Meta

Randomly NRK showed the film Stranger Than Fiction this evening, and KE and I enjoyed it a ton. Last month I wrote a bit about the "meta" genre of film and television, and this one definitely goes on the list.

This type of work is even more fun in literature (if you ask me), and as part of it I'm really getting into the topic of literary self-representation (litterær selvfremstilling in Norwegian). It was fun for me that the film intersected with the novel genre, and lovely to see a portrayal of a professor that was sympathetic for once.

All in all a decent reason to stay up later than my bedtime!

Fånyttes

"Fånyttes" is my current favorite word in Norwegian. It means more or less "useless" or "pointless." I used it spontaneously in my lecture on Holberg yesterday and was quite pleased with myself. Not that Holberg himself is pointless! I've actually realized that there's quite a lot of interesting questions that one might pose about Holberg's work, and I may actually try to write something on him at some point.

To celebrate my current favorite word, I started a non-wearable knitting project--something I otherwise avoid since such things are, well, kinda pointless. With Easter coming up, I couldn't resist knitting and felting some eggs:


I'm totally enamored with them. The pattern is from the Curlypurly website. The pattern is for double-pointed needles, but I didn't have any big enough, so I rewrote the pattern for 2 circular needles (or magic loop). I bought four different colors of this yarn (Sandnesgarn Fritidsgarn, which is a bulky weight), so with any luck we'll have a big bowlful.

(By the way, the green bowl was one of my Grannie's wedding presents from the mid 1930s. I have 5 ceramic or glass tchotchies from her wedding that I've carried with me everywhere, including Norway now. Not the most practical memorabilia. Fånyttes, in fact, but I love them all so much that I just can't with them.)

I knit 5 eggs and used the rest of the skein to stuff. That turned out to be a little skimpy, so on the other colors I'll knit only 4 eggs each. To felt I just washed them in the washing machine on 40 degrees together with some clothing.

I've also been plugging away at KE's Islender sweater, and the birthday stole. I just discovered that for some reason I cast on 24 stitches too few on the stole. It has only 7 repeats instead of 8. Very strange. I hope it's not too narrow to be wearable. Here it is, closing in on the end of the 4th ball of yarn, with two more to go:

It is so lovely to knit!

I came down with an absolutely miserable cold last night, and woke up with no voice and no brain this morning. Too bad. I miss them both. E is still sick too, and hasn't been to preschool in a week. Poor KE. I think we're driving him crazy!

Hurra!

Guro very sweetly gave me a creative blogger award right after my "nedtur." What a good way to improve my mood! Here 'tis, my first ever:


I now get to nominate eight other blogs that I have found inspiring. Kind of like a chain letter, but much less annoying, since this is a way of turning other people on to blogs by people who share similar interests. I am not actually all that widely read in the blogosphere and tend mostly to go back to the same people's blogs repeatedly. One of the things I like most is the day to day updates and personal reflection on these blogs. It's less about learning specific new tips as gaining perspective and thinking about things in new ways. So without further ado, here is my list of eight blogs I love to read, and why (in no particular order):

1. Med pinner - a Norwegian crafting blog that reflects over the aesthetics of the every day and the minutia of the craft. Entries are usually short, insightful and reflective, and nearly always illustrated with just the right image. Ann is the kind of person who can write intelligently about anything, and who sees the world in an interesting way.
2. The Sabo-Hambrick family - not a crafting blog at all, but very creative nonetheless. It contains wonderful reflections about parenting from two very smart and loving first time parents, as well as interesting intellectual and social commentary. They are bi-cultural family trying to negotiate between the US and Norway and forge its own path in the world, so I find a lot of solace and insight in what they write.
3. Knititch - a Danish crafting blog that seamlessly blends handicraft and the ebbs and flows of everyday life, especially during times of transition. Merete is a purist when it comes to knitting, and I found her on Ravelry through her exquisite renditions of Alice Starmore and Brooklyn Tweed patterns. But don't get me wrong, she is the farthest thing from a snobby knitter - her social engagement and love of family shine through in her blog!
4. Trenchwork - yet another American academic in Norway who is obsessed with fiber arts. What's not to love? Here you'll find lovely photographs of amazing handspun yarn, along with atmospheric snapshots of life in Trøndelag and long, satisfyingly reflective entries.
5. Spudsayshi - an American expat academic knitter, this time in Canada. Quirky and fun, with great knitting and snappy insights into popular culture.
6. Hildes hekle-strikkeri-hurra! - a very diverse Norwegian crafting blog that is richly illustrated and full of ideas, and bursting with enthusiasm and curiosity.
   
