Link dump day! + Europe, Explained: a nice map which summarises it all for confused non-Europeans. + Puppets need puppets too. + Vegetarian-friendly roadkill carpet + The prettiest yarn shop in Denmark? I like my yarn shops over-stuffed, but if you like minimalism.. + Sweden has its own Etsy-like site. + This is a real film: Tiptoes stars Matthew McConaughey as a "normal-sized dwarf", Gary Oldman as his, er, dwarf-sized dwarf brother and Kate Beckinsale as the love interest. Peter Dinkdale features as a a crazy French radical dwarf. I kid you not. + 13 Alien Languages You Can Actually Read. + This is what happens when knitting gets serious. Like, REALLY serious. Sock Summit 2009. Check out the graphics. + Maia Hirasawa: The Worrying Kind. A stunning, stunning cover where I don't think you need to know the original to appreciate it. + Jar Jar Binks salad + British Library's treasures. You could spend an entire afternoon just faffing about (well, I could). + Field Notes. I covet. I covet badly.
Spinning a Yarn - Living History in Glasgow
If you are in the Glasgow vicinity and stuck for what to do this bank holiday weekend, why not go down to Kelvingrove Museum? They have Living History visitors - including Joyce who would just love to show you her drop spindles, fleeces, naalbinding projects, and a very big loom.
Yes, we had a great conversation which included endangered British sheep breeds, how to make naal-binded heel flaps and even how to use natural dyes on wool. Apparently I was her favourite kind of visitor ;)
The Kelvingrove Living History exhibition is free and runs until Monday the fourth Sunday. Apart from the very lovely Joyce, it includes falconry, archery, sword demonstrations, wolf hounds, amd fighting enactments.
(At the moment I'm actually pretty preoccupied by knitting and wool traditions. I've been looking into traditional North Atlantic patterns and wools and plan on picking up some Icelandic and Faroese wool when in Copenhagen. My conversation with Joyce reminded me that I need to pop into the National Museum of Copenhagen and pick up one of their naalbinding booklets. Knitting is more than just a pleasant hobby for me - it is also a way to (re-)connect with the past. Incidentally I'm also strongly considering getting myself a drop spindle now after speaking with Joyce. Don't blame me if you pay her a visit and you fall into the same trap. )
Eurovision '09: Preview
After Georgia pulled out/was forced to pull out of this Eurovision Song Contest with their gun-to-head song called "I Don't Wanna Put-in" (get the "pun?"), what can we expect from ESC? You know I'd only do this for you, my lambs. I've sat through every.single.entry and this is the cream of the crop (in more ways than one).
Armenia: Bizarre video - part glamorous folklore, part gym class, part street dance. Surprisingly catchy but maybe be too weird for mainstream Eurovision.
Belarus: Mullet plus "his admiration with the vocal capabilities of Ian Gillan inspired a spiritual journey into the creative heritage of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Even today Petr cherishes the hope to perform the part of Jesus in the famous rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar." A must-see video (for about forty seconds).
Bulgaria: A former mime(!) who sounds a bit like Jimmy Somerville. Classic Eurovision, in other words. In my weak moments I might put this on my iPod.
Estonia: The song reminds me a lot of Georgia's 2007 entry whilst being really interesting in its own way. I also rather covet the singer's hair.
FYR Macedonia: "I can't see it qualifying, unless Europe is overwhelmed by a simultaneous and collective wave of nostalgia for early Bon Jovi b-sides."
Norway: Full-on favourite to win - with good reason. Bloody catchy and upbeat. Looks even stronger now I've sat through the other countries.
Slovakia: Jesus, I've got records older than that girl. It is the year of dull ballads but at least this one has drama. Reminds me of Cyprus in 2000 (amazing and underrated).
Slovenia: Quite a year for violins. You only need to watch it from the 2.10 mark on maybe twenty seconds onwards. That dress. The voice. The song. Words fail me.
Turkey: Hotly tipped to win or go top three - and while it is certainly one of the most interesting songs this year, in a stronger year it'd just go top ten. Not a patch on last year's Turkish entry (one of my favourite songs of the noughties in a completely un-ironic way).
Acts hotly tipped: Norway, Greece and Turkey. Finland and Ukraine are outsiders. Estonia is the dark horse.
And as Germany has just roped in Dita von Teese to help with their stage show, they'll get some votes now. UK is completely deluded in its belief that a Lloyd-Webber dirge will win, of course. I expect Denmark to land midfield, bless Brinck.
Over all: A really weak year (unless you like boring ballads).
Why It's Bad To Know Other Knitters
I blame Bells.
I was sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee, having a spot of lunch and then I began reading Bells' love letter to Ishbel (a shawl pattern by everybody's favourite Scottish knitting pixie, Ysolda Teague). Bells' paen to Ishbel wore away at me and before I knew it I too had purchased the pattern. Shock, horror.
