the longtime sun

Wednesday was Ulfur's 5th birthday. We had our daily family breakfast with morning verse and candlelight before leaving for work, school and daycare. In addition to our usual bowl of oatmeal, there was a bit of luxury - toast and hot cocoa. Ulfur wore his birthday presents, a crown and cape (not pictured!) from Sarah's Silk. He told me, a huge grin on his face, that it was much better being five than four years old. After school we had invited all his classmates over for a birthday party. We usually keep our birthday celebrations small and simple but since Ulfur just started a new school we felt this would be a good way for us and him to connect with new friends. The party went very well, how lucky Ulfur is to have all these bright, friendly children in his class!

"May the long time sun

Shine upon you,

All love surround you,

And the pure light within you

Guide your way on"

This verse (check out this beautiful version) has been in my thoughts as I face how big he already is. Has it really been five years? When I was pregnant with him I took prenatal yoga classes and we used to end every session by listening to that verse and "connecting with the baby". At first it seemed silly to me (I was 22!) but it really worked. And now he goes to school and he can read and and and... this is all going very fast indeed! He is not grown up yet and I plan to enjoy these few years we still have until the teenager is upon us. 

I love that pose!

Golden Barley

Pattern: Barley by tincanknits

Yarn: Lamauld from Strikkebogen

Needles: 5.0 mm and 4.5mm

For his birthday we got him the Barley hat I knit a few weeks ago, when his other hat was lost (of course, typically, his lost hat was found as I was binding the new one off!!), a birthday sweater, new winter boots and then the crown and cape. He was very happy with his presents and was proud to pose for me when we stopped by the sea side in our neighborhood yesterday. The autumn sun was about to set, casting this amazing golden glow on everything. I thought it must have been the longtime sun, don't you agree?

Ulfur's birtday sweater 2014

Pattern: Verur by Vedis Jonsdottir

Yarn: Snælda, 3 ply, and Noro silk garden 

Needles: 4.5 mm and 3.5 mm. 

I am beyond happy that I managed to finish the sweater, it came very close and perhaps, just perhaps, it came to me breaking the first rule of blocking and drying the darn thing on a warm radiator to speed the process up... I'll never confess to it but if I did, it doesn't show anyway. Hah!

Happy Birthday to Ulfur! I am truly grateful for getting to be his mamma. He has already taught me so much more than I'll ever be able to teach him. 

ps. Sorry for the sentimental post, please bear with me :) 

good old home stretch

Photo du jour is a schoolbook example of how NOT to use the ISO and WB effects on one's camera. Totally intended. Not a mistake at all. Not even the slightest bit because I was in a big hurry. Please excuse the spots of blue light all over, they do no justice to the real thing!

My hurry comes from having a million things to do today (we have invited 20  five-year-olds over for a birthday party tomorrow, more on that decision later..) and still having to finish weaving in the ends, stitching down the collar, grafting the underarms with kitchener stitch, washing and blocking Úlfur's sweater, which kinda has to be dry and ready and gift wrapped tomorrow morning. So today's crafting is all about the home stretch. I can see the finish line. Better get to it. 

With a special focus on the "Keep Calm" part, I'm joining Frontier Dreams in the KCCO linkup ;)

a belated Tuesday, otherwise known as "Wednesday"

Although I usually try to keep up with posting project photos on Tuesdays, as a weekly rhythm and linking up with Frontier Dreams' KCCO, yesterday was a miss. So here it is a day late. Truth to be told I didn't really even have anything to show yesterday morning. My current priority project are the longies I'm designing and they are now too far along to be demonstrated in public. I did buy yarn for Úlfur's Birthday sweater before leaving for Greece and it was my travel project, for knitting in the airplane and on car rides. Only problem was that the store was almost out of this particular kind of yarn so I could only buy one skein! I finished it ten days into the trip and have been crossing my fingers since I got back that the shipment would arrive soon enough for me to finish the sweater before his birthday (which today is only a week away, might I add). But yesterday it finally arrived and Birthday Sweater Knitting is now resumed. Wish me luck time wise, dear readers, I might really need it. 

our birthday Wish

A year ago, on September 2nd, our sweet little Ósk was born. Her name is the Icelandic word for "Wish" and it is truly the most fitting name we could ever have given her.

Look at that sweet newborn face!

We decided it was time for her Christening ceremony and had a birthday/christening party only for our closest family on Sunday. We have rather big families so it was plenty of people. The ceremony was beautiful and we were all beaming with pride when her big brother held the candle as a symbol of the light that will guide her path in the future. Ósk was wearing a new family heirloom, a Christening dress my grandmother knitted. Úlfur also wore it at his Christening four years ago.

Ósk was feeling a bit under the weather as she had a massive cold. She was tremendously patient through all of this. Hugs were needed, though.

Oddur's sister Una decorated the cake - we were all pretty blown away. She's 14 and it looks as if it was done by a professional. Takk, Una <3

Hah! Rascal baby strikes again. 

We had a rainstorm during the party so the lighting was pretty bad. The candles made us feel like autumn really had hit us and it was so incredible cozy.

Her birthday was on Tuesday (yesterday) so we wanted to save some presents and have a little celebration then as well, very modest though. Úlfur felt that his sister needed a birthday crown so we made one for her.

