Thank God!

Yesterday was a bad day. First, he wasn't able to pick up his visa because there was some computer malfunction. (He is supposed to fly out tonight.) Then my work laptop bag velcro cruelly attacked Baby Sleeve #2. (I know of the perils of velcro, but the work laptop bag snuck up on the knitting bag, and the verdict is still out if triage can be performed or if that second sleeve is getting ripped out completely.) I picked up an old baby blanket project to finish and got to the end of the last 4 row repeat only to discover that there wouldn't be enough yarn so I had to rip out those 4 rows (which I worked on but did not finish during Rockstar Supernova). And everyone in the world was hammering on the Rockstar Supernova site last night, so I almost couldn't vote for Magni. I kept trying and managed to get a vote in. First the site wouldn't come up, then tons of Microsoft .NET errors. My current work project is in .NET, should I be worried? It actually said Microsoft did their site!

BUT just after the alarm went off, the phone rang. And he called the embassy and the visa is all set. I can finally breathe now.

Things that make me smile

* Ingi's visa interview was approved so he should be getting the actual visa tomorrow

* He picked up for me a back issue of Hugur og hönd that I was meaning to get

* I finished the second row of white dots on the second sleeve of that baby sweater

* This Vogue dress pattern, maybe I will make it after the wedding when things calm down

* I am going to Boston this weekend to pick up my shoes

Knitting for Electrical Engineers

First things first, I finished the first arm of the baby sweater:

The directions were kind of confusing but thanks to knitting list help I was able to sort it out. I've never heard of knitting part of the arm with reverse stockinette before. I guess it helps for sewing it in.

Hálfskák is giving me trouble. I can't figure out if I am done yet or not. I don't really know how much bigger it will block, and I'm afraid of it being too small. However, seeing as I am not exactly a big person, I don't want it to be too big (plus I just want to be done with the darn thing!). One of my friends said "Oh, the Yarn Harlot puts her shawls on blocking wires!" Well, I don't have anything like blocking wires, nor can you get blocking wires at 10 in the evening. So I dug through my old school things in the basement...


Aha! It's coated, the stitches won't stick to it.



So now I can look at it off the needles. I'm getting about 55 cm down the centre if I stretch it out lightly and measure it. It wants to be 75 cm. So, with the border will I be safe? Or should I keep knitting? I kind of tried it on with the wires in. It seemed like it could be OK. It also seemed like maybe it needed to be bigger. I guess I will ponder it a bit longer before deciding what to do next. I do like this wire idea, though.

I feel like this wedding shawl is like a metaphor for the visa process, it's somehow appropriate. We are so close to being done, but we don't know how long it will be. His appointment is Monday. Just like Hálfskák... can't quite tell where the end is.

Old FO to show off

I figured I would make sure to post a picture of that finished lopapeysa that I completed earlier this summer:


We are in front of one the Skógar Folk Museum turf houses. (This is a very cool place to check out, for anyone who is thinking of going to Iceland. Lots of textiles at the museum as well as these cool old houses to walk around in. And Þingborg is on the way.)

I was going to do a longer blog with pictures of current projects, but I have some deadlines and I am sleepy.

I really love this lopapeysa. The zipper ones are great because you can just bring them with you and throw them on if it gets cold. It seemed so impossibly small when I knit it, but I really like how it fits after all. It was the free pattern here. (If anyone wants an English translation I wrote one up to email someone who asked after it, let me know.) You know that you see this exact same sweater pattern being worn all over Iceland but I think there is a reason, it's nice and simple and like I said it's so convenient.

Sparking Creativity

Somehow all that time off from knitting has made me full of project ideas. I have to finish off Hálfskák... I am actually done with the number of stitches you are supposed to increase but it just seems so small, so I am keeping going a bit longer. And the baby gift sweater. But I have 3 knitting design ideas and some felt project ideas...more to come on that when I can actually work on these things.

Here is the wool I got at Þingborg:


I intend to try and knit from the combed wool. I have a pattern in a book for a winter hat that uses this which I've been wanting to try. I may be crazy to try this but we shall see.

