Wednesday, April 27, 2011

About Easter and some knitting

Páskaliljur
Páskaliljur
The long five days of Easter weekend are over and now everything goes back to normal again. Even the weather decided to calm down a bit around here. The weather during Eastern was CRAZY even scary at times.

The wind was blowing almost constantly during most of the weekend while we were getting all you can imagine falling from the sky! In a matter of minutes it went from sunny to cloudy, raining to hailing to snowing and then sunny again. Take a look at this two clips: sunny and snowing and a few minutes later somekind of blizzard!

 As I said: CRAZY!






Despite of the weather,I would say it was nice, nice weekend. This kind of "cozy weather" kept us  mostly at home except for one day that we decided to go out biking because the weather seemed to be calmed enough to do so but in the middle of our "trip" guess what!? Yes, rain and hail... not fun considering that we live on top of a hill so biking all the way up (which under the best conditions is terrible) was HORRIBLE! We watched some movies, played some games, cooked and baked bread, had friends visitings. In one word: COZY.

Settlers of Catan
Settlers of Catan

Sourdough bread
Sourdough bread


Skyrterta
Skyrterta


"Sunday breakfast"
Sunday, humm sunday was really nice... chocolate eggs! I really like icelandic chocolate eggs. They come in different sizes and filled with candies but the thing I like most about them is that each of them come with a little message inside (called málsháttur in icelandic). My favourite this year was: "Sá sem þekkir aðra er lærður sá sem þekkir sjálfan sig er vitur" which translates "the one who knows others is educated the one who knows himself is wise". If you want to know more about icelandic eastern eggs look at this video that I found :)





Vetur n°1 and 3
About knitting: I finally finished my lopapeysa (Vetur n°3) that I was knitting using one thread of plötulopi (and that was actually the second one after having knitted exactly the same one but resulting in a size that was too small for me). As soon as I finished it I darned all the loose ends and blocked it. The new size is a lot better than the one before but still I think it is not perfect. It is a little bit short in the arms and sleeves but nothing terrible. As I mentioned before I find it really hard to knit for myself. I am too critic about the things that I made but this time and I decided just to relax and enjoy the pullover as it is and see all the god things: I love the colors, love the pattern, it is very light to wear (so it will be PERFECT FOR SUMMER) and I can wear anything I want on it! So mission acomplished!

I also finished the first one I made before (the little one) and blocked it. They look so cute together! But they are not exactly identical:

* The pattern above the ribbing is slightly different
* The pattern on the sleeves is different. I made more simple in the new one.
* The neck is different. For the last one I decided to make it double (folded and sewn). It gives a more finished look to the F.O. and at the same time makes the neck line more resistant than just simply binding off.

Vetur n°3
And here I am wearing the holy lopapeysa :þ


Liliac leaf
Liliac leaf
As soon as I finished both pullovers I started with the wedding shawl for Irene. At first I wansn't totally convinced about the pattern that Irene chose but now that I am knitting it and seeing how it is developing I am really liking it... and a LOT. What I like most about it is the garter stitch frame that surrounds every leaf. I guess that it doesn't show so well right now... but you will see it after it is blocked. The other great thing about this pattern is how simple and easy to memorize it is! I think that (at least) the body of the shawl will be ready pretty soon.

Remember that I got my Zenit camera last week? Well, I already tried it and it works WONDERFULLY! I had forgotten how much fun it was to use a fully manual camera and how exciting it is to have the film developed and get to see if all those things you pictured look how you were expecting them to look like. FANTASTIC! I feel like a kid with a new toy.

