På skrå

Must. Make. This. Skirt:

The image is shamelessly copied from the (free) Knitty site for the Lanesplitter skirt pattern. I've been thinking for quite some time that I'd like to knit a skirt, but nothing has appealed quite as much as this one. It's so ugly that it's cool. Plus it's on the bias, which I totally love, and it's knitted with variegated aran weight yarn (though conceivably one could knit it in two much more subtle colors too). All the ones I've seen on Ravelry look really great. I think I could pull it off with tights and boots, even though I'm only days before my 43rd birthday, don't you?

It would take 5 or 6 skeins of Noro Kureyon (here's a link to the available colors on Webs--the pattern calls for 256, but I'd probably choose something else, like 215 or 254), and like I say that's aran weight (think rope) and the piece is just a rectangle with a knitted on waistband, so it would take me something like a weekend to knit, I'm guessing.

I think they carry it at Tjorven. It may be hard for me to resist this project...

Skolestart

The first week of school is always crazy, and this one was no exception. KE was in full swing with his pedagogy program, E was home sick three out of five days, and I had to scramble to find an open English course to enroll in. There wasn't much to choose from, but I'm actually thrilled with the one I ended up with. It's a civilization rather than a literature course, and nearly all the readings relate directly to my own work. My own teaching went really well, despite feeling frazzled and unprepared. My schedule is such that I go straight from the class I'm taking to the class I'm teaching with only a fifteen minute break in between. I have a big group of students and quite a few appeared enthusiastic and engaged on the first day. I think it's going to be a really stimulating term.

I just found out about a visiting associate professor position in another department on campus that I'm going to apply for. I'm pretty sure I won't get it, but I think it's a good exercise to apply and to make more people aware of who I am and what my qualifications are. The application is due this coming Wednesday, so there's not a lot of time to pull it together. That's actually probably a good thing, so that I don't waste a lot of time agonizing and obsessing over it.

Unfortunately I also had a bit of a run in with one of the Ph.D. students in our program. I had asked the person to give me some feedback on something I had written, and I was confronted with what I perceived as a surprisingly arrogant attitude--the basic assumption that I as a foreigner can't possibly know anything about Norwegian cultural history or academic publishing. I was incensed, and it really underscores how wonderfully the permanent faculty in my program have treated me over the past year and a half. I have never perceived even the slightest indication that they did not consider me an intellectual and professional peer. I lost my temper and I shouldn't have. I take that as a sign of my own insecurity about my professional status, given my temporary position and the hiring freeze that my department is under. (I know that in Norway people working on their Ph.D.s are technically considered university employees rather than students. I'm apparently feeling the need to distinguish myself as a postdoctoral research fellow even further from this poor person!)

In addition to my crazy day of writing on Monday, I also did the proofing for a book review, finished the first round of revisions of an essay, wrote a draft of my application letter, and finished off an article (with the help of the feedback from that provoking Ph.D. student) and sent it off to Scandinavian Studies this week. All in all not bad for a week where I felt I could barely get any work done with E at home most days. I think that dust up with the Ph.D. student and the awareness of how vulnerable I feel really motivated me to focus on getting things published. At this point, I know that the only thing I can do to influence my future is to publish as much as humanly possible.

I also got a sample of the cover of my Cora Sandel book and I really love it. The designer used the picture of Tromsø from 1890 that I found in the Library of Congress archives. It really dominates the cover, so I'm guessing he loved the picture as much as I do.  The proofs for the whole book will be coming soon, I hope. It turns out that it's actually to my advantage that it has taken this book so long to come out, since the "publikasjonspoeng" (the Norwegian bean-counting system for scholarly productivity) will count for me now, even though I finished writing the book almost four years ago. So this year alone, with two articles in tier 2 journals, one tier 1 journal article, and one book, I'll have twelve publication points in a program where the average is just under two points per year. Last year I only had two myself. The fact that I have five articles or essays out "in the pipeline" right now bodes well for 2011 too.

Gah! I am obsessing over all this. The fact that I'm currently revising my CV for the job application makes me even more neurotic about my publication record.

Produksjon

Phew! For some unknown reason, I was able to crank out text for a new article book chapter (I need to start forcing myself to think of it like that) like nobody's business today. I chose to work from home, and promised myself that I wouldn't do any household tasks at all, but treat my just under five hours of having the house to myself as though I were in my office. It totally worked. I wrote eight pages in just under five hours, and then in about 45 minutes after dinner I spewed out two and a half pages more, in addition to the four pages I had from last week. It's still a very rough draft, but having fifteen pages to work with instead of four makes such a difference. I'm thinking the final product will be somewhere between 30 and 40 pages.

