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 :) 

welcome, new season!

Last weekend, that is to say ten days ago, not this passing weekend, we had just gotten home from our trip to Greece and we realized that while we were on the sunny side of the continent autumn had really arrived in Iceland. So off we went for a  nature walk and an estimate of the situation. We went to a nearby cemetery filled with beautiful trees and all sorts of plants, hoping for pine cone picking but came to accept that we were already too late in the season for that. Instead we just marveled at the colors and paid a visit to Oddur's grandparent's grave. The sky was very autumn like and dark and I had a bit of trouble with the camera but I got some agreeable photos which will inspire my autumn knitting. We did decide to go meet some friends at a nearby playground afterwards, just for the sake of balance in life... cemeteries are rather morbid even when beautiful, don't you agree? 

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 :)