Getting ready for winter.

It is starting to get colder and colder here and I realized that I don't have many "winter accessories" in my closet.

I have only one short scarf with buttons that I made a long time ago... it was a real odyssey. I made it using brioche stitch and I think I started it abut five times! I found that brioche stitch was not so difficult to make but as soon as I made a mistake it was a huge disaster! I got completely lost and took me a long time to fix it! Now, all the effort was totally worthwhile.

Brioche stitch is really nice, it makes a reversible fabric that is squishy and warm.

I made this one with Bulky lopi on 9mm needles. 

Hats, holy hats! I have made quite a few of them but I am NEVER satisfied with them! I am just not a hat person. It has to be really, really cold so I get to wear one.

There are two of them that I have used the most:

Cabled hat

Made with Eskimo by drops.

And Haka:

Also made with bulky lopi. 

So, now it was time to make a new scarf and hat.

Two years ago I made a cabled neck warmer using some Noro kureyon that I had after having frogged a shawl I made with it.



I never wore it...  I guess I didn't really like the colors (and to be honest, I really don't like Noro at all. I don't understand why it is so expensive!). The good thing is that when my sister came to visit me liked it a lot! So she went back home with a new cowl :)

Since I liked the pattern so much I decided to make another one. This time with a yarn and colors that I really liked. I began to knit it about a year ago and then the project fell asleep in the stash basket (along with a couple of other things!) until a few weeks ago when I decided to finish it once and for all!

The pattern looks MUCH better in one color.

Details: 

* Pattern: Cabled cowl by Lion Brand

* Yarn: Cascade 220.

* Needles: 5.0mm

Notes:

* I made a much shorter version. The pattern called to make it 50cm long and then lightly felt it. I made it just 30cm long and no felting.

* I like cables a lot. They make the fabric look look warm and cozy. And well, they don't only have the looks... they are REALLY fun to knit!

I also decided to look for a hat. Searching here and there I found this wonderful fair isle hat:

I like the simplicity of the pattern.

Details:

* Pattern: Peacock by Karen Borrel.

* Yarn: Cascade 220. Less than one skein of the main color.

* Needles: 4.5mm

Notes:

* I didn't make any changes to the pattern. I followed it just as it is.

* When I saw this hat the first thing that cought my attention were these two bicolor bands at the beginning and at the end of the fair isle section. I had absolutely no clue about how to make them but it was really easy! And they look very nice! Knitting always surprises me. It is so nice to discover new things that are made with the same simple elements of basic knitting. In this case purling. Yes, the bands are made just using purl stitch and some twisting!

* I decided to use cascade 220 to match it with the cowl. Besides this yarn is simply amazing. It is so soft and nice to work with! And it is incredibly warm! I totally recommend it.

* I love pompons, so even though if the pattern wouldn't have called for one I would have made one anyways :)

Now, to finish with accessories, I am knitting a pair of mittens. I think I have said before that I am not a big fan of knitting anything that comes in pairs... but I really need a new pair of mittens. It is really silly that i have only ONE pair that I made almost three years ago! This far, I am done with the first mitten... one more to go!

And to finish, a few pics. These one were taken in a place called Arnastapi in Snæfellsnes. It is a little village next to sea. The most amazing thing about this place are the cliffs and lava formations.

Cliffs and Eva.

When walking close to the cliffs it is possible to find a couple of holes. It is not possible to see it in this picture but the sea is on the bottom of this hole.

There are also a couple of lava bridges... they are pretty cool. 

Hyrna Herborgar III: Done!

I think I mentioned in my previous post that Hyrna Herborgar is one of my favourite shawls ever. The pattern is pretty, the transitions are perfect, the border is absolutely wonderful and it has so much air in it which makes it be delicate and elegant.

So, no more talking. Here are the pictures:

Unfortunetely when I took the picture I didn't have the best light so the color doesn't look as it really is. It is a brighter shade of pink.