7. Pinner, garn og barn - here is another blog that merges the various aspects of life and reveals the depth in supposedly mundane and domestic things. Jill is also a Norwegian academic, and she has a great work blog about digital communication called Jill/txt. I love the combination of both blogs in tandem!
8. Archival clothing - Lesli runs an incredibly rich blog on what she terms "archival clothing" - clothing that reflects and reproduces an aesthetic and level of quality from a bygone era. She combs through massive amounts of information (catalogues, stores, film stills, etc.) to document and analyze the components that make up this aesthetic.
   

The rules are as follows for the nominees:
1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 8 other bloggers.
4. Link to those on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated.

By the way, even though I'm not a "foody" I whipped up an incredibly good lunch on Wednesday, the day I stayed home to read. I made pyttipanna (not sure what that is in English - you often find it a good breakfast restaurants in the US as a "skillet"): two leftover boiled potatoes, half an onion, some ham and some feta, all cubed and sautéed in butter. I think it was the best thing I've eaten in about half a year. My day at home was interrupted though - KE was filling in for someone at E's preschool, but got really sick to his stomach and had to come home. I filled in for him for the rest of the afternoon. It was a lovely day with tons of sun and the kids were outside the whole afternoon. It was great to get to know E's playmates and routines better. I want to be as active as I can in his preschool, so I'm glad the opportunity arose, though it was awful to see KE feeling so sick! Thankfully he's much better now, but today E is staying home with a cold and I have to stay late at work for a meeting, so who knows what the state of things will be by this evening!

Nedtur

It had to happen. Today was a hard day workwise, as I was overwhelmed with just how much about Nordic literature (and literary scholarship in general) I don't know, but should. Usually I get along pretty well, faking and fudging, and occasionally actually knowing something, but today it hit me how tenuous my grasp of my academic discipline really is.

I'm sure this feeling of inadequacy relates to a couple of things:

1. KE and I had kind of a collective melt down over the weekend. We're both just so tired all the time, and so overwhelmed by all the practical tasks we still have hanging over us. We had a really good talk and tried to work out some strategies for surviving, getting things done, and trying to come even close to meeting E's endless need for attention. After that talk I think I went a little manic, and spent Monday cranking through a long list of things to do. Naturally, after a manic high, a depressive low was bound to result.
2. I'm starting a massive new project -- a book that ranges over 200 years of literary history and culture -- and a lot of what I want to write about is unknown territory for me. I have to learn the entire bodies of scholarship on a bunch of different writers, some of whom (like Hamsun and Ibsen) have produced grotesque amounts of secondary literature. The project is still totally amorphous and vague at this point, and I'm reading tons of new material that is taking me in all sorts of uncontrolled directions. Unfortunately, this week at least, the stuff I'm reading is taking me away from the proposed book and onto entirely different topics, which kind of scares me.
   

So, with all that it's no surprise that I found myself feeling like a total idiot today. My solution was twofold: to buy a good handbook to one of the topics I feel I'm not strong enough in (narrative theory) and start reading it really thoroughly (I feel stupid for needing it, but better for at least taking the effort to learn or in some cases relearn the theoretical material) and then go to "strikkekafé" in Oslo (a very nice evening indeed).

I picked up some more Rauma 3-tråd yarn for KE's islender sweater on the way to the knitting group, so I started on the first sleeve for that while I was there. The kidsilk haze birthday shawl has become too big to take along to a restaurant!

Festlig

I can't resist posting a WIP photo of the gift shawl I'm making. I love it so much, and I think its intended recipient will too:

And I'm having so much fun plowing through all the Hamsun-scholarship. There is so much that is interesting that has been written about his texts. I've started trying to write my paper twice now, both versions going in very different directions. I'm just trying to bang it all out uncritically so that I have something to work with once I've properly digested all the secondary sources and re-read the primary texts. Gee, it's been a long time since I started off on such a big new project like this. It is exhilarating and challenging and puzzling. Who knows where all this will take me. I'm already really suprised by the ideas I've had in the last two days, since it is a completely different direction than what I had originally planned to write about. I think right now I actually have 3 different Hamsun papers brewing--one on two specific novels that will make up half a chapter in the cabin book, one that's about the author-narrator problem in general in Hamsun's writing (that's today), and one on the problem of place in a particular novel. Argh! There are so many ideas spinning around I don't know where to start!!

"Overgangslivet"

Yet again KE amuses me with one of his words. Last night we were talking over plans for remodeling the house, and it kind of stressed us both out. I don't remember exactly how it came up, but one of us mentioned that we're in a time of transition. KE quickly corrected that to "overgangslivet" -- a life of transition. He was playing on our age (I'm probably perimenopausal), our move, and our general difficulties in adjusting to the demands of adult life.

