Bagatell :: Knitting in Norway

Monday January 31, 2005

Baaa.

Norwegian sheep breeds: I think it was a group of Dala that attacked me in the mountains near of western Norway on our first anniversary road-trip, in 2003. Here's a picture I took just before they realized I had bread in the car.

lazy sheep

Sheep in Norway are turned out into the mountains in the summer to fend for themselves - so I imagine they were hungry. Hungry enough to try to climb into the car at any rate. They're gathered up sometime in the fall, when lambchops suddenly appear in the grocery stores. Which is something I try not to think too much about.

Posted at 11 pm  | 

Sunday January 30, 2005

Brand spankin' new.

Norwegian national broadcasting (NRK) has a website for user-submitted music called Urørt which means "untouched". While much of it really isn't worth listening to, they do have a gem every now and then. The husband (source of much interesting linkage hereabouts, truth be known) has found one:

A wife and husband team called Marekat and they're really worth a listen.

To hear the three songs available... Eye of the Sun, Valentine and This Song is for you ... click on the titles or you can go directly to Urørt and click "lytt" til* to listen or "last" to download.

We can't stop listening to them...

*I find it amusing when I blend languages but don't mean to be confusing.

Posted at 4:55 pm  | 

Friday January 28, 2005

Perspective.

Thank you all for your supportive comments on Wednesday's post. I'm feeling much better now - it's amazing what a good night's sleep and couple of days away from work can do. I actually got a very well-timed phone call Wednesday evening from an American nurse I met this spring who lives in the south of Norway... she's coming for "brunch" on Saturday. (What does one serve for brunch? Muffins? Coffee cake? Fruit?) And Amalie and I went out to Disney on Ice last night with a co-worker and her little girl and had a fine time. Plus I got a hug from Mona in the comments and Mona, I must say, is a marvelous person. And Norwegian to boot! ;o)
So in case I didn't make it clear: And therefore: While I'm at it: And of course, finishing Clapotis didn't hurt my mood any...

Finished Clapotis
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert - free pattern from Knitty.
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, color 8 from Pinnsvin Design
Needle size: 5mm

I used all but a meter or so of 6 skeins of the Silk Garden. But! I skipped the last set of increases - repeating that sections rows 1-12 five times, instead of 6. I used up all of one skein on the increase rows, so I realized I would need at least that much for the decreases and started the decreases a little before I was finished with skein #5. The finished dimensions, after some rather relaxed blocking, are approximately 2 meters x 50 cm (6 feet x 20 inches).

And I'm in lurve...

*Catastrophizing : magnifying the negative element of a specific event to such an extent that it is represented as a disaster of catastrophic proporations. (Source, plus more about CBT.)

Posted at 1:27 pm  | 

Wednesday January 26, 2005

Culture shock.

I spent most of my first years in this country surrounded by men. My husband flies model airplanes and his friends are mostly single. I don't know if that says something about men that fly model airplanes or not, but there it is. The combination of lack of supply, a language barrier and an introverted nature kept me from "making friends" here in Norway - in fact, I can't say really that I have any close female friends yet, and I've been here nearly 6 years. I have female acquaintances and co-workers that I like very much, but friends? It's hard to say.

My husband and I talk a lot. One of the things we've talked about are the reasons he's attracted to me. And some of those reasons, really, are a result of my being different. Now I don't consider myself all that different. In fact, I think I'm pretty darn average. But I grew up in northeast Georgia and western North Carolina and am through and through a Southern woman. For him, my culture makes me different. And I'm starting to realize the truth in that.

I don't really have any way of knowing what the relationship between a Norwegian man and a Norwegian woman is like. I have gotten some ideas from watching my in-laws and other couples I've come in contact with. And I do know what relationships are like between American men and American women, because I've been in a couple. And there are a lot of unhealthy relationships all over the world, that's for certain. But what goes on between the four walls of a home is always peculiar and not easily understood. The relationship between my particular Norwegian man and me is a healthy one - we have thoroughly discussed and agreed upon how we want things to be in our home. And the division of labour between us falls very much along lines of gender - though that's something I don't readily bring up to other Norwegian women. I think the point I'm trying to make here - and it seems a very simple one now that I've boiled it down - is that neither 0% equality nor 100% equality works if there isn't an agreement between parties. Relationships won't work if one person imposes a society-based norm on the other. Of course they won't. Neither will friendships.