A baby for me! 

Trying on new mittens.

I knew Úlfur would want to make a gift for his sister as well so a couple of weeks before her birthday I told him a story about Big brother who finger knitted his Baby sister a headband for her first birthday. Days later, when I asked him what he wanted to get her he said he wanted to finger knit a headband, go figure ;) He had visioned a striped one, and I have no idea how to finger knit with two colors (is that even possible?), so I came up with just making two pieces in different colors and then weaving them together afterwards. Came out pretty well and Úlfur was so proud and happy with it.

Ósk's First Birthday Sweater

Pattern: Kría by Védís Jónsdóttir, modified to be a closed jumper

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden and Snælda, 3 ply wool

Needles: 4.0 mm and 5.0 mm

I love our new tradition of home made gifts, it is so much more fun and meaningful to us! We will definitely keep it up, at least partly. I'm already planning Úlfur's birthday presents, his birthday is only a few weeks from now. Better get to it...

My current WIP actually is a present for Úlfur, although I don't really plan for it to be a birthday gift. I want him to start using it immediately since fall weather has arrived and the hat I knit for him last spring got lost *grunt*. I'm following the pattern Barley and using a yarn favorite, Strikkebogen Lama wool. Perfect for knitting during lectures - more on that later. This is long enough for one post. Then I'm off to Greece on Friday and I don't know if I'll be able to post from there. We'll see :)

doll making in the midst of moving

My doll kit from Weir crafts arrived and I am very satisfied with what I received. The materials are good, the instructions are super easy to follow for a beginner such as myself and the package arrived even faster than I expected. Recommended! I am already well on my way with making the cuddly doll for Ósk's first birthday. This is quite the addictive craft, I must say. My knitting needles haven't been idle though, actually I am working on three different projects with not much happening in any one of them, heh. One stitch at a time, I say. In my defense I have been very busy....

... moving!

Self-portrait in the middle of moving chaos. Translation of the icelandic phrase above the mirror can be found here. 

She loves plums!

We're almost done settling in our new home, if you can look past the fact that our bookshelf is undergoing a bit of a makeover so our books are still all in boxes and that I keep moving the photos and paintings around since I just can't seem to find their "right place" in our new home. Other than that, it's like we've been here always. I am really in love with this apartment and would like to live here forever. 

Walking practice is her favorite thing to do these days...

A hair cut is due...

I seized the opportunity and put a lot of my children´s toys into the storage room. Clutter and non-quality materials seem to so easily pile up in play rooms. I have been doing some self-education reading this book and this book (both great!) and I have to say it's really eye-opening. 

And I finished the small Waldorf doll - my first one ever! He was a gift to Úlfur who is so happy with this mama-made toy, he plays with it every day. He named the doll Álfur, the Icelandic word for "elf" and finger knitted him a scarf. The little gnome has even been given his own little home with paintings on the wall and what not. Joy for everyone :)

Crafting on and along with Frontier Deams - so many craftalicious links!

a new tradition (and a new craft)

My focus should still be on my Morganite sweater, but somehow my mind has decided that the most fun to be had out of that project is to pick it up and finish a few rows only when I'm in the mood. And since this whole knitting business is supposed to be fun (a fact I have to remind myself of from time to time when ambition is striking to hard), I'm just going with that tempo. Hopefully I'll finish it before the year is over, though.*ahem* But there are some distractions on the horizon:

Although it's hard to believe, my little Ósk has her first birthday coming up in less than 6 weeks and since I'm trying a new tradition of homemade gifts I thought I'd get an early start in case this is more time consuming than presupposed (which is the case for me all.the.time.). My friend Dagga made the coolest sweater for her son last winter with the Faroe Island Snælda wool yarn and some Noro Silk Garden. She used a traditional Lopi pattern but used the Noro as a filling for the colorwork. The result blew me away and I decided to make similar sweaters for my children for next winter. So Ósk's first birthday sweater is this practical, warm, Noro inspired wool piece. It's coming along well, minus a few miscalculations of mine due to my lack of experience in making open sweater patterns into closed. Nothing serious though. With luck I'll be done with it by August, which is just as well since her other present is going to be...

...a waldorf doll! Not this one pictured, that is just me practicing on an retro Swedish kit my friend (and experienced doll maker) gave me. I think the head I made looks all right but it's a bit bigger than planned so I might have to make some changes to the body. Let's see how it all turns out, this is my first ever attempt at this craft. I'm waiting for a doll kit for a bunting doll from Weir Crafts, it was honestly the only online website I found that ships doll making supplies to Iceland. Have any of you ever ordered this stuff online? Can you recommend good stores? (Best if they ship worldwide, not necessary though). I have wanted to make a Waldorf doll for years so this is a crafting dream come true. I hope, hope, hope that it'll be a success, I have to admit I'm a bit nervous. If this bunting doll for Ósk will be a hit I plan to make Úlfur a traditional Waldorf doll for his birthday. He has shown a lot of interest in this little doll I am making now and asks me every time if he can keep it.

Other than this, it's just summer vacation and loads of packing and doing moving preparations. Hope you are all having a great summer.
Crafting on and along with Frontier Dreams, which is also where I got the idea and inspiration for homemade birthday presents and a yearly birthday sweater. I think it's brilliant and so lovely :)