A Beautiful Day

It's going to be a beautiful day so the bluebirds sing. I have booked myself a short, but much-needed flight home to Denmark in May. I need to spend time with the Danish part of myself, I have decided. Going back is always odd because it invariably ends up being a long series of meet-ups with everybody I have ever known in Denmark. I cannot remember the last time I spent a few hours in Copenhagen just, you know, hanging out with myself. I am not complaining. It just feels strange after having spent fifteen years in Copenhagen and suddenly the way I engage with my city is transformed. I think this is something most expats experience.

Linkage, then:

+ When I read "Glasgow Artist Restores Lost Mural" on the BBC website, I knew exactly who and what they were talking about. Wooh! + Cover Versions: "Classic records lost in time and format, remerged as Pelican books." + Speaking of which .. Pelican paperbacks. I used to own a lot of them. + Art-House Book Trailers. Just as vile as the name suggests. + CraftGawker. Look, be inspired, create. + This Is Not A Riot: An effective, non-violent response to riot police. (I miss going to demonstrations) + The Fall of the Spanish Hapsburgs, or why marrying your first cousin is a bad, bad idea. See also this pictorial guide to the Spanish Hapsburgs. Ouch. + As seen everywhere on the web: Uncomfortable plot summaries. To wit: "Groundhog Day: Misanthropic creep exploits space/time anomaly to stalk coworker." + And as seen on John's blog: "Over the weekend, sharp-eyed Cassini-watchers on unmannedspaceflight.com noticed a series of way-cool photos on the mission's raw images website." Mindblowingly cool photos.

I finished reading The Time-Traveller's Wife. It was rather "girly". I have also begun yet another knitting project: Geno in duck's-egg-blue milk-cotton. It's rather lovely and very summery.

The Good Life

Sunday afternoons. Don't you just love them? Depending upon our mood and energy level, we either curl up with books or head out to explore our neighbourhood on foot. Yesterday we donned our coats and went for a walk along the Forth and Clyde canal. Glasgow Council had obviously decided the footpaths needed a spring overhaul, as the topsoil had been scraped off the sides of the paths by diggers. Quite quickly our walk turned into something else: a treasure hunt. It started off with us noticing some lumps of jet-black glass, but when I started digging with a stick, something white started emerging. Clay tobacco pipes - most likely 19th century and quite possibly from when the canals were built? We found several stems and one bowl (which you can see in the photo). I'm fairly used to finding things in the ground - I grew up in a part of Denmark which has been populated since the Neolithic period and I have found flint arrow heads etc - but it is the first time I have found anything in Scotland. It makes me want to learn even more about our local history.

Knitting continues, of course. I have a few inches to go on the body before I'm starting the edging. I'm dragging it out a bit as I'll be knitting the button band next and my buttons won't arrive for a few days.

I'm a tiny bit concerned about the fit as the cardigan is quite tight on me at the moment, but I think the alpaca yarn will stretch considerably during blocking, so it will be okay. I hope blocking will also sort out the difference between the handspun yarn (which is relatively loose) and the alpaca yarn (which is relatively tight and curling a great deal). Blocking solves everything, right?

As the cardigan grows bigger every day, I have begun to think about tiny, portable projects. Recently I promised five friends that I'd make them a little handmade something each, so I have that in the back of my head too. I was wondering whether it would be possible for me to make five items using five different crafts - and while it would becompletely feasible, I'm slightly worried about quality control. Surely I'm not the only one who's a bit paranoid about the quality of the things I make?

Thank you all for the books and TV suggestions. One of these days I should take photos of our bookshelves because I suspect you think I'm slightly bonkers when I say "oh, we already have that" or "oooh, David has that tucked away". We have a lot of books (although not quite as many I used to have in Denmark, but that's another story for another day).

PS. I cannot find my iPod. I'm mildly distressed.

I Was Just Here. Where Did I Go?

Kirsten Marie, my good friend and erstwhile bookish.dk contributor, visited Scotland this week. We spent a few days walking around Glasgow's West End, drinking coffee, and I talked her into buying some expensive Japanese yarn(!) too. It felt really good to talk in Danish again and I really enjoyed being able to make culture-specific jokes (like quoting Lars von Trier's Riget in a wholly inappropriate context). Walking around with Kirsten Marie, I realised how much more settled I feel here in Glasgow now than I did just a year ago or so. I can navigate Glasgow now and do so with ever increasing confidence. Vegan food? Oh, go to Sith, the 78 or Mono. Fair trade, you say? Bolshie's the place. Arty? There's a really great mural just down by Kelvinbridge subway station. Okay, so I wouldn't be able to point you to the local gun range, but I wouldn't have been able to do that in Copenhagen either