More importantly, I have a much clearer idea of what it is I'm trying to say and how to say it. Initially I set out to discuss four early "national dramas" by writers other than Ibsen. They all utilize variations on the same set of motifs, and were exceedingly influential in their day, but totally forgotten now. Then I had the vague notion of relating these obscure works to the more canonical foundational national texts. While walking to school to pick up E it suddenly dawned on me that the single most iconic national text in Norway, Peer Gynt, shares all of the major tropes that I am analyzing in these four plays. It became clear that I needed to clear away everything else and make this an analysis of the relationship between these older plays and Peer Gynt, and that I actually have a whole bunch of really exciting things to say about them all. I have one particularly good idea that is so cool I have to keep to myself, even on an infinitely obscure (but still public) blog like mine. I am so excited I'm practically vibrating.

Maybe my brain was cleared by our "traditional" family walk (and by the fact that KE and I are starting to clear the air and settle into new routines--oh and that we are having beautiful early fall weather). We headed out to our favorite secret spot in the woods mid morning on Sunday, at my initiative no less. E complained bitterly the entire way there and back, which was a real drag, but we just have to hope that eventually he will work things out and start to enjoy activities like that. I was regretting the whole endeavor, thinking that it would have been much easier to just avoid the whole complaining thing, but really, who am I to let this whiny little kid (whom I adore, of course, but sheesh, give me a break!) keep me from getting out into the woods?!

I have to admit that I was motivated primarily by the lure of blueberries. I had visions of groaning bushes laden with dusky berries, but alas they were few and far between. Only toward the end of E and KE's patience did I happen upon a densely packed patch. But even so, we came up with 2 1/2 cups of blueberries, which was enough to make some more jam. Here's the jam in use, on a waffle produced by KE in celebration of the jam:

Unfortunately, I used too much sugar (though it was still less than the recipe called for), and I find the jam too sweet to really nosh on it. I can only take a little bit at a time, though the blueberry taste is ever so delicious. I'm starting to really like making these miniature batches of jam, and I actually think it's one of the few cooking things that I have a natural talent for. I'm terrible at meals, but good at baking and apparently good at jams and jellies. I guess they call for different skills and temperaments.

In knitting news, I finished the second sleeve on the Fanakofte over the weekend. Here's a snap of them nestled together, unblocked, and with one hem still unsewn:

I'm really happy with how they are knitting up, especially since I'm using two totally different yarns (merino and shetland). I made a mistake on the checkerboard pattern. This version of the pattern calls for four by four squares rather than the usual three by three. These are three by three, but on the body I'm going to go with the four by four. I doubt anyone will ever notice the difference.

I had trouble starting the body, though, as a result of not reading the instructions! I started in the round right away, rather than knitting the hem part back and forth before casting on five extra stitches (for the steek) and then joining in the round. D'oh. I had to rip it all out, and am now finally back up to the beginning of the checkerboard. I just tell myself that I knit because I enjoy the process, so it doesn't matter if I have to do things over (and over) again...

ETA: I forgot to mention that we did watch Gatas Gynt the other night and really enjoyed it. It's an interesting blend of performance and documentary about the actors, who are homeless people struggling with substance abuse. I'm definitely going to use it in my class this term!

Løp og kjøp

I rarely go shopping, but today I finally had to do something about the long list of things that would really make our lives easier this fall. After dropping E off at school I headed into Oslo and spent about three hours doing some errands and shopping. Here's the haul:

1. Two wall-mount baskets for hats and gloves in our hall, 2. a new pair of slippers for E to use at school, 3. a red fish lunch box for E, and 4. a smaller yellow lunch box for me (both made by www.blafre.com), plus 5. a copy of the film Gatas Gynt, which is something I'd like to write about, and tucked up in the basket is E's surviving-the-first-week-of-school present, 6. some more lego roads to build on. I also bought 7. some rubber sheets, since E's response to the first week of school has been to start bed-wetting again (it's his primary response to stress, apparently), and I ordered 8. some print copies of a bunch of snapshots of E to send to my Grannie and Mom. It was exhausting, but worth the effort. The hand made slippers and baskets, for example, were from the handicraft store Heimen. I just happened to walk by and noticed they were having a remodeling sale, and I found the baskets for 50% off (after having looked in dozens of stores in the US, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway over the past few months) and the slippers for 40% off. Yay!

