Another Dec 25th has come and gone, it always goes to quick. This year we did not have any snow, but it was very cold, cold enough that the pond downtown was frozen solid. After opening our gifts, Stephen and I took a walk around town, walked on the frozen pond and took photos of the empty streets, the only other people were tourists and some dedicated joggers.

Here in Iceland, the folk celebrate christmas on 24th, going by the old rule of a new day begins at 18:00. So they open their presents and have their big meal on our christmas eve. Since we have lived here a few years, we also join in and have a big meal on the 24th, we have hamborgorahryggur, which is a sweet pork loin, served with caramelized spuds and veg.

Then of course we have our traditional Irish dinner on the 25th. Turkey, roast veg and stuffing. This year we followed Jamie Oliver's instructions from an old show and the show he did this year. One of the best things that we did, was making the gravy ahead of time! Cooking some veg in the oven and using the liquid from this mixed with flower, then storing it until xmas day, adding it to all teh juices from the turkey! Wow it was very good gravy. Everything turned out well, especially the roast spuds. yum

I can now post the photos of the lovely gifts I made for my family.
My sister who is 13, received two pairs of fingerless mitts.
The red pair:

The turquoise pair:

My dad got this hat, made with really nice DB Donegal chunky tweed:

I used the pattern above for one brother J, with DB cashmerino chunky:

This pattern I used for my brother P and for my OH Stephen :D, I got the pattern on ravelry.com. The wool I used for both hats is DB rialto dk. Grey and dark grey for P and black and grey for Stephen.

My mother's present was knit by someone else, as I do not have the skills yet to knit a a lopapeysa! It was a beautiful Icelandic cardigan, in shades of dark brown and creams. Very nice.

I knit this very cute little cardigan for my nephew Nathan. It was first proper item of clothing I knit. I got the pattern on ravelry again. I knit it with DB pure cotton. The buttons are very cute, once has a cat and the other a mouse, they alternate on the cardi.

My next project is a jumper with cables that look like owls, it will be for me and I plan to knit it in Alafoss lopi, maybe a dark green colour.

Wishing everyone a great 2010.

All of the christmas knitting is complete. I had a couple of firsts with these presents too, my first time using dpn's and my first item of clothing. I knit for my family members and for the newest addition to my boyfriends family.
I can't wait to post the pictures after Dec 25th, as I am quite proud of them all.

At the moment I am half way through a hat for Stephen, it's looking great. I have a couple of projects like up for the new year, starting with one for me! A beautiful jumper with cables, which look like owls! The pattern is available free on ravelry.com, which is a knitting and crochet site I joined recently. It's a really great site to find patterns for free and to purchase. They have a wealth of info on yarns and anything you need to know to get a project going.

I baked some piparkokur last week, but they more like ginger cookies, this week I am going to make the real kind of piparkokur, with actual white pepper in! Hopefully I will get around to baking some more rugbraud too.

I will post some photo's of the yarns I used. Out of all the wool I knit, I think the Debbie Bliss Rialto was one of the nicest to knit with, but Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed was probably my favourite overall, for texture and colour and general look.