A lion and a cat

Sylvía and Théa are working hard on a lion and a cat project. They are both from the book Á prjónunum after Unnur Breiðfjörð. It was thought as educationnal material, since knitting is taught in school in Iceland. It is intelligently done with a progressive approach and fun-to-do projects for every level, gathered here and there by Unnur. The cat and the lion are projects from the very first course, simply made from a square in garter stitch.

I´ve always imagined this book would make a perfect gift for who want to learn how to knit AND to learn Icelandic. I´ve already offered it to a couple of French friends, one married to an Icelandic man, the other working at the French embassy in Iceland.

Knitted house

It´s high summer here, but look what I found in the TV magasine: I´m not sure whether it´s an advertisement for insulation or home insurance (yes, my German is that bad...) but the knitted house on display sure does look nice!

It reminds me of the houses displayed in a book I recently bought, The Knitted Farmyard by Jan Messent (editor) and Hannelore Wernhard. Originally published in German back in the 1980s, it figures a knitted rug, forming the base of a beautifully detailed village containing knitted houses, people, animals and various flora and fauna, all patterns made popular by the work of Jan Messent. She´s been doing much more of this stuff, including a knitted fantasy story and a Christmas story. See all of her books here. The girls and I have a LOT of inspired projects for next winter...

Papa Mouche

Maman Mouche found a husband! Apparently there was a big wedding but I was not invited...
Papa Mouche, just like Maman Mouche, is crocheted with Álafoss Lopi from Ístex, main wool producer in Iceland. The cap is knitted on small needles and sewn on the head. The body is stuffed with wool and yarn leftovers: a good way to get rid of those!

Skúli crochets

Skúli doesn´t know I took a picture of him playing with a piece of string. He doesn´t know either that he CROCHETED it with chain stitches!

Knit with Thea (2)

Thea has been knitting a cache-nez for her friend Salomé´s mother. A cache-nez is a scarf in French but litteraly it says "hide-nose" which led to Thea´s confusion and to a big laugh!

La Mouche´s birthday

We celebrated La Mouche´s fourth birthday the other day. From all the soft toys the girls were given. it was La Mouche that stood up. We never knew exactely what it was but, although it certainly looks like a bee, it was baptised La Mouche (The Fly). It got a knitted sweater to match a stripped knitted dress as a birthday present.
But what it really needed was a sister...

Knit with Thea (1)

What is Thea (5 and a half years old) knitting?

The palace of illusions

A living sculpture, The Gold, is crocheting threads of knowledge out of its head. One should keep an eye on Icelandic artist Eirun Sigurðadóttir.

I Knit... do you?

Craig and Gerard, the owners of the terrific I Knit London yarn shop (the only of the kind that also has a bar licence!) invited me to present and sign my knitting book, Rósaleppaprjón í nýju ljósi, at the I knit Day 2008. The english version is called Icelandic knitting using Rose Patterns and will be released by Search Press at the end of the summer. Here´s what the new cover looks like:

Belgrade Cultural Front

I was invited to present my work in the Nordic summer / Art and music from the top of Europe project, organised by Cultural Front, in Belgrade. The project is a combination of various forms of art and cultural activity. It consists of a series of events such as few exhibitions, concerts, workshops with students and visitors, lectures, DJ sets, etc. The program will take place in several locations in Belgrade in period May / June and November / December 2008. I will be going in November. I´ll keep you updated.

Green

We were having dinner at some friends when Hulda´s mother dropped by with this fuzy green crocheted scarf. She had seen it in a magasine and did something alike.

Take a breath!

Back to Luxembourg, I took a big breath at Mudam Art Museum with Géraldine Goddat. She sells knitted accessories under the brand Sharmila and published a book: Crochet: Créations pour toute l´année, but I haven´t seen it. Yet.

Still in Iceland

Still in Iceland, I took a serie of pictures at Jóhanna´s place. She´s the sweetest old woman ever and a fantastic knitter. Look at the gorgeous chair ahold knitted on fine needles! She has also almost lost her sight and sometimes uses a magnifying glass, discretely hidden under a crocheted cap.
More about her in this book project of mine I already mentionned...

Pictures from my exhibition

Here are a few pictures from the exhibition at Art and Crafts. You can also have a look at the catalogue.

Exhibition

Back to town, I had the opening of my exhibition at Art and crafts. I borrowed furnitures from the antic shop at the corner, Fríða frænka, to display my work. Pictures from the exhibition follow...

Jeep mishap...

On our way to Mount Hekla for another skying trip, we had a jeep mishap (...), so I used the opportunity to sew some labels on some narrow scarves with roses and on the Hammer rose cardigan, all of them from my book, Icelandic Color Knitting. And I´m still wearing my Icelandic sweater, also from my book, of course.

Unfortunately, I can´t upload images on this post for some unknown reasons...

Back to sea level

Back to sea level late in the evening ! I picked up my needles the next morning on the camping site.

The boys playground

This is the boys playground, on the largest glacier in Europe and I got to play with, wearing my narrow scarf with roses and Nordic style mittens knitted by Jóhann, a knitting fisherman featured in my next knitting book project (project to follow....). We went up then down Svínafellsjökull and it took about 10 hours. More pictures on Gauti´s site.