Knit Gift Overload

It's December 26th, my family have received their gifts, so I am now able to post the photos. As far as I can tell from web cam chats, the gifts were well received. My lovely supportive dad wore his wooly hat throughout our chat :)

So, I will start with my families gifts. My mother I knit a beret, a scarf and matching fingerless mittens, all in létt lopi, in a kind of peachy pink. 

My dad got two knit hats, both is létt lopi, dark grey and cream.

For my little sister, I made two hats, one in cream, lilac and pink, the other in chocolate brown and lilac and a pair of mittens, (she told me the thumbs on them are too tight).

For my two brothers, I bought them some very cool beer mittens. I bought them at a store run by knitters and crafters in ísafjordur, West Fjords, back in September. 

Now to Stephen's family's gifts. For his sister Sharon, she requested a hat she had seen me knit for myself. The hurricane hat. I used Artesano Aran for this and it turned out so nice and soft. For her husband, just a nice plain black lett lopi beanie. Then for their daughter Orlaith, my second favourite knit, a lovely létt lopi Icelandic toddlers dress. The pattern is called Teikn, by Védís Jónsdóttir, from Lopi book 28. It fits her and she loves pink!(3 year old girl)

Stephen's other sisters Leanne received an ístex Alafoss Lopi hat, with a lovely wooden button. Her daughter Emily got a hat and mittens, the same patterns as my sisters stripey hat, Emily's was lilac and cream. 

Now we come to Leanne and her boyfriends son Nathan's gift(1 1/2yr old). The MONKEY PEYSA! My favourite gift. I just love this cardigan so much and Leanne seemed very impressed with it :D Also a matching knit hat.

For my friend Sarah Jane up in the wilds of Northern Iceland, she received a pair of Lopi Sjónvarpssokkar- Icelandic tv socks, made to wear while watching tv. Knit with Alafoss Lopi, in green and wine, from the book SJ bought me for my birthday. 

My co-supervisor Malgorzata chose a beautiful cowl for me to knit her for her gift.(I couldn't choose what to knit her!) I used Istex Alafoss with stripes from cream, through brown and black. It was my first time to knit cables, but I think it turned out really well. 

Here are some wine bottle sweaters I knit for my mam. 

What I've Been Up To

It's been a few months since my last post! Summer is over and it's almost Halloween.


I took my 5 week summer holidays at the end of August and we went camping through the West Fjords of Iceland. We had a brilliant time and some good weather too. We saw the aurora borealis, spent four delightfully relaxing hours drinking white wine in an outdoor natural hot pot by the sea, saw a LOT of sheep and drank a lot of great coffee, amongst other things.

Hot Pot by the sea at Flokalundur

Sunset in ísafjordur

When we returned from our two and half week camping trip, I spent the next few weeks knitting. I can't post most of the photo's of what I knit because they are for xmas gifts for family! I can post the photo's of what I made my mother for her birthday and Stephen's mother both of whom have birthday's in September! 

This is the Icelandic vesti I knit for my mother. I had actually finished this already by early August. It is a free pattern available here at the ístex, a wool company in Iceland.

This is the vesti I knit for Stephen's mother, the pattern is also from ístex. Unfortunately it didn't fit her! That's one problem with making garments for people as a surprise gift, especially when they live in another country! 

I have finished three knit gifts, two of them are part of a 3 piece set, the 3rd piece is currently a wip. I have another piece almost finished and then I have at least another two piece set and possibly one more item after that! Now that I am back in work, I am obviously finding it harder to have the energy to knit when I get in, but I am doing pretty good I think. 

I can't wait to be able to post the photo's after xmas, as I am so proud of my work! Then maybe I can start on the lopipeysa Stephen has been asking for for over a year and then maybe Kate's Owl sweater I have been dying for all year too! 

One of my favourite blogs is Farmgirl Fare, written by Susan about her life on a huge farm in Missouri, USA. Mostly the blog is filled with posts of photo's of her so cute donkeys, but Susan also has great recipes and stories. I recently made a delicious sounding recipe of hers, raspberry almond bars. Now I can't remember what jam I used the first time, it may have been a mixed berry, but they were soooo good! As it's just the two of us here, we had a lot to get through, but that posed no problem for us. Believe me! My second batch a week later, I used 1/3 white flour and 2/3 whole wheat, with blueberry jam. I didn't find this version as nice as the first batch which were all whole wheat. They were still good though and my fellow supervisor at work thought they were delicious. 