But let me stop here and say a society-based norm of equality is, of course, the way to go. Norwegians are very focused on all kinds of equality and and there are very good points to be made for gender equality when women are being taken advantage of - something I see all too often in my own family. When the daughter is wearing herself out herself to take care of herself, her professional life and her ailing parents while the son is relieved of all responsibility and felt sorry for, I bristle. Of course I do. But that's not really what I was thinking about when I started to write this... I was thinking about the difference between myself and the Norwegian women I'm in contact with daily now and how flippin' difficult I'm finding it.

All my professional life I've worked alongside other women. I'm in health care and - for better or worse - it's a very woman-dominated field. I worked for 7 years as a nurse in North Carolina. And now, for the past two years, I've worked with several groups of women in this country. They're not the same.

For me - a Southern woman - the gap between the way my heart tells me to act and the way I'm expected to act here - particularly at work - is so wide I feel like giving up. Or perhaps going on a rampage, it's hard to say. And while theoretically I would find being direct and saying exactly what you're thinking a positive thing, in reality I find it occasionally to be the most appalling kind of rudeness. The subtle art of giving out and reading of cues is, to me, the best thing about being female.

Of course, I don't mean find interactions with every woman I meet here difficult. But there is a difference, and that difference is difficult to deal with. Plus something happened today at work that made me feel dizzy with longing to be safely amongst women I understand and women who understand me.

Song in my head: Utopia.

Update: This rant post is leading to some interesting conversation here in my living room.

Posted at 5:51 pm  | 

Tuesday January 25, 2005

Pew.

That couldn't have smelled good at all.

Posted at 9:10 pm  | 

Monday January 24, 2005

Hey!

applause There's a knitting weblog nominated for the Bloggies this year! It's marmalade dot ca ... up for Best Canadian Weblog.

While you're voting for Kelly, be sure to vote for How to learn Swedish in 1000 difficult lessons for Best GLBT weblog.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Posted at 9:16 pm  | 

Sunday January 23, 2005

A catalog of Knitty Features

The items with a check mark in front are features that are "hands-on"... instructions on how to do something. The other features are stories, articles, interviews and other fun stuff like that. Why am I making this list you ask? Well, you probably didn't, but I want to tell you anyway... I get emails now and again from readers of my "Techniques with Theresa" asking me for help with very specific knitting problems - often for things I've never done myself. I answer as many emails as I can... what with working full time, taking care of a family and trying to do a little knitting myself... and I do enjoy helping new knitters out. After all, that's why I'm writing the articles in the first place. But I do find myself (ahem) occasionally answering questions about things that have been covered elsewhere. I thought that perhaps a "quick reference" to the features and articles that have appeared at Knitty.com would be helpful to someone... not least of all to me as I can just point to this post while answering emails. (Note: I've not gotten all the issues of Knitty covered yet, but will finish up as soon as possible.)

If you have a question about a specific technique that has not been covered by Knitty, by me or by one of these references, please try one of the following excellent resources:

That said ... if you have a suggestion for, or need clarification about, a Techniques with Theresa feature, or are stuck on one of my patterns, please do feel free to email me.

Posted at 3:13 pm  | 

Saturday January 22, 2005

ways to spend time on a Saturday when you're home alone.

*Here's mine
**Link via boingboing.net.

Posted at 1:19 pm  | 

Thursday January 20, 2005

What a difference a little snow makes.

Snowscape out my window

Posted at 12:52 pm  | 

Wednesday January 19, 2005

Geography Lessons

I was doing a bit of research on Clapotis and found Kate's tips on her weblog ... and then kept on reading when I saw her 100 things and saw these educational games that are just wonderful. Her #94 was that everyone should learn the geography of Europe, Africa, Asia and Central/South America. I agree, and I shall.

Posted at 5:53 pm  | 

Monday January 17, 2005

Finally, Clapotis

silk garden This is my very first experience using Noro and I'm loving it. I ordered 6 skeins Silk Garden (in colorway #8) from Pinnsvin Design last Tuesday, started Clapotis on Thursday evening and just can't stop. I used one skein for the increases (but skipped the last set of increase rows) and am most of the way through the 3rd skein now. The colors of this stuff are gorgeous and now I understand what all the fuss has been about.

By the way, I wouldn't have been knitting this if not for Cari.

