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.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
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?
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Lørdagskos
I woke up early this morning in a great mood. If I'm lucky I'll have two hours to myself. Yay for Saturday mornings! There's a lot that's good at work: I made it through lecture number 5 in my class, which means I now have three weeks off from teaching, and can focus intensly on my research, finally. On Thursday I walked into my office to find that the iMac I ordered was all set up, and the nasty old PC had disappeared.
I didn't quite reach my goal of finishing all outstanding work projects by the first of March so that I could start in on the cabin book. I still have a little bit left on the Holt article revision, a book review to write, and a MA thesis grade to evaluate (the student has petitioned the grade assigned--I'm an outside reviewer). But it's all interesting and useful work, perhaps even relevant to the book. I plan to include a chapter on crime fiction in the book, so the Holt article isn't as in left field as one might think. The book review will be of an anthology of articles on Ibsen, and I'm always needing to beef up my knowledge of Ibsen scholarship (and of course Ibsen fits into the cabin book project too: Peer Gynt and Når vi døde vågner have fabulous cabin scenes).
The thesis is on two contemporary novels, Nikolaj Frobenius' Teori og praksis and Dag Solstad's Armand V: Fotnoter til en uutgravd roman. I hadn't read either of them before, and I have to say I'm so very glad that I was asked to review the grade on this thesis, as both are really interesting. The Solstad novel even contains a cabin scene! Frobenius' book explores life in a "drabantby" (satellite town), and contains some really wonderful writing about the attempt to plan happiness. So interesting for an architecture groupie like me! Plus it's really great to get a chance to review the grading process for theses here, as it's quite different--so much more thorough than what I'm used to in the U.S.
My old life in the U.S. seems so incredibly distant now. Other than regular email and Skype contact with my mother, it's all sort of disappearing. I was going to write a post with a list of things I miss about the the U.S., but I only came up with three things! They were: my 15-minute bike ride to work, Starbuck's coffee almond fudge ice cream, and microbrew porters. Otherwise, I'm glad, glad, glad to be here. I can't blog about it, but I am really not happy with some interactions I've had with colleagues back home. I'm technically on unpaid leave, so I still have duties at and communication with that university. It's not fun.
Last night I finished the second arm, joined it to the body, and knitted almost 10 cm on the raglan yoke on the Hourglass sweater. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to wear it to work on Monday, though for some reason it's looking really short to me. I haven't sewn the hem yet, so it's rolling a lot and I'm hoping that's the reason. Here 'tis:
I didn't quite reach my goal of finishing all outstanding work projects by the first of March so that I could start in on the cabin book. I still have a little bit left on the Holt article revision, a book review to write, and a MA thesis grade to evaluate (the student has petitioned the grade assigned--I'm an outside reviewer). But it's all interesting and useful work, perhaps even relevant to the book. I plan to include a chapter on crime fiction in the book, so the Holt article isn't as in left field as one might think. The book review will be of an anthology of articles on Ibsen, and I'm always needing to beef up my knowledge of Ibsen scholarship (and of course Ibsen fits into the cabin book project too: Peer Gynt and Når vi døde vågner have fabulous cabin scenes).
The thesis is on two contemporary novels, Nikolaj Frobenius' Teori og praksis and Dag Solstad's Armand V: Fotnoter til en uutgravd roman. I hadn't read either of them before, and I have to say I'm so very glad that I was asked to review the grade on this thesis, as both are really interesting. The Solstad novel even contains a cabin scene! Frobenius' book explores life in a "drabantby" (satellite town), and contains some really wonderful writing about the attempt to plan happiness. So interesting for an architecture groupie like me! Plus it's really great to get a chance to review the grading process for theses here, as it's quite different--so much more thorough than what I'm used to in the U.S.
My old life in the U.S. seems so incredibly distant now. Other than regular email and Skype contact with my mother, it's all sort of disappearing. I was going to write a post with a list of things I miss about the the U.S., but I only came up with three things! They were: my 15-minute bike ride to work, Starbuck's coffee almond fudge ice cream, and microbrew porters. Otherwise, I'm glad, glad, glad to be here. I can't blog about it, but I am really not happy with some interactions I've had with colleagues back home. I'm technically on unpaid leave, so I still have duties at and communication with that university. It's not fun.
