Talking about presents: Cross stitch, Tintin and cozy candles.

First of all I wanted to say thanks for all the wonderful comments on the bride's pictures... and not only the comments about the shawl but also the good wishes for the newly married couple!

Today I won't talk about knitting... again.

Last month a friend of mine had his birthday. This is a very special friend. I have never met anyone that likes Tintin as much as he does... which surprises me because Tintin was actually almost unknown for me before moving to Iceland (is it just me or is it that in South America, or even in Spain, Tintin is not as know as in other places? The same happened with Mummins... I HAD NEVER seen Mummins before! They are so popular here! It is possible to find EVERYTHING with Mummins around here: mugs, bed sheets, towels, clocks, watches, napkins, books, T-shirts, etc.)

So, having in mind that he likes Tintin I needed to find something related to make a birthday present. Of course the easy way would have been to buy something already made... but that is EXTREMELY boring. So, looking in the internet I found a great idea: Cross stitch.

I learnt a little bit of cross stitch shortly after I moved to Iceland (as well as knitting). Moving to Iceland really opened my eyes to handcrafts that were somehow "forbidden" for men according to genre rules that are applied in my homeland. Here, this is totally different. Everybody learns everything. Kids are not put into a drawer with a tag saying but exactly the opposite. They are given the chance to try everything... and that is AWESOME!

My experience with cross stitch is not very big. I have done little things here and there but nothing like what I was planning to do now.

So, here it is:

Almost finished.

What I like about cross stitch is how simple it is and the idea of being drawing with a needle.

After I finished it, I ironed it to make it look flat and nice. And framed it:

A present NEEDS a nice package. In this case I found this idea in an amazing blog I found while looking around a few weeks ago. There is a tutorial that shows how to make the knot. It is extremely simple and it looks GREAT!

I used just some rope that I found at home which worked really well.

In my experience, I have come to realized how easy it is to bring some happiness to the people you really care about. It is not necessary to make complicated things or spend huge amounts of money. Something as simple as some fabric, thread, a needle and little bit of time can do the whole thing. My friend was deeply touched by this unexpected present. It is hard to explain the satisfaction that brings to see a friend happy... just to see the shine in the eyes while opening the package has no price!

And well, talking about friends and presents now that I am posting this pictures I see in the corner of one of them a present that my friend Kristín Hrund gave me and that I had not shared here with you!

We met one evening at my place for dinner, talking and knitting of course. And she came with the cutest thing ever! She made a crochet candle cozy using some of the yarns that she dyes using natural resources. The light if gives if so cozy and calm!

It is so cozy that we even took it with us to our last trip to a summerhouse!

And to finish, something funny. A few weeks ago Litlaskvis, Linda Björk, an Icelandic knitter that I haven't had the chance to meet personally yet, asked me if I could answer a few questions for a column that she writes on a web magazine that is called Prjónari/Heklari vikunnar (The knitted/Crocheter of the Week).

Of course I said yes! It is possible to read the column here. It is in icelandic but google translate makes a fairly decent job :)

Have a great week!

Fichu: A learning experience.

After finishing the wedding shawl I felt that I needed to knit something small, not so complicated and especially quick to get some instant satisfaction. A few months ago i bought the book Victorian Lace Today and I still hadn't try to knit anything from it. So this was the perfect opportunity to do so!

After checking the book several times I decided to go for the Harebell Fichu.

Taken from Victorian Lace Today

It seemed to be the perfect project for the pink einband that I had in the stash. So, I read the pattern, the beginning seemed ok even though I had no idea how to make the  picot border that the pattern calls for. In the end it wasn't anything so terrible, at least nothing that reading some forums in Ravelry and a good video in Youtube could't solve.

So, for those who don't know how to make a picot the things is a simple as casting on two stitches (at the beginning of the wrong side) using the knitted on cast on method and then casting those two stitches off using the basic knit bind off. This video is very clear.

The real problem began after completing the garter stitch band. Now I had to knit the lace section and attach it to the band on the go following a set of instructions that tell what kind of join has to be made. This was a bit challenging. The way the edges are made in the patterns of this book are totally different from everything I had made before: picking up stitches and knitting or knitting separetely and sewing or grafting to the body.

