The Countdown Has Begun

Christmas time is always fraught with cultural mishaps. I've learned a lot about British (and Scottish) Christmas traditions over the last few years. I have even adopted some as my own traditions: Christmas pudding with brandy butter, eggnog, Doctor Who Christmas special, Christmas stockings.. but some traditions do not translate well. I'm still unsure about fake Christmas trees in garish colours that you buy pre-decorated or the obsession with turkey. Then again, some Danish Christmas traditions do not translate at all:

Quite apart from that, I'm hoping to get the last of the Christmas baking under way this week: vanilla rings, shortbread, brown biscuits and pepper nuts. I have a hankering for klejner as well, but I've never been able to make any that taste half as nice as my Auntie Annie's..

Any cross-cultural Christmas traditions in your home - or any unusual Christmas traditions for that matter?

PS. No Christmas knitting for me this year. I have too much on my plate as is!

The Start of Something

This is an experiment. Last year I knitted a fair-isle beret which turned out to be really warm and I had been meaning to knit matching mitts. Sadly the beret was not just super-warm, it was also super-itchy, and so I never made the mitts.

I decided I was going to re-knit the beret (and knit the mitts) this winter, and I uncovered yarn in my stash. Some aran-weight yarn from Blacker Designs (Norfolk Horn - not currently available) and some Noro Kureyon to go with it.

I don't think the experiment is working. The two yarns are beautiful but they are not beautiful together. The Norfolk Horn yarn is too marled to show off the Kureyon and the Kureyon is too strong to show off the Norfolk Horn.The colourwork gets lost.

Rip, rip, rip.. or what do you think?

It is currently snowing outside and I'm about to start decorating for Christmas, so it feels wrong to say this .. but the first summer collections are beginning to show up around the interwebs.

First up, Rowan. They have gone more lacy with this collection which is nice for a lacehead like me. My favourite is probably Daydream from the main magazine's Illusion story - it looks almost Victorian with its high lace collar and long sleeves. Knitted in my beloved Kidsilk Haze I'm currently trying to persuade myself that I need a Victorian-esque lace jumper in my wardrobe. Fancy, another KSH jumper, looks a bit more practical. Summers in Scotland can be quite cool, I'm telling myself..

I'm really starting catching the sewing bug too. I've discovered a couple of great sewing blogs - my current favourite is probably The Snug Bug because Patty sews up Colette patterns, models them, and looks amazing. She makes me feel like I too could look great in a Colette garment although I am not a stick-insect-thin twenty-something living in an impossibly trendy New York apartment (not to slight Colette patterns at all but some of the sewing bloggers modelling them makes me feel woefully inadequate and lumpy - it is odd that I never feel that way about knitters?).

Another cup of hot chocolate beckons me, then it's time to put on some music (Sam Cooke? Voxtrot?) and then start uncovering Christmas decorations. Happy first of December..

It's Only November

Catch-Up

I have ten rows to go on my tenth shawl of 2010. The rows are getting very long now, so I'm taking a break - just long enough to make myself a cup of tea and to update my sadly neglected blog. It has been a very long week. All my best intentions and all my best-laid plans flew out the window whilst I tried to hold on to my sanity and get through a mountain of work. I have been playing catch-up ever since returning from Denmark and I think I'm almost nearly there.

These things have helped me through the week:

• He Will Have His Way - the follow-up to She Will Have Her Way, funnily enough. Boy & Bear's version of Fall At Your Feet is quite possibly my favourite Finn cover (fighting it out with Holly Throsby's Not the Girl You Think You Are) and I also really like the surf rock take on Shark Attack.
• Humoncomics can be very hit-or-miss, but I liked their take on Scandinavian cuisines. I made Danish rice pudding this week - it's a main course in Denmark and makes for wonderful comfort food. We did not have any leftovers, though, or I would have made some klatkager the next day.
• Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving. If you have a dog or ever known one, you should read this. I still remember how betrayed my dog looked when we moved across town (I was 18. He was deeply upset on a profound level).
• This youtube video made me smile one cloudy, grey November morning: Dannii & Kylie Minogue flash mob in Sydney.

My shawl beckons me (as does that cup of tea). Have a lovely weekend.

Wordy

A linguist friend once told me about a second language acquisition theory: different people store languages in different ways. Some brains work like a giant filing cabinet: words, phrases, idioms and syntax are all neatly filed away so the brain goes to the cabinet, looks in the Spanish drawer, cross-references this with the English drawer and consults the syntax section before proceeding. Other brains have languages stacked on top of each other and perform advanced archaeological excavations every time they need to switch from one language to another. Guess which type of brain I have.

Ten days in Denmark. The longest I have been back since my big move some four years ago. Today I was standing in my local supermarket wondering why an elderly couple was speaking Danish. As it turned out, they were not - but right now my brain automatically assumes background noise must be in Danish and I have to makes a conscious decision in order to recognise the language as Scots English. Likewise, I'm searching for words: what's English for parabolantenner or 'Bare på beløbet, tak'? I know these words, of course, but I have to dig deep before they pop into my head.

Interestingly enough, I only have these problems with spoken language, not written. I'm sure there is a perfectly good (neurological) reason for this.

However, I refuse to believe there is a valid neurological explanation for the way the Danish language is being mangled by people who really ought to know better. Danish is being invaded by English - and it is not even correct English in many instances. I have never been a militant language purist (the way I acquire and use language prevents me from being too holier-than-thou) but I think I am becoming an old grumpy lady. WHY write "den perfect carwash du altid har drømt om" when the correct phrasing would be "den perfekte bilvask du altid har drømt om". WHY WHY did my gran's woman's weekly write about "en crunchy banankage" when Danish already has several words meaning "crunchy" AND most of the magazine's readers do not understand English in the first place? WHY WHY WHY would a major national newspaper gleefully write "livet er one long bundy jump" in the middle of an interview with a Danish designer thus mangling BOTH Danish and English? I nearly cracked when I was sitting next to a bunch of Swedish golf-buddies on the plane back to Scotland who kept shouting "EXACT!" but I'm told that is a valid Swedish expression which admittedly feels a bit deflating after I've been foaming at the mouth since Monday night.

Last day of my holiday today. I shall celebrate with some knitting and some tidying. I finished reading David Mitchell's latest novel last night but I need to mull over it before writing anything about it.

Selected Highlights

• Learning how to use a lucet. I love the Danish word for it: "at nulre".
• Biking around Copenhagen. Easily the best way to navigate Cph City.
• Being told I'll get a sewing machine for my birthday in February.
• Walking around the new prehistory section of The National Museum. It's really good.
• Having way too much good food - and bringing back various specialities.
• Finding a beautiful hand-embroidered table cloth for just 50p.
• Spending time with people who really really matter.

I have a few rants to share - the state of the Danish language, how embarrassing people can be in an airport, biased TV-journalism - but I'll save them for a rainy day. Likewise, I have a few knitting-related things to discuss but I'll get back to them after I've done the laundry (it is so good not living out of a suitcase) and unpacked my things.

It's good to be home. I just miss people already.