Thesis: 124 pages; knitting stuff: some…

Three posts in 2009 sofar! That won’t do.
But I guess I have a proper excuse now. Finally, finally
I finished the monstrous thesis and turned it in. It counts 104 pages, or 124 in total. Now I’ve only got one presentation left plus the extra preparing for printing.
And then I can go on with my life…
So, until next Thursday afternoon I will keep my new, huge, Icelandic pattern book (Sjónabók) wrapped up. It has been lying around in the plastic bag since I bought it last April and I may not touch it until I’ve finished the presentation and got my grade.
I have been knitting though. I finished a pair of green shell pattern socks in May:

My green shell pattern socks

New spring socks

The pattern is from Nancy Bush’s book Knitting Vintage Socks.  I used 2 skeins of green Regia sock yarn which I bought in Denmark last summer (2008) and needles 2.5 mm.
I think I’ll save the rest of the finished projects for next post.

First I’ve got to do some photo shooting.  And prepare a proper presentation for a project that should have been finished four years ago!

Wish me luck!

Thesis progress: none; knitting: one scarf done

Rósaleppatrefill Berglindar

There has been none progress on the thesis since no effort has been put into it.
However, since it is much more fun, of course, I’ve been working on various projects, but only one finished, a narrow scarf with icelandic insole roses, knit in garter stich for a friend.

Rósaleppatrefill

The pattern is found in Helene Magnússon’s book, Rósaleppaprjón. I used Kambgarn from my stash and needles no. 3,0 mm.

Elsa’s Héla-lopapeysa and my first baby surprise jacket

Hi. I haven’t been around here much lately. We’ve been spending nearly all our leisure time working in the apartment, into which we’ll be moving in less than a week. However, in January, before this work started, I had finished a couple of sweaters for two cute little girls, Elsa Edda and the newborn niece of Böðvar.

Elsa Edda, my friend’s daughter, got a late Christmas gift, a ‘lopapeysa’ with a yoke pattern taken from one of Védís Jónsdóttir’s patterns, Héla.

Bangsi dressed up in lopapeysa

Hjalti was dressed up to pose in the newly washed lopi and wouldn’t take it off again. I heard that Elsa Edda wouldn’t take it off either, so I guess it was a success

Hjalti wearing Elsa's lopapeysa

The baby surprise jacket for miss Kjartansdóttir was knit from Rowan tapestry, a blend of mohair and soya protein fibres. I really love the colours and think they’re excellent for this project. I heard that the little miss and the jakcket payed a visit to the president the other day and that he commented on that ‘beautiful jacket’. Of course, I was very pleased to hear it:-) Very pleased indeed!

Baby surprise jacket in Rowan Tapestry

back of bsj

I’ll be moving in about a week, so there won’t be any time for knitting for about 2 weeks. But I will get back to you as soon as I can. Until then…

More of the never-ending d… thesis and something traditional

Hi again, and hippi pappy new year (quote Pooh bear). I have made more than one attempt to post a quick update but seem to have a problem connection to wordpress. Today I finally succeeded. So, what’s new? I managed to finish Hjalti’s vest on aðfangadagur, or approximately at noon December 24th! The trousers weren’t finished until the morning of the 25th, Christmas day. I was quite pleased with the outcome:

Hjalti wearing his first Icelandic costume and eating Cheerios

Hjalti's home made Christmas chlothes

The plan was to make him a pair of skinnskór, I only managed to finish the pair of insoles, or íleppar (also called rósaleppar), needed for the shoes. Here they are, made of Kambgarn as well as the green knee-high socks and the skotthúfa (tasseled hat)

Rosaleppar fyrir Hjalta úr Kambgarni

The aim is to make the shoes before Hjalti’s 2nd birthday, which is only a month away!

Last saturday I finished a toddler’s lopapeysa, made for a friend’s daughter. I gave it away yesterday. And yesterday eventing I finished knitting my first baby surprice jacket, intended for the brother in law’s one month old daughter. I actually cast on for the project the day befor she was born, knowing (in my heart) that is was a girl. Today I’ll buy the buttons and wash it.

But the thesis… The professor says it’s too much to publish as an MSc thesis and thinks I should save 2/3 of the work for a Phd. My supervisor hasn’t read it through yet so I’m still waiting for her comments. So, unfortunately (very, very unfortunately), despite my efforts, its not over yet.

Thesis: 99 pages Lopavesti: Done

Yesterday, I got back in the right mood and decided to send a draft of the thesis to my supervisors. This ended in staying at work until more than 0400 AM this morning, since I also had to prepare for a visit to a primary school at 0810 to tell 10 year olds about earthquakes in SW-Iceland, or more precicely Suðurlandsskjálftar.

