Hello everybody!! I am back! :) Now, a little bit about December

Ufff! After some time off I am finally slowly coming back, hehe. I don't really know know what is it about December that has ALWAYS dragged all of my energy! It always takes me a while to recover from it!

But, here I am again!

I would have to say that my life  has been rather quite knitting-wise. December was an ALMOST-NO-KNITTING-AT-ALL-MONTH! All I managed to knit was a shrug that under normal conditions would have been done in less than a week! But no! It took almost a month (and I actually really did most of the knitting after New Year!).

This is the second one I knit. It is a very, very simple project but the result is always very nice. I think that women look kind of good in these kind of shrugs but I have always wondered how comfortable they really are?

So, here it is:




Details:


* Pattern: Ermar (available for free at Ístex)

* Yarn: Létt lopi. The colors were chosen by the owner of the shrug. Black and three shades of gray.

* Needles: 4.5mm







Notes:

* As  I said before this is a perfect quick knitting project. It gives almost instant satisfaction, I would say to both the knitter and the recipient :)

* The only change I made to the pattern was to make extra long sleeves.

* Picking up the stitches all around (every other stitch) was a piece of cake but the problem began when it came to make the bind off. I had my friend try the shrug three times! And it was always a bit too tight around the shoulders (because the cast off edge was too tight, even though I used needles a lot bigger and the knit 2 together cast off with usually works pretty well). So I had to unravel the moss stitch ring three times until I discovered something AMAZING!!!

Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off!!! 

Everything about is amazing! Starting with the name! And it is indeed SURPRISINGLY stretchy and most importantly VERY EASY to make!

I saw this video of Cat Bordhi to learn how to make it. If you ever need a super stretchy cast off... don't hesitate and give it a try!

Now, after having finished this shrug I began a new shawl... of which I will be talking about on my next post :)

Among other things, in the middle of Demember my friend Juan from Argentina came to visit me! He stayed in Iceland for five days and it was just pure fun! Even though we couldn't travel as much as I wanted because of the weather we did some nice day trips (including a failed attempt to go to a place called Krýsuvík in the middle of a heavy snow and wind storm that led us to fall of the road and be stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere for a good while until a guy driving a monster truck drove by and helped us!).

These are some pictures of our little trips:

Grótta in Seltjarnanes

Bláa lonið - The Blue Lagoon

Bláa lonið - The Blue Lagoon

Strokkur

Icelandic horses are so friendly! They all come to you so you can pet them for a while :)

Strokkur in Haukadalur

Þingvellir

Þingvellir

Þingvellir - Öxaráfoss. The waterfall was almost completely frozen. There was just a little stream of water running under all the ice. Here, Juan is actually standing on where the river is supposed to be running.

Me looking at the frozen waterfall.

Reykjanesviti - Reykjanes' Lighthouse

Valahnúkur. For those who like Sigur Rós, the final scene of this video was made on this cliff (and all the video was made in this area in Reykjanes)

Valahnúkur.

Video taken from the top of the cliff. It was very windy! And then it began to snow like there is no tomorrow!

Well. I think this is it for now :) I am very happy to be finally back!! Have a great weekend!!

A new hat for JB / Advances on the lopapeysa

Again, I will start by going a little back in time... I have already knitted a few hats for JB, so let's see:

This fair isle hat was actually the first hat I ever knitted. It is dead simple. I made it using Álafoss lopi (which is one of the bulky forms of lopi but not the bulkiest one). Of course he loved it... it has skulls, hehe.  I think he used it a lot and the coolest thing about it is that afterwards JB knitted himself two of this! One for his little cousin and another as a birthday present for his best friend. Cool isn't it?

Then I made a hat designed by Stephen West, which is I think the only West pattern that I have used. The result was really nice and what he liked the most about it was the fact that it is reversible. Besides it was extremely soft. I made using a double thread of Drops Alpaca which is a really nice yarn and I totally recommend it :)

The, I made a Leethal's Wavy hat. This was a very interesting knit. This was the first hat (and only this far) that I have knitted flat. As every design of Leethal the result is always brilliant! The only thing I regret about this hat is the yarn that I used. I was made with Aslan Trends Bariloche. When I bought it it was amazing to touch... soft and light and the colors were very intersting (a mix of viotet, green and some beige) but after wearing it for a while it became really (and I mean REALLY) ugly. So, I don't think I will use this blend again.



So, now the time to knit a new hat for JB had arrived!

Quite a while ago I added to my favorites on Ravelry a super cool hat. As soon as I saw it I thought it would be perfect for JB. I even thought about the perfect colors for it: the colors of his football team (black and white).

So, here it is:

Details:

* Pattern: Mesi by Suvi Simola (Free Ravelry download).

* Yarn: Falk Dalegarn (2 skeins, one of each color).

* Needles: 3.0mm for the ribbing and 3.75mm for the rest.

Notes:

* This is a brilliant pattern. It perfectly written and what I liked the most was the fact that it looks MUCH MORE complicated than it really is. The charts are very easy to memorize.

* I wanted to try the German cast on to see how it was made and how it worked. It was very simple to make and according to what I read it is supposed to be a stronger and more elastic cast on. I am not sure if it is either of those... but it looks good :)

* It is a really quick knit... and that is always a plus!

* This was my first time using Falk (Dalegarn). It is a really nice yarn to work with. It is soft and smooth, the colors are fantastic as well as the price. According to the label it is superwash but I didn't dare to put it  in the washing machine. So I just soaked it in water with soap, rinsed it and blocked it.

This is my favorite part of the hat. I live the geometry in it. It reminds me of Icelandic runes or even some Mapuche symbols. There is something kind of tribal about it. (This is not JB in the picture, by the way.)

What I like the most about knitting hats for JB is that he always wears them A LOT! And that is just enough to make me really happy.

Now, I am planning to make another one like this. A friend that lives in Germany mentioned that he really liked this hat... so there will be a hat flying to Berlin soon!

I already bought the yarn. It will be Falk again in these colors:

About the lopapeysa I am designing...  I am already done with the sleeves. Actually I am now working on the yoke pattern. It has turned out totally different from what I had in mind at the beginning. I am not 100% sure if I like it.

For now, this is the design I made for the sleeves:

I didn't use the same pattern as in the body because I thought it was too big to be used in the sleeves. 

Now, to finish... some pictures of the little trip we took with WonderMike, Franklin Habit and HisKNITS to Reykjanes where we went up to the cliff where this video of Sigur Rós was made: