Monday, August 22, 2011

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!

Lopapeysa + Hood
Ready to be sewn and cut (steek).


Back
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.

Yoke
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 : )


12 comments:

  1. Welcome back :-* Eva's lopapeysa looks super cute! ;)

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  2. ohhhh pero que lindo , precioso , y si cuando puedas pon fotos !!!
    oiga y ute conoce los Fjords de Chile ? son tambien espectaculares !!!
    a ver y ese jersey , pero como puedes tejer, visitar, pasear y todo , yo si llevo el tricot en vacaciones me matan jajaja, en serio !!
    podrias hacer un video con las fotos ... quedaria lindo , lindo !!!
    besitos

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  3. ..its always a pleasure to visit your blog, no matter if you show pictures of the wonderful country or your knitting treasures. Your blog is a highlight in the blogger world..have a wonderful day,
    greetings from very hot Switzerland
    Christa

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  4. WELCOME BACK!! Of course you were missed, but glad you had a great time. Can hardly wait for all of your beautiful photos. No time right now for more, but will be back ASAP :-)

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  5. Que bonito el paisaje. Y muchas gracias para los mapas, ya sabemos mas cosas de tu tierra.

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  6. You did a nice trip !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    your sweater is beautiful

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  7. Hola!!!
    Que viaje fantastico!!!!
    La campera una hermosura.
    Un abrazo Susana

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  8. Alex: No, no conozco los fiordos del sur de Chile :( Me encantaría ir! Sobre el jersey... yo también estoy asombrado con lo rápido que lo terminé! Igual paseamos harto durante el día y en la noche tejíamos... súper cozy en la casita, jeje. Gracias por la idea de hacer un video con las fotos! No se me había ocurrido!

    Dear Christa: What can I say? Thank you so much for your wonderful and sweet words. I feel very flattered :) And of course thank you for reading me. A big hug for you.

    My dear Judi! Thank you so much! The trip was AMAZING! But it is always good to come home : ) I will be posting the pics as soon as I can. Þúsund knús (1000 hugs).

    Asun! Estas fotos no son nada comparado con todo lo que vi... no puedo esperar para mostrarles las fotos!

    Bea: Thank you for visiting me! The trip was amazing indeed! And I am glad I managed to finish the sweater siince my friend is leaving Iceland next week! :)

    Susi: Muchas gracias por tu visita! Un abrazo para ti también :)

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  9. si quedaria lindo un video , jeje
    Rodri viste mi mail ?
    bueno espero que la ampolleta este encendida ya !!
    besitos
    Alex

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  10. Here I am again, hopefully with enough time to say all that I want to say (which never happens!:-) Really liked the map with your route drawn in and where you ended up for the week. It took me a bit to coordinate it with your other map, but I finally did:-) I had to go to an online converter to find out the total "miles" you traveled. A nice trip. Loved the aerial view and so fascinating the difference in color of the waters of lake vs river. I debated about getting a magnifying glass and seeing if I could find your "cozy, cute little house" using the picture of your view as a guideline, but no time. It truly looks like a wonderful, peaceful, enjoyable place to be and sit on that lovely wrap-around porch, soaking it all in and knitting. A little bit of envy here. Snow on the mountain tops? What were the temps while there?
    Loved the colors of Eva's lopapeysa and your choice of design, especially how you did it around the bottom and on the sleeves. You were right in putting the light gray in the middle - makes the rest of the pattern stand out. I liked her idea of having it larger to wear more as a jacket, and even though I'm not a hoodie person, you made it turn out beautifully(as usual). However....there's this issue with the steeking. Just writing/saying the word makes me shiver and break out into a sweat. I have decided that the word "steeking" came about from people shrieking "eeeek!!" as they were cutting into their precious knitting. Can you guess that I have never done steeking - and actually don't intend to?! I'll leave that to you and others that are brave of heart. I know Eva's lopapeysa will turn out beautifully and just the way she wants it. You are such a great friend.:-)

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  11. Preciosas fotografías y encantador paisaje.
    Steeking es cortar por la mitad ? :(
    nunca me he atrevido ya me cuesta cortar la lana cuando termino la labor ......
    Estoy haciendo cuentas, si es un proyecto de vacaciones y vuelven a casa en nueve días es que ha estado tejiendo y tejiendo con la tranquilidad que desprenden las fotografías de la casa no me extraña que lo terminara
    Precioso !!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  12. Judi! Hi again! The trip was a dream! I thought about putting an arrow or something like that in the picture to point where the cozy little house was but I didn't... hummm. It is very close to the lake. It is actually posible to see the path (or road) that leads to the house. The place was really nice but unfortunetely we couldnt use the porch as much as we wanted because it wasn't warm enough to do so. We tried just once, it was a calm evening with no breeze and not very cloudy... it was nice but after a while I noticed that my feet were starting to become purple!!
    There is still snow in the moutains... and a lot. This has been a very cold summer. So cold that in the east (where we were) and north of Iceland it was still snowing on the second week of June!
    While we were there the temperature never went over 12°C (53°F) which was OK. :)
    Steeking (strange word indeed)... yes it is a little bit scary but it is ok. It works really well. I couple of hours ago I was actually working on that! Now the pullover is finally a cardigan! I just have to put the zipper (a friend of mine will do it for me... I am really bad a sewing!). I will show some details of the process on the next blog entry :) Along with pictures... I already made a little clip with pics from the trip! I hope you'll like it!

    iaia,imma: Gracias por pasar! Sí, steeking es cortar el tejido. No es tan terrible como suena. Si aseguras bien los bordes (usando una máquina de coser) no hay nada que temer :)
    Como puedes ver en las fotos... la casa y el entorno invitaban a tejer! Cuando terminé el tejido ni yo me lo creía cuán rápido lo hice!
    Saludos!

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