Sunday, February 27, 2005
Hoppin' down the bunny trail.
I'd like to announce a new knit-a-long ...
!
Open to anyone who wants to make something rabbit related before Easter! Just email me to sign up.
I got inspired after seeing a post on Knitter's Review about
schmeebot's felted rabbit...
I love the way she's mapped out the rabbit and left it up to the knitter to decide what to do with it...
the possibilities are endless!
Plus I'm ready for a bit of springtime...
and I'm sure you've noticed - there seems to be a curious connection
between knitters and
rabbits.
Posted at 1:35 pm |
Friday, February 25, 2005
Finishing touches.
I completed this recently, but it was mostly knitted this fall when I was on blog hiatus.
It's a sweet little baby T, from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies with some Dale Baby Ull I had left over.
Posted at way too late. |
A photo for Friday.
A group of crows in the birch tree across the road.
Posted at 7:31 am |
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Put the face with the voice
Dan Castellaneta and Harry Shearer on Conan O'Brien and Yeardley Smith talking about her show More.Posted at 7:18 pm |
Monday, February 21, 2005
Telling about the good stuff too.
I was on the receiving end of some positive feedback today at work. The unit I'm working on has a rather bad reputation from before I started there in October - lack of leadership over a period of time had led to people just doing whatever they wanted, damn the consequences - and the lady who has taken over one of the leadership positions gave me a bit of credit for being professional and competent and seeing "the big picture".Norwegian word for the day: ros meaning praise or commendation.
Posted at 5:19 pm |
Sunday, February 20, 2005
A woman can be tough.
As a breast cancer survivor and Melissa Etheridge fan, I was longing to see her performance at the Grammy awards after being tipped off about it over at Teresa's earlier in the week. But the only time I found the show being aired again was last night and I had to work. (Really hate working on Saturday evenings.) I searched and searched online but came up empty handed and had abandoned hope...But then I did what I should have done in the first place and asked my (amazingly marvelous) husband to see if he could find it. He kept at it for around an hour and triumphantly presented me with these results. Enjoy! I certainly did. She ROCKS.
And she's appearing tonight at 7pm ET on Dateline NBC for an interview discussing her illness and her performance. They have a preview of the interview already posted at their site. We, naturally, don't get Dateline... I guess I'll have to ask the human search engine to start trying to find that for me tomorrow. :o)
Posted at 7:03 pm |
Saturday, February 19, 2005
You asked for it, you got it.
An index of Knitty Gritty episodes detailing which have accompanying videos and pdf files! I'm still finding familiar names and great tips... Check out the lovely Kristi recycling yarn using her salad spinner. (I knew I needed one of those!)Posted at 1:10 pm |
Friday, February 18, 2005
KnitCast, Shetha and a birthday
Loads of congratulations to Marie on
the First Edition of KnitCast!
KnitCast is a 10 minute podcast about knitting ... available for download here as a 11.8 MB mp3 file. The next edition (and don't forget to sign up for the notify list!) will be an interview with Wendy. Can't wait!
I got a huge kick out of hearing Marie's voice and not just because of her charming Welsh-ness. When I read I hear my own voice (I can only assume everyone does...?) and there's something about hearing the actual voices of Bloggers I've been reading for years that leaves me with a goofy grin on my face and makes it hard for me to absorb the actual content.
Finding Shetha on
Knitty Gritty
(Video 1 and
Video 2)
talking about her Illusion Knitting
had the same effect on me... I squealed and
and shouted for the husband to "come look! I know her! She's the one
who knit my camera cover!"
I received this knitted bag from Shetha in a "7 things" exchange - an idea that Ivete came up with in the infant days of the KnitBlogs group that was inspired by the 20 things projects. I wonder if it's possible to do something like that nowadays...?
One reason I'm thinking about things past today is because it's ...
And that, I think, deserves a bunny dance...
(Dancing bunny via millan.net)
Posted at 2:22 pm |
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Norwegian Knitting Pattern Lesson #6
Today I'll finally be continuing the translation of a Norwegian knitting pattern into English. (Previous lessons can be found here.)The Sleeves
I may have mentioned this before, but...
høyre :: right
venstre :: left
erme :: arm, sleeve
Høyre erme: Legg opp 60 (60-60) m på ermp 2,5 med sort og strikk Kant, deretter strikkes M.1 x 3 i høyden.
