Nice thick socks loosely inspired by these.
--------- Regia jacquard socks of generic design. 1 and 1/2 pairs finished!
--------- Shawl in Lamb's Pride Worsted. Finished! Pattern here.
--------- Cardigan
for Dad from Maske for maske - ungdom og voksne by Mette Handberg.
--------- And okay, I'll admit it, I've got a ribbed cardigan on the needles for my step-daughter, Theresa, made out of her sweatshirt gray
Lamb's Pride Worsted. Finished!
Monday 30. December 2002
It's 1 degree F (-17C) outside right now. We were outside blowing soap bubbles that froze before they hit the ground.
That is soooo cool!
The ribbe turned out
very well, as did the rest of dinner. Yea! The presents were opened and everyone was happy. Amalie loved Foxy and
Theresa was very happy about the scarf I made for her. (Pictures later.)
Today I made Pinnekjøtt with mashed rutabagas and boiled potatoes. Yummy. No, really, it's yummy.
I would never have imagined liking mashed rutabagas, but this was good. Instead of using the
water from the rutabagas to mash with them, I (on the suggestion of the Norwegian cookbook, of course) made a
white sauce (2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 3/4 cup of milk) and used that mix with the boiled rutabagas.
The rutabagas have to be peeled and cut into smaller bits first, naturally. They're hard... raw rutabags.
I cut my left index finger rather severely while doing so. My knitting finger. Right where I carry the yarn.
I'm fairly disgusted with myself. Plus it hurts. ;O)
I mentioned rødsaft yesterday and I looked at the bottle and can now report that it
is concentrated grape, apple, pear and cherry juices (plus sugar) that comes in a bottle to mix
at a ratio of 1 to 4. It's very good and I don't know why they don't have such a thing in the US. Or do they? Hmm..
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!
I'm grateful to each and everyone of you that comes here to read these ramblings and can't begin to
express my happiness at having found so many knitting friends through this website.
Ah, I'm the only one awake so far... I just put the risgrøt on to cook, so I'll share the recipe with you while it comes to a boil:
Rice Porridge
short grain rice -- 3 1/2 dl
water -- 8 dl
milk -- 2 liters
salt -- 1- 1 1/2 teaspoon
Put the rice and water in a large thick bottomed pan. Boil and let simmer, uncovered, on low heat until the water has cooked in, 10 - 15 minutes.
Pour on the milk, preferably boiling milk. Stir well and let it boil again. Place a tight fitting lid on pan and set it
to the side of the stove on a thick wooden plate. Don't stir it. Return to a nice, warm bed for the next hour.
Add more milk if necessary and let the porridge finish. (?) Stir well.
Serve with cinnamon, sugar, butter and rødsaft. (I can't explain what rødsaft is right now. Later.) Hide an almond in one of the bowls.
The lucky soul who finds the almond receives a marsipan pig as a reward!
spiced cabbage - they comes in boxes marked "rødkål" and "surkål"
apples
prunes
potatoes
Christmas sausage - comes in a bag
marked "julepølse"
Note to myself: Do not let milk boil over onto stove. The smell of burning milk quite overpowers the lovely scents of mulled wine, oranges and
Christmas tree.
I'm still around. I've been knitting dishclothes for gifts, mostly from the
Dishcloth Boutique. Fun fun!
My mom and I have been shopping most every day (Dad only sticks his head out the front door and goes brrrrr every now and then -- not
surprising when the temperature is -4 F/-20 C)
so I haven't gotten much done on Dad's Christmas (next Christmas?) sweater, but I'm going to
concentrate on that today, preferably in front of a roaring fire and sipping gløgg
and enjoying the few quiet moments that are left to me...
Oh, and does anyone have a recipe for a home-made mocha liqueur that doesn't involve sweetened condensed milk? And does anyone know
if that's how you spell mocha? ;o)
After letting the shawl dry and trying it both on me
and Mom (did I mention my parents are here for Christmas? Yippee!) I decided it works well as is. Want to
make one? The pattern is here.
I have two finished objects! Count 'em... two!! One is a secret (I'll show it after Christmas) and the other is the Clover Stitch shawl.
