Småplukk

This past week has been filled with many small projects. It's fun to finally have some finished objects to show, but I am a bit bummed that I'm not getting anywhere with any larger projects. I think my knitting is definitely in a lackluster period this fall. I'm hoping that's because I'm channeling my creative energy into the Peer Gynt book instead. So, with apologies for being really boring, here are three finished objects:

First out is four crocheted washcloths/dishrags from Tove Fevang's Helt enkel hekling:

These were crocheted in a mad dash to get something together for E's school's Christmas Market (which was yesterday). I had originally hoped that the three of us could make tie dyed t-shirts together as a family project, but it turned out that the materials were just outrageously expensive here in Norway. I don't mind spending money to support the school, but this would have probably been about $75 for the supplies, and I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much. I'm happy with the substitute project: I learned how to crochet a piqué edge (easy!) and used up the rest of the yarn left over from a thrift store harvest. I really like Tove Fevang's patterns from this book, and it was a good reminder that there are still lots of things I'd like to make from it.

Next up was a pair of fingerless mitts that I knitted for myself:

I used the Rauma Inca alpakkagarn that I bought last year for something else that didn't end up working out. The pattern is from a Rauma Design pamphlet called Alpakka 1. It's supposed to be striped, but I just wanted something plain and simple to wear when I'm typing in my campus office. Although most public buildings are overheated in Norway, for some reason my office gets really chilly. It will be nice to have these at hand when my hands get cold and stiff.

The last thing I finished this week was a gift for my official mentor:

I didn't dare make anything other than the plainest of manly toques for him. I used Marks & Kattens Eco Ull for the first time. It's a single ply Aran weight yarn, and I must say I liked it a lot. I ended up using just a tiny bit of the third ball I bought, which is always a little irritating. I'm now wondering what I can use it for. The pattern is Cheryl Niamath's Zissou, which I've knit twice before (both for KE).

I had been hoping that I could report that I was finished with the second arm of the Rib-o-rama pullover too, but I'm not quite there yet. I should finish it by the end of today, though, and then start picking up the stitches for the body. I can't believe how slowly that project has been going, even when I do actually pick it up and knit on it.

Brodder

That's it! Today, November fifteenth was the day that I broke out my brodder, which is to say strap on spikes for my shoes. We had a centimeter of snow and the temperature is vacillating between freezing and thawing, so there's slippery ice all over the place. Sigh. It will be like this for the next four months.

I got my Bjørnson conference paper more or less done today, which is a big positive. I still need KE to proofread it, and I really should do a bunch more research for it, but I just don't have time. I so need to get back to work on the Peer Gynt book. I did my mid-month tally today, and I'm way behind schedule.

I also survived and actually really enjoyed our early Thanksgiving dinner for ten on Saturday. I spent two days cooking and I think I finally have the menu nailed. I even consolidated all the recipes from various sources into one document, complete with metric conversions and a shopping checklist. So I guess I'll be really ready for Thanksgiving in years to come.

No interesting knitting to speak of. I'm working on a very simple pair of fingerless mitts for office wear, and finished the first one last night, but it's too dark to take any pictures now. It's so plain that I may have to add some kind of decorative crochet edge to it. We'll see...

Litt vaklende

Found a new favorite small house: the so-called "Friggebod" from Sweden: apparently as of 2008 you can build a dwelling of up to 15 square meters without a permit, so there are a lot of cool designs for them now. There's a company producing elegant little upscale prefabs. And there's also a Norwegian company producing a series of small, high-quality prefabs. Their Blåtann series (named after the Viking king Harald) is very modern and elegant as well.

At work today I had a nice meeting with a colleague from ILOS, got a bunch of Synnøve Solbakken secondary literature, and watched the Peer Gynt in Cairo production from 2006 as broadcast by NRK on New Year's Eve of that year. Really interesting. I recently read three absolute hatchet job analyses of the performance (by Helland, Helland again, and then by Rem), and I have to say I agree with most (though thankfully not all) of what they say. I also added about a half a page to my conference paper, so it was an okay day, though I've had a headache for most of it. Not sleeping well, but family life is much more harmonious than earlier this week.