Meanwhile, I'm off on the Reversible Rib shawl that I'm knitting for my dear friend's 50th birthday. Can't say too much about it, other than that I'm using Rowan Kidsilk Haze for the first time. That yarn well deserves its Ravelry nickname, Cracksilk Haze. It is so incredibly soothing and luxurious to work with. I am not a mohair type of gal by any stretch of the imagination, and yet I find myself trying to imagine mohair projects I could possibly conceive of wearing so that I can use more of this yarn. Very unlike me. I usually shun all hype, but in this case the yarn totally deserves its reputation.

My plan is to knit a ball a week, which will have me finished with the shawl two weeks before the conference in the US that we're going to room together at. I've got 4 sweaters for the NaKniSweMoDo under my belt, and the next is just finishing KE's islender sweater (just needs the top few inches of the body and the arms, plus finishing work), so doing the shawl shouldn't put me off schedule too much. I discovered that knitting it with bamboo needles works much better than with metallic circular, and that it was a good idea to go down a needle size.

I like the fabric the smaller needles and the fluffier yarn creates much better than my first attempt at this shawl, which was with Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud (also laceweight, but much less fluffy). I ended up frogging that when I saw how beautiful the knitting was with the Kidsilk Haze. It will bother me to no end to have those three balls of Alpaca Cloud sitting around. I was even thinking of knitting a Baktus scarf on the tiniest needles I could find. I think the yarn would look nice in garter stitch. I am just so not a stash person. Unused yarn makes me feel guilty.

"Middelalderbunad"?

Tonight I finished the Drops jacket in recycled Jamieson shetland yarn that I started back in December. I had to order three additional balls of the yarn to complete it, which is why it went on hiatus for so long. I'm really pleased with the length and the gentle short row shaping, and I even accept the way the collar points in the back. I think the yarn is divine, and I found good mother-of-pearl buttons to go with it.

The only real problem with the pattern is the arms. For some reason I can't quite understand, only 6 inches are in garter stitch (the cuff) and then the rest is in reverse stockinette. I always think reverse stockinette looks wrong. They are also very tight, which is a real bummer, since I'm very self-conscious about my arms.

KE glanced at it briefly when it was mostly assembled and asked if it was a "medieval folk costume or something"...!

[picture in the morning once it's light enough to photograph] Well screw that! The jacket makes me look incredibly dumpy!!! If you really, really want to see it you're going to have to log on to Ravelry and look at my project page there. It's one thing to post it as a craft project on a closed craft network, quite another to just throw it out there to the world...

I'm really excited about the process of doing more yarn recycling in the future. There's a Ravelry group dedicated to salvaging sweaters and they have lots of tips. I haven't had much time to look at what's available in the used clothing stores here (mostly UFF, I presume), but I hope to do so. I have bought a couple of perfectly decent hand-knitted sweaters there before, but never really worn them because they were never quite right. I don't know why it never occured to me to frog and then reknit them!

We went on a really short little skiing expedition this morning to a short little track nearby. E has really started improving. He has surprisingly good balance, and got lots of practice going downhill today. He's mastered fiskebein (what is that called in English? Herringbone?) on the uphill, and loves to jump in place. He still flails wildly with his poles, and still cries and says "ouch" before hitting the ground when he falls, but all in all he's making really good progress. It's great for me to have these outings at a 4-year-old's pace, so that I can take the time to relearn what little skill I had from the last time I went skiing (15 years ago...).

Stygge kjoler

Found this website with ugly bridesmaid dresses while browsing on Ravelry. Unreal... Reminds me again of why I'm glad to be an expat! American culture at its most piquant.

ETA: I keep meaning to post what KE said to me the other day. I thought it was a pretty interesting description:

"Du er lett å gjøre til lags, men vanskelig å tilfredsstille."

Not entirely positive, but probably very accurate. What I think he means is that I'm very easily satisfied with things--not a drama queen, not demanding of attention and luxury, okay with most food, most lodging, most situations in general--but that I have unusually high expectations in other areas--intellectual rigor, emotional availability, ethical behavior, accuracy, etc.

Radikal broderi

I love, love, love this embroidery website! I have a whole bunch of old embroidery floss, but have never really gotten into 'straight' embroidery, and thus it languishes. Hmmm... maybe radical embroidery is in my future?

Timeglass

Here's the Hourglass sweater, version two:

I'm pretty pleased with it, though less happy about that double chin. Ah, middle age...

Modifications: rolled neck instead of boatneck. Shorter sleeves. Size medium.