Right arm: cast on 60 (60-60) sts on 2.5 mm double pointed needles with black yarn and knit edge (as given earlier in the pattern) then knit Pattern 1 three times in a row.
ermpinner is another way to say double points, I assume. They're called "sock needles" or "arm needles" at various points in patterns ... I suppose that's in order to leave it up to the individual knitter what type of needles to use given that it's a fairly small circumference piece. Leaving instructions open to interpretation seems fairly typical of Scandanavian knitting patterns - they're not going to hold your hand and spell it all out for you, you're going to have to do some deciding on your own.
strikkes M.1 x 3 i høyden translates lit. to "knit Pattern 1 x 3 i height". I had to take a peek at the picture to make sure I understood this bit - and indeed pattern 1 is knit 3 separate times in a row up the sleeves. I imagine it's saying "in height" to distinguish what this pattern is asking you to do rather than knitting a pattern repeat "in breadth." Some knitting patterns specify how many times a stitch or color pattern is to be repeated around a sleeve (or whatever) but this pattern is expecting you to do that bit of math yourself. It's a 60 st sleeve and the pattern (M.1) is a repeat of 20 stitches - so you'll do it three times around the the sleeve. So...
høyde :: height
brede :: breadth
The next line says: Bytt til ermp 3,5 og natur og strikk glstrikk oppover til ferdig mål.
Meaning: Change to size 3.5 needles and the "natural" colored yarn and continue to knit in stockingette stitch until the piece is the correct length.
bytt :: change, trade
glstrikk :: glattstrikk or "smooth knitting", ie. stockingette stitch
oppover :: upwards
nedover :: downwards
ferdig :: finished
mål :: target, or measurement - here referring to the length.
Samtidig etter M.1 x 3 økes det midt under ermet: 2 m x 17 (19-19) på S: Hver 4.omg, M+L: Hver 3.omg = 94 (98-98) m.
At the same time, after pattern 1 is knitted three times, increase at the center under the arm: 2 sts x 17 (19-19) by increasing for size small: every 4th round and for sizes medium and large: every 3rd round, ending up with 94 (98-98) sts.
samtidig :: at the same time
økes :: increase
midt :: middle, center
ermet :: the sleeve
Når arb måler 44 (42-43) cm felles det 4 m midt under ermet og det strikkes ferdig frem og tilbake på p.
When the work measures 44 (42-42) cm, bind off 4 sts at the center of the underarm and finish working back and forth on the needles.
måler :: measures
ferdig :: finish
frem :: forward
tilbake :: back
på p(inner) :: on the needles
Videre felles det til ermtopp i hver side på hver 2.p: 3 m x 1, 2 m x 6 (5-5), 1 m x 6 (11-11), 2 m x 6 (5-5), 3 m x 1, fell av. Arb måler ca 57 (57-58) cm.
Continue to decrease for the top of the sleeve (shaping) in each side every 2nd row: 3 sts x 1, 2 sts x 6 (5-5), 1 st x 6 (11-11), 2 sts x 6 (5-5), 3 sts x 1, then bind off remaining sts. Work measures approximately 57 (57-58) cm.
videre :: continue, "go on to"
felle :: decrease
ermtopp :: top of the sleeve
i hver side :: in each side
arb(eid) :: work
ca. (circa) :: approximately.
Venstre erme: Legg opp og strikk som høyre erme, men strikk M.2 i stedet for M.1.
Left sleeve: Cast on and knit as for the right sleeve, but knit Pattern 2 instead of Pattern 1.
legg opp :: cast on
i stedet for :: instead of
Next time: Finishing!
On a more personal note I'm home sick today. As long as I don't make any sudden moves my head won't fall off and roll about on the floor. And I got an email from Amy saying the Knitty deadline is ... well, here, so I'll be dropping everything else and doing that now. As soon as I wake up again...
Posted at 2:12 pm |
Monday, February 14, 2005
Whoops!