This is a photo of the first batch.

pre-slicing

Sliced and ready for my belly!

So, I think that is all I have to post for now. Until December I guess. 

xx

OMG I'm 30

This summer has gone by pretty quickly for me. When you only have two free weekends a month the time does go by fast, as you are counting down the days until the next one. We have tried to make the most of our free time this summer and have been camping a few of our weekends.
 Our first camping trip was to Eyrarbakki in South West Iceland. It is a very small place, with the countries only prison!

 Grindavík was our next destination. The weather for the whole of Saturday was atrocious, sideways rain, 40ms winds! bleh Fortunately the Sunday we got up early and did a quick explore of the town.

The wind against the tent:

 Another reason the summer has gone pretty quickly is that I turned 30! It was something I was dreading, so of course the time to the big day flew in! Of course nothing dreadful happened when the day turned and I was suddenly 30. I felt happier even. We spent three nights in Vík, South Iceland for my birthday. Camping and exploring the town. There is still ash there, but not so visible anymore.

The town of Vík from above.

I was bestowed with lots of lovely gifts from my friends, family and of course Stephen. Stephen bought me a Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer and a beautiful retro apron from etsy store Boojiboo. You would think that would be offensive, but luckily I am not a real 50's US housewife, baking is a pure pleasure, not a chore.

  


At the beginning of July I finished my very own Icelandic cardigan, or lopipeysa. I am happy with how it turned out and I didn't manage to screw it up. The only bad points are I think the pattern is for boys, as the bottom part doesn't close over my hips!
Here it is, while on our trip to Vík:

Oh yes, in April, I chopped all my hair off and went back to my natural shade. :) 

I have just finished a lovely knitting project for someone, but as it's a surprise I can't post it just incase they see it. 

How we spent my 30th, on the black sandy beaches, with red wine and toasting marshmallows.

Tara

I can't believe it's been so long since I last blogged. While I have been knitting and baking, I have not been crafting at all. 
 Back in February, our cat Tara became ill. For a week the vet thought she had a blockage in her intestine and started gave us some paraffin oil for her to drink to clear it up. Then I went and got my wisdom tooth out and while I had a few days off to recover, Tara wasn't getting any better. She wasn't eating and barely drinking water. The vet did some blood tests and they discovered she had kidney failure. The course of treatment was a new food specially for cats with kidney problems and a fluid injection every day!(they couldn't get the catheter into her little veins).
 By week three she couldn't move and we were force feeding her food and water. Although by now the vet had managed to get the catheter in and she could receive more fluids this way, she was only getting worse. It was then we had to make the hardest decision of our lives :( Before the vet could arrive, Tara passed away with us all together one last time. It was March 5th.
  The days since then have not been easy, the house is so quiet without her little meeps for treats and her jumping into the window to spy on a neighbourhood cat. We both miss our first fur baby terribly and it seems unfair she should die even before her 4th birthday. We chose to have her cremated, at the animal hospital.
  So, I would like to say, Tara, while she was with us, was the best cat friend ever :D

Buttons and Bentos

Back in December, when it was Stephen's birthday, as usual I forgot to buy a card. Over the years, we have coined the term, "garage card". This refers to the birthday card you receive from someone which has obviously been bought in the local petrol station/corner shop, at the last minute.
 For men, they usually feature, yachts, old style racing cars, golf clubs etc.

So, I thought I would be very cheesy and I made him a homemade "garage card". Well he thought it was great of course.

Here is a photo:

I got lots of wool from one of Stephen's sisters for xmas. I knit up a quick slouchy style hat, following a pattern from ravelry.com. To finish the rather plain hat off, I used a beautiful green leather button, that Stephen bought me for xmas from Fairysteps.
 Stephen calls it my borrowers hat :)

I also received for gifts some very cute bento stuff. I got a 3 nested My Neighbour Totoro bento box, a cute monkey furikake dispenser and an adorable penguin mayo holder :)

Here is an example of them in use, with cod fish balls and spinach, with fish furikake and garlic mayo ;P