Nummer elleve

Why, yes! That is a finished Francis Revisited sweater you see there. I was beginning to think I would never finish it, since I ripped it out and re-knit so many times. It ended up being much longer in arms and torso than the patten called for. I think I'll wear it a lot this winter, and it's a much better fit than the first sweater I knit with this yarn.

This is the eleventh sweater I have completed this year. Now I'm trying to decide what to do next. I have two partially finished sweaters that I could finish. Or I could start something new--I have enough yarn in my stash for two sweaters.

• Lattice Lace Pullover (Ravelry link) started September 2008
• 64-17 Short Sleeve Lace Cardigan (Ravelry link) started July 2009
• Halle by Elsebeth Lavold (Ravelry link)
• another 112-24 Knitted Tunic (Ravelry link), this time in the color Natural instead of Black
  

My practical side says I should really finish the two works-in-progress. Both of them are lace patterns, though, and one of the things I've discovered this year is that I really don't enjoy lace knitting very much at all. I don't mind the process and have gotten much better at it technically. I'm just not really that wild about the end product (gasp! I know that's heresy amongst knitmeisters). I like the look of it in theory, but not in the practice of wearing things. I'll take another look at the short sleeve cardigan, as I don't think there's that much to go on it.

Yesterday we finally went to one of the flea markets that the Kiwanis Club puts on regularly here on Nesodden. It was totally packed with people, but quite fun. KE ran into an old friend, E had fun running around, and I got to scratch my current shopping itch (don't know where that came from, but I'm really craving the sensory input right now). We bought one item, an old-fashioned knapsack:

What's funny about this is that we went through separately, and on my round the only thing I came across that I really wanted to buy was one of these, but since I had E with me it really wasn't practical to start looking seriously (there were 3 or 4 of them). When we walked up to the cash register there was KE standing with this in his hands, asking the price. He had picked up the coolest one. Great minds think alike, clearly.

I bought my Mom's ticket online yesterday, so she'll be coming for E's birthday in December--yay! I also talked to my Dad and M on Skype yesterday for the first time. That was really fun. I also finally got my flight information for my trip to the Nordic Literary History meeting in Utah yesterday. I leave on Wednesday, so I was getting a bit frantic, and sent three panicky emails before I got a response. Now I'm really looking forward to the trip!

Refleksjoner...

I turn 42 today. That feels a little odd. I've also been in Norway almost nine months now, and that doesn't feel odd at all. All in all, I think the move and the timing of it have worked out really well. E is now in a preschool that he loves, and his social and other skills are already starting to improve in all sorts of tangible ways. KE actually finished his BS, and although he's at loose ends (still no job leads) he seems to be dealing with the transition well. As for me, I love my job more and more, and I totally love our house and yard, and living out here on Nesodden. I am starting to think that the reason I was unhappy living in Oslo back in the early 1990s is simply that I don't like Oslo all that much. I'm sure there are little pockets of the city where I could be happy living, but basically I find it stressful to be there. It is always a relief to get on the boat to come home.

A couple of days ago I had a meeting with a colleague. I was telling her about my upcoming trip to the states, then mentioned something about doing something when I get back "home" to Norway. We both looked at each other in surprise and laughed about that. It is the first time I have referred to Norway as my home, and it felt sort of weird, but also right.

I think I have been more aware of not "going native" this time. I have started pronouncing my last name in English, rather than how a Norwegian would say it as written. I still pronounce my first name in Norwegian (since I like the sound of that better and it is a common name here any way). I like marking my non-Norwegian-ness in that subtle way. Looking back, I guess I felt that I wasn't "allowed" to utter one word of English any time I spent here, because I needed to maximize my time studying the culture and language while here. It is a relief to just be a normal person, and not feel like every waking minute is an oral proficiency exam in process.

