Third

I have not mentioned my red Kim Hargreaves cardigan recently, have I? It has turned out to be one of those curious projects where I work obsessively on it for three days and then it lingers for about a month before I return to it. I have no idea why I do not just keep working on it. Once the pattern has been 'spread-sheeted', it is actually a really relaxing knit and the yarn is beautiful. Yesterday I cast off the first sleeve and I cast on for the second sleeve. Things are zipping along really well - except once I cast off the second sleeve, I need to unzip the provisional cast-on on both sleeves and start the k2p2 ribbing. Still, the end is in sight and I cannot wait to sew up(!) this beauty. I'm really looking forward to wearing it. Let's hope it fits as well as I think it will..

As the light at the end of the tunnel becomes increasingly brighter, my thoughts have obviously begun to turn to the next big project. I have another big project on the needles which I need to finish quite soon, but as it's not a jumper or cardigan I have been roaming the Ravelry database in search of patterns.

• I'm totally in love with Balance from the forthcoming Rowan Studio 22. It looks like a combo of Kidsilk Haze and Kid Classic. I'm thinking Jelly (KSH) and Spruce (KC) although wilder colour combinations also appeal (orange, anyone?)
• Recently I've begun looking closely at Bliss, an old Sarah Hatton pattern. I bought some Rowan Calmer last year in order to make a Kim Hargreaves jumper, but I'm beginning to wonder if I wouldn't get more wear out of a short-sleeved cardigan?
• Speaking of cute cardigans, Miette recently jumped into my (carefully curated) queue. No, I'm not going to knit another red cardigan. Probably not.

Another thing I'll be knitting is an inside layer of my Twee Winter hat. I finished it well in advance of Christmas but it has turned out very big (when rav comments all say 'this hat is huge', believe the comments). Paula came up with quite a few solutions and we decided that knitting an extra inside layer would a) make the hat smaller and b) make the hat winter-proof (felting was not an option, incidentally). I still need photos taken of the matching mitts - they are goddamn adorable and I've been wearing them constantly.

A few links, finally:

• Pete Postlethwaite has passed away. He was easily the best actor in most of his films and it was a joy to see him in even small parts.
• And the Danish contestant in Eurovision 1980 has passed away too (skip the 1st minute). His was the very first concert I ever saw.
• I really, really want a puppy and I think Maddie is just about the most adorable thing in the world.
• I've bought fabric with this quilt in mind. I'm crazy.
• Best line ever line from a trashy book? Don't know, but "Yum. Johnny Hulk tasted like fresh gorilla" is up there. Or down there depending upon your perspective.

Last Thing

Tonight I'm a cooking an almost full-blown Danish Christmas dinner (only 'almost' because I'm only serving one type of meat). We decided to make this a tradition so every time we celebrate Christmas in the UK we get a Danish Christmas dinner a week later and vice versa. It's a new tradition, though, and it is the first time I'm cooking the dinner on my own. We are having duck breasts (scaled down from an entire duck) with two types of potato (boiled and sugar-glazed potatoes), braised red cabbage and duck gravy. Normally I would also serve roast pork but it is nigh impossible to get the correct cut here in Scotland unless you order it well in advance. For dessert I'm serving risalamande with hot cherry sauce. I bought the cherry sauce when I was in Denmark in November! Food is such an expat thing, I tell you. I never used to care so much about traditional Danish food as I do now. I saw tea rusks in my local supermarket today and could almost taste hot elderberry soup right there and then.

(And seeing this little guy try out salty licorice (salte fisk!) made me beam. He's a very cool kid even if he says that salty ammoniac licorice requires "an advanced palette".)

Happy new year - happy Hogmanay - godt nytår! I'm off to try and balance four pots cooking at the same time..

And Then We Come To This Part

And away we went, up north.

The last few days prior to leaving for our mini-holiday were so busy that I did not get a chance to arrange for blog posts to appear whilst we were away. Judging by my own blog reader with its 100+ posts, I do not think any of you missed me much. Good.

During the journey north I revised my opinion of The Smiths' There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - particularly the lyrics going "And if a double-decker bus / Crashes into us / To die by your side / Is such a heavenly way to die" as the road was slippery and the bus was swerving dangerously back and forth. I clutched my beloved's hand and told him that I did not want to die by his side right there and then. He understood.

Time spent with family. Time spent laughing. Time spent looking at things in the grand scheme of things. Time being quiet and time being busy combined in a strange way

And then time to go back home. I have a cough and a sore throat throat to remind me of the perils involved in spending time with little germ-carrying nephews. And an aching heart too because I miss those little tykes already.

Presents, I had were given a lot and too many to mention. Tiny gifts from friends with big hearts. Big gifts from people far away. Liberty fabric and a cape from my partner (a cape! a cape!). I turned my book voucher into three books, one of which I have already finished and will be writing about shortly.

2011 is almost upon us. I never make new year's resolutions. I do, however, make promises to myself. One year I finally learned to swim. Another year I travelled to New Zealand. And then there was the year I left a rather poisonous job situation and made good on a tough promise to myself. I tend to make positive, affirming promises to myself instead of going "I'll give up chocolate!" or "I'll read Ian McEwan's entire back catalogue!".