Fana-fanatiker

After pondering what to do next yesterday afternoon, I made a snap decision to make this classic Norwegian cardigan, albeit with some modifications. Here's what I did after E went to bed:

.

Pattern: Sandnes Garn "Fanakofte smal modell" from Til fjells tema 15 klassikere

Yarn: the white is KnitPicks merino blank, which I'm harvesting from a project that didn't pan out; the blue is shetland yarn harvested from one of the thrift store sweaters I bought in the states back in June

Needles: 2.5mm and 3.0mm

Modifications: on the spur of the moment I decided to do a pique edge rather than just a row of purling for the hem fold. I'm also going to change the star (actually, åttebladsroser) pattern. I don't know why, but I think it just looks wrong as shown in this version of the pattern, which has the lighter color as the background to the stars:

We'll call this version A, and it looks like a negative to me, perhaps because when I first encountered (and fell in love with) this pattern way back in 1983 as an exchange student to Norway, the versions I saw all had the darker color as the background, like this (version B), which is from the same Sandnes pattern booklet:

To my eye there is just no question that this is the "right" way to make this pattern (also check out the very cute applique woven bands--if I can get something that coordinates with my blue color I'm all over that). Here's a Flickr set for "fanakofte" that shows that the vast majority choose version B, so I feel vindicated.

The pattern itself, Fana, is a 1940s adaptation of elements of some traditional sweaters from western Norway. It's usually knitted in heavier (DK weight) yarn, which makes for a really slouchy, thick, and warm cardigan, which is why I've never completed one of these for myself (started at least twice in 1983 and in 2004, I think). I was thrilled to see that this booklet had a version of the pattern designed for fingering weight. I'm much more likely to wear it if it's in fingering weight, though I have to admit I'm still on my anti-cardigan kick. Maybe it's because my body has changed so much in the last few years, but I just don't see the point of keeping everything else but your chest warm. I also despise making buttonhole bands. I love most aspects of sweater construction, but most styles of buttonhole bands make me insane. These seem better than most though, so I am actually going to go ahead and make this as a cardigan and just hope that I'll wear it.

Opprydding

Finally some FOs! Nothing exciting, really, but it is nice to have projects that are totally completed, with no ends to darn or seams to sew. I had a small goal of finishing up these two sweaters for E before school starts for him, which happens in two days!  First up is something I've posted before, the striped sweater from reclaimed yarn:

There were a surprising number of ends to darn, but even so it just took me a few minutes to finish. Why I waited so long I'll never know. I gave it a really thorough washing and soaking, and it feels so much softer than before, even though I had washed the sweaters when I first bought them.

Then there's the "hippy" sweater out of the variegated Gotland yarn. I hadn't bargained for the incredible bias that knitting with two singles together would create. The sweater is basically diagonal, and it was impossible to block so that the raglan and sleeve seams lined up. I hope it's wearable!!

I had to knit both arms and the neck twice due to bad planning. I started out wanting to make a turtleneck, but I think the yarn is too scratchy for that, so I went with a crew neck instead. I started out making both the neck and the arms too narrow. Unbelievably, I still have a whole bunch of the yarn left--maybe even enough for a toque.

Now I'm at loose ends again. The Bridewater shawl is still in time out, though I was almost tempted to pull it out today and try picking up stitches again. Not tempted enough to actually do it, I'm afraid... I also pulled out the oversized tweed aran sweater that I started earlier this summer. I looked at it a while, but I'm not sure I'm ready to work on it. The though of starting on Fulmar is too overwhelming. What I really want to start on is a fair isle pattern called Lissuin (Ravelry link here). I have to set up a Paypal account in order to get the pattern though, and right now that's just enough resistance to keep me from doing it. Maybe this evening? What I like about the pattern is that it's entirely seamless. The neckline is too low for me, but I think I could adjust it. It's done with a steek, which I'm okay with. The best thing is that I think the colors I bought in Denmark will be absolutely perfect for it. We'll see...

I was browsing some internet discussion where Martha Stewart's basement came up. The person provided a link, and of course I had to check it out. Wow. That is a ridiculously organized and sunny basement. I'm really not sure what to think about it, but I find myself strangely fascinated. I also have to mention that Alicia Paulson has finally finished her studio remodel, which is big news in the crafty blogosphere. You can really see the Carl Larsson influence. She is a huge fan of IKEA, which is a little hard for me to get past. I've seen those pieces of furniture so many times here in Norway, but I can see how they seem unique in the US. But I do really like how consistent and comprehensive her aesthetic is (and I love the wall color), even though my taste is more drab and minimalist.