I am done with two 36 exposures films. This is a little sample of the pics I have taken (and also some of the pics posted above):

J
J

Ásland
K, T & Ástjörn

Ljós
Just playing

K
K

Barónstígur
Mushroom

11 comments:

  1. What a wonderful blog today. Truly enjoyed the variety of subjects.:-) Sorry for all of your blowing and snowing, so I won't mention we had absolutely perfect, gorgeous weather at the beach. Spent a day on our son's boat, which was great. Those chocolate eggs are neat and liked the message you found in one. Should make us all stop and think! Had to smile when I saw your two sweaters side by side. It should be one of those challenges "Can You Find the Differences?" Actually, I noticed a couple of the differences right away - the neckline and the sleeve edging. I like your choice better; thought the first looked a bit lacey and feminine. What surprised me(besides seeing your face staring back at me - and you are almost smiling :-) was the actual color of the sweater. It's in browns, not what seems to be black and grey in the first photo. I like it. One question: What does "lopapeysa" mean? Surprising to even me, I agreed to be a test knitter for a lace scarf, so guess I'll be joining you in the lace knitting. Last of all, your photographs are fantastic!! I really like the one with the panoramic view and the gal and dog in the foreground. But I liked them all! Hope you are now having a sunny week.
    Oh, what is Skyrterta? Looks yummy.

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  2. Hey Judi! I love, love, love your comments! They always make me smile and come on! with comments like yours who wouldn't like to blog, uh?

    I love the blowing and snowing and all the stormy weather but I think it is starting to be too much! We are all hoping to have a nice and bright summer (which according to the meteorological office mught begin next week... we'll see).

    Haha, when I put the picture of both sweater together I thought exactly about that! "Find the differences" cause there are more than the obvious difference in size. And about size... not that I look at them together I don't know what I was thinking while I was knitting the little one... it is tiny!! I am not exactly that (tiny I mean).

    Lopapeysa comes from two words:
    Lopi: which refers to the icelandic wool
    Peysa: that means sweater (jersey)

    Lopapeysa is used for the typical icelandic sweater with the patterned yoke.

    Yay! welcome to the lace knitting! Can you show me the scarf? What are you using to knit it?

    Thanks about the pictures :) I am a total amateur in photography. It is just so much fun to play with a manual camera :)

    And the Skyrterta, humm, it is a pie made with skyr. I found this article in wikipedia about skyr:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyr

    It is somethins SO icelandic and SO good! The pie is basically a bottom of cinamon coockies and butter, then skyr mixed with whiped cream and berries on top. Fresh, healthy and delicious!

    Thanks for visiting me!

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  3. ohlala, what a fantastic pullover you have created..
    all the best from Switzerland, Christa...

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  4. Bonjour :)
    bueno vamos por partes, ya que lo que mas me gusta en esto es que este blog esta lleno de sorpresas e idomas , y como soy una "amate de los idomas, me parece una cosa muy hermosa, poder leer mismo no entienda ni pio del finlandes , pero igual , :)
    bueno aqui el clima esta mas o menos asi ; ayer una calor, y hoy nublado ,y hace fresquito.... un dia si , un dia no, pero bueno uno ya esta acostumbrado a este clima loco ...
    oye y te comiste todo el chocolate? jejeje, que rico, has probado los macarons ? esos pastelitos franceses, madre mia que rico son :)
    aqui es lo mismo, la misma tradicion, pero sin mensaje al interior, solo que se como chocolate y bastante ...
    el jersey hermoso , bello, ohh que cosa mas linda, me pondre en frente del youtube a aprender fair isle, me encanta !!
    que mas, las fotos tan lindas, esos ojos ohhhhh, que hermosos , y el champignon, es lindo ,
    bueno como te comentaba , ando detras de esa piedra, jeje, hoy cueste lo que cueste la encuentro, sera que los turistas que vienen a Paris se las llevan ??
    bueno de lanas, ando aqui viendo , ayer encontre esa pagina, que te dije y me encanto , aunque aqui hay muy lindas lanas y vivo cerca de montmartre .. alli venden mucha lana, de fabricacion francesa, y si supieras el stash que tengo, jaajaja te da un infarto :)
    Bueno Rodri, te tengo en is proyectos de la piedra , jajaj, y del crochet , te ayudo sin problemas, la cosa es que yo encuentre la piedra , ando como excalibur .....
    muchos besitos , y espero ver el chal "boda" en todo su esplandor
    bisous