Posted at 10:31 pm  | 

Saturday January 15, 2005

Interesting

Seasonal affective disorder from a Norwegian point of view.

Posted at 4:08 pm  | 

Friday January 14, 2005

Why they say Norway is expensive

A visitor on the guest map asked what American foods I consider necessities, and I just came across a grocery store receipt from Ultra and see that I spent the following on what I apparently considered necessary that day: Oh. My. God. I don't really translate money anymore (can't imagine why!!!) and these prices for such items, though rather more than the Norwegian variations, didn't strike me as outrageous at the time. But nearly 10 dollars for 12 oz of chocolate chips seems rather... steep ... doesn't it?

Posted at 11:18 pm  | 

Thursday January 13, 2005

Signed Confessions

Confessions of a Knitting Heretic I got a signed copy of the amazingly talented Annie's Confessions of a Knitting Heretic in the mail today! Am I the luckiest knitter in the whole world or what?

The first thing I encountered of Annie's was her Schooner and I was totally blown away. I still am... everytime I see it.

If you don't already have this book, go order it now. Speaking of now, I'm off to read...

Posted at 10:46 pm  | 

Wednesday January 12, 2005

Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom and me
Today is my mother's 70th birthday. She probably doesn't know it as well as she should but I admire her to no end. She's one of the strongest women I know and, though that can be intimidating at times, I know what strength I have comes mostly from her. The closer I get to the age she was when I was born the more of her I see in myself.

Posted at 10:29 pm  | 

Playing Doctor

Spotted at Nake-id Knits this morning.

Posted at 2:01 pm  | 

Tuesday January 11, 2005

Entering United Kingdom

Go to MSN Maps and Directions
Under "Start", select Norway in the "Address in" box.
Write Haugesund in the "City" field.
Under "End", select Norway in the nest "Address in" box.
Write Trondheim in the "City" field.
Click on "Directions"

See anything odd?

Source: Nettavisen.

Posted at 11:13 pm  | 

Button, button, who's got the button?

I couldn't find a streamlined button for Bust's Girl Wide Web (even after a semi-exhaustive search of this gigantic collection) so I made one:

girl wide web

Feel free to take it for yourself.*
And if you're not already a member of the Girl Wide Web, sign up!
Knitting related sites are gathered up under She's Crafty.

*And we all know about uploading it to our own servers... yes?

Posted at 1:53 pm  | 

Monday January 10, 2005

Rebecca love

Rebecca has such cool stuff. Makes me want to hop in the car and take a roadtrip to Germany. I'm thinking Two Part Sweaterthis two-part sweater might even appeal to the 15 year old for whom I dare not knit. Check out the construction and you'll see why.

Is there anyone reading in Germany* who might want to do a yarn swap? Some nice Dale or or maybe some lovely alpaca from Du Store Alpakka? I'm coveting the issue that's due to come out in mid-January (but preferably with the English translation - is that even available in Germany? Maybe not.) But at any rate I would love to have about 450g of GGH Solitaire - enough for to give it a shot. You never know - she might be thrilled I knit something for her. Teenagers are fickle that way. ;o)

In case you have pop-ups disabled, be sure to check out GGH's whimsical knitting e-cards. I'm particularly drawn to Lou, even though I can't quite figure out what he is. A ring-tailed lemur, maybe?

*If there is, they likely got here because of the wonderful weblog, Das kleine Nadelspiel.

Posted at 9:20 pm  | 

Sunday January 9, 2005

Søvnmangel

Let me just say that having three 15 year old girls in the bedroom directly above yours does not make for a good night's sleep. It sounded like they were moving furniture into the wee hours of the night, though they deny that's the case.

In other news: I've moved some things from tripod pages over here and neatened them up a bit. The Red Sweater pattern, the Half-ribby Cap, plus the instructions for Emily Ocker's circular cast on, kitchener stitching and and the Magic Scarf bind off have all been moved and I expect I'll get the rest of it moved eventually.

And here's something you likely didn't need to know:
There are 2 1/2 million salamanders in every square kilometer of Appalachian forest.

And I'm almost through casting on those 300 stitches. Sheesh.

Posted at 9 pm  | 

Saturday January 8, 2005

Oi

Are there any phrase as disheartening as "cast on 300 stitches on size 0 / 2mm needles"?

