Making Plans For Knitting

In preparation for the new year, I have been going through my knitting queue and my stash. I know these things are subject to change, but I have made a few plans.

1. I have long wanted to make a pullover out of Rowan Kid Silk Haze. After contemplating several contenders, I have decided on Peaceful from the forthcoming Rowan 47. Colour undecided as of yet (but not pastel pink).
2. For my (mumble, mumble)th birthday, I was given the kit for Flyte. My fingers are itching to do a fair-isle project and i want to get this started before my (mumble, mumble, mumble)th birthday.
3. Shawl-wise, I want to make Aeolian from Knitty Spring 2009 and Bitterroot from Knitty Winter 2009. I have not assigned any yarns yet, but seeing I'm continuing my laceweight knit-down in 2010, the yarns will be straight from stash.
4. Seeing as I did not get around to making the Christmas Yule Pigs pot-holders this holiday season, they will be a good summer time project in 2010 (you know, if we get a warm summer, wool will be way too sticky..).

I think my knitting plans are fairly modest and very achievable.

Five more songs from the decade-almost-past: First, it's Guillemots with "Trains to Brazil". After Elbow (see yesterday's post), this marks the second politically aware song on this rundown. It's also incredibly, amazingly upbeat and a cracking pop song. One of my absolute favourites.

Also: Grandaddy: He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot. Their album, The Sophtware Slump, is one of my favourite albums and this is the lead track. Yes, it is nine minutes long, but it is also deeply affecting. I recommend listening to the entire album and discovering just where this song fits into the story.. Hawksley Workman: You, Me & the Weather. It feels very unfair that Hawksley Workman isn't an international superstar. An astounding voice and a gifted songwriter. Maybe the world can only handle one Canadian male diva singing super-dramatic songs about wanting to be a girl..  I Am Kloot: Twist. Overlooked British band that makes songs for those 3am nights. "There is blood on your legs .. I love you." Interpol: Slow Hands. One of the best singles this decade. Fact.

(and the title's a play on this ace song)

Catching Up

Christmas has caught up with me. We are leaving for Scandinavia next week (and it is rumoured to be very cold), we are heading for North-East Scotland this week (and it's rumoured to be almost as cold) and somewhere in between these two trips I have to finish David's sweater (because places are rumoured to be cold), do some Christmas baking, sort out some work things, make smart decisions about what clothes to pack, and get the last few Christmas cards sent. And suddenly I thought it would be a great idea to cast on a cowl for my partner because the weather is taking a cold turn (and MooncalfMakes sounds very persuasive). Thankfully I have talked myself away from that particular ledge of insanity.

Yesterday I was given an early Christmas present by a visiting hand-knitted pirate (her visit was a present in itself, actually): 18 antique buttons made of dark chocolate. The box itself is gorgeous and obviously I shall use it to store my non-chocolate vintage button finds once I have finished the chocolate ones. Yesterday I also spent a really lovely evening dining out with some of my closest friends here in Glasgow. That calmed those pre-Christmas nerves a bit.

Thank heavens I'm not actually in charge of anything important such as, you know, Christmas food.

Now, Anna asked what my cultural highlights of the Noughties were. That question made me waste copious amount of time on YouTube tracking down beloved songs and film trailers.

One of the first songs that sprung to mind was "It Takes a Fool To Remain Sane" by The Ark, a Swedish glampop band fronted by the fluently-gendered(?) Ola Salo (appropriately enough, the son of a preacher man). Not my favourite Ark song (possibly this one?), but it is the song which kick-started a decade-long affinity for the band (which is a great live band).

Four more songs: Betchadupa: My Army Of Birds & Gulls. I am weak when faced with vaguely psychedelic pop from New Zealand - especially if someone called "Finn" is involved. Liam Finn's disbanded band came into their own with this song.  The Delays: Valentine. One of the great lost singles of the '00s and a perfect pop song. Elbow: Leaders of the Free World. One of the very few good things to come out of the second Iraq war. Franz Ferdinand: Darts of Pleasure. Not the reason why I moved to Glasgow, but the first Franz Ferdinand album is the sound of Glasgow.