I am getting less and less self-conscious about speaking English with E when we're in public. Basically, I no longer feel compelled to prove constantly that I am fluent in Norwegian. I know I'm pretty much as good as I'm going to get in the spoken language, and that is a very high level of proficiency, so I can just relax a bit, and focus more on improving my writing skills.

Yesterday I got to look at a book printed in 1780. It was written in French, and I could actually read the chapter I needed without a dictionary (I tend to forget that I actually have a pretty good working knowledge of French--just can't speak it to save my life). I got asked to co-edit an anthology of articles on Hamsun. I had a meeting to plan my guest lecture in a colleague's course. I spent hours in the library tracking down all the sources on a new, smaller project that will be a component of the cabin book. I feel so incredibly privileged to have this job. Someone at the Hamsun conference told me to my face that on principle I shouldn't have gotten this postdoc. position because I already had a permanent job back in the states. I was really taken aback by that, and felt miserable about it for a couple of days. I guess that kind of criticism is inevitable. The only thing I can do is do the best work I can and make as much of a contribution to the program as possible. I think my colleagues truly appreciate having me in the program, and that matters a lot more than what someone from another program says about me. 3 years, 3 months and counting before the best job of my life ends...

ETA: I'm writing this on the morning of the 4th, but I guess Blogger records the date on US time, where it's still the 3rd.

E again TA: WOW! I just stumbled across the amazing art of Freddie Robins via this post on Jane Brocket's blog. The bizarre "sweaters" and "gloves" are so eerie and beautiful...

Setrer

Yippee! Today I did some digging around and found some poems about setrer (shielings or high mountain dairies) by Edvard Storm dating from around 1770. They are the earliest texts that I've found so far, and they are sort of precursors to the cabin literature that I'm really focusing on. The good thing is, I totally think I can write an article about them and that will kill two birds with one stone: they are "early modern" and border on folkediktning (although not technically actually folk poetry they are written in dialect and depict rural life, so they are in tension with true folk poetry)--both categories that are on the list of desired competencies for the next permanent position that will open up (someday) in my department.

I am almost done with Francis Recycled, after basically knitting it three times. I had a lot of trouble getting gauge. I should easily finish it this evening, assuming nothing weird happens.

ETA: I did finish Francis Recycled, but as expected I'm not happy with the three-quarter arms. They make no sense to me. Why have chilly arms while wearing a thick, warm winter sweater?? Since it's top down and since I have lots of yarn left, it will be easy to make them into full length sleeves. Tomorrow.

Nedtur

After all the nerves and build up about giving a plenary address at the Hamsun conference, it was inevitable that I would come down pretty hard after it was over. I woke up with a splitting headache this morning and can barely open my eyes.

But all in all it was a good experience. I'm really happy with the paper I presented, though I can still see all kinds of micro-flaws in it. Mostly they are errors of omission. When I discovered something I couldn't support, I took it out, which is kind of a cop out.

I had some good conversations. I forced myself to introduce myself to some people who intimidate me--people who either have a reputation for being merciless or who come across as arrogant--and that went pretty well. I was disappointed that so few people came to my paper, but I am hoping that it was less a factor of my reputation and more a factor of it being scheduled at an impossible time. Even though this experience brought out all the worst of my social and professional anxiety, in the end I learned a ton and am a better scholar for having done it.

After three or four frantic last minute rounds of revisions (very unlike me! I'm usually done weeks in advance of a conference) the paper is very polished and almost ready to submit for publication. I found out at the dinner last night that the first editions of the novels I wrote about have been digitized and are thus available (and searchable!) on line. The last thing I need to do on the paper is get the quotes from the first editions (rather than the later modernized editions that I used, since that's all that is available in the library, or so I thought). I'm excited, and so wish I had know about the digital versions earlier. I spent a lot of time doing things the old fashioned way--reading and rereading the texts again and again looking for certain references. It will be fun to see if I find even more support for my argument.