The pattern says "Bind off loosely. I suggest several rows of garter stitch and then 3-stitch
attached I-cord for a stable and flexible edge." Weeell, I did several rows of garter stitch before binding off loosely, but the top (bound off) edge
is too loose. Can you put a attached I-cord to a bound off edge? How do you do an attached I-cord? I sure as shootin' am not going to knit a mile long I-cord and sew it on.
I have a feeling I'm going to need to unravel the bound off edge and do it again a bit tighter... any thoughts out there?
Wendy, a knitter who is learning Norwegian and lives with angora rabbits and goats and a house chicken in Utah, sent me these more in-depth
instructions for making Julehjerter, the woven Christmas
hearts that adorn the Christmas tree. Thanks, Wendy!
I was going to talk about today being Santa Lucia, but Carolyn and
Wendy have done so thoroughly, so I'll just give you the Norwegian version of
the song and recommend visiting those lovely ladies today!
Svart senker natten seg i stall og stuer.
Solen har gått sin vei. Skyggene truer.
Inn i vårt mørke hus
stiger med tente lys
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!
Natten er mørk og stum. Med ett det suser
i alle tyste sus som vinger bruser.
Se på vår terskel står
hvitkledd med lys i hår
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!
Mørket skal flykte snart fra jordens daler
Slik hun et underfult ord til oss taler
Dagen skal atter ny stige av røde sky -
Sankta
Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Erica has a brilliant alternative to the Staples ad.
And if you scroll up, you'll see she's written about another song that's frequenting my brain these days -- "Nu er det jul igjen." Click here
to get it into yours. Oh, and people really actually do hold hands and dance around the tree singing. We did it last year.
The song from this morning was in my head when I returned from driving the kids to school... I added the translation to
lessen the confusion.
I don't feel very Christmas-y yet. But I'm trying!
We will be putting up our Christmas tree, a real one, on the 23rd of December, as tradition dictates. I used to put the tree
up (as in "together") on Thanksgiving, so this is a real difference. I promised Wendy some
time ago that I would be talking more about Christmas in Norway so I suppose I ought to get a move on.
Christmas trees are frequently decorated with hand-made heart-shaped baskets with a treat inside,
strands of little Norwegian flags and the lights are almost always white.
On the first day of Advent, like clockwork, stars and candles show up in the windows of almost every home...
I will add some pictures to these
pronouncements a.s.a.p. :O)
Når nettene blir lange og kulda setter inn så sier vesle musemor til ungeflokken sin:
Hvis ingen går i fella, men passer seg for den, skal alle sammen snart
få feire jul igjen!
Hei-san og Hop-san og fa la la la la! Om julekvelden da skal alle sammen være glad...
Hei-san og Hop-san og fa la la la la! Om julekvelden da skal alle sammen være glad!
--------------------------------------
When the nights get long, and the cold sets in, the little mouse-mother says to all her children:
If no one gets caught in a mouse trap, but are careful instead, then we'll all get to celebrate Christmas again!
Hei-san and Hop-san and fa la la la la! On Christmas eve, then everybody will be glad...
Hei-san and Hop-san and fa la la la la! On Christmas eve, then everybody will be glad!
I should admit the actual song says "Hei-san og Hop-san og Fallerallera", but that sounds too much
like the waiters at the end of A Christmas Story.
Oh, the cardigan isn't coming along as quickly as I had hoped.
I've got 4 whole vertical repeats done. 5 to go. In 14 days. Plus another sleeve. And I haven't knitted today at all. Bleh.
But on an incredibly positive note, Chicknits and Knitty
got mentioned in the Wall Street Journal! I know of no more deserving souls for such recognition than the lovely Bonnie Marie and Amy. Skål!!
For most of the month of March 1990, three photographs were pinned by the light switch together.
A small one, in color, showed a middle-aged man doing some carpentry.
... He's framing a house, and by the look
on his face and the way he holds the hammer, it is clear that he not only knows what he is doing, but is intent on doing it right and well.
...The second picture by the light switch was a grainy black-and-white news photo from the morning paper earlier in the month. Showing a middle-aged man, in a short-sleeved,
sweat-stained khaki shirt. The man is smiling a great smile. And the other people in the picture are also smiling. The occasion is the conclusion
of an election -- an honest election -- held in powder-keg conditions in a Central American country. Nobody was killed during the elections, and the losers
accepted the results, leading to a major change in government. The man in the shirtsleeves was there risking his credibility and
brains and skills -- even his life .. to help bring about the impossible. He was there on his own, representing only himself and his concerns,
without compensation other than the wages of conscience.