So now it's time to gear up for an early Thanksgiving dinner this Saturday. We have commitments the next two weekends, so we have to do it early or else it conflicts with December madness (E's birthday, final exams, and Christmas...). I'm already feeling enervated just thinking about the holidays...

I started knitting some fingerless mitts since my office is kind of chilly. More stash yarn.

Skepsis

Yesterday morning (before our big blow out) E asked me to knit some clothes for his bear. It's the first time he's asked for anything like this, and I was more than happy to comply. I think his lopsided face kind of expresses how I'm feeling too. Hopeful but worried and wary, and a little gun shy. Nothing I try seems to be working. I can kind of feel the attraction of just giving up, but there's just too much at risk. I would so hate for all the sacrifices and work we've done to just disintegrate into nothing.

E has a cough and a snotty nose today, so I'm staying home with him. When KE gets home I'll head into town to go to the National Library to look at Arne Øverland's 1970 comic strip version of Peer Gynt. I'm very curious about it. If I have the time and energy I'll go to campus too to try to get more work done.

Other than the bearwear, I did finally pick up Rib-o-rama again, and am now closing in on finished a corrected version of the second arm. Then I just have to knit knit knit until I run out of yarn on the body. That should be fun!

...og ut av balanse igjen...

Just when I think things are back on track my life explodes again.  Confused. Sad. Scared. Nothing I can blog about.

I balanse

KE and I fell back in step this week. I actually think it helped just to acknowledge openly how far apart we are on some issues (relating to our interpersonal communication and expectations about our life together). Certainly the theme for the rest of our week has been how much we have in common and how much we really enjoy each other as people. We just had a fabulously interesting conversation that managed to encompass some of my thoughts about the Peer Gynt book and KE's thoughts about becoming an art teacher. The conversation was so good that I had to take notes afterwards! So, yay for us, we really are a good couple after all, despite driving each other crazy at times.

I got to spend today at home writing. I managed four pages (about 1000 words): two additional pages for the theoretical introduction and two pages' worth of additions to chapters four and five. In the introduction I'm trying to write about "cultural appropriation" and adaptation. I can really feel the project coming together (despite lots of holes and problem areas), which is just so darned exciting. It's a good sign (or not, depending on how you look at it and why you read this blog) when my work is more interesting and fun than my knitting!

To artikler

Earlier this year I submitted two articles to the main American scholarly journal in my field. One of them, the Frobenius article, had been rejected by a Norwegian journal previously, the other, the one on children's novels by Aanrud and M. Hamsun, was "fresh" as it were. I've just heard back on the second one, and I'm gobsmacked: both have been accepted for publication without revisions. Anyone who is a professional academic knows that only vary rarely do things get accepted without a laundry list of revisions suggested by the two anonymous peer reviewers that read each manuscript. Often times the two reviewers have vastly different visions of what needs to be changed, and sometimes one recommends rejection while the second thinks the work is brilliant. It can be a maddening process. It usually means a long and difficult round of revision. It can be really hard (not to mention demoralizing and even humiliating) to change fundamental things about the analysis that one has worked so hard to construct, and sometimes the reviewer comments can be mean spirited and petty.

I am so incredibly relieved to have had not one but two pieces of recent work make it through the process intact. For one thing, it means a lot less work for me, but beyond that it means that my work appears to be viewed as of very high quality, and that feels fantastic. I think a lot of the credit has to go to my friend L, who critiqued both drafts before I sent them out. She always has good insights and asks all the right questions that challenge me on all the right issues.

We're struggling (as usual?) here at home. Had a tough discussion with KE last night. Sometimes it feels like we just don't understand each other at all. E is doing fine, but I think he caught a cold on Halloween. He went to his friend S's house for a party and for trick-or-treating, and somehow he managed to go out without a coat. I would have never let that happen. Last night he was froggy so I'm preparing myself for staying home with him today if need be.