I'm totally justifying the purchase to myself by saying "Well, I need a portable project to take with me to Denmark" and the project would also be a stash-busting exercise, as I am the proud owner of a great deal of laceweight and fingering weight yarns. I have singled out two different yarns which would work perfectly in each their own way.
The top cake is Fyberspates Faery Lace in a one-off colour way purchased at a Fyberspates trunk show last year. 1200 yrds of soft turquoise, sea green and cream. The bottom cake is is 2ply merino which I bought in Copenhagen last year. 440 yrds of rich chocolate brown softness. At the moment I'm leaning towards the latter, although the Faery Lace continues to haunt my imagination.. Every time I open the storage box, I look down at it and think "Oh, turquoisey cobweb .. whatever am I going to do with you?".
I have completely omitted to talk about what is currently on my needles. Geno is no more: it was a case of the right yarn and the right pattern in the wrong colour being knitted up at the wrong time.
I'm knitting up the Cafe au Lait mittens in Rowan Wool Cotton to match a beret I made from the same yarn. Not only am I deeply in love with twisted rib - it looks so elegant! so crisp! - but I'm also in love with Wool Cotton - the stitch definition! its softness! the marled grey!
I'm also working on my handspun yoke cardigan. I'm almost done with the first sleeve, which means I only have one sleeve and the button band to go. I'm thinking I should be able to finish that before my fabled trip to Viking Land.
My fellow knitter-in-crime and good friend, Kathleen, is churning out one inspirational project after another at the moment. She recently finished a stunning, stunning hap shawl in plant-dyed cashmere/wool from a indie dyer on the Isle of Skye. A few weeks ago I tried on the hap shawl and I had to fight my urge to just run away with it. I have been taking a long, hard look at my stash and I think I can make myself a hap shawl out of my amassed collection of New Lanark (I might have to order an additional skein or two - what hardship!). I have also been eyeing Kathleen's striped shoulder shawl (rav link) and her Girasole. Seriously inspirational stuff, I tell you.
Why it's bad to know other knitters? Too many ideas, too little time.
Random Is the New Black
We have found more clay pipes by the Forth and Clyde Canal - here is one of the nicest pipes, if not exactly the most intact..
Notice also the rather interesting shards of china in the background. We've identified one piece with the Willow Pattern but the rest remain elusive. Interestingly we've found tiny bits with lettering (be still my beating heart!) and other bits with what looks like fishing huts.
Swine flu has been confirmed around 12 miles from us. I'm expecting an outbreak of panic here which will involve people looting tissue paper, tinned soup, hand soap and cans of lager from our local supermarket. In other words, I'm not worried, although my mother might be once she realises how close I live to Monklands Hospital (i.e. not very close but in the same country). As a Dane I feel obliged to inform you that pork products are perfectly safe to eat. Mmmm, bacon.
Only one random link today: Vidders Talk Back to their Pop-Culture Muses.
"For decades, Americans sat in front of their televisions and watched — just watched — their favorite shows. (..) But one group of fans has interacted with their favorite television shows for more than three decades. Vidders, as they're called, make unauthorized underground videos using clips from the shows. Each vid compiles dozens of clips from various episodes, all set to a song."
To be perfectly honest, I've seen a handful of these fanmade vids and most of them are .. not very good. The formula goes something like this: one plaintative love song - say, Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love". Then take the lyrics and pair with with your fandom of choice - so, when Leona bleats "Time starts to pass.." you insert pictures of Captain Kirk/the Doctor/Six looking at a watch. Lather, rinse, repeat .. But unsurprisingly there are some mindblowingly good vids out there. This is the best I've seen.
PS. Happy birthday to regular commentator and offline compadre, Darth Ken. I love you, man.
Relationship Status: Good (Once More)
If you subscribe to my Twitter feed you will already have been privy to a major relationship crisis. Last night I was not talking to and was close to breaking up with knitting. It was bad. Seriously. Looking back it was inevitable: it was late, I had been snappy most of the day and then I stopped paying attention. I stopped paying attention to stitch count, I didn't read the pattern and when I realised something was wrong, I began using foul language. I ripped back, ripped back much too far, tried picking up stitches, saw stitches drop, ripped back further and ..
.. then I had a Boyfriend Intervention. "Listen, I think you should head off to bed because this is not working and I don't think you can make it work tonight, okay? You're getting upset and you really shouldn't get upset over knitting."
Knitting and I are now back talking to each other. Actually, we are more than talking to each other. We're back being soppy and gooey. I have knitted the rows I ripped back and I'm also paying attention to the pattern once more. It's not that complicated, really. I just missed the bit where I'm supposed to do yarn-overs a row earlier than I thought I would. No biggie. I love knitting lace. Doing extra yarn-overs is a pleasure.
Sleep definitely helped as did a healthy dose of relationship therapy (i.e. several episodes of knitting podcasts) and tea. Life's too short to bear grudges - escpecially against something as incredibly lovely and rewarding as knitting.