Posted at around midnight  | 

Startitis - but for a good cause

Took a trip to the yarn shop today, looking for some Sisik (for a Ribby Cardi) which they didn't carry. (Errrgh.) But I came home with this pattern book (available at Bea Ellis) and enough Stork for this little dress and cap in mint green and off-white, which I will hereafter refer to as Abby Gail as that's who it's for... she's due in April. (No, not me, my cousin.)

Posted at 1:54 pm  | 

Friday January 7, 2005

Look Ma! No tables!

Whew! I'm on my way to something different... I can't say all of its perfect and the other pages don't match yet, but this css stuff is really, really cool. I have to thank Sigurd for loads and loads of explanations during which he got some really blank stares from me -- apparently he can make sense of w3C whereas it justs gives me a rip-roaring headache. But look!

Valid CSS!

(Please don't try to validate the html - I'm so not there yet.)

I should also say that I found this page a great help and well deserving of its title : Links that will save you from an aneurism.

Post script:
I lied. I wasn't that far off, at least for HTML 4.0 transitional.
Valid HTML 4.01!
WOOT!

Posted at 4:18 pm  | 

Wednesday January 5, 2005

Sunset from our living room.

sunset
This is a really good house.

Post script: I knew something special was going on when I looked up Monday afternoon and rang home so the husband would take this picture. What I saw as I was coming home from work looked like an opening through the lower, darker clouds that was ringed in the most vivid shades of turquoise, pink and purple I've ever seen in the sky - very much like the first picture in this series taken around Oslo that same afternoon. There are more pictures here (in Norwegian) that say basically that the phenomenon is a rare one and known as "mother of pearl clouds". Oh, and here are a couple of pages in English.

Posted at 5:15 pm  | 

Tuesday January 4, 2005

Our lives in a nutshell.

11:20 pm last night. In bed, but hearing small footsteps upstairs. Husband goes to check it out. The following is what I manage to hear from the bedroom.

Deep rumbling voice saying something in a questioning tone.

11 year old voice: I'm getting up.

Deep rumbling voice declaring what I assumed to be the time.

11 year old voice: You've got to be kidding me.

Deep rumbling voice in a denying tone.

11 year old voice: Well, I was starting to wonder what you were doing up so early.

Posted at 9:50 pm  | 

Monday January 3, 2005

Stash reorganization and a mascot

Somewhere, some knitting blogger, sometime before December 1, posted a link to a online catalogue of beautiful (rather unusual) jewelry. Anybody have any idea where or who that was? And any idea why I didn't put it in my favorites?*

I had the delightful opportunity to laze around reading what other knitters out there have been up to lately over my 3 day weekend. I realize that a big part of the experience is reading entries that describe their lives and I also realize I've not been that ... forthcoming ... for a while now here in these pages. I think part of that reason is self-censoring - I have begun to think more and more of who is reading rather than what I want to say. Kind of defeats the porpoise, doesn't it?

stash, reorganizedI haven't made too many resolutions yet (except for reading all of this and understanding it) but I did decide to organize my stash and, believe it or not, have already done it! Of course I managed to find a whole pile of half-finished projects that I really need to work on. In addition to the list over on the right --> there was 1/2 of a color-work sock, 3/4 of one color-work glove, part of a doll that I was designing myself, another glove in Rowan felted tweed (mostly finished), a little t-shirt from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies and a baby tomten and likely more that I've managed to block out now. And of course, rather than working on finishing some of those, I started something new with that one skein of Dale Svale I found. It's a little bag... I'll take a picture when I get the Elvis button sewn on and then proceeded to a Half-Ribby cap, which by the way, I've moved off tripod so we're through with those blasted ads. I'll be moving the rest of the pages that are over at tripod within the next few weeks.

And, to close, in the spirit of the blog mascot, may I present ... no, not a cat ... but

Slim, the stick insect

stick insect

*Actually it was because I would be too tempted to shop for myself. But this is for a gift.

Posted at 9:57 pm  | 

Sunday January 2, 2005

ROCK THE VOTE!

Go here :

The Fifth Annual Weblog Awards

and submit your nominations for the best weblogs of the year. We really need to get a knitter included this year for "Best Topical Weblog" so spread the word everybody!

Posted at 12:50 pm  | 

Saturday January 1, 2005

Some photographs from last night...


advent star

fireworks over our house

sparkler

Happy New Year, everyone.

Posted at 3:34 pm  | 

<--December

© 2004 Theresa V. Stenersen   All rights reserved.

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