Conflicting Emotions

Being back in my native Denmark feels bitter-sweet. On one hand, I'm loving speaking Danish. It's really, really good seeing my loved ones. I am enjoying simple pleasures taking a walk around the beautiful countryside with its gentle rolling hills and soft green hues. The food is super-fresh and tasty. The streets are clean and public transport is a joy.

On the other hand, Denmark is populated by Danes. I need to write about my nationality and why I continue to have huge problems embracing my being a Dane - but I have limited computer time at the moment, so watch this space post-holiday. I have also received some upsetting news from Scotland, so I'm feeling a bit strange.

Long live retail therapy, then, and particularly the yarn shops. Today I went to a local sheep farm where I bought both some of their own "homegrown" wool as well as some beautiful 1-ply mohair/silk in stunning colours. Yesterday I went to a more traditional yarn shop and spent almost two hours looking through their inventory. I escaped with a sought-after pattern book and enough wool for a pullover. I also found a 1940s knitting book in a second-hand shop and it is proving a most educational/entertaining read.

Tomorrow looks to be another day of sunshine, excellent food and maybe a yarn shop or two..

Spinning a Yarn - Living History in Glasgow

If you are in the Glasgow vicinity and stuck for what to do this bank holiday weekend, why not go down to Kelvingrove Museum? They have Living History visitors - including Joyce who would just love to show you her drop spindles, fleeces, naalbinding projects, and a very big loom. Yes, we had a great conversation which included endangered British sheep breeds, how to make naal-binded heel flaps and even how to use natural dyes on wool. Apparently I was her favourite kind of visitor ;)

The Kelvingrove Living History exhibition is free and runs until Monday the fourth Sunday. Apart from the very lovely Joyce, it includes falconry, archery, sword demonstrations, wolf hounds, amd fighting enactments.

(At the moment I'm actually pretty preoccupied by knitting and wool traditions. I've been looking into traditional North Atlantic patterns and wools and plan on picking up some Icelandic and Faroese wool when in Copenhagen. My conversation with Joyce reminded me that I need to pop into the National Museum of Copenhagen and pick up one of their naalbinding booklets. Knitting is more than just a pleasant hobby for me - it is also a way to (re-)connect with the past. Incidentally I'm also strongly considering getting myself a drop spindle now after speaking with Joyce. Don't blame me if you pay her a visit and you fall into the same trap. )

Why It's Bad To Know Other Knitters

I blame Bells. I was sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee, having a spot of lunch and then I began reading Bells' love letter to Ishbel (a shawl pattern by everybody's favourite Scottish knitting pixie, Ysolda Teague). Bells' paen to Ishbel wore away at me and before I knew it I too had purchased the pattern. Shock, horror.

I'm totally justifying the purchase to myself by saying "Well, I need a portable project to take with me to Denmark" and the project would also be a stash-busting exercise, as I am the proud owner of a great deal of laceweight and fingering weight yarns. I have singled out two different yarns which would work perfectly in each their own way.

The top cake is Fyberspates Faery Lace in a one-off colour way purchased at a Fyberspates trunk show last year. 1200 yrds of soft turquoise, sea green and cream. The bottom cake is is 2ply merino which I bought in Copenhagen last year. 440 yrds of rich chocolate brown softness. At the moment I'm leaning towards the latter, although the Faery Lace continues to haunt my imagination.. Every time I open the storage box, I look down at it and think "Oh, turquoisey cobweb .. whatever am I going to do with you?".

I have completely omitted to talk about what is currently on my needles. Geno is no more: it was a case of the right yarn and the right pattern in the wrong colour being knitted up at the wrong time.

I'm knitting up the Cafe au Lait mittens in Rowan Wool Cotton to match a beret I made from the same yarn. Not only am I deeply in love with twisted rib - it looks so elegant! so crisp! - but I'm also in love with Wool Cotton - the stitch definition! its softness! the marled grey!

I'm also working on my handspun yoke cardigan. I'm almost done with the first sleeve, which means I only have one sleeve and the button band to go. I'm thinking I should be able to finish that before my fabled trip to Viking Land.

My fellow knitter-in-crime and good friend, Kathleen, is churning out one inspirational project after another at the moment. She recently finished a stunning, stunning hap shawl in plant-dyed cashmere/wool from a indie dyer on the Isle of Skye. A few weeks ago I tried on the hap shawl and I had to fight my urge to just run away with it. I have been taking a long, hard look at my stash and I think I can make myself a hap shawl out of my amassed collection of New Lanark (I might have to order an additional skein or two - what hardship!). I have also been eyeing Kathleen's striped shoulder shawl (rav link) and her Girasole. Seriously inspirational stuff, I tell you.

Why it's bad to know other knitters? Too many ideas, too little time.

