Snapshot

I love autumn in Scotland. You get intense skies, beautiful colours and so much unexpected depth. As a young student I remember poring over John Keats' 'To Autumn' with its Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun.. It took a move across to the North sea to fully appreciate those words. Anyway, David took that photo walking home from a grocery shopping expedition in the busy West End. We live in outskirts of the West End and isn't it just beautiful here..?

Knitting post tomorrow. It'll be a tale of woe and joy.

Attack of the .. WHAT?

Last night I discovered that my wonderful father-in-common-law (aka D's Dad) will be starring in a low-budget spatter film set in Aberdeenshire. Ah, The Geekiness It Runneth in The Family.

I uncovered a few videos and found this one to be the most interesting - not because D's Dad is it (he is not in this video, actually) but rather because it is filmed where I spend most of my holidays. OK, so it is not incredibly interesting but I thought a few of my Danish pals might want to take a look. Please note that normally the village only houses a handful of zombies and that the video features some colourful language.

Unrelated: is this the greatest headline ever? It's a contender, I reckon.

Some knitting content to follow, I swear. It has been a long time coming, but my knitting mojo has returned.

Geeky Thursday

I could not resist. In case you cannot read what it says on the cover: A New Zealand sheep farm .. espionage .. and death.

It does not get better than that - except it does: one of the main (human) protagonists is called .. wait for it .. Flossie.

I know I said I was going to read David Mitchell's latest next, but that was before I came across this gem. I actually do not think it will as bad as it looks. Ngaio Marsh was an acclaimed female crime writer of the same ilk as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Just don't ask me how to pronounce her first name as I had been reliably informed by a New Zealand friend it was "Nyree" but the internet claims it is "Nie-oh". Huh.

The Nobel Prize in Literature is due to be announced today. Nobody really knows what to expect and I am so far out of the literary buzz loop these days that I won't even offer an opinion. I'm just mildly amused by the number of journalist clinging to whichever name they actually recognise out of the many names bandied about.

In other news, this week I made it to the top of the Glasgow Necropolis for the first time in three years. This is a personal triumph for a number of reasons - but realistically I think I could have done it ages ago. The climb through Mugdock Park was steeper and longer and I managed that without problems. I do not know what held me back from 'scaling' the Necropolis because the ascent is really just a gentle slope. Some things just linger in my head as "insurmountable challenges". Silly, silly Karie.

Finally, if you want to feel stupid, have a go at BBC's Only Connect quiz. It is a Monday night staple here at Casa Bookish and thankfully(?) there is an online version so you can try the 'connecting wall' yourself.

The idea is simple: you get a wall of sixteen clues which you need to sort into four distinct groups. The execution is far less simple because you need to think in all sorts of directions at the same time; clues which may look as though they belong together are simply red herrings. The actual TV quiz is entertaining too and often attracts people quite well-known in their fields. This week saw Geoff Ryman appear (to my Other Half's geeky delight) with Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell (to Stuart's geeky delight).

Enjoy the quiz and do not blame me if you suddenly feel significantly less smart.

Breathing

The past few weeks have been really stressful for a number of reasons, but I'm feeling like I'm into the homestretch now. Hopefully this means I can muster the mental energy to start writing regular blog entries once more. I have been at this blogging lark for nearly a decade, you know, and I loathe whenever more than a few days pass between posts. I'm writing this blog for me, essentially, and I don't like when my writing dries up. It is usually a sign that I am too busy or that major upheaval is happening in my life. This time around I have simply been too busy to do much else besides working, earing and sleeping. Not a good place to be, I'm sure you will agree.

I am really looking forwards to my little Denmark trip, in other words.

I shall be spending a huge chunk of it in rural Denmark - this always fills me with a strange sense of unease. I have unhappy memories of growing up in rural Denmark and feeling hugely out of place. All the things I was supposed to love and 'be into' (handball, horses, and country fairs) just filled me with dread whilst all the things I did love (books, art, and history) were considered 'weird'. I was always the quirky outsider and yet even today I'm expected to miss and long for those small towns that I fled as quickly as I could.

Anyway.

I shall also be spending some quality time in Copenhagen - a place I actually do miss and long for - with some of the best people I know. I have also being doing a bit of prep for this part of the trip: I shall be visiting my favourite LYS (Jorun is Faroese and specialises in North Atlantic wool) as well as a few other places. I am keeping an eye out for Christmas wish list candidates and Danish knitters have pointed me towards some books that look really interesting (I particularly like Hvirvelstrøm from the last book). I'm also going to look out for some special Danish wools and I'm trying desperately not to go for rustic laceweights from the North Atlantic because, well, my stash already harbours quite a few and it is not really what I'm knitting with these days..