KE and I are having an end of summer dust up. I think this is a cyclical thing. I don't think we function very well as a family when things are too unstructured. I'm having a hard time learning that, since I have always been such a self-motivated and structured person on my own. It will be exciting to see how things change this week when E starts first grade and KE starts his year long pedagogical training course. I start back with teaching the following week.

Insomnia...igjen

I have a triple whammy: a hacking cough, and upset stomach, and a mysterious bug bite on the inside of my upper arm that is seriously the size of an orange. I feel and act pathetic. I also keep waking myself up. I've withdrawn to the guest bedroom so as not to keep KE awake.

Work wise, I think I'm very close to wrapping up the old bygdebarn article on the seter as a trope in a couple of Norwegian children's books. Yesterday I finally came up with a conclusion that I can live with, so now I'm just waiting on one article that I need to reference. Not quite sure where to send it. I have asked a colleague in children's literature to read it, and she said she would in a few weeks. I'm going to try to be patient, rather than sending it off in a flurry of impatience like I usually do.

With my decks now almost clear (grading all done, no other articles-in-progress, course prep basically done), that means I get to start on something entirely new--though still within the bounds of the cabin project of course. I'm thinking of cabins in Norwegian horror/thriller films! I'm not usually a fan of the genre, but that is such an outrageous topic with such a rich history that I think it could be a lot of fun.

While I was  at the conference, someone suggested to me that I reconceptualize my cabin book as a collection of articles rather than one master narrative. I'm not quite sure what I think about that. It would certainly make things easier, but on the other hand I have sort of been composing a master narrative in my head along the way, though there's still very little on paper. If I go the article route, I'm not sure that I could present as much evidence for how central the cabin is in the Norwegian cultural imagination, or make all the points I want to make. But if I only need eight articles (a colleague is just finishing up a dissertation that consists of eight articles), then I'm closing in on it and would have time for other things. And I could always write an introduction and conclusion that frame the articles... So far I have completed articles on:

1. Knut Hamsun's Pan
2. Edvard Storm's Døleviser
3. Henrik Ibsen's Når vi døde vågner
4. Hans Aanrud's Sidsel Sidsærk and Marie Hamsun's Bygdebørn hjemme og paa Sæteren

and I have the beginnings or ideas for the following:

5. Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's Norske Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn
6. Maurits C. Hansen's "Luren"
7. André Bjerke's De dødes tjern
8. Gunnar Larsen's five cabin novels
9. Per Petterson's Ut og stjæle hester

Plus bunches of half baked ideas on other texts and authors (like the horror film idea). One that came up in my conference paper that I think is really worth pursuing is a comparison of four national dramas, all of which share similar tropes and themes:  Bjerregaard's Fjeldeventyret, Wergeland's Fjeldstuen, Riis' Til Sæters, and Aasen's Ervingen. I guess technically I should start working on that, since I have the Bjerregaard material fresh in my head.

Sigh. I'm staying home today to play with E and tend my ailments. I can't believe he starts first grade on Monday! I'm totally not prepared, and I don't think he is either!

Ut på tur...

We are just back from our first boat outing of the summer! It is a glorious day outside, so we decided to just go for it, despite being nervous about getting everything to work. It was absolutely lovely!

Here we are hugging the shore on the east side of Nesodden, checking out all the fabulous summer houses along the water line. Sigh. What I wouldn't give to own this property (for example--there are dozens that I was swooning over). After we got home I started making the Lentil stew from a previous post again. It smells so good I could pass out. Here's a peek:

It's time too for an update on what I am calling E's "Steinerskolegenser" (Waldorf school pullover). Thus named because it is turning into such a hippy sweater:

As you can see I'm almost done with the first sleeve. I'm running a little low on yarn, but I'm still hoping there's enough to make a turtleneck at the end.

As I was uploading these I discovered the few snapshots I took while on the conference excursion to the Österlen region of the Swedish province of Skåne, and some turned out kind of fun, so I'll post them here. First up is a couple of the old timbered houses in the town of Ystad, which is also home to Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series:

The second is purportedly the oldest existing timbered house in Scandinavia, and it also happens to be the childhood home of the late Ernst-Hugo Järegård. He's the actor who played the angry Swede in Lars von Trier's Riget.

