Hverdagskost 2

Such a busy week! After my mother left Monday night both KE and I had so much work to catch up on. I spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday giving oral exams in early modern Nordic literature. It was incredibly draining for me (as one of the examiners). I can only imagine how stressful it was for the students. Thursday I had to run a ton of errands and finish reading an MA thesis for Friday. Friday I flew to Bergen (had to catch a 05:20 bus, and wasn't home until 19.35) to evaluate the thesis and participate in the oral defense. It was a fascinating experience, though incredibly draining as well. Meanwhile, KE spend all day Thursday preparing for, running, and documenting an exhibit of his work at the local high school for one of his last independent studies in Digital Art.

No knitting was done. I was reading Camilla Collett's Amtmandens Døttre for the third time on the way to and from Bergen. This time the book is really hitting home. It's so good. Right up there with Jane Austen and the Brontës. I'm delighted that I'll be able to touch on it a bit in my cabin book (Sophie is described as a "seterjente" and both of the men who are in love with her associate her with the seter).

I'm hoping to knit a lot this weekend though: I want to finish off a little sweater for Eivind that has been languishing since last summer (all that's left is half a sleeve--it's a guernsey, so the sleeve is picked up at the shoulder and knitted down, so no excuse for not finishing it now that I have the final skein of yarn for it), finish my experiment (only have the sleeve caps to knit!), and pick up the Whisper Cardigan again (finally bought the right needles). I'm thinking I may want to to a ruffle at the bottom of the sleeves (gasp) since the cast on and cast off edges are so different, both in look and tension. I need to find a way to mask that.

Did I mention that I bought a skein of Hoelfeldt Lund spelsau knitting yarn? I am swatching (don't like that word--sorry) for making another Norah Gaughan oversized guernsey for myself (in black, for the fifth time) since my mom appropriated my brown one (Ravelry link). I swear. That sweater pattern is the most successful thing I've ever knitted. Three people have demanded that I either give them my sweater off my back or knit them one! And I simply wore out the other black one that I knit using Klippan Tuna yarn from Sweden. I'm hoping that the industrial strength spelsau will last longer.

I also want to use the spelsau yarn to make Alice Starmore's Fulmar (Ravelry link) from Aran Knitting. I'm kicking myself for not photocopying the pattern when I borrowed the book last fall through interlibrary loan (a former student has promised to copy it for me now--yay!). The other two I copied (Na Craga and St. Brigid) are for aran weigh yarn, but this one is actually for fingering weight, which of course I like much better. I am thinking that for next year, I want to pick just a few really challenging patterns to work on over time, rather than rushing to finish twelve sweaters. The NaKniSweMoDo is an interesting challenge, but I wouldn't want to repeat it, I think. So maybe Fulmar, the linen lace tunic from Vogue Knitting (Ravelry link), and something stranded for the whole year (along with smaller projects of course).