Yebb, the thesis counts all in all 99 pages, including a front page, bibliography, appendices etc.But it’s not done yet. I still haven’t finished some stuff and need to work hard to make it before next graduation deadline. The problem is that I have another deadline in January (another paper). And I need to finish Hjalti’s Christmas clothes, preferably before the 24th!

I finished my létt-lopi vest more than a month ago, and I’m wearing it constantly. Like the colours, the lenth, but it’s a little to wide though:

lopavesti for me

Since this one was off the needles it was time to finish some old stuff. Do you remember the Rowan Bruce cable sweater? Anyway, I cast on for Bruce in December 2006. It has taken waaaay too long time to finish it. I guess I laid it aside because of the new baby, then I wanted to knit for the new baby (Hjalti, for those who might not now); then I wanted to to something for myself for a change. And I certainly did. But, as it is soon Christmas, I dug in and finished the piece. Here he is, Bruce, made of Lana Grossa Mille on 7 mm needles, 6 mm for cuffs:

Bruce for Böðvar

The financial crisis is taking it’s toll. And even we poor knitters suffer, for imported stuff like needles and yarn is getting sooo expensive. Two yarn stores are even out of needles in some sizes. I needed one more skein to finish the cable monster, but the owner of the store told me that the yarn I needed would’nt be available for some time, since the gray color was sold out. Ohhh. But then she offered me to take the knitted sample hanging in the store. And that did the trick. It saved the piece. Oh, lucky lucky me! Now I just have to wrap it up and buy something surprising to add to the present:

Since Bruce has been off the needles, I’ve knitted a pair of knee-high Christmas socks for Hjalti, and started on a tasselled, traditional Icelandic hat for him. The plan is to finish a pair of trousers and a vest too, so he will wear a sort of a Icelandic costume at Christmas. With the thesis, paper, crisis and all, we’ll see how it goes;-) One last, my lovely boy, helping mom to clean the floor…

the missing details: Upp and Jaywalker

I forgot to mention all details about the two last projects. The fingerless mittens or grifflur were knit from less than single skein (50g) of Icelandic einband, colourway 0347 (I think, it’s grey-blue), the pattern is called Upp and is in the Einband pattern book, published by Ístex last winter. I knit the smaller size. The Jaywalker socks (pattern by Grumperina and can by found on Ravelry) were knit from Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, colourway #95-Lime-hot pink-orange, which I purchased in Storkurinn. The yarn is very colourful and nice but it’s not very elastic so the sock soon become very wide. I used less than one skein (100g), I think the colours repeat themselves three times and I used just over two colour-cycles. I had plans to use the rest for a pair for Hjalti but when, I don’t know.

I finished weaving in ends on my létt-lopi vest today. I think I’m pleased with it. Since I haven’t washed it I haven”t taken any photos but I have something else to show you, which I forgot I had made last time I blogged:

It’s a pair of fingerless mittens which I made in August for my mother. The pattern is called Fetching and I found it on Ravelry. The yarn was originally bought for a pair of wristwarmers, but I didn’t use it that time, Rowan Kid Classic colour #847. Needles 4 mm. Again, less than one skeined was used (0.68 skeins).

At last, at last

I’m still alive, but knitting is barely so. Well, the thing is, I finally kicked my arse and did something about my thesis, i.e. I got into the mood and started writing. In september this went really well and I sort of put my knitting aside to reduce temptations and encourage me to write in the evenings instead. But now, this doesn’t work any more and I lost my mojo. I’ve been struggling and trying to get something done but the productivity is close to zero. Still, my goal was to finish a draft for all chapters in October. I still have 11-12 days. I’ve been thinking about taking a few days off work and use some of my vacation, which I still have left, to get myself together and try and finish. Writing between 9AM and 3PM might be easier. Or am I just fooling myself?

This summer we (all five of us) took a “little” vacation abroad. For three weeks we drove through Denmark, Sweden and Norway. For me, it wasn’t much of a time off, far too much driving and stress. The most relaxing time of the trip was the time in the Ferry, which we took from Seyðisfjörður to Jylland (Denmark) and back home from Bergen in Norway. On the boat, while Hjalti was sleeping, I managed to finish a pair of fingerless mittens (for me) and nearly finish a pair of Jaywalker socks, I think it’s the first pair I’ve ever knit for me:

At the moment I’m knitting a lopi-vest for me, it’s going very, very slowly because of aforementioned reasons. But I really need to finish this damn thesis so I can start knitting again without feeling guilty all the time. Plus I need the vest, it’s getting very cold here know.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake and a finished dress

I had collected Hjalti from the daycare and we were enjoying the good weather, sitting outside on the lawn in the back yard when the 3rd large Suðurlands-earthquake occurred last Thursday, May 29th, at 15:36. Wow, it was so exciting to feel the noise, the high frequency vibration of the P-wave and then the shear motion of the S-wave and then the surface waves, right under my bottom! Thousands and thousands of aftershocks have occurred since, probably close to 8000 events. You can just imagine how exciting this is for a geophysicist.