After our guided Wallander-tour of Ystad, we drove to Kåseberga, where we had a gourmet lunch on the seaside patio at Vendel Ales Stenar restaurant and then walked up the hill to view one of Scandinavia's most impressive Viking age sites, Ale's stones:

It was swarming with people, but still impressive on such a bright and sunny day. There was a whacked out self-titled tour guide there pontificating on his theory about the original function of the stones, which are set up in the shape of a large ship. I have no patience for that kind of new age pseudo-science, so I didn't stick around to listen or pick up any of his home-produced brochures.

Vimsete

I got back from Lund late last night. All in all, it was worth the effort, though it was by no means the best conference I've ever been to. It's a little sad that the best connections I made were with the people I already work with, but I suppose it's not a bad idea to strengthen the network I already have. I found out about an absolutely perfect job opening that has unfortunately already been filled: research consultant at the National Library. Apparently it's a 50% research 50% consultant position where you help other people with their research. OMG I would have loved that. But now that I know, I can follow along in case a similar position opens up in the future.

Otherwise, I felt my paper went relatively well. I think a lot of people realized there was a gap in their knowledge regarding the text, period, and themes I talked about, so that was good, but it certainly wasn't anything groundbreaking. The best paper I head was from one of our PhD students, who talked about Lars Ramberg's Liberté, which was selected to decorate the interpretive museum at Eidsvoll (home of the Norwegian constitution). I hadn't heard about the furor that this work produced (it was later deselected), and I found both the work itself and the debate really thought-provoking. But other than that one paper, there was very little else that got me excited.

I almost missed my flight home. I got a late start from Lund (too busy socializing!), then the train I was taking to the Copenhagen airport had technical problems, so we had to get off and wait for a new one. I made it to the airport 30 minutes before the flight, but amazingly was able to check in (hand baggage only, thankfully), make it through security and get a seat at the gate. Yay Copenhagen airport. I could have never done it in the US. When I got off the bus in Oslo and walked to the ferry I was pleasantly surprised to find a huge music festival on the water. It was a little disorienting at first, since nearly all of the hundreds of people milling around were Pakistani, but quite cool. I felt like I'd been transported to Karachi for a moment. It was actually just the MELAfestival, which was something I knew nothing about before stumbling upon it.

This morning E, KE and I walked down to the marina and mucked about in our boat. We had to bail it and scrub it down some and KE tried to get the motor going. It starts, but cuts out pretty randomly, which isn't a good thing when motors are concerned. It was a beautiful summer morning though, and it was fascinating to see all the stinging jelly fish in the water. This is a record year for them.

Hey, have you tried the Battleground God game, which is a test to see if your professed beliefs are consistent? Pretty interesting quiz.

Oooh, I just discovered this site where you can make maps of where you've been:


visited 28 states (56%)
Create your own visited map of The United States


visited 14 states (6.22%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Clearly I need to work on the southern hemisphere!

Av sted

I'm off to the conference in Lund early tomorrow morning. After a last push today at work I finally have my paper pulled together enough that I can present it on Wednesday without cringing too much. This has been a good project for me, as it has forced me to explore the careers of some writers I knew next to nothing about previously. Actually, my summer cold is so horrible right now, I may very well be delusional about the quality of the paper. I think my standards get a lot lower when my head hurts and I can't swallow.

I'm excited to go to the conference and also to explore southern Sweden a bit on the Thursday day-long excursion. A colleague from work is booked on the same flight tomorrow morning, so I'll have someone to help negotiate the transportation from the Copenhagen airport to Lund. It's always a treat to have a traveling companion for navigating, though I have to admit I am also really looking forward to three nights in a hotel alone. I think every mother of a small child feels that way.

I knit and knit and knit on the Multnomah shawl and didn't seem to be making a dent in the yarn at all. After getting almost to the largest size of the shawl (and having used less than a third of my yarn), I decided to rip it all out and knit a top-down raglan sweater, which had in fact been my original plan. My skein winder got some heavy use, as I wanted to wind up all the yarn in double strands rather than knitting from two balls at a time. Love, love, love that skein winder! I figure if I make it sized for E rather than me I'll have enough yarn to do an entire sweater. So far I really like the way it's knitting up in stockinette stitch:

I'll probably pick up the stitches along the neck and make a 2x2 ribbed turtleneck, but I want to wait until the body and sleeves are done to be sure there's enough yarn. I'll do 2x2 ribbing at the cuffs and bottom edge as well. I still can't decide if it's horribly ugly, or very pretty. KE says it's just in between.