Last night I finished the second arm, joined it to the body, and knitted almost 10 cm on the raglan yoke on the Hourglass sweater. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to wear it to work on Monday, though for some reason it's looking really short to me. I haven't sewn the hem yet, so it's rolling a lot and I'm hoping that's the reason. Here 'tis:
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
"Det er typisk norsk å være god"
Today I had a fun day at work. I am revising my article on Anne Holt's crime fiction based on suggestions from my editor. He suggested that I try to frame my analysis with some kind of anecdote that illustrates the issues at stake in the Holt books. I came across Gro Harlem Brundtland's famous slogan "It is typically Norwegian to be good" in a book I was skimming (Terje Tvedt's Verdensbilder og selvbilder: en humanitær stormakts intellektuelle historie from 2002) and that got me thinking that it would be a good idea to track down the source of the slogan to see if that might work to contextualize my article. I've heard the quote in many contexts over the years, but never really thought about its origins.
It turned out to be harder than you might think to find. Wikipedia listed it as being from Harlem Brundtland's 1992 New Year's speech, which is correct. But her speeches haven't been published in book form, and the reference librarian at the University of Oslo library had no idea where to find it. I was shocked! I called the Norwegian Labor party headquarters and they didn't have it. Neither did the Workers' Movement archives The archivist there suggested that I try the Norwegian Broadcasting System's library. The person there found it in a database called ATekst, which it turns out I have access to through the University of Oslo! I feel like storming over to that reference librarian and reading her the riot act, but of course I won't.
At any rate, I found the speech really interesting to read, and it fit perfectly as an introductory anecdote to my article, so I'm very pleased with today's work! Here's the section of the speech that the quote is from:
Norge har mange muligheter. Se til verkstedindustrien som har økt eksporten de seneste årene, til den positive utviklingen i reiselivet, til oljevirksomheten, skipsfarten vår og fiskerinæringen. Vi har mye å bygge videre på. Kværner - som har bedrifter mange steder i landet - fikk like før jul en stor kontrakt i skarp konkurranse med utenlandske selskaper. Dette viser at norsk kan og vil. Vi kan konkurrere både på pris og kvalitet. Fotballjentene, håndballjentene, skigutta og Oslofilharmonikerne hevder seg i verdenstoppen. På samme måte skal vi vise at norsk næringsliv klarer seg internasjonalt. Trenger vi et nytt slagord? Det er typisk norsk å være god.
Scary, huh? Especially coming from a social democrat. It shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that Arbeiderpartiet went on to dismantle major elements of the welfare state throughout the course of the 1990s!
But of course all work and no knitting makes Kverulantinnen a dull girl. I've been "reknitting," which is to say now that our stuff is here I have access to my stash again, and I've decided to knit a new version of the Hourglass sweater from December in a smaller size. I've got the body done up to the armholes and one sleeve close to finished. It's a quickie!
It turned out to be harder than you might think to find. Wikipedia listed it as being from Harlem Brundtland's 1992 New Year's speech, which is correct. But her speeches haven't been published in book form, and the reference librarian at the University of Oslo library had no idea where to find it. I was shocked! I called the Norwegian Labor party headquarters and they didn't have it. Neither did the Workers' Movement archives The archivist there suggested that I try the Norwegian Broadcasting System's library. The person there found it in a database called ATekst, which it turns out I have access to through the University of Oslo! I feel like storming over to that reference librarian and reading her the riot act, but of course I won't.
At any rate, I found the speech really interesting to read, and it fit perfectly as an introductory anecdote to my article, so I'm very pleased with today's work! Here's the section of the speech that the quote is from:
Norge har mange muligheter. Se til verkstedindustrien som har økt eksporten de seneste årene, til den positive utviklingen i reiselivet, til oljevirksomheten, skipsfarten vår og fiskerinæringen. Vi har mye å bygge videre på. Kværner - som har bedrifter mange steder i landet - fikk like før jul en stor kontrakt i skarp konkurranse med utenlandske selskaper. Dette viser at norsk kan og vil. Vi kan konkurrere både på pris og kvalitet. Fotballjentene, håndballjentene, skigutta og Oslofilharmonikerne hevder seg i verdenstoppen. På samme måte skal vi vise at norsk næringsliv klarer seg internasjonalt. Trenger vi et nytt slagord? Det er typisk norsk å være god.