As the earthquake struck, I was knitting the neckline of the lopi dress which I’ve been working on since March. Despite of the rising temperature (just checked the thermometer here at work/the Met Office which shows more than 13°C) I convinced myself this morning that it was actually cold and it wasn’t such a bad idea to wear it today. It turned out to be a sunny day, but very windy;-)

Unfortunately, I can’t show you any pretty pictures, just this one which I took while it was still drying

Two sleaveless pullowers and a lace dress

Monday morning, and no work. How nice. Hjalti and Böðvar are fast asleep upstairs and I have a quiet, spare moment on my own. I cannot remember when I finished these two létt-lopi pullowers, sometime in February. I took photos a while ago, but managed somehow to delete the ones from the black one so I took it out last Thursday, and snapped a photo in the afternoon sunlight. I knit the black and red west for Böðvar’s elder daughter. She chose the pattern and colours (same colours as were shown for this pattern, of course 😉 but when it came to wearing it she didn’t really like it. Something with the wool, she feels that it itches.

Oh well. I cast on for another one for her younger sister. That one was based on a pattern no. 11 (Týra, which is a dog’s name)  from a Ístex pattern book no. 25. There it is a sweater with sewn-in-sleaves and a different colour-scheme than here, but I liked this base colour better (it’s warmer) plus  I used leftovers for the pattern. I’m very happy with the result, and I guess she’s too, at least she uses it:

The pullowers are both knit it létt-lopi (lopi light) on 4.5 mm needles (4.0 mm for the edges). After finished them I decided it was about time I did something for myself! So, naturally, I went shopping. I decided to stick to the icelandic wool and bought enough material for two dresses: one létt-lopi dress and one lace dress made of thin einband (single spun), which can be found in ístex’s new pattern book, Einband. I started in the beginning of March and finished the lace dress a week ago, so it took me two months to knit it.

I wore it for the first time last Thursday, and again yesterday to a confirmation party. I changed the original colours slightly and used shades nr. 1038, 0885, 0853 and 0852.

For the past two months, I’ve gone on two trips abroad for work, to Naples and Vienna. In both trips, I had to take two flights to reach the destination. This sums up to 8 flights, which really helped for making progress with the lace dress! Now with this one finished, I’ve started to work on the létt-lopi dress again. I finished the single-coloured body  yesterday and started the sleaves. Cannot wait to finish, because I have something special on my mind which I want to try.   

 

Two hats

Last month, I knit a hat as a birthday present for Böðvar (boyfriend). I chose Jared’s Koolhas hat pattern, which I find absolutely smashing. I dug up some rests of Rowan Magpie in black, since B. likes it simple. It has quite rough texture and I thought it would fit very well with the pattern to make it look something Böðvar would like. Anyway, it takes quite some time to work with the cable needle in every second row (or was it every row?), but when I had just begun the decreasing at the top, I was out of yarn. Oh, this was frustrating. I checked Rowan’s web site but could not find the Magpie yarn. Still a bit hopeful, I paid a visit to the yarn store to check. It wasn’t available. A little less hopeful, I checked Ebay. I found Rowan-Magpie, but not in black. Now, to save all the work done, I ripped the knitting down to the beginning of the decrease, twice, and finally managed to finish the hat properly using the yarn I had left. It turned out very well and not too short at all, or so I think:

And I actually think it looks very good on him. Thus, I was quite sad when he later told me that he thinks it is a bit girly. Especially when someone at school mentioned it was. Argghhh. And he’s wearing the old hat again…

I also knit a hat for my mother using the Foliage hat pattern from Knitty. I used one strand of Dale-Falke and one strand of Kitten Mohair (from Sandnes garn) held together. It’s very soft, but perhaps a little to wide

Finally, after knitting two lopi-wests for Böðvar’s two daughters (the subject of next post), I decided to do something for myself. At the moment, I’m working on two dresses. One is with a classical lopapeysa-yoke pattern, the other one is a lace dress. I’m so excited to finish and wear them, that I totally neglect the hosehold. My home is a mess! And I even forgot to do the tax-report until one hour before the deadline last night! Fortunately, I got an extension;-)