make her dream come true. I'm no athlete - but I am a teacher although I do not work as one right now. I couldn't find a gym teacher to undertake the training so I asked a girl from the oldest class (she is 15) to help me, and together we coach the team.
We stay well clear of any dangerous stunts and concentrate on the things we know how to do - the dancing and the cheering part.
We have had two practises so far and things are going great! There are three girls missing in the photo - they were sick (the world famous flu).

Today's rock picture

Today's rock picture, originally uploaded by Harpa J.

The weather today is amazing. Just wonderful - still warm and very unlike normal November weather. But I'm not complaining. Not at all.

The Gift Knitting Season

The gift knitting season has officially started. I'm thinking mittens this year, perhaps something in the line of these :
- both from spillyjane knits and available for free on ravelry. The pictures are links - click on them and you will be brought to the ravelry patterns.

I have a lot of other patterns lined up - but I started the season with a simple scarf in Cormo Silk Alpaca from Foxfire. I only have one skein so it's just going to be a small scarf, but the colours are a beautiful fall palette and the yarn if just so soft and wonderful that I think it's not going to matter. I'm using the Yarn Harlot´s very simple One Row Handspun Scarf pattern. It's extremely simple - mindless even - but surprisingly good looking.

Simple is a good thing, I'm very aware of the time factor. I hope to do two dresses (original design, still to be done), a sweater (ditto) - and a lot of mittens.

What are you planning to do? I bet you are much farther a long than I and much more realistic!

Skógarfoss

Skógarfoss, originally uploaded by Harpa J.

The weather was just perfect yesterday and we went on a little family outing. We stopped for quite a while by this little pond, the view was breathtaking.

Today's rock picture

Today's rock picture, originally uploaded by Harpa J.

With a bit of reflection as a bonus.

Monkey

My monkey socks - finished just in time for Lolly's socktober fest, but not photographed until this morning. A guy in his over sized Jeep was staring at me in disbeliev as I was trying to keep my balance on the ground with my feet in the air. Normally I would just have leaned back, but I didn't want to soil my fancy new very white jacket so I sat there in an unstable V- like pose. I'm sure you can picture it, I was not very elegant to put it delicately.

The socks are not in a very exiting colour I know, but the yarn is very soft and durable. I bought it for next to nothing in a sale a while ago, it's Froehlich Wolle Special Blauband.
The socks I made with this yarn three years ago are like new, despite much wear and subsequent washing.