Before starting it was even hard to see or imagine the structure of the Fichu. I made this simple drawing to show how it is worked:

Fichu schematics

In this technique the edge is knitted perpendicular to the border where it will be attached instead of parallel as I had always made it. So, in this case I am knitting the lace section which is only ca.30 stitches wide and every 2 or 4 pattern rows I am joining the lace to the garter stitch band following the pattern which tells what kind of join to make in order to avoid holes.

This is the way the joins look like. Pretty neat, isn't it?

At first I wasn't very sure about how this would work but now that I have already made almost half of it I must say that this works perfectly well and the joins look great! I am really enjoying the process of making this fichu. And one funny thing: I wanted to make a simple and quick project, ha! I was reading about this Fichu and it is apparently one of the most complicated patterns in the hole book, hehe.

This is what it looks like while knitting it.

A couple of weeks ago I received a message/surprise on Ravelry from Asun. She wanted to give me a couple of skeins of silk that she had left after finishing a project! How generous is that?! I felt really flattered about becoming the owner of those two skeins especially because I have never knitted anything with silk!

Well, the envelope arrived at the end of last week. I got this cute blue box with a little card, two skeins of black silk and two pens! I still don't have enough words to thank Asunción for this!

Now I already know that my next project will be made with silk... the question now is what. I still have some time to think about it since I am quite busy with the Fichu :)

About bobbin lace. I am almost done with all the excercises. So I decided to begin with the patterns section. I started with pattern number 1. I didn't do much of it because I thought I was doing something wrong and also because I think that the thread I am using was too thick for it. Anyways, I want to show you what it looks like:

Then I made the pattern number 2. For the color section I used embroidery thread. It was the only color thread that I had at home. I think it looks really cute:

Details: Cotton thread n°20, blue embroidery thread, 16 bobbins

And I also made number 3. But I think that this one was a total DISASTER. The thread is definitely too thick. It is cotton n°20. I think I should have used n°30 or 40 for this. Too bad I realized so late that tt was getting to chunky. For this pattern I got some help from Eva (thank you so much again!) because I was clueless about how to hand the bobbins to begin. Well, this is the chunky result:

Details: Cotton n°20, 30 bobbins.

I also got a new toy! Yes, another camera. This time a Zenit E which is very special because this is a version that celebrates the Olympic Games in Moscow  1980. The camera is beautiful: leather body and perfectly working, even the selenium cells for the lightmeter work like new!

These are some pics of the first roll I used with it:

Grótta

Hveragerði

JB

HF

And one last thing: Yesterday I went to Heimilisiðnaðarfélagið Íslands (Society of handcrafts of Iceland) to check some threads for bobbin lace because according to their website they had materials to make lace there. Well, they had some threads but only linen and just one number (and the price was not very nice: 17€ (2.800 ISK) for 500mt). They were also selling a pack of 50 bobbins and a bobbin lace pillow for 485€ (80.000 ISK). TOTALLY out of reality! I got my 50 bobbins for 25€ (4.000 ISK) in Spain and I made my own pillow with an Ikea table for only 30€ (5.000 ISK). So I saved 430 € (71.000 ISK)!! Unbelievable! I will DEFINETELY have to buy threads online!! What is it with prices here! That is something I really cannot get used to!

Good news in my e-mail.

Yesterday when I came back home from work I checked my e-mail and I found a message with this picture:

JC, the happy owner of a lopapeysa that has travelled from one pole to the other.

Yea! JC, my friend in Buenos Aires, Argentina, already got his lopapeysa!!! It arrived much sooner than I expected!!

It is amazing to see him wearing it and think that this pullover has travelled more that 11,000km! And it is even more amazing to see how good he looks! It fits him so well! (well, except for the arms that are little bit too long). He said that it came just in the perfect moment. It has been pretty cold in Buenos Aires lately so, according to him, we will wear it ALL winter!

I was a little worried about the size... I have this problem with sizes that I have mentioned before but it seems that I am finally starting to get it right... well... after having made already 16 lopapeysur I guess that I have gotten enough practice to get things right : )

I am very, very, very happy and not only because the pullover is ok but also, and especially, because my friend is happy.

Lupines: During summer they are EVERYWHERE (This is just on my way home). They make even the most cloudy summer days (which are very often here) feel good!