Black Friday Mittens

Last year for Christmas, I received the wonderful book Vettlingar frá Vorsabæ, and decided to make some mittens for Siggi, called Stubbur. I tried using some worsted yarn that i had bought at a local sheep farm, but they were too big. (I did use the finished one to clean snow off my car last winter while they were still in my knitting bag).

The day before Thanksgiving, we had snow, and had not yet gotten all the winter things for the kids, so Siggi had no mittens to wear in the snow. These were all done except the sewing the tops up and weaving the ends in (the part I always procrastinate on). So I finished them up in the car on the way to the record store on Black Friday. We always use that day to support local stores, including the record store.

I did make him a pair last year, with Brown Sheep Naturespun instead.

Ultrasound knitting, or what have I been up to all of this time

So it’s been quite some time since I posted. One of the reasons is I finally finished my university degree last spring, so I was spending all of ny available time on my acoustic beamforming project (which involved coding things twice when my computer hard drive completely failed a week before the warranty expired).

Another reason was born 10/10, Herborg Gígja. She was 8 lbs 10 oz and 22 inches. I’ll see if I can get her to model her sweater later.

I had an ultrasound appointment in the spring, and no knitting to keep me busy in the waiting room, so I stopped at the LYS on the way with a pattern in mind. I had exactly 10 minutes allowed to make it to my appointment on time, so I flew around the store and finally settled on a gender-neutral enough bluish-purple and grey Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk Paints.

The sweater was done (and blocked!) before she was born, but the buttons hadn’t made it on until yesterday. Since it is a newborn size, I figured I had better finish it soon.

Finishing for Christmas

I started hat & mittens based on this pattern and a pattern from Robin Hansen for the mittens. They have been mostly done, but were waiting to be sewn together. Not wanting Gísli to be eaten up by the Yule Cat, I simply had to finish.

Cuddle cloth

I started this before any baby project, but it sat in my bag waiting to be finished until we went on a trip last weekend. I got the pattern from an Icelandic knitting magazine, but it’s a free pattern available from Garnstudio. I modified the bunny a little to make it more like a sheep, but hubby thinks it looks like a dog and big brother thinks it’s a bear.

First Baby FO

I wanted to make a strawberry hat for the baby. I used KnitPicks CotLin because it’s a summer baby, even though the new baby size is rather large. The pattern is available free online, but I was using a translated version from a magazine that was photocopied, and the chart key didn’t make it (either to the magazine or the photocopy I was using)… so I did the chart piece completely wrong and had to rip it back. 😦 I caught back up though and I think it came out pretty cute!

Mist was kind enough to model, even though her fur hasn’t grown back from when she got shaved before Christmas. She’s not very self-conscious.

This is a better shot of the hat.

Birthday Boy

Some old recycled sweaters became a birthday crown for a 3 year old this week.

Ungbarnatreyja

This has been sitting in my knitting bag waiting for buttons and crocheted button loops since Siggi was born. Úps. I figured with all that work, I should finish it up. It’s hard to get hand sewing time, but we took a ride in the car so I was able to get it done.

It fits him perfectly now. He just had his 2 month checkup and is 11 lbs. 7 oz (5.2 kg.) and 23.5 inches long (58.75 cm). It would have been fine on him as a newborn too; we could have just rolled up the sleeves. It’s perfect for the weather we’ve been having to wear outside when it’s kind of warm.

The colour is more of a dark blue-green but the flash photo doesn’t do it justice. The bottom photo is a little closer. I am really pleased with how it came out; it makes me want to make another. Maybe for the next baby gift I have to give.

One issue: in a moment of pregnancy fogginess, I convinced myself that there was an error in the pattern and I should knit the chart the opposite way. It made total sense to me at the time. Then when I finished the front I realised it was just me and the big rose was suppposed to be in the centre, not the way I have it. Oh well, I still like it.

Snjór

We are having our first big snow storm of the year. According to the news, we had 10 inches of snow yesterday (25 cm). Everything looks beautiful and white. I love these storms when I don’t have to be out in them. (Now it’s just lightly snowing, and we are supposed to get more sometime tomorrow). I got off the hook from the outside obligations I was supposed to have today, so theoretically we don’t have to go anywhere (although I have to go grocery shopping at some point or we won’t be having supper). This is great, because there is quite a lot to be done before Christmas here. Somehow, the house has managed to get messy again since K’s birthday party last week (maybe it has something to do with us having to use the dining room as an office right now). I have to finish assembling a few gifts, and I am hoping to make time to sew a dress for Christmas Eve. And of course, I want to do some Christmas baking that I could actually eat (no wheat, no butter, no sugar). I think I will make pepparkakor with spelt flour and maple syrup instead of sugar.

Since I haven’t had any knitting content in a while, here is something I finished a while ago and never had a chance to blog about:

I used this pattern. I didn’t sew the little circles on… I thought about doing something more unique, but I may just leave them off.

Well well

In case anyone was wondering, we did get our well fixed the next day. I had left a message with a local guy, but he never called me back, so I called a big company to come out and look at it. The next day, Ingi was home, and the local guy called and he just assumed it was the big company, gave directions, and the guy came. He had started fixing the well and left to get a part when the big company showed up. Ingi sent them away (I guess we will be blacklisted from using them ever again) and the local guy came back, and ended up fixing the well by just cleaning out some parts. So it wasn’t too expensive. We are sure those other guys would have charged us for all new parts.

Also, our living room wall is done, finally (both of these things were done in time for company on Thanksgiving). He did a really nice job.

The trim colour is the one B picked out for his room (that’s next). I also have a really great closet in my bathroom finally (the old owners had these flimsy metal racks that fell down all the time, and they finally ripped out of the wall and I’ve had my bath stuff in boxes in the hallway, and our towels in a basket in our room.

I finished my Big Basin socks with birthday present Hjertegarn a while ago, but now that I’ve worn them a few times, I finally got a picture:

It’s one of the Six Sox Knitalong patterns. They are peeking out from the bottom of the maternity corduroy pants that I sewed, but there is no photo of the pants since they are pretty basic. Still, they are more comfortable than most store-bought maternity pants. For some reason, the waist on those comes right to the wide part of my belly, which makes them slide down all day long and drive me crazy. I could have made the waist panel tighter on mine, but at least it’s high enough.

Sewn gifts

A friend is having a baby and I have not had any energy/motivation to knit her something. So I actually bought a gift. I couldn’t let it go without something homemade, so I whipped together a couple of bibs.

They were super easy and fun to make. The pattern is from Bend the Rules Sewing. And I can guarantee they are completely 100% lead-free.

My only complaint is that I have is with the Dritz snaps I used. I have only used Snap Source ones before, and those are foolproof. The Dritz snaps are junk. I broke 3 snaps trying to get them set. Then one went in crooked and I have to pry it out (you can’t really tell in the picture). I guess it’s a good thing I made her two bibs, because depending on how it is getting that snap out, I may end up ruining one of them.

I am on a sewing kick lately (well, a cutting-out and planning kick, this is the only thing that has actually gotten sewn yet). So expect to see some more sewing in the future.