Relationship Status: Good (Once More)

If you subscribe to my Twitter feed you will already have been privy to a major relationship crisis. Last night I was not talking to and was close to breaking up with knitting. It was bad. Seriously. Looking back it was inevitable: it was late, I had been snappy most of the day and then I stopped paying attention. I stopped paying attention to stitch count, I didn't read the pattern and when I realised something was wrong, I began using foul language. I ripped back, ripped back much too far, tried picking up stitches, saw stitches drop, ripped back further and ..

.. then I had a Boyfriend Intervention. "Listen, I think you should head off to bed because this is not working and I don't think you can make it work tonight, okay? You're getting upset and you really shouldn't get upset over knitting."

Knitting and I are now back talking to each other. Actually, we are more than talking to each other. We're back being soppy and gooey. I have knitted the rows I ripped back and I'm also paying attention to the pattern once more. It's not that complicated, really. I just missed the bit where I'm supposed to do yarn-overs a row earlier than I thought I would. No biggie. I love knitting lace. Doing extra yarn-overs is a pleasure.

Sleep definitely helped as did a healthy dose of relationship therapy (i.e. several episodes of knitting podcasts) and tea. Life's too short to bear grudges - escpecially against something as incredibly lovely and rewarding as knitting.

Behaving as the Wind Behaves

Let the Right One In was a much better film than book. Everything which was overegging the book-pudding had been removed in the film: neverending subplots, irrelevant and distracting characters, and immense wordiness. The film was sparse, beautifully shot, and intense. While not the masterpiece it has been made out to be, the film was excellent. Also, it is always a joy to see a horror film where the real horror is found in everyday life rather than a supernatural monster. Recommended. (Also: a joy to watch a Swedish film. Swedish is such a beautiful, poetic language and I adored the film's cheeky use of traditional Swedish symbols such as the Tre Kronor towel)

(Also, also:  who plays Oskar's father? I swear he looks familiar but the actor's not listed in any credits I can find?)

Before the obligatory knitting update, a quick print culture geek link. Earliest known dust jacket found at Oxford. I might come back to that and explain why it's very cool.

Knitting, then. I am about 4 inches away from finishing the back of my Geno. I have a sort-of deadline for my cardigan early next month and it looks unlikely that I will make it. A 4-ply lace cardigan on 3mm needles in less than three weeks? I'm knitting like a woman possessed, but I am already behind schedule. Due to the small-ish needle size, my fingers tense up if I knit for more than three hours in a row. Also, yesterday my right shoulder began playing up (to the extent that my back started giving me problems) and while I am not sure if it is knitting-related, it does slow down the progress of Geno. Irritating.

Of course it does not mean I haven't begun pondering the next summer knit and I'm leaning heavily towards Flicker from Rowan Studio 15. Although not in beige.

Title: on the topic of horror.. well.

And .. relax.

They have suspected it for a long time and now our neighbours are sure: Casa Bookish is a really weird household. Taking photos of brickwork? Yes, weird but it could be for an art project. Taking photos of rusty iron gates? Quite weird, but could just be interested in getting stuff fixed. Photographing a bit of knitting? Totally and utterly weird. The project? Ah, I'm glad you asked. I have finally begun knitting Geno from Rowan 43 after procrastinating for about a year. I started it some days ago and have been knitting up a storm .. on size 2.75mm needles which means I have about 8 inches done. It is not exactly an instant gratification project, but it is gratifying nonetheless. I'm using Rowan Fine Milk Cotton in "Water Bomb" (a duck's-egg-blue) and the yarn is surprisingly velvety. It's a good summer project.

True to fashion I'm obsessing over which buttons to use. I have bought some bog-standard mother-of-pearl buttons from John Lewis, but they are rather .. bog-standard. So I began sorting through my vintage button stash and came up with various possibilities.

In the top-left corner you get some fake-ivory buttons, on the right you can juuust make out some carved mother-of-pearl(?) flowers with some nice staining and on the bottom you get some utterly adorable red plastic flowers (1960s?). I rather fancy the red flowers but I only have four of those and the pattern calls for at least six. I'm also very, very, very taken by these buttons found on Etsy (of course).

Maybe I should just keep knitting?

Maybe I should just do that and relax a bit seeing as the majority of this weekend has involved me poking about the inside of our PC. Long story short: what I thought was a relatively simply problem with overheating turned out slightly more complicated. I'm now extremely tired of computer parts salesmen ignoring me and talking to D. exclusively - just because I'm a woman. Unfortunately (for them) I'm also the computer savvy one, so their über-complicated "you need a new motherboard" sales talk with D. was all in vain. Anyhow, new fan-cradle and CPU fan has been installed and I resisted the lure of shiny new RAM.

PS. This entry has been written on-and-off whilst renegade kids, the Fire Brigade and the Police have been passing by our door. I am in dire need of relaxation now. Knitting, here I come.