And I picked up my first week of farm shares from a local CSA:


I got:
beets, tomatoes, lettuce, arugula, squash, cucumbers, peppers, garlic, onions, fennel, baby bok choi (blaðkál)

So now what do I do with all this?
The farm gave me a recipe for pickled beets, which I have never made myself and so I shall try.
I found a few nice sounding recipes online:
Klettasalat með sveppum og geitarosti (Arugula with mushrooms and goat cheese)
Arugula with pasta and sundried tomatoes
Asian 5 spice vegetable eggnooddles (this one uses that fennel)

Can I use arugula in a recipe that calls for lamb salad, because there is a nice one in the latest Gestgjafinn? I am not that familiar with arugula.

Gestgjafinn also has some nice recipes, one for a quiche that uses those tomatoes (with olives and feta) and one for some pasta with assorted vegetables which will use some of that fennel. I don't know what to do with the fennel leaves. Can I put them in a glass in the fridge until I want to use them?

Oh, and the cheat for the hidden shawl is here

Back again...

Sorry for the radio silence, Ingi minn told me he read somewhere you shouldn't post about travelling plans on your blog so then I was being paranoid.

For anyone who still can't find the shawl, I will do an answer key for that later on today.

So in case anyone was wondering where I've been, it was once again to Reykjavík. We had his cousin's wedding to attend the day I got in, so we trudged off to the mall to find a gift (bad idea to take a 10 year old who has barely slept to a store full of crystal, but we survived), and managed with a pretty candlestick and candle (we wanted to give them a duvet cover, but the really nice inexpensive ones came in American duvet sizes, but of course not in my Enormous American Duvet's size because that would be too convenient.) Then we went to the wedding, which was really nice and the food was great but there were 4 hours between the appetizer and the main course! The poor kids were ready to melt down!

We did lots of little trips, typical kid trips like to waterfalls and the museum at Skógar, and swimming in a natural hot spring in the mountains, and just lots of swimming in general. And the kids are now sucked into Rockstar Supernova since they watched it with their aunt. (They looked for the Á móti sól CD at the airport but couldn't find it, since Afi gave them each 5000 krónur before we left.) I did make it to the Þingborg wool shop that everyone's been talking about. Sadly, I didn't have much time to poke around (we were running late and wanted to get the kids to the museum before they closed), but the shop was very cool. She has some really beautiful buttons, and assorted books and gifts, and some lovely natural wool (which if I knew what I was doing spinning-wise I would have bought some). The shopkeeper Arnþrúður is a very sweet lady. Note to any visitors: the door is VERY hard to open. I got there just before a group of women. I tried the door, it wouldn't open. One of the other women tried the door and the same thing happened. We all looked at the sign. The hours on the door said something about it being open Thursday (and maybe other days as well but as it was Thursday it doesn't really matter). "Er það fimmtudagur í dag?" asked one of the women, confused. "Já..." I said. Finally, one of the other women tried to pull the door VERY hard and we got in. Then when all I had was either a 5000 krónur bill or not quite enough loose change for my purchase, I tried to go back out to ask Ingi if he had any change and could NOT open the door to get out. Finally he came in after me and she told me not to worry about the extra change anyway. (I bought some of the combed wool, which I will post pictures of later.)

I barely slept Friday night and then we came back last night and after going through the delayed security (I suppose everyone is on top of the news) and a late flight and having to wait for the Logan Express bus after getting in (with the tunnel for the Mass Pike collapsed it seemed convenient but waiting almost an hour for a bus after one's flight I'm starting to think it wasn't... but it WAS much cheaper than parking at the airport), it was midnight here before I went to bed (feels like 4 AM). And then the cat told me (by meowing really loudly and chewing on my hair) that it was far past time to wake up, especially seeing as far as my body was concerned it was already 10, so my plans of sleeping in and catching up on sleep were foiled. (Plus, I was hungry and I kept thinking of cleaning I have to do and craft projects I wanted to try.... lying in bed I came up with a really fun Christmas gift idea.)

Amazing Lace Challenge#5: Where's Waldo

Find Hálfskák in the following picture:


Other things to find:

• My dog


• Dancing William Shatner


• Shrimp cheese