The third picture ... shows a man in white shirt and tie. He is not smiling. The look on his face is a combination
of vexation and determination. He has come once again to meetings in the Middle East to get enemies to talk to one
another face to face. Not on behalf of his government or any government -- not on behalf of any organization. On behalf of
peace and justice. An agent of progress in human affairs.... he is truly in the construction business. Giving of his time and life
to build houses for poor people, to build an atmosphere wherein free elections can take place, to build structures of peace in
one of the oldest and harshest arenas of conflict in human history.
The man's name is Carter. Used to raise peanuts in Georgia. Had a government job once. Carpenter now. And teacher.
And when the historians settle up accounts on the twentieth century someday, his name will shine. He may not be in the list of great presidents -- it is too soon to say.
But it is not too soon to say that he is the finest ex-president in our century, and maybe ever.
Each night as I finish my work and paused at the switch, I looked at the three pictures. Gallant is the word that comes to
mind -- high-spirited, courageous. He knows how to lose -- for he has lost big. Forces beyond his control may have made him the wrong man
for the wrong job at the wrong time. Still, he lost as few men have.
He might have tucked his tail between his legs and spent the rest of his life sorting his papers and fishing and playing golf. Others who
have had his government job have done as little. But to lose and to be a loser are very different matters. Besides, he
still had work to do. Tasks he accepts because of who he is and not because of any office he may or may not hold. He is proof that there
is no limit to the amount of good a man may do if he does not worry about who gets the credit.
He is not one of those who gained the world and lost his own soul.
Amy mustn't feel left out. Amy is marvelous. Amy both has and deserves my
unending gratitude. Amy's pattern is here. Amy has just
made me give away the thing I plan to knit everyone I know as Christmas gifts. ;O)
"Finding and using information from the Internet can turn out to be the
equivalent of drawing your religious or political education from a conversation
you overhear on the bus." --
Thus sayeth KnitNet.
I say :: Hogwash.
Tho I don't think I can say it better than Alison
and Becky and Jamie and
Anne already have.
Okay, I'll admit I didn't find these excellent
free resources by using Google. Or, at least, not most of them. I found them through
the kindness of strangers on various knitting forums
whose livelihoods do not depend on it. And I can say, unequivocally, that I have seen nothing that is free,
online and knitting-related which could be considered harmful. In fact, I think the more varied the instruction the better.
One more thing, and I am speaking now about the things I know best:
knitting weblogs (which are a wealth of free instruction and information) and knitting forums and lists. To say that
these sources are unmediated is, well, more hogwash. We watch each other. And I know... I know that if I were to say something like
acrylic is, by far, the warmest fiber for winter garments it would quickly become obvious just how mediative we are with each other.
Jamie asked about the new-ish pictures-fading-in-and-out deal at the top of this page.
It's a DHTML script I found at Dynamic Drive in the
Image on Mouse Over section.
(This site is particularly useful because of the demos provided for each of the scripts.)
No one likes us I don't know why. We may not be perfect But heaven
knows we try. But all around even our old friends put us down. Let's
drop the big one and see what happens.
We give them money But are
they grateful? No they're spiteful And they're hateful. They don't
respect us so let's surprise them; We'll drop the big one and pulverize
them.
Now Asia's crowded And Europe's too old. Africa's far too
hot, And Canada's too cold. And South America stole our name. Let's
drop the big one; there'll be no one left to blame us.
We'll
save Australia; Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo. We'll build an
all-American amusement park there; They've got surfing, too.
Well,
boom goes London, And boom Paris. More room for you And more room
for me. And every city the whole world round Will just be another
American town. Oh, how peaceful it'll be; We'll set everybody free;
You'll have Japanese kimonos, baby, There'll be Italian shoes for me.
They all hate us anyhow, So let's drop the big one now. Let's drop
the big one now.
This is a weblog. It's mine. It tends to be about knitting
with occasional ramblings about my experience living in Norway.
(Sometimes it's the other way 'round.) Want to know more? Read
this! :O)
Copyright © 2002 spellingtuesday.com
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