Also, this autumn is shaping up to be absolutely cracking. Some really exciting new projects are in the pipeline and I have to pinch myself sometimes. Even though I am busy (and just on the wrong side of being stressed), I count myself lucky. Life is very good to me right now. I just need a bit of breathing space to appreciate it fully.

Deep Breath.

A Bit About Knitting

Have you checked out the latest issue of The Knitter? It features an article about making a living from knitting and I had to smile at the number of familiar faces popping up: the indomitable Kate Davies talks about combining academia with knitting, the extremely lovely Emma King talks about being a workshop tutor, and the ever fabulous Ms Old Maiden Aunt talks about being an indie yarn dyer. A cornucopia of friends and acquaintances - and it leaves me wondering just how big the UK knitting world really is. On the subject of knitting, everybody and their aunt have aired their views on the Deep Fall issue of Knitty. My considered view is be summarised thus: Sorry, But Not For Me. Do not get me wrong, I like some of the patterns but none of them strike me as a Must Knit. Beatnik stands out with its vintage feel and lovely cabling - it is a Norah Gaughan design, after all - but most of the other patterns just feel anonymous (or in one pattern's case, downright unflattering). Maybe it is the styling? Maybe I have become jaded? Maybe most of the really cool designs get submitted to Twist Collective or are self-published?

I'm still working on my baby alpaca cardigan - things have been a bit too hectic for my liking lately and my knitting has taken a back seat. I'm pondering my next big knit, though. I have some ideas swirling round my head, but many of these ideas have been thwarted by the Self-Stitched September project. Like so many other SSS participants I have realised I have actual wardrobe gaps and that I have FOs I hardly ever wear. Roobeedoo sums it up quite nicely:

Identifying my palette will undoubtedly help: if all my new items fit the colour-scheme, it should be easier to put together a coherent outfit in the morning. And that's quite exciting! In the past, I have been guilty of making ever-shifting plans, which got conveniently "forgotten" when the next shiny project caught my eye... and ended up with a great big heap of mismatched summer quirkiness. With a clear practical objective and a colour frame of reference, there will still be room for a dash of quirk, but it will "work".

I have recently been looking at my clothes and I'm very far from a capsule wardrobe. What does help is that I tend to gravitate towards the same colours (peridot green, deep purple, dark lipstick red, deep fuschia, rich teals) again and again. Now I just need to gravitate towards neutrals too and I can build upon that. I think. I also think I'm starting to gravitate towards a more minimalist style (I'm DEEPLY in love with this outfit, for instance) which may muddy the waters a bit.

A lovely weekend lies ahead. We are having overseas visitors and I'm really looking forward to showing them fair (and rainy) Glasgow.

Points

1. I overheard a conversation today between a little girl - maybe six years old? - and a woman who was clearly the au-pair. The little girl was a nightmare and the au-pair tried to calm her. The little girl turned to the woman: "You need to get yourself a PROPER job. Oh wait - you CAN'T which is why you are minding me." Ouch.

As a friend of mine pointed out when I posted about this overheard conversation on Facebook: "Well, if she's that precocious she can probably deal with being told all the horror stories about graduate unemployment these days. And that maybe she can use insults like that when she's old enough to have a proper job herself. After her parents have paid for her to have a gap year so she can find herself."

Zing.

2. This past week has been full of I Am Officially Getting On In Years moments. The other day I realised that Freddie Mercury has been dead for almost twenty years. Then I saw a young teenage boy sauntering down Byres Road looking like a young Brett Anderson circa 1992 (and then it hit me that the first Suede tracks are also almost twenty years old). And I learned that one of my erstwhile hang-out spots in Copenhagen has closed down. I'm facing my own mortality and it feels really weird.

3. A couple of crafty projects have been finished with much success. My Idunn hat is splendid and I'm rather pleased with an Amy Butler skirt I made too. I have failed miserably at keeping track of my Self-Stitched September, but I have been wearing something self-made every single day. I have been having a hard time understanding the instructions for a particular decrease section for my current Big Project, but I have cracked the code (sleep helps) and Progress Has Been Made.

4. Work is swamping me, so non-work things have suffered a lot these past few weeks. That means the house is a tip, I'm 75 pages into a library book due next week, very little blogging/commentating, and crap food. I hope to catch up with myself (and the housework) before too long as we're having Very Important People visiting us from the States very, very soon.

5. Finally, I was very pleased to see this news story about ABBA and Scandinavian politics as the top BBC Entertainment news story the other day. One day I need to write about the other reasons why I left Denmark and why I'm so ambivalent about my country of origin.

So, how are you?