dontcallmebecky

Iceland: Part 3

Here's the 3rd and final recap of our trip. Check out part 1 and part 2 if you missed them.

 

Day 7: Explore the ‘capital of the north'

 

 

Our first stop of the morning was at this gorgeous waterfall, Goðafoss.

We had to walk over lots of rocks and streams to get close to the top of the waterfall and I was thankful, yet again, for hiking boots with grippy soles.

 

 

Harriet's demonstrating how easy it would be to fall into the waterfall. Steve's trying to save her from her imminent death.

 

A bathroom with a really nice view of the waterfall and scenery. I wouldn't mind having that view from our bathroom at home at all!

 

The Lopi Haul

Harriet and I went nuts in the Alafoss outlet store! We were literally running around adding balls of yarn to our baskets by the minute. All of the yarn we bought was around $2 a ball/wheel, so we bought as much yarn as we could fit into our luggage. It's a great thing yarn is so squishy!

Here's what I bought:

Wheels of Plötulopi to make a shortsleeved/vest version of this sweater for me (Lopi 120 pattern seen on this page).

 

3 balls of Álafoss Lopi to make an earflap hat for Jon.

3 balls of Létt Lopi to make mittens and/or a hat with earflaps for me.

13 balls of Létt Lopi to make a long-sleeved Riddari for Jon (he's been asking for a green sweater ever since I started knitting).

10 balls of Létt Lopi to make a Spring Morning vest for me.

 

And, finally, 3 balls of Loðband Einband laceweight and this pattern book to make the scarves or handwarmers (patterns here on ravelry).

 

Knitting Iceland just published an informative article on knitting with Lopi. Check it out here. 

Iceland: Part 2

Here's part two of my Iceland recap. If you missed part 1, check it out here. 

Day 4: Vatnajökull National Park and Glacier Lagoon

We stayed at a hotel at the bast of Skaftafell at Vatnajökull National Park and woke up to gorgeous blue skies. Our first stop of the day was the Svínafellsjökull Glacier. 

 

We took a walking tour on the glacier and were outfitted with metal crampons for better traction on the ice. (I'm always slipping whenever I try any type of hiking and I finally realized that hiking boots really do make a big difference compared to tennis shoes. I didn't have any falls on this trip and I was much more steady on my feet due to the grippy soles).

Iceland: Part 1

Jon and I spent the first ten days of September on an epic road trip around Iceland with our friends, Harriet and Steve. To say that it was an amazing trip would be an understatement! I have never seen so many varied types of gorgeous scenery in such close proximity. Visiting Iceland is like visiting all of the national parks in the USA at once. We saw glaciers, volcanoes, lagoons, canyons, fjords, mountains, craters, waterfalls, and so many other intense geological formations. We're already talking about returning to do more camping, hiking and exploring.

The first thing that most people asked us after we told them that we were going to Iceland was, "Why Iceland?" We first learned about the gorgeous scenery in Iceland from the music videos of Sigur Rós, one of our favorite bands, who hail from Iceland (along with Björk). Here's a video with a good example of the scenery. We were influenced by Helen's gorgeous photos and Tania's amazing trip reports. 

 

Earlier this year, I stumbled across a self-drive tour company and asked my friend, Harriet, if she'd be interested in coming along with us. She agreed, and then we held off for a few months before finally committing to the trip.

 

Once we booked the trip, I started frantically knitting our authentic lopi souvenir sweaters. Now you know the reason for me torturing myself by knitting bulky wool sweaters all summer long...

 

So here (after the jump) is our trip in a (not so small) nutshell...The tour company we used set us up with a rental car, booked all of our hotels for the stay, gave us a cell phone to use for emergencies and outlined a suggested itinerary for sightseeing. From what I read online, going with a self drive tour company is a bit more expensive than booking everything yourself, but the extra hassle is definitely worth the surcharge. Other than a few museums being closed for the winter and not noted in our itinerary, the tour was perfect for us.

Happy Birthday, Jon!

Thanks for keeping me laughing!

(Photo mashup by Jon's coworker, Jeff)

Jon, lover of all rodents, especially guinea pigs and capybaras. Known to some as Dr. Jon Doolittle, the animal whisperer.

 

 

 

Hula Hooping from Rebekah on Vimeo.

 

Jon, learner of new things, like Hula Hooping. (If you listen carefully you can hear me hyperventilating in the background because I am laughing so hard - partly because Um Bop is playing, and partly because of Jon)

 

P.S. I will try not to relive the cake disaster of 2005 again

August Quilt Blocks

First up is Jess' block for the Mid Mod Quilt Bee. Jess came up with this fantastic sketch and sent each of us a different color printed fabric to use. I can't wait to see how her quilt turns out.

 

 

Next are these two blocks for Erica's quilt for bee beautiful.

 

Working with these vintage feedsacks and prints was such a treat! Every new piece I added to the quilt was like unearthing a new flea market find. I definitely had to incorporate this little strip that says "Patchwork Love."

 

I'm adding one of these style quilts to my ever-growing to do list now! But, then again, I want to make one of everything that Erica creates!

my sister cracks me up

"I haven't received a speeding ticket in 3 years."

 

"Then again, it's been 2 years since my car started shaking when going over 70mph."

Margaret's Hope Chest

 

(photo from Pam @ Mama Spark)

At the end of July, I made a little road trip over to Grand Rapids to attend the Margaret's Hope Chest Summer Work Party and to meet Amanda Jean of crazymomquilts. We stayed in this gorgeous bed and breakfast in the Heritage Hill area of Grand Rapids (right across from Frank Lloyd Wright's Meyer May house • side note: I'm a huge FLW fan, as evidenced here and here).

On Saturday morning, our group met up at a local church (if only I had this much space in my own craft room to spread out!) and got to work on Amanda Jean's pattern, Fair and Square, that was specifically designed for Margaret's Hope Chest. (you can get the free pattern here).

 

Amanda showed our group the quilts that she designed and made and walked us through cutting out the fabric, working with scraps, and gave us lots of great quilting hints and tips.

 

 

 

We all got to work making our own versions of her pattern. I used some squares brought by Pam and we both made the same quilt but with different sashing. It's fun to see how different colors of sashing look in a quilt.

 

One woman at the sewing day made this fantastic top with all of her blue scraps. She just sewed all of her scraps into small blocks and used pieced blocks instead of fabric squares for her quilt. I'm definitely going to use this idea with my fabric scraps.

 

Amanda and I

 

I had a wonderful weekend meeting these fun quilters and learning more about Margaret's Hope Chest. It was so much fun to work on a collective project with so many enthusiastic quilters!

 

If you'd like more information on Margaret's Hope Chest and how you can help, be sure to check out the MHC's blog and CraftSanity's Episode No. 105 interview with the founders, Carin and Carol.