Details:

* Pattern: Hyrna Herborgar.

* Yarn: Evilla 50%wool 50%linen.

* Weight: 90g.

* Neddles: 4.0m and crochet 3.0mm to cast off.

The edge fans are so pretty and in addition to it the cast-off techniche is so smart that it only adds more beauty to the shawl.

Notes:

* Began with a garter stitch tab (I love this method. The result is always very neat).

* This is the fisrt Hyrna that I knit using a yarn that was no Evilla Artyarn 8/2. While I was knitting it I was a little bit worried about the final size of it. I kept thinking that it was going to be too small ad that i should have used bigger needles. As usual, blocking made the miracle. The final size was surprinsingly bigger that what I expected. I blocked it fiercely to get the most out of the shawl.

* Blocking this shawl is rather simple. I just used two blocking wires and lots of pins. The secret is to bend the corners just enough to allow the edge pattern blossom.

* The cast of is pretty simple and there is no need to worry about the tension of it. It is made with a crochet hook by crochting 3 or 5 stitches together following the pattern to shape the tips and making a chain in between, which I think looks terrific!

* One thing that all of us (the ones taking part of the KAL) agreed on was that the charts can be improved. It is sometimes a little tricky to follow it (especually regarding to the center stitch). Other than that the pattern is very smooth.

* It is possible make a bigger version of it by adding enough repeats of the spiderweb pattern and having in the end two extra edge fans (one on each side of the middle one). To do so we calculated that it is necessary to knit 24 extra rows (or 6 repeats) of the spiderweb. Gummi made it like that (pictures will come soon).

This shawls just confirms the fact that I really like this shawl a lot. This will be FOR SURE not the last one!

To finish, a few pictures of my last trip to Snæfellsnes when Eva was still here visiting. I took these pictures with an oldhalf frame camera (canon demi s):

Svörtuloftaviti.

Skarðvík.

Djúpalón. Girls chatting (By looking at Eva's facial expression I wonder what they were talking about!) and Gummi picking up blueberries.

Lava by Djúpalónið.

Saturday's short trip to Snæfellsnes: Beautiful things I saw

On saturday we took a short trip all the way to the tip of Snæfellsnes along the south coast of it. When we left Reykjavík around 11am the weather was perfect: blue sky, some beautiful white big clouds, the sun shining beautifully, a soft breeze and 5°C. Just perfect.

Skýfall (the clouds were falling on the sea)

Djúpalón

The plan was to drive all the way to Djúpalón, definetely one of my (many) favourite places. It is a lava field almost on the tip of the peninsula right in front of (the famous) Snæfellsjökull. There are two lagoons with perfect clear water that are surrounded by some crazy lava formations. It was so still that the water was almost a perfect mirror. Breathtaking.

Dritvík

Dritvík and Snæfellsjökull in the back

There is also an amazing black-stone beach where the rusty rests of an old english ship (that ended up there after a bad storm in the 40s) are spread all over. The stones in the beach are all black and wonderfully polished and in the most perfect shapes you can imagine. We were trying to pick up some cool stones to send to Rosana, an argetinian raveler that makes wonders with stones and crochet. We picked up quite a lot of stones so soon some of them will be travelling all the way to Argentina!

Walking among giants

Me next to a giant lava sea

On one of the ends of the beach there are these big lava towers that look like giants walking to the sea to take a dip in the water. It was amazing to be really close to the shore where the waves break and hear the sound of millions of stones being pushed and dragged by the power of the water.

Wow I love this place!

On the way back home everything suddenly changed. Dark clouds took over, the temperature went downt 1°C and began to snow like there is no tomorrow. Unbelievable. Now, while I am writing this... it still (soflty) snowing outside :) So it seems that winter still doesn't want to leave us.

*During most of the trip we were listening to Björk. It is amazing how much sense her music makes when you are out there in nature. It is so easy to understand where her music comes from. It is somehow so organic.

Dritvík