Back from the East with a new lopapeysa in my bag.

I am back home after nine amazing days lost in the island. Why time goes so fast when having fun?!

We started our trip heading north making a few of stops (Blönduós, Akureyri, Húsavík. Mývatn) til our final destination in the east fjords: Eiðar, where we arrived after eleven hours on the road.

We started at A. Drove north all the way to B then around the East Fjords and went back home through the beautiful south coast. Total: 2.200 Km.

Eiðar is a small community with about 40 inhabitants. It is located 10km north of Egilstaðir (which is the biggest town of the east of Iceland with 2.200 inhabitants) next to Eiðarvatn lake. 

Aerial veiw of Eiðar (taken from http://www.ismennt.is/not/jonasg/eidar/). It is possible to see Eiðarvatn lake (blue) and Lagarfljót river (gray-greenish).

We stayed in a very, very cozy house next to the lake.

Cozy, cute little house.

With a nice view.

I have been taking a look at all the pictures that I took (and I still have to develop six rolls of film!) trying to organize them and choosing the better one to share here. It is going to be a hard task! We visited so many wonderful places!!

This map shows in more detail the East Fjords. We managed to see most of the fjords... all of them WONDERFUL! You will see soon :)

We saw almost every fjord from Vopnafjörður to Berufjörður (where Djúpivogur is).

I promise to share lots of pictures of this trip as soon as I get the films developed so I can get to choose the best shots from both the digital and analog pictures :þ

During the time we spent in the summerhouse I managed to finish a lopapeysa that will be a gift for my friend Eva. This is actually some kind of debt that I had with her since last year when I wanted to make a lopapeysa for her as a birthday present but for some strange reason I never got to make it. Now, she is visiting Iceland after having left a little over a year ago to go back home in Austria. So this was the perfect chance to finish this unfinished business. So:

- I took her measurements.

- We went together to the wool store to choose the colors: main color is light gray and the pattern colors are two different kinds of green (a light green and a kind of blueish green) and black.

- Asked a little bit about what she wanted and we came put with:

         * Big lopapeysa that could be worn over a regular sweater.
         * Open with a zipper.
         * With a hood.

- She gave me the freedom to choose the yoke pattern myself.

Having gotten all the information and materials required I was ready to go on vacation with a new project to work on!

Ready to be sewn and cut (steek).

Seen from the back.

I tend to forget how quickly a lopapeysa can be knitted! After having been knitting lace and lace and more lace a good lopapeysa comes perfectly as a holiday project: easy, quick and pretty.

I really like the way the colors blend together. It is a very unusual combination of colors. While I was knitting the yoke I was a little bit worried about the colors because I thought it was turning to be TOO dark. The solution was simple: add some light gray to the pattern. It is amazing what a huge difference a few rows of a light color can make in the whole pattern.

Pattern detail.

I still need to cut it where the purled column is. Then I am planning to crochet the border and put the zipper (that I haven't even bought yet!).

Next time I will post about the steeking process and hopefully pictures of the final, final, final lopapeysa along with all the details about it : )