Scary, huh? Especially coming from a social democrat. It shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that Arbeiderpartiet went on to dismantle major elements of the welfare state throughout the course of the 1990s!
But of course all work and no knitting makes Kverulantinnen a dull girl. I've been "reknitting," which is to say now that our stuff is here I have access to my stash again, and I've decided to knit a new version of the Hourglass sweater from December in a smaller size. I've got the body done up to the armholes and one sleeve close to finished. It's a quickie!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
...ferdig!
And now, finally, I can say that I'm done with the cabled cardigan, "Georgie." I'm not happy about the end results. As predicted, it's a tad too short and too roomy, and the arms are way too long. But I do think it's at least wearable.
I'm thinking maybe over a summery dress it will be cute?
We're so relieved that our shipment of stuff arrived and we got it all inside the house. KE had a dreadful day renting a trailer and finding his way down to Oslo harbor to get the crate, which he then had to take apart. It took him something like four hours to get back home (including some scary driving), then we had a marathon session of moving boxes through the snow and into the house. In the end it was great to be reunited with our stuff. I'm actually glad we went through the horrible process of sorting for the move, because now everything we unpack is something we know we either need, love, or both. So far I've unpacked one box of fragile glass things and nothing in it was broken, so that bodes well for the rest.
I'm thinking maybe over a summery dress it will be cute?We're so relieved that our shipment of stuff arrived and we got it all inside the house. KE had a dreadful day renting a trailer and finding his way down to Oslo harbor to get the crate, which he then had to take apart. It took him something like four hours to get back home (including some scary driving), then we had a marathon session of moving boxes through the snow and into the house. In the end it was great to be reunited with our stuff. I'm actually glad we went through the horrible process of sorting for the move, because now everything we unpack is something we know we either need, love, or both. So far I've unpacked one box of fragile glass things and nothing in it was broken, so that bodes well for the rest.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Nesten...
Okay. I admit to being thoroughly sick of knitting the green cardigan now. I finished all the knitting, and am well underway on the finishing. I just need to steam block one sleeve, sew on one button, and then inset the two sleeves and the whole thing is done. But now I'm at that listless stage where I'm no longer excited about the project and am skeptical that I'll like the end result. I didn't realize when I chose the pattern how short it would be, and it seems really wide too, so we'll see. It doesn't help that we don't have a mirror that reaches below my neck here in this house either!
I figured out what to do with the left over Knitpicks Merino wool I bought in December. Interweave press has a free pattern for a shawl in DK weight yarn, and I think what I have left is just the right amount. The pattern is called Little Arrowhead. All the knitters here in Norway seem to be really into shawls, so I'm being tempted to try one, even though I kind of doubt I'll really wear it. But at least I'll use up the yarn!
I'm also starting to get interested in maybe knitting a pair of Latvian mittens out of my leftover Finull. I saw a woman with some on the bus the other day, and they were totally spectacular. I've never been able to get very excited about Selbu mittens, but these Latvians with 3 or 4 colors and a much denser pattern are very tempting to try to knit.
Beyond that, I'm still excited about the NaKniSweMoDo project for the year. Next up will be finishing KE's Islender, then a sort of dressy jacket from Sandnes. I will use the Elsebeth Lavold silky wool that I bought back in the fall. I think the rich indigo color will work well for the pattern.
In TV news, we have so been enjoying watching the 2006 British police drama Life on Mars. The premise is that the protagonist is injured in a car crash in 2006, goes into a coma, and wakes up in 1973. The retro factor is very high, and the manipulation of the two narrative time planes is very well done. Sounds from the hospital and dream images break into the 1973 reality, creating strange interferences.
Watching the penultimate episode last night got us thinking about all the films and shows we know that play with narrative, point of view, artifice, and time, and how much we love that. Here's an incomplete list:
Memento
The Truman Show
Matchstick Man
The Sixth Sense
Time Code
Sliding Doors (which we haven't seen)
The Crying Game
Rebecca
Run Lola Run (which we also haven't seen)
Back to the Future
Time Bandits
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Persona
Night on Earth (another we haven't seen)
D-Day (the Dogma 95 television experiment, which we haven't seen either)
I'm sure we're missing other important ones... (ETA: Being John Malkovich and Vantage Point)
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