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.

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;-)