Behaving as the Wind Behaves

Let the Right One In was a much better film than book. Everything which was overegging the book-pudding had been removed in the film: neverending subplots, irrelevant and distracting characters, and immense wordiness. The film was sparse, beautifully shot, and intense. While not the masterpiece it has been made out to be, the film was excellent. Also, it is always a joy to see a horror film where the real horror is found in everyday life rather than a supernatural monster. Recommended. (Also: a joy to watch a Swedish film. Swedish is such a beautiful, poetic language and I adored the film's cheeky use of traditional Swedish symbols such as the Tre Kronor towel)

(Also, also:  who plays Oskar's father? I swear he looks familiar but the actor's not listed in any credits I can find?)

Before the obligatory knitting update, a quick print culture geek link. Earliest known dust jacket found at Oxford. I might come back to that and explain why it's very cool.

Knitting, then. I am about 4 inches away from finishing the back of my Geno. I have a sort-of deadline for my cardigan early next month and it looks unlikely that I will make it. A 4-ply lace cardigan on 3mm needles in less than three weeks? I'm knitting like a woman possessed, but I am already behind schedule. Due to the small-ish needle size, my fingers tense up if I knit for more than three hours in a row. Also, yesterday my right shoulder began playing up (to the extent that my back started giving me problems) and while I am not sure if it is knitting-related, it does slow down the progress of Geno. Irritating.

Of course it does not mean I haven't begun pondering the next summer knit and I'm leaning heavily towards Flicker from Rowan Studio 15. Although not in beige.

Title: on the topic of horror.. well.

Love Letters

Don't you just love waking up to little hand-written notes left by your Other Half?

The computer was acting funny this morning - I couldn't get as far as logging in - it said there was a CPU overheat. Nothing works. Have a lovely day.

So pre-coffee I had to open the cabinet, take out a defunct harddisk (it's been dead for months), fiddle with wires and finally clean out the clogged-up cooler. I suspect that my vague plans of getting a PC upgrade have just become significantly less vague (although I think getting a new cooler and investing in a bit of RAM might just do it for now).

Plans for my Denmark trip are taking shape. Apart from visiting my mum's local yarn shop (which remains the most mind-blowing LYS I have ever seen), I'm thinking of also visiting Salina (which combines a "homegrown" wool business with Cavalier King Charles puppies!), Jorun Garn (big on Icelandic and Faroese yarn) and the Handler haberdashery. Oh, and watching the Eurovision Song Contest with my friends. Huzzah!

The Song is Who?

"Based on the books in your collection," the Facebook notification read, " we thought you might like the New York Times best-selling author, Arthur Phillips', new book The Song is You." A quick google-search came up with a book which the New York Times described as "[reading] like a maladroit mash-up of the romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle” (..)  and one of those creepy, straight-to-video movies, in which a famous beauty is pursued around the world by an obsessive fan." and which its publisher is trying to promote using the tag-line "Julian Donahue is in love with his iPod."

Some days I wish I were still running my literary blog, so I wouldn't be so out of the loop. Has Facebook moved into target-marketing literary geeks - or am I just super-priviledged? Is Arthur Phillips Spring '09's Jonathan Safran Foer or just a random no-name author whose publisher has paid hefty sums to social networks in a desperate attempt to shift copies? Should I even care enough to blog about this?

Regardless, I am not the reader you are looking for, dear Facebook notification. The book in question sounds absolutely vile and quite unlike anything I'd even consider reading.

In unrelated news, I have contracted the girly version of manflu which means I'm on the verge of dying. In lieu of flowers, please send skeins of Malabrigo or Noro Cashmere Island .. *cough, splutter, cough*

The Good Life

Sunday afternoons. Don't you just love them? Depending upon our mood and energy level, we either curl up with books or head out to explore our neighbourhood on foot. Yesterday we donned our coats and went for a walk along the Forth and Clyde canal. Glasgow Council had obviously decided the footpaths needed a spring overhaul, as the topsoil had been scraped off the sides of the paths by diggers. Quite quickly our walk turned into something else: a treasure hunt. It started off with us noticing some lumps of jet-black glass, but when I started digging with a stick, something white started emerging. Clay tobacco pipes - most likely 19th century and quite possibly from when the canals were built? We found several stems and one bowl (which you can see in the photo). I'm fairly used to finding things in the ground - I grew up in a part of Denmark which has been populated since the Neolithic period and I have found flint arrow heads etc - but it is the first time I have found anything in Scotland. It makes me want to learn even more about our local history.

Knitting continues, of course. I have a few inches to go on the body before I'm starting the edging. I'm dragging it out a bit as I'll be knitting the button band next and my buttons won't arrive for a few days.