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  5. Here in France we are lucky the Easter weekend fesais 25 degrees when I see you in the storm
    your sweaters are beautiful
    you made ​​pretty pictures
    good day Beatrice

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  6. Christa: Thank you for stopping by my blog :)

    Alex: Sí! Nos comimos casi todo el chocolate! Aunque todavía nos queda :)
    Nunca he probado los macarons y nunca los he visto por esto lados... tendré que ir a Francia para probarlos! jeje

    Gracias por lo del chaleco... tejer fair isle es súper fácil!! Parece complicado pero nah! Seguro que después de ver algunos tutoriales en youtube vas a quedar experta en fair isle! Tienes que probar tejer una lopapeysa! Es fácil, rápido y el resultado es precioso!!


    Estoy disfrutando un montón mi vieja cámara... las cámaras manuales analógicas son lo mejor!

    Puchas! Encuentra una piedra para que me ensenes! Tengo muchas ganas de hacer algunas para decorar la casa y para regalar. Quedan tan bonitas!!

    Quiero ver fotos de tu alijo! (stash) Me dejaste con mucha curiosidad!
    Un besote!

    Béa: Thank you for your comment! It is still cold and windy here! Today I thought that the wind was going to blow me away!!

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  7. Nunca habia oido hablar de este postre: Skyrterta
    pero tiene una pinta increible.

    A ver si pasas un enlace con la receta, por favor.

    Geniales las fotos. Me encanta el jersey!

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  8. Glaram: la tarta de skyr es increíble! Pero para hacerla necesitas tener skyr que es un producto lácteo islandés. No sé si existe algo parecido. Es como un yoghurt pero más consistente (consistencia de quesillo más o menos) y de sabor un poco ácido. Si sabes de algo parecido te explico cómo preparar la tarta. No es nada complicado.

    Gracias por tu comentario! :)

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  9. Looks like a cozy weekend indeed! We had lovely weather and spent lots of time outdoors. Spring arrived just in time for Easter, and everyone was smiling :)

    Why would they send the Easter eggs back to the factory? I'll be buying Easter candy as long as there's some left in the shop ;)

    Love your sweater BTW! :)

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  10. Me again! I'm going to try and get you to a place that you can see the scarf I'm going to test knit. Only place I can find is the designer's Ravelry group: www.ravelry.com/discuss/caryl-style/1629627/1-25#21 Hope this works for you. I know it's not as intricate and involved as what you do, but it's a good starting (and possibly ending!) place for me. I didn't have any yarn in my stash that I liked for it, and the lys I was at yesterday didn't have anything, either. So...I made a longer trip to another lys today and ended up buying "SRK (Kertzer) 'On Your Toes'" yarn in the Ivory colorway. It's 75% Bamboo & 25% Nylon. I'm still a bit ambivalent about it, but the owner convinced me it would be beautiful in this color. It will eventually go to my daughter, who has a very touch-sensitive skin disorder, so I needed to be sure it will be soft. I am hoping to do the swatching tonight. I have two sheets of questions I have to fill out, so need to be aware of what I'm doing as I go. That will probably be the most difficult part!:) While on Ravelry, check out www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/damask-6
    Thought of you when I saw this. I think it's pretty. Lots of pretty things - and not so pretty - on Ravelry. By the way, I am "Zowmom" on Ravelry. I have some of my FO's posted there but don't always remember to do it, or take the time. Hope you are having some sunny days. Today was absolutely perfect here, which was good for all of the search and clean-up teams out there after the multiple tornadoes that hit our area. (I live near Birmingham, Alabama, USA) It is unbelievable devastation!! Thankfully our area was missed, after spending over an hour in the bathtub with blankets and pillows, and a bit of fear. I was in the middle of one as a child, and really don't care to be again! My favorite lys was hit and "closed till further notice." Hope all is well with you. :-)

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  11. Hola. Por supuesto que me paso a visitarte. Faltaría más. El jersey te sienta fenomenal. No sé por qué eres tan crítico con lo que tejes, y encima después de haberlo hecho por partida doble. Un besote enorme, te agrego a mis feeds para no perderme ninguna entrada.

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