Knitting-wise, I have done a lot in the last few days owing to the fact that Kirsten Marie has been bitten by the knitting bug and not only demanded to be taken to yarn shops(!!) but also thought knitting in public to be a perfectly agreeable way of spending her holiday here. So I only have 6" to go on the body of my green cardigan before I can start the sleeves. I am still unsure about which buttons to use. Having been VERY monogamous with my knitting lately, I am dying to cast on one or two new projects (I never have more three WIPs on the go - I know it's sickening) but first I need to re-organise my stash. Other Half had to get something in the closet behind my yarn containers and everything's now all a-jumble. It's really lucky that I love organising books and balls of wool.

A few random links from the last few days:

+ The Other G20. My postcode happens to be G20 and a BBC journalist went to see what it's like here. One comment at the buttom nails it: "The schizophrenia of the postcode is emphasised by a local running joke: those originally from Glasgow who live in G20 say they live in Maryhill; those who have moved to G20 to the middle-class developments refer to it as North Kelvinside". I live in .. North Kelvinside. + Seven Abandoned Cities and Towns of Europe. Beautiful urban/rural decay. + Cornify: "the #1 unicorn and rainbow service worldwide, giving websites sparkle around the world." Yes, Cornify is really for all your unicorn and rainbow needs. + Sound Comparisons: accents of English from around the world.

Question For Today

So, knitting can delay memory loss! That is great news. But, I wonder, can knitting also stop my migraine from getting worse? The answer is no, sadly.

Uggggh (says the bloggerista/knitterina who promptly heads for a silent, dark room).

For This I Am Thankful

“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their latter end, upon all the living and the dead.”

It is snowing outside (again!) and I am reminded of James Joyce's wonderful short story "The Dead" (found in Dubliners and made into a beautiful film by John Huston). Even if you are the sort who shudder at the thought of James Joyce, give "The Dead" a chance. It is exquisite - and also the snowiest story I can imagine (something which may sound nonsensical but if you read it, you'll understand).

Earlier this week I was given my first birthday present. I do not write much about what it was like moving from Denmark to Scotland - but it was an uneasy transition and I found it somewhat difficult to build up a new network of friends. So, when I was given an unexpected birthday present by my Glasgow circle of friends, this act of friendship felt particularly poignant. The present? All the wool I need to make Flyte. It feels slightly overwhelming, if in a good way.

(Related: I am trying to find buttons for my Forecast cardigan (which is knitting up nicely, hence much radio silence). I went to John Lewis and discovered that ten buttons would cost me almost as much as all the wool for the cardi. That's not an option. I have looked at Textile Garden, eBay, Etsy, Bedecked, Pavi Yarns and Ribbon Moon. Any other places I should look?)

Finally, I have found yet another t-shirt I feel I should own, I pity this poor dog (although I'm also slightly amused by the Poodle Ninja Turtle-Leonardoodle), and I'm keeping a close eye on Academic Earth in case anything fun turns up. And, of course, CityPoem Copenhagen..

Into the Woods

Yes, I know I said stuff about knitting with grey wool. The phrases "never again", "not in the winter months" and "I need colour!!!!!" may have passed my lips. But I've changed my mind.

The pattern is Norwegian Woods by Sivia Harding. Earlier this year I knitted a few repeats of it in the gawjuss Old Maiden Aunt silk/merino yarn I have stashed away. I was flippant, made a few too many mistakes and ripped it all out. Now I'm knitting the shawl in Snældan's 1-ply wool (Faroese wool mixed with a touch of Falkland Islands wool - and spun on the Faroe Islands!). I'll blog more about the shawl as it progresses.

As you can see from the photo, it is snowing in Glasgow today. South-east England has had a couple of inches of snow and they are panicking. Silly people (sayeth this Scandinavian gal) For once I don't mind the snow so much and it made for a great photo opportunity this morning. Right now I'm still seeing ginormous snowflakes hurling towards the ground.

A couple of links (because my links folder is bursting at its seams). + I really want this t-shirt. + Is there anything Barack Obama cannot do? Well, I'm not too hot on his poetry. Dare I say it? I write better poetry than him? I do. + Great photos of London from above (thanks, Molly) + A bit more heavy-going than I usually get here: We Who Are Left Behind: Poetry as Testimony in Derrida and Celan. + Amazing Flickr photo-stream: Lars Daniel. He makes me miss Copenhagen even more. + Type as Image. It does wot it sez on teh tin.

Have a lovely day - with or without snow.