All in a day's work

Well well, I haven't been the most active blogger, but then I didn't do much of knitting or sewing for some time as I got the morning-noon and night sickness for almost three months, but as it got better and my tummy started growing bigger my interests have changed a bit. Now the to do list has a lot of baby-things on it, and today I spent the day making a nursing pillow and a matching crib bedding.

For fun I took pictures of the process and will add them here with some explanations if anyone is interested in making some themselves :)

Firstly to get a nursing pillow that would fit for me I took a pair of jeans (which don't fit at the moment.....but they will someday!! ) and drew the waist line onto tracing paper.

Then I decided to make it a bit bigger, just to make sure that it would fit around the waist and measured 25 cm from it the outer edge of the pillow and drew the pillow according to this:

The inner pillow I made out of cheap linen but the outer cover was made out of a more cozy and colorful cotton with rabbits :)

As I didn't want to bother with having a zipper on it I made the outer cover with a fold over fabric from where I can get the inner pillow inside. It was a bit of a bother to get the inner pillow inside after I filled it, but then I don't have to worry about the zipper hurting the baby and I can make other covers later if I find that this was not a good idea.

In the end I had bought way too much fabric so I decided to make bedding for the crib as well and here are all of today's products, it ended up being very cheap as I got the fabric on sale and used beans from an old bean bag to fill the inside of the pillow ;)

Well until next time, have a lovely weekend and happy sewing and knitting :)

Wonderful Internet

There are so many wonderful internet sites devoted to knitting and endless other crafts.

Well...Easter is over, but I've been a lazy blogger so I'll include one Easter picture of the very cute baby chick's I knitted last year, the pattern is free on the wonderful Internet here, the chicks came out quite well but the egg was not as good, I recommend using the same type of yarn for the inside as you use outside or at least with the same gauge. ;)

Another project that was saved by the Internet was a grannyblanket I started on probably some 10 years ago, I made all the squares, but could not in any way find out how to join them to make a blanket. So the squares stayed in my knitting basket for years until one day I came across a tutorial on the wonderful Internet :), and just in time, for my sisters smallest one was to be baptised soon, but I managed to finish it and the little princess got it as a baptism gift :). There is something charming about the granny square patterns don't you think?

More on the Icelandic wool

To keep with the theme of last week I wanted to discuss another type of clothing made form the Icelandic wool. The very fine type of wool, called einband or loðband is perfect for making light garments with detail. I first started to knit with einband about two years ago and with some ambition I did not choose the easiest garment for my first one. I saw a icelandic knitting designer wearing a dress I really wanted to make but I could not find the pattern anywhere so I made it up, a few months later of course I found the pattern in a shop close to me, but then I had made this:

The pattern of course is not the same, but very similar and I ended up buying the pattern book and have made a few things out of it even though I haven't tried this dress again, the first time it took about 6 months to knit, but in my defence I was knitting a lot of other things at the same time as well as meeting my boyfriend :)

Speaking of him he had wanted a knitted tie for some time and had hassled other knitters for it before he met me so I decided to make him one for last Xmas using the einband again. The pattern was made by me and I can tell you that you need patience to knit the end of the tie, it seemed to be an endless task...

well enough for now, happy knitting everyone :)

Testing testing

I have always had a keen interest in fashion and creating clothing whether it was knitting, sewing or crocheting. I even studied designing for a year, before I changed directions and started studying archaeology. But I always kept on making clothes at home so I decided that now is the time to join the blogging world with my creations and get into touch with other people with similar interests.

To start with I wanted to put up some photos of my first published pattern, which was in the Icelandic knitting book Prjónaperlur. The pattern is of hooded mittens and was made a few years ago when I was working on an archaeological excavation. I have very cold hands and having to draw outside in freezing temperatures didn't help, so I made these fingerless gloves with hoods and a stylized magic rune, to keep it in the archaeology theme :).

The became very popular amongst my friends and family and since I'v made a lot of variations of them, to sell or to give, by requests or orders and in all colours. For example these were made for a friend that wanted ones that would fit with a hat, the pattern is a traditional skandinavian one:

Here is another sample, in children's size for my nephew with a cooool scull pattern:

These are all made from icelandic wool, which is one of my favorite yarns, warm and cozy and stays warm even when wet.

Well enough for now, I would be very happy if you comment so I see if anyone is reading this :)