The rss thingy didn't like me including the Norwegian characters that I used in the last post, but using a xml thingy worked. So I'll be going over to that... so if you've subscribed to me (Thank you - whoever you are!) please go over to this one. If I weren't doing this stuff manually, I'd keep both. As is, I think there may be a time when I don't have to reformat everything from the index to the xml file. But I still have a ways to go before that's a reality. Blah blah blah.Meanwhile, in a bit of knitting news... I've been playing around with this new yarn I found at the LYS... it's called Tutti Frutti and it's by Du Store Alpakka and I'm knitting it on gigantic needles - I think they're 9.5 mm. Quite an adjustment when I go from the 2 mm needles for Abby Gail.
According to the little sign hanging in the store one little (isn't it cute?) ball of this is enough to a scarf. We'll see...
Posted at 9:55 pm |
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Til min mann
Når tunge tanker trenge på hos meg
og eg trenge te litt trøst
vet eg alt eg trenge er å få hos deg
det er nesten nok å hørra di røst...
ein sko tru him'len hadde sendt deg
det aller beste som har hendt meg
det er du det, det er du
det er du det, bare du.
Du har tålt meg mer enn nåken har
og du kjenne meg til bunns
Eg blir bedre enn eg er med deg
og det er du som gjør meg god
eg vet'kje koss det sko ha gått med meg
hvis det ikkje var oss to...
Du er den du er
og du lar meg vær den eg er
du kunne nok ofte tenkt deg
å ha gjort nåke med det
men du lar meg få ha
mine særheter i fred
og kem er det så tåle
å holda ut med det...
Ein sko tru him'len hadde sendt deg
det aller beste som har hendt meg
det e du det, det e du
det e du det, bare du.
Go to track 05 on the flash player at the top of this page if you'd like to hear this song.
Posted at 11:25 am |
Saturday February 12, 2005
In which I appear to be obsessed with Ikea.
Elspeth left the following comment on the previous Ikea post:I just read an article in sfgate.com (link) that IKEA isn't as exciting in Sweden as it is in the U.S. -- how does it stack up in Norway? When our local IKEA opened it was like Disneyland, including parking attendants. Strange.I haven't been to an IKEA in the US... nor in Sweden, so I'm a bit limited in my ability to compare levels of excitement (hoot!) between those two, but I can say this:
The local Ikea (and there are two in the Oslo area) has been open since the mid-80's so that cuts down on the Disney atmosphere, I'm sure ... though now that I think about it, I'm not sure there's anything with a Disney atmosphere in Norway. And I have been to Disney World, so I here I can speak with some certainty.
By the way, there is no such job as "parking attendant" in this country, or at least we've never seen one. The only people that would be willing to work for such low pay would be teenagers and the minimum driving age here is 18. That reminds me (and I've been wanting to work this into a post for some time now) you're required to have around 3,000 dollars worth of driving instruction to get a driver's license in this country. Not a special kind of driver's license, either, just to drive a normal car. Want to drive a SUV? That'll cost you another couple of thousand. Boogles the mind, doesn't it? I was lucky enough to discover that you can "trade in" your valid American driver's license within a year of moving here without jumping through all the usual hoops. But now I'm getting way off the subject...
Certainly no Ikea employee sober person would be caught dead wearing a Viking helmet
in Norway. I fact I think the only place you might see those helmets
is at a football (i.e. soccer) game, being worn by inebriated
middleaged men sans shirts. But then, my only source for that theory is
a commercial for some mobile phone company. (Can't remember which one or
I'd post a link. Er det noen av dere norske som vet?)
After reading the article I can see the similarities between the way the Swedes feel and they way Norwegians feel about the jolly blue giant. Having Ikea furniture isn't anything to get excited about, certainly. And the husband definitely has associations between Ikea and cheap white laminate. But I'm somewhere in the middle... American enough to be seduced by coffee tables in the shape of a yin and yang, yet naturalized enough to feel no difference between a trip to Ikea here and a trip to Walmart there.
That said, I would be fascinated to know how some of you Scandanavian readers feeling towards Ikea! Leave a comment or email me and I'll post the results here.
More Ikea fun:
* Transversing the 5 worlds of Ikea via
The Morning News. Unfortunately
doing a Swedish Chef impression (wav file - 240 KB) is less
likely to fool evil Swedish employees into thinking you're the regional manager
...
* "Guess the product" game. (I got 3 right first time.)
* Time to Leave Home? (mpg file - 2.62 MB) This one plays on regular television here too... I'm assuming
not so much in the States?
