Hi there, how are you today? Fine I hope. I’m doing ok. I was going to post more last week but somehow time just disappeared into thin air! Hopefully I’ll have a little bit more time this week to do everything I need and want to do.

So like you know, I went home to Iceland for New Years. It had been a long time since I last went to Iceland so it was more than time to return. I spent a week just relaxing and meeting up with family and friends. We didn’t do anything special, no excursions or things like that. I know I probably should organise my visits better and do some sightseeing as my kids have yet to see a lot of Iceland but somehow, when I return, I just want to spend time with my family and friends. I don’t feel like doing the tourist thing so inevitably I end up just staying up late, sleeping in, visiting family and friends and eating a lot of delicious food and cakes and sweets.

This time the weather was quite nice and we did get some snow which was nice. My kids love snow, especially during Christmas and New Years. And even though I’m not much of a snow fan; I do admit that white ground really makes all the difference during the holidays.

Here are some pictures taken around where my parents live. Seeing the mountains while being “in the city” is just so nice. Don’t these pictures just scream zen? I really love the view and the landscape and the snow and the bright blue skies.

Now one of the highlights of our visit was of course New Years Eve which is celebrated with the family in Iceland. Every year Icelanders spend a huge amount of money on fireworks and the show is amazing each time as everyone lights up the sky and I thought I’d share with you a short video I took this last New Years for you to see. You have to turn the volume on to fully “get the picture” 🙂

And now on to knitting. I finished a pair of socks, a pair that I began on Dec 31st as part of my #KnitFromStash2016 KAL. I really like how they turned out. I did find that the pattern sized small so in stead of having a pair of socks for myself they ended up being for my daughter. I think maybe it was because of the stitch pattern which was a sort of twisted stitch ribbing or maybe it was because I didn’t do a swatch! Either way, I just amended the pattern when I saw that the leg was not going to be big enough for myself and I didn’t want to rip back and start over. The yarn I used was Lornas Laces Shepherd Sock

My progress on the Love of Spiders shawl is going slowly but surely

Like I said last time, I was not going to cast on any new projects until I had actually finished my numerous wips but…..I’m not a very serious knitter and easily get distracted. Which means that of course I was unable to avoid casting on. So what happened is that I cast on 2 socks AND I decided to join a sock MKAL beginning this Friday, January 15th.

The MKAL can be found here. This will be a color work sock so I dyed my own yarn. I decided not to use the colours suggested by the designer but made up my own palette.

 There will also be some  white, undyed yarn. I’m looking forward to this sock kal, it’s the first time I join a mystery sock kal. Are you by any chance joining too?

And then there is the sock I’m knitting for my oldest. She came into my room a few days ago and picked up one of my hand dyed skeins and commented on how much she liked the color. So of course I had to cast on for a pair of socks for her! I’m using 2 colours, one for cuff, heel and toes and another for the main part of the sock. The contrast color I call Midnight because it is a sort of blue/black and sparkly color and the main color is one I dyed before Christmas and called ” Another Kind of  Christmas”.

I really like how this is working up. I look forward to having the pair all done.

Now for the second sock I cast on, here’s a sneak peak but I’ll tell you more about that next time.

Until next time, take care and enjoy your crafting:)