Week 11

This week I did very little sewing/crafting.

I baked a little:

And took care of messy kids:

My 13 year old daughter made this awesome cake for her friend's birthday!

And I got this really nice book in a Quilting swap:

The only stitches I made were in a cross stitch project:

Can anyone guess what this is?

Week 10

Here is what I made this week:

The pattern is called Housewife.

Rolls open with a buttoned pocket inside.

And a zipped pencil case on the end.

A flap lid to cover utensil pockets.

With a felt heart to keep my needles.

This took a pretty long time to make and I broke 3 sewing machine needles during the process!

But, using a lot of hand sewing, I managed to put it together and finish it, buttonholes and all :)

Week 9

I don't have a sewing room.

I keep my sewing stuff in a drawer in one corner of the dining room, and my knitting stuff is in a drawer below that one. My sewing machine is tucked away beside the dr
awers and when I sew I use the dining room table.

The drawer isn't huge, so I have some sewing stuff in the storage in the basement and I keep batting and stuffing in an otherwise unused drawer in the kid's room...oh, and some Christmas projects in a bag under a bed...

Lately the sewing room drawer has been full.

Full of unfinished projects, leftover fabrics from old projects and since the drawer was full, new fabrics and projects, other leftover fabric and all sorts of stuff was piling up

on top of my sewing machine in the corner.

The knitting drawer was also full.
Leftover yarn from the last few knitting projects was laying around in plastic bags, tucked away in two corners of my living room.

Not very pleasing.

On Monday night I decided that I had had enough of the mess.
Got the three boxes from the basement and sorted out the knitting and sewing stuff.

• One box was filled with leftover yarn. I probably have enough wool in there for a huge crochet blanket!
  
• Another box was filled with leftover fabric. When I have more space for my sewing things I will definitely need to sort these by type and color, but for now they are jammed in a box.
• The third box was filled with un-started projects.

Up in the drawer I now keep notions, thread, cutting tools, needles, pins and necessary things, as well as started projects. I need to finish the things I have started before I start something new to put in the drawer.

The knitting drawer holds my knitting needles, some knitting magazines and new yarn:

These are all my sewing efforts this week so I have nothing to show off except maybe a clean sewing space...

Here is what this part of the dining room usually looks like, with the sewing stuff in the corner:

On top of the drawers are two pincushions. One was made by my mom and the other is made of wool and a sheep horn.

I like to make different faces on it:

This actually was very inspiring and I think it will be easier to sit down and sew when there is less mess :)

Week 8

I didn't finish my bed Quilt because I need batting for it...but I did sew a little as well a knit this week. Here is what I did:

• Knitted the Plain vest for my little girl:

• Sewed a dress from a skirt, also for my littlest one:

It's a bit too big now.

Here you can see the front of the chest better.

• Sewed tights from a t-shirt, for little miss tiny as well, but I can not find them! I've searched everywhere! I guess I will find them stuffed inside some toy later :/
  
• Knitted mittens for my teenage daughter:

They are just plain black mittens since she does not like colors or patterns now.

The dress is made from a skirt that used to belong to my teenager but it had a nasty stain on the front so I cut that panel away, as well as the waistband which had two rows of buttons, then sewed the skirt back together and made the top of the dress out of the white lining of the skirt. I think it looks pretty cute and old-fashioned.
I just wish I had taken a picture of the skirt before cutting it up!

The tights are from a grey and white striped t-shirt that my biggest one also used to own. The side seams are a bit wonky since I am not used to sewing with knits and was testing to find out what settings worked best. I think the plain zig-zag stitch came out the best.

What settings do you use when sewing knits on regular sewing machines?

Oh, and I really really want this book that Dana at MADE wrote! Please someone, give it to me for Christmas ;)

Week 7

R2D2 sweater finished!

I used an Icelandic woolen sweater pattern and tweaked an R2D2 and lightsaber pattern to match it.

Tryggvi is really happy with it so I hope it will be easier to get him to wear wool this winter than last year.

My next knit item will be something made with some of the yarn I received in the knitting swap in September:

I was so happy when I got this in the mail...so much pretty yarn!

But first I'm thinking about sewing something. Today I brought out my sewing machine to sew in the zipper on the woolen sweater and also fixed two pairs of jeans, and now I really want to sew some more...maybe I'll finally finish my bed quilt!

Meow...

Week 6

I'm still working on an R2D2 woollen sweater for Tryggvi, so no photo to share today.

Except maybe this cutie:

This lovely little fur-ball will be a part of our family after two weeks.

I can't wait to give him a squeeze....or million squeezes...

My 13 year old daughter got to pick out a name...meet Pokemon!

Week 5

I really, truly do not know what ever happened to week five.

Week 4: The blues

200 4" fabric squares in 10 different navy fabrics:

My submission for the Bolo Heads Fall Rainbow Swap.

I can't wait to receive my 200 rainbow squares!