Posted at 12:46 am |
Friday February 11,2005
In which we have an RSS feed.
Albeit simple and perhaps a bit primitive. I'm learning something I was clueless about until a couple of hours ago, so that's to be expected I suppose. I found this article - How to Create an RSS Feed With Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer - followed along, uploaded, and even validated!
So finally (and it's about time) you can subscribe to this site via Bloglines.
How snazzy!
Posted at 2:50 pm |
Thursday February 10,2005
More proof...
that there's something about Ikea that brings out the worst in people: One woman "pushed her way forward screaming with excitement" when the doors opened on a new Ikea north of London last night. They had to close after 30 minutes.Here's a report via Nettavisen in Norwegian.
Posted at 4:20 pm |
Tuesday February 8,2005
Where can I get a application?
Residents of a nursing home in Tasmania have knit an entire room. That would be a VERY cool place to work.(Link via boing boing via Shannon.)
Posted at 1:20 pm |
Need something to make you feel really good today?
Here tis:Matt dancing. (36 MB wmv file)
And once you're intrigued ... and I know you will be - in addition to being goofily happy for no real identifiable reason ... you can read about his adventures here.
Posted at 11:40 am |
Monday February 7,2005
Mer Marekat
Marekat kommer til intervju på NRK Petre hvert øyeblikk nå. Hør på!Uhm... that says: Marekat - the band I mentioned a couple of weeks ago - is being interviewed on NRK Petre any minute now.
Update :: The interview was in connection with being Urørt's Pick of the Week. Congratulations!
Posted at 10:37 pm |
February 7,2005
Monday Afternoon Mirth*
The "Goldfish" awards (for best commercial) were given out ... well, recently... on Norwegian television. A grocery store chain's spot won. You can see the commercial, called Doffen, here. Here's the translation:The grocery store in question is one that carries the "basic" stuff... no frills or arugula or strange cheeses. This one - in the same vein and called Bun in the Oven - is even better, if you ask me.Mother: Oi. I think maybe Dewey is a little tired... maybe he really needs to rest a little. Uhm... Mommy'll get a cup and then mommy'll drive Louey out into the country - then he can stay a little at that ranch, you know, the one where Huey and Louie are. Then he can stay that for a while and experience what it's like to really get to take good care of himself.
Sister: What's going on?
Kid: Dewey's dead.
Text: The simpliest is often the best.
'Cept what the little boy says is the most obscene word I can think of in the Norwegian language.Mother: Ah... the bee flies from flower to flower... uh.. and sniffs and smells and rolls around in the flower so it can get pollen on it. And Pappa is ... is like a giant bee and ... uh... sometimes when Mamma's ... uh ... asleep, then he sniffs around and if Mamma wakes up sometimes Pappa rolls around on Mamma.
Kid: Is it screwing you mean, Mamma?
Mom: Laughing... where have you... uh... hmm.
* To misquote Bonne Marie, who, coincidentally, is also talking about commercials today. Wardrobe Malfunction gets banned in the States, but a 4 year old saying the f-word on Norwegian national television is fine. And you wonder why I feel a bit of culture shock now and again?
Posted at 4:16 pm |
Sunday February 6, 2005
A Day at Ikea
Me, walking up to the counter in the wardrobes and closets section with Amalie, speaking Norwegian: I'm looking for a new clothes rod for the Robin series wardrobe.Female Ikea employee, speaking Swedish: There isn't one.
Me: No? The Komplement series rods won't work?
Her: No, the Robin series are self-containing units. You can't get extra parts for it.
Me: Are you sure? I think the rods that fit the 50 cm closets would work...
Her, grabbing a measuring tape, looking annoyed: I'll measure it.
We all walk over to the wardrobe. She waves the flimsy Ikea paper measuring tape around the inside of the wardrobe.
Her: It's 49 cm. The Komplement rods are 46 cm long.
Me: Oh.... what about the 100 cm rods? Could they be cut off to fit?
Her: No, they only come in steel and birch.
Me: And the birch couldn't be cut off?
Her: No... (mumbles something about the inner core of the birch rods)
Me: (Banging my head into the door of the wardrobe in frustration.) Oh well.
Her, snottily: (Walking away.) We get this question all the time.