Losing Its Reputation

"Denmark is losing its reputation for being a good world citizen." - Naomi Klein

Danish police arrest 150 demonstrators as world leaders arrive at Copenhagen conference. Mainstream groups such as Friends of the Earth have been barred from the conference centre ("Every delegate from the international environmental campaign group arrived at the centre this morning to find their badges were no longer valid."). This follows the highly controversial preventive arrests by Danish police earlier this week, the arrest of a German spokesman for Climate Justice action, police raids on climate campaigners and, lest we forget, a warm welcome for President Mugabe by Danish PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

"The Copenhagen conference is fast becoming an international shambles." - Andy Atkins

For me, I welcomed the incredulity on the BBC news readers' faces as they interviewed a spokesperson, Henrik Suhr,  for the Danish police force, the use of "preventive arrests" and Mr Suhr's insistence that "if you do not want to be arrested, you should not be demonstrating" (let me draw your attention to the UN's own Universal Declaration of Rights and, in particular, Articles 19 and 20). The BBC journalists' reaction were very different to the type of journalism I had grown used to in Denmark in the last decade or so.

And as I'm typing this, a climate deal seems increasingly unlikely.

The Queen Susan Shawl

I was rummaging around various knitting sites for an unrelated reason, when I came across the story of the Queen Susan Shawl. The Queen Susan Shawl is a collaborative project on the Heirloom Knitting forum on Ravelry. Several knitters had noted an old photo of a lace shawl in the Shetland Museum photo archives and together more than thirty knitters have recreated the pattern based solely upon the photo. The Queen Susan shawl pattern will be released early 2010 - and it will be free.

Meanwhile, the Shetland Museum has been very enthusiastic about the project and even has included the Ravelry group in their Call For Papers for a forthcoming knitting conference in the Shetlands.

I always get slightly misty-eyed whenever I come across stories like that. Am I going to knit the shawl? Probably not right away as the scale of the project is quite daunting, but someday I would like to try my hand at a proper heirloom-quality Shetland shawl.

Right now, though, I've realised that we are off to Denmark NEXT WEEK and David's sweater is still not done.

Being a Reader of Books

Firstly, today is a sunny day. It is so strange to see rays of sunlight spill into this room, so I wanted to make a little note of that. Secondly, the new Winter Knitty is up. If I weren't still working on David's sweater, I would cast on for Mr Darcy for him.

Thirdly, I just finished reading AS Byatt's The Children's Book this morning and I have all these thoughts running through my head.

Yesterday I wrote briefly about whether I connect with favourite authors because they have shaped my ways of thinking or I connect with these authors because they mirror the way I think? The egg or the chicken?

When I go on one of my solitary walks, I often get sentences or lines of poetry running through my head. Sometimes I just "hear" fragments, other times I get an entire stanza. The regular visitors include Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Silent Noon, DH Lawrence's Gloire de Dijon, and John Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV. Most often, though, I hear TS Eliot. It runs the gamut from his most famous works like Prufrock and the Waste Land to lesser known pieces from Inventions of the March Hare. I view the world through words and many of these words came from Eliot. I am vaguely amused by this - after all, I am not the first nor will be the last to define myself using others' words.

And so AS Byatt. I first read one of her books one week into my university years. All these years later, Byatt is one of those very few authors whose entire oeuvre I have read. I connect with her books - they are filled with solitary bookish women surrounded by a far too material world. Last night I watch an interview with her and closed my eyes when she said: "All I ever wanted was to live a life of the mind." In a world defined by emotions, feelings and exteriors, I am drawn towards her books of ideas, thoughts and interiors.

The Children's Book is exquisite. It is a messy book insofar as it describes a messy world and also is also slightly messy structurally. A proper review would be far too long - you can find good reviews and synopses elsewhere - but it suffices to say that I really liked it. I re-read the final fifteen pages twice and I suspect I will revisit the novel just as I have revisited several of Byatt's other novels.

But am I drawn towards Byatt because I am a solitary bookish woman (bound by class) who just wants to live a life of the mind? Or have I become a solitary bookish woman because I spent my formative years reading books by AS Byatt (and EM Forster)?

Thoughts of a dry brain in a chilly season.

Something about Authors Unexpressed

Brief thought after having watch an hour-long interview with AS Byatt on BBC4: Have the authors whose books I really enjoy shaped who I am as a person, or am I drawn to these writers because of the way I am as an individual?

I need to ponder this and might return to this topic sooner rather than later. I'd be interested in hearing your reactions and thoughts.

In the meantime, enjoy this little Youtube clip of Brian Cox giving an acting master class on "Hamlet" to a two-year-old toddler. It's really, really adorable.