In 2011 I would like to make things, specifically:

• Eleven hats. I did the 10 shawls in 2010 challenge which was hugely enjoyable. I need more hats and I'd like to knit some of the current chic hat designs such as Rose Red, the Grand Cloche, Fern Glade and Quincy among others.
• I'd like to sew myself something wearable. Something which makes me happy every time I wear it.
• I'd like to try a new craft - thankfully The Life Craft is just around the corner! - such as quilting, sashiko embroidery or paper-making.

Small, attainable goals.

First, though, I need to sleep and through some rest hopefully put the last few weeks into perspective.

The Holiday Special

What happens if you leave icing and Xmas cookies out and your partner happens to pass by..?

(and speaking of holiday specials..)

Be There Two O'Clock

It's a new week. And I completely forgot to write about the highlight of the previous week. Friday night my partner and I had an impulsive dance-a-thon in our living room when we realised that BBC4 was showing footage of Pulp headlining at Glastonbury 1995. When we first met, D. and I initially bonded over our shared love for early to mid-90s British guitar pop (some call it the 'Britpop' era but, really, that name was a media construct). Nowadays that era gets boiled down to "so, were you into Blur or Oasis?" because that was the huge (and nonsensical) story of the day. Did you hum along to Country House by cheeky middle-class Southern chaps Blur or did you bellow along to Cigarettes & Alcohol by authentic working-class northern lads Oasis? People knew who you were by which one you preferred - nevermind that Blur's drummer eventually became a Labour activist/politician and the singer from Oasis now dabbles as a fashion designer.

D. and I pledged our allegiance elsewhere (much to the frustration of a former boss of mine who thought she could pinpoint me by asking the Blur/Oasis question) and we both preferred Pulp and Suede.

Pulp used sparkly pop songs to deliver social commentary via great story-telling.  Suede glamorised working class struggles whilst referencing Byron and Andy Warhol and playing with androgyny. Suede soon descended into cringe-inducing banality (tellingly around the time their guitarist left to pursue other musical interests - he is now a record producer) but I still love their first two albums. Pulp's frontman, the charismatic Jarvis Cocker, now works as a broadcaster for BBC, and Pulp recently reformed to do some UK festival dates in 2011.

William Shatner(!) has done a great(!!) cover version of Pulp's most famous song, Common People, and Nick Cave has turned their anthemic Disco 2000 into something heartbreakingly beautiful. My favourite Pulp album is His'n'Hers from which Do You Remember the First Time? is taken (lyrics obviously NSFW). I cannot believe that song is now 16 years old and I'm in my mid-30s.

Time has been somewhat kinder to Pulp than Suede, but for old time's sake here is Suede doing a cover of The Pretenders' Brass In Pocket, a live version of So Young (still my favourite Suede song - so much gloomy romanticism!), and the awesome The Killing of a Flash Boy which will forever remind me of living in London in the mid-90s. Looking back it is unbelievable they got away with something like this at a multi-corporate awards ceremony or that my mum approved of me loving them so damn much.

So, yes, we danced around the living room in a totally cool mid-90s minimalist way. And it was the absolute highlight of last week.

(And in case you did wonder..)

Pre-Holiday Panic

It has been a week of woe in Casa Bookish. A possible burst water pipe, a plumber missing in action, parcels also missing (prompting a vaguely panicked last-ditch shopping expedition today) and a tonne of other mishaps great and small. To round it all off tonight I accidentally snapped a key-fob made for me by a dear friend. At that point I sat down in the hallway and laughed hysterically. At least my last(?) knitting project of 2010 has turned out nice. My twee winter hat is currently blocking over a plate and I'm actually wearing the matching fingerless gloves as I'm typing this. I love the mitts: they're pretty, wintery, warm and soft. I'm also loving how much colour they mitts and hat provide - this is very much appreciated in a miserable Scottish winter when everything seems to be a shade of grey.

The River Kelvin, December 19, 2010.

I am running behind on everything, though.

I am yet to writing Christmas cards, yet to make some gingerbread cookies to bring with us to the big Christmas family gathering, yet to finish my red cardigan, yet to do all the necessary household chores, yet to conquer the mountain of work I need to do before Christmas, yet to finish re-reading Atwood's Oryx & Crake so I can take The Year of the Flood with me on holiday, and .. oh, I make life so difficult for myself sometimes.

At least I accomplished quite a few things today: paperwork, laundry, xmas shopping, snow-emergency-xmas-dinner-buying, present-wrapping. Check, check, check! I am also rather relieved I decided against handmade presents this year.

Also: I really miss my Danish family and friends because .. well, it's Christmas-time and the season for missing my dear ones.My mother is having a big birthday this Thursday and it is pretty hard that I cannot be there to celebrate her. I knew some things were going to be tough when I decided to move to the UK and this is one of them.

Onwards and upwards. I'll finish some paperwork whilst listening to Ella Fitzgerald singing Christmas songs and I have assorted Christmas candy next to me to help me along and things will work out fine.

Deep breath.