I look at Amalie and she looks at me. We walk a short distance away.
Me, speaking now to Amalie: Well, maybe we could get a few more shelves... that would help, wouldn't it?
Amalie: Yeah, I guess so. (It's her closet we're trying to organize here.)
Me: (Grabbing another flimsy paper measuring tape.) Let's measure the shelves then.
I take the shelf out of the wardrobe. Amalie looks nervously around to see if anyone is looking. I measure it carefully. It's exactly 47 cm. Hmm...
Me: Damn that woman! (I don't think I said that out loud though.) She measured it wrong.
We walk away again. I'm fuming, but quietly. Amalie's still looking around to see if we're being watched.
Me: We'll go order it downstairs. I'm just going to find that woman and kick her before we go.
Amalie grabs my hand and pulls me away. We start to fight our way through the crowds. As we through the next section I spot the same woman at a different counter and make a beeline for her. I can't quite decide whether to confront her about her lack of measuring skills, but ask Amalie if she wants to go look at something else while I place the order. Looking relieved, she makes a run for it.
Me: I'd like to order the 46 cm steel clothes rod, please.
Hussy: (Typing in the computer.) You'll have to pick it up across the street.
Me: Yes, I know.
Posted at 11:18 am |
Nød lærer naken kvinne å spinne.*
- Handspinning for beginners by the lovely and talented Shannon.
- Introduction to spinning and spinning basics (pdf files via Interweave)
- Joy of Handspinning
- Koolaid dyeing
- Hand painting roving
Guess what I got off ebay? (Hint: the seller was in the Netherlands.)
*Literally "necessity teaches a naked women to spin". Isn't Norwegian great?
Posted at 3:58 pm |
Wednesday February 2, 2005
Being a grownup, the demise of Sisik and a few unrelated things.
Happy Groundhog Day! Eastern Norway's in for 6 more weeks of winter, I do believe. If we get winter i det hele tatt.I mentioned the incident I mentioned here last week to the person in question. She was having a bad day and it wasn't me she had gotten fed up with, I just got the sharp end of it. I'm very proud of myself for saying something instead of letting it fester, fester, fester... rot, rot, rot.
I got a delightful email from a eraser-carving unicycling knitter a few days ago that had made a hat from my Half Ribby Cap pattern. He posted about it here and I wanted to share - not least of all because he forgot how to knit 30 years ago and came up with this after picking up the needles again in December. (!)
I'm just past the second repeat on the Dale baby dress.
And I think it's about time to talk knitting around here again, by golly.
Abby Gail is rather slow going on size 2mm (that's US size 0) needles.
I didn't read the fine print of the pattern that says "We recommend knitting Stork on 2mm needles" rather
than the 2.5 mm needles recommended for Baby Ull. Half a millimeter doesn't sound like much, but oh, it really is.
Speaking of Dale, I ordered enough Sisik for the Ribby Cardie
and am having the hardest time
not starting on it. But honestly, my list of ongoing projects is getting a bit out of control. I at least ought to do the crown decreases
for my own Half Ribby Cap. (The original is gone somewhere - likely the kids have taken it to their mother's house.)
Wouldn't take but a few minutes really. In fact, I think I'll just do that now.
Or well, soon...
I just reminded myself to post this bit of news: I ordered the Sisik* directly from Dale by going through their contact page and they were most helpful and friendly. I had tried to find it at both my LYS and all the yarn stores in Oslo, but noone was stocking it and one owner even said that it was being discontinued... which I had trouble believing as it seems to be readily available from several sources in the States. So I asked the nice Dale lady in one of the emails that flew back and forth and she confirmed that it is indeed no longer being produced. So if you got inspired by the Gerbera Knitalong but hadn't gotten around to making it - be sure to get the yarn soon!
*For a yarn exchange with Melanie. How fun!
Posted at 8:07 pm |
Tuesday February 1, 2005
More voting, please.
Torill's thinking with my fingers is up for a Satin Pajama for "Best Tech Weblog" at The 1st European Weblog Awards. (It's the 10th category down.)She's neck in neck with another weblog and it's the last hours of voting, so come let's see if we can't push her over to win!
Posted at 11:41 am |
<--January
© 2004 Theresa V. Stenersen All rights reserved.
Apparently I'm from Mercury.