I'm a tiny bit concerned about the fit as the cardigan is quite tight on me at the moment, but I think the alpaca yarn will stretch considerably during blocking, so it will be okay. I hope blocking will also sort out the difference between the handspun yarn (which is relatively loose) and the alpaca yarn (which is relatively tight and curling a great deal). Blocking solves everything, right?

As the cardigan grows bigger every day, I have begun to think about tiny, portable projects. Recently I promised five friends that I'd make them a little handmade something each, so I have that in the back of my head too. I was wondering whether it would be possible for me to make five items using five different crafts - and while it would becompletely feasible, I'm slightly worried about quality control. Surely I'm not the only one who's a bit paranoid about the quality of the things I make?

Thank you all for the books and TV suggestions. One of these days I should take photos of our bookshelves because I suspect you think I'm slightly bonkers when I say "oh, we already have that" or "oooh, David has that tucked away". We have a lot of books (although not quite as many I used to have in Denmark, but that's another story for another day).

PS. I cannot find my iPod. I'm mildly distressed.

When In Doubt, Knit.

It snowed this afternoon and we are said to get heavy snowfall tomorrow. I have been curled up inside finishing my first project in 2009 and also doing a stash-busting exercise with plenty of colours. Colours warm my soul - especially with snow outside. The first finished project in 2009 is this little cardigan which I've dubbed Presto Chango Monsta (literally "Quick Change Monster"). I have a nephew due in March and I thought he might like to snuggle up in a soft little top.

The Presto Chango pattern was an utter delight whilst my chosen yarn, Washed Haze, was splitty and showed up every tiny flaw (plus I'll never be a fan of cotton or cotton-blends). I chose to embroider a little monster rather than knit a lacy front.

The end result is rather nice even if my freehand embroidery is wonky.

I suspect that Presto Chango will become my go-to pattern for baby gifts. It's very easy to customise and is a joy to knit. I just need to find a less irritating yarn (still washable and still soft).

My stash-busting project is this shawl. I began it whilst watching In Bruges and it has grown enormously since then. It's a bog-standard triangular shawl (I have posted brief pattern notes on the Ravelry project page) knitted in Wendy Fusion with an edging done in Rowan Kidsilk Haze. It makes me smile, it's easy TV knitting and it uses up all those stray balls of wool I have lying about.

A non-knitting observation, finally.

I do not have many kind words to say about Facebook and privacy settings. However, I just found out that you can actually block specific people from finding you on Facebook (let alone try to friend you or view photos posted of you). I have now blocked my old stalker* from viewing anything related to me which gives me a nice, fuzzy feeling. Thank you, Facebook. It's a nice feature.

(* stalker in the "oh god, now the police is involved, I have to hand over evidence and I cannot sleep in my own home" sense, alas.)

PS. Our Christmas tree has been recycled and its removal from our home now means I have free access to my yarn stash again, oh happy days.

Knitterly Yours

Pattern: Woodland by Nikol Lohr. It's a fabulous pattern. One day I shall knit one for myself. I made it scarf-sized rather shawl-sized. Wool: 100purewool merino laceweight in "Choir". I used approx 65 g.

Needles: 3.25mm. I think I could have gone up to 3.5mm and it would have been amazingly airy, but I liked the 'airy, but substantial' fabric the 3.25mm needles made. Similarly, I think you could have taken it all the way down to 2.50mm as well.

This was my mother's Christmas present. I worked on it from May 2008 until September 2008. Then she sent me a wishlist saying that she'd like a scarf (yes!) but NOT in any shade of brown (cue panic!!). Although many kind souls offered to take the scarf off me, so I could buy my mother something, I decided to chance it. Fortunately, she loves it and I can stop panicking (for about another six months).

During Christmas I actually finished a beret, but I have been unable to snap any great photos of it (I blame my cold). I wanted a portable holiday project which would be fun to knit, easy to do in a house filled with relatives and something I'd use.

I chose a free beret pattern from the ever-reliable Garnstudio and it turned out to be the perfect holiday project. The lace pattern was interesting enough to keep me hanging in there but easy enough so my three-year-old nephew could bounce around without me losing track. Instead of using the suggested wool, I opted for Sandnes Tove in a lovely olive green shade. I used about 1.3 balls in total (which leaves enough for a pair of mitts).  I finished the beret in three days or so with nary a modification. Unfortunately the bouncy nephew and the Christmas excitement meant my gauge was way, way off, so the beret turned out to be huge. So I threw it in the washing machine at 40 degrees. It's now perfect. Perfect, I tell you.

What's on my needles now? A top-down jumper in a wool/alpaca blend. It's my own design and I'm now at that scary point where i have to work in darts. I'm also getting ready to cast on for a shawl, but all my laceweight is hiding in the storage room behind our Christmas tree. So I cannot access it, oh the trauma.

And so the knitting begins..