Week 3

I have finished the mittens for my dad from last post:


Took them to the post office yesterday to send them to him and on the way back I realized that I forgot to take a picture of them!

So nothing to show off today...

But they look like the one to the left here:

Photo from Hlýjar hendur facebook page.

I also sent the sweater to my grandmother:


She doesn't know it's finished so she'll get a surprise pack in the mail! I love getting surprise mail :)

Now I can't wait to get home from work so I can start my next knitting project. It is a traditional woolen sweater for my boy but I put together a star wars pattern for it and can't wait to see how it turns out!

Week two

When I set the goal to post once each week I though maybe it wasn't really a challenge. Then the week passed and I realized that to me...this is a real challenge.

But here I am, in another week, writing another post :)

I went on my computer yesterday to find pictures of what I have made since I was last posting. I usually take pictures of what I make, so the list is pretty long...but if you make it to the end of the post I need your opinion on something at the bottom...


I made this small shawl from herb-dyed laceweight Icelandic wool yarn that my mom gave me. She had bought it from the artist that spun and dyed it but her dog had gotten into it and created a big mess out of it.

She gave it to me and I untangled it and have kept it for about two years now. Last winter I wanted to try knitting a shawl from a traditional Icelandic pattern, and this is my version. I used the pattern Litla Hyrna Huldu. And I have a lot of that yarn left...any ideas on what to use it for?

These are bean-bags that I made for my son.
This is him wearing the Superman-Batman sweater that I made for him. I used a pattern that I bought from LilBlueBoo. Used a Superman T-shirt and made the Batman logo on the sleeve using freezer paper and fabric paint.

A Newton Heath hat to match the scarf that I made for my husband's friend. He got the hat for Christmas.


This is a Christmas sweater for a dog. I made it for my husband's grandmother's dog but I never took a picture of her wearing it. Hopefully I will when she wears it next Christmas!

This was also a Christmas present last year. For my mother in law. The pattern is called Rjúpa.

My daughter turned 13 in February. I made 5 pillows like this one with different JB pictures on them. She was a true Belieber back then...apparently that was ages ago ;)

These are mitts that I made with yarn and pearls that I got in a knitting swap.

My woollen sweater. Made from unspun Icelandic Lopi and laceweight wool that I got on a huge spool from my great grandmother. She used to use it on her knitting machine to make undershirts for her family.

This is a hat that I made using a pattern that a friend of my mom's gave me. It was a hat that her grandmother used to make but I had never seen how the hat looked before I knitted it.

I made this sweater for my father in law for his birthday. This is my husband modeling for me ;)

My baby girl turned one on June 17 and I made her a rainbow cake.
She is the one to the right, making the silly face :) The one on the left is my niece, she is two months younger. They are wearing dresses that my mom knitted for them.

I sewed this coat thing that everyone is wearing here in Iceland. The grey thing in the middle is attached to the coat and can be wrapped around the neck for a better closure.

And here is another sweater like the one above, only with brown instead of grey. I knitted this one for my grandmother. When I came to visit her last spring she asked if I would make her a sweater like mine and I just finished it two days ago...wish I could have finished is sooner because it is such a summery sweater, but she can use it next summer.
I bought the brown buttons yesterday and I have yet to put them on. I'm not sure if I should use them or if I should get white ones...what do you think?

Yesterday I started knitting this pair of mittens for my dad. It was his birthday yesterday and I hope I will have them finished before he comes for a visit.

So that's it. All I have made and taken pictures of since October last year. I better be more efficient from now on if I'm going to have something to talk about every week!

Super Excited!

For the first time ever, I am participating in an international swap!

It's the rainbow swap over at the Bolo Heads blog.




Gotta love the rainbow, especially in fabric!

I'm also participating in a knitting swap and I'm very excited about that as well. It's hosted here in Iceland and we get an assigned friend to send something knitting related, but actually my friend lives in Denmark so I will be sending two exciting packages overseas ;)

It has been almost a year since the last time I posted on this blog...sorry about that...I guess any of you who were reading this blog have given up ages ago.
I can see that this happened last year as well. Maybe I only post in the fall...fall is when it gets cold outside and you cuddle up inside and start knitting and sewing...and blogging about it...

I have been using my blog to link to all my favorite blogs and reading the updates almost every day, but I rarely post comments because I'm so embarrassed to be linking to this zombie of a blog.

It's so great to be able to post information on the projects I finish and have it all in one place.
This is why I have decided to bring my blog back to life.

And this time I will have some motivation because I decided to set a goal for myself.
The goal is to post on the blog at least once a week.

It's nothing major...only 14 posts until Christmas! :)

But it will keep me motivated with my work as well because, let's face it, if I don't do anything in a whole week I won't have a post on my blog.

I do have a full time job that does not involve anything handmade and three kids I get to spend time with after work so there are a lot of weeks that can go by before I finish anything.
But this will not stop me. I will post a blog every week.

And if I can post every week for a year...I will get a prize (or not) ;)