The dinner banquet was held at Gyldendal publishing house's recently (2007) renovated office building. It was an amazing space designed by Sverre Fehn (one of my favorite architects), with only the exterior facade and an interior fragment of the original building preserved. This photo doesn't really do it justice--the atmosphere (especially at night) was amazing, and not nearly as 70s shopping mall as it appears here:

The photo is borrowed from this blog. The director of Gyldendal explained the presence of this old building within the new one during his welcoming speech. Apparently, when Danish Gyldendal set up its branch office in Norway, they built a little addition off the back of their building that was a replica of part of their Copenhagen office. It looked out over the "bakgård" (the enclosed outdoor area behind the building) and this outdoor space was where Gyldendal held its parties. The Gyldendal of today needed a lot more space, so the new building appropriated all the exterior space of the bakgård. Fehn built a new replica of the old addition on exactly the same spot, incorporating the original windows. It now serves as gallery space (Hamsun letters and first editions were on display there last night). I loved it because it's a textbook example of a simulacrum--doubly so since the original structure was already a simulacrum. A colleague thought it was a disturbing way of preserving history, and on one hand I agree. It is kind of a fetish object (to use a phrase that was bandied about a lot at the conference), but I guess that doesn't bother me.

Oppe og går

Yesterday things started to fall a bit more into place for me. I worked at home, and was actually able to use my little office they way I had intended. There are still piles of stuff to be sorted and stored, but it is now a functional room! I celebrated by finally doing some serious work for the cabin book. I have been so distracted by all the other commitments and projects I have had over the past eight months that I have done very little that relates to the new book. Yesterday I cracked into a really important area that I need to have covered, and it was so much fun. Turns out there's quite a bit of research out there on medieval shieling practice in Scandinavia, and in my mind at least the shieling is the precursor to today's cabins.

And if that wasn't exciting enough, I officially ended my knitting hiatus. I wanted to work on something very easy with bigger yarn and needles to go easy on my hands, so what I decided to do was frog the picot pullover I knitted a while back (wasn't happy with the neckline) and start on a Francis Revisited (Ravelry link) with the yarn. I'm calling it Francis Recycled:

Not much to look at yet. It's a top down raglan, which I've never done before, so that will be fun. Very soothing knitting so far.

Fra barn og fulle folk...

This morning I drove E to preschool. He was very chatty along the way, explaining how he loves his name and wouldn't want to be called anything else. Then he said: "Mamma, jeg elsker livet mitt!" (Mom, I love my life). Gosh, how neat! I must not be a total disaster as a mother.

ETA: Found a reference to this incredibly weird blog, a collection of disastrous cake decorating called (suitably enough) Cake Wrecks.

Hjernearbeid

Crank. I feel like I've been through the wringer today and yesterday. After giving myself a couple days off from it, I returned to the lecture on Knut Hamsun's Wanderer trilogy that I'm slated to give at the big Hamsun conference next weekend. I had gotten really stuck last week, but yesterday I saw a new and better way to shape the argument. Today I cut out a lot of irrelevant material and added a bunch of new more relevant stuff, including a conclusion that I think actually works now. I also accidentally found a passage in one of the novels that perfectly proves the point I am trying to make. I had highlighted it, but somehow forgotten it when I sat down to write. I was flipping through looking for something else, and suddenly there it was (cue celestial music of revelation). I'm pleased as punch. It feels great to really stretch myself intellectually on a difficult argument, but I'm absolutely exhausted now. A friend is going to read it for me. Can't wait to hear whether she thinks it works.

My class starts tomorrow. It will be fun to meet the students and get underway with the semester. I can't believe summer is over!

The political season here in Norway has started too. Unlike in the US, it lasts only four weeks. KE and I watched the first of a series of party leader debates. It was fascinating and fun. I love politics. It confirmed that the party we (well, okay, KE) plan on voting for is the right choice for us. What, you don't know anything about Norwegian politics, you say? Well, just click here for a handy primer.

Still on knitting hiatus while my wrists and fingers rest up, so unfortunately nothing to report on that front.