Wonderful, Wonderful..

The train journey from my childhood landscape to Copenhagen takes about 90 minutes. The distance from Glasgow to Edinburgh, more or less. I often think about the cultural divide between Glasgow (young, vibrant, edgy) and Edinburgh (heritage, self-aware, conservative) - but this divide pales when compared to the cultural divide between my childhood landscape and Copenhagen. Today the train took me from rural Denmark to urban Denmark; from the way things have always been to the way things are; from my childhood to my adulthood. Every time I step aboard that train, I grow up. This is a roundabout way of saying that I am in Copenhagen once again.

During the 90 minute train journey I was working on a shawl. A girl came up to me asking if I knitted the jumper I was wearing. Seeing I was wearing my Snorri jumper, the one with the Icelandic yoke, I was happy to confirm her suspicions. This led to a long discussion about how she did not knit, how she admired people who could and where she could learn to knit .. and how I found the time to knit. I maintain that most people should be able to find pockets of knitting time: I knit on public transport, I knit during my commute to and fro work, I knit during lunch, and I knit whilst watching TV or listening to the radio. Knitting is an addition to my daily routine, not something which stops me doing things (Except reading. I still haven't cracked how to knit and read at the same time. No, audiobooks do not count).  I do not think I convinced the girl to give knitting a try, but I demystified a few things. I'll continue to preach the gospel anyhow.

A crafts happening was taking place in the Central Station when I arrived. It was a good omen.

Copenhagen has been lovely. I picked up some Faroese, Icelandic and Swedish yarns (mostly laceweight and "sheepy"; definitely things I could not find in the UK) as well as some .. fabric. I learned that I'm getting a sewing machine early next year, so I thought I'd get a few interesting fabrics whilst in Denmark. Do not give me that look..  Anyway, I've also been biking around the city and seeing some very lovely people. It's almost like I never left .. except a few things have changed such as my leg muscles (tomorrow my muscles will ache in interesting places) and my ability to deal with impolite customer service (eyerolling may have been involved).

I'll be in Copenhagen for a few more days. More people to see. More muscles to re-discover. I am breathing again.

PS. Actually, right now I could be anywhere. I'm listening to BBC Radio 4, the rain is pouring down, and I'm typing away..

Family

The Danish landscape is more subtle than Scotland's but no less beautiful. My parents live on the outskirts of a large bog area famous for its archaeological finds (link in Danish) and today we went for a long drive through the area: small lakes, rolling hills, undisturbed bogs, Viking settlements and numerous megalithic tombs. I always wonder why Denmark does not market its history as a major tourist attraction (Scotland has already twigged that tourists love history). My childhood landscape is steeped in impressive history and I think tourists would love to visit these places.

I spent the afternoon having a mutual brainstorming crochet workshop with my mum. We were armed with crochet hooks and various balls of wool. It was a lot of fun and super-inspirational. We were both tossing out ideas, workshopping to find solutions to conundrums, and trying out techniques. Crochet has always felt more intuitive than knitting and I really enjoyed what we ended up working on .. I'm the latest one in a long line of crafters and doing a workshop with my mum felt fabulous. If we lived closer, I could definitely see us collaborating on a few projects.

Incidentally, iSketch is way too much fun.

Packing

When did I lose my sanity? I have no idea but I clearly lost it some time ago because I'm looking at my luggage thinking: "Denmark. Ten days. Three knitting projects. Should I bring a fourth?!?" I have had a truly delightful day in Edinburgh with work today. I do not get to see many of my colleagues all that often as we are spread out across the British Isles. While some of us keep in touch on-line, it is always good to sit down and compare notes face-to-face. I'm bringing a hefty dose of inspiration with me on holiday.. so maybe a sketchpad and some pencils will be in order.

And not a fourth project.

In Edinburgh

In Copenhagen, the Nørrebro neighbourhood is my favourite. It is bohemian, multicultural and vibrant. The streets are filled with small 'ethnic' eateries catering for small immigrant groups and niche culinary interests. My taste buds really came off age when I lived there. Today we went to Edinburgh and visited Jo Jo's Danish Bakery & Cafe. As I sat there munching my tebirkes (think a croissant filled with a marzipan/butter concoction and topped with poppy seeds), it struck me: now I'm the ethnic minority with niche culinary interests.

If you are in Edinburgh or thereabouts, I thoroughly recommend Jo Jo's place. Jo's got the recipes just right and she's a lovely person too.

And then that big exhibition on Alasdair Gray and his images for his books: Gray Stuff was good stuff.

I was particular taken with the process shown in-between the works: the process of taking complete control over every little aspect of his Book.

Gray's need to take control over the visual impact shows up early (with Lanark, of course) but he gets more and more confident about his level of control as each book is published. I was sadly sad that the exhibition was not arranged strictly chronological (and I would have loved to have known how much say Gray had), but I was fascinated.

I particularly liked the collages making up the frontispieces in Lanark with marginalia written in Gray's distinct handwriting pointing out how the images should fit on the page. And, oh, the notes written about the colour scheme of The Book of Prefaces (or The Anthology of Prefaces - the mystery of its real title has not been solved nor has the 'is it/isn't it' mystery about the comma in 1982 Janine.. forgive me, I have been geeking out all day)!!

How I wish I had had access to some of this material back when I was an aspiring academic. Oh, the joy! the rapture!

Just along the street from the Alasdair Gray exhibition, the National Museum of Scotland. Neither of us had ever been, cough, and we arrived too late to see more than the first two floors (we only had three hours and we like to take our time).

The basement was particularly interesting: the pre-history and early settlements in Scotland. I'm a sucker for anything relating to the Picts.

Whilst in the basement I thought fondly of Erika and Lori who both recently referenced Andy Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy is a contemporary British artist who makes .. some call it 'land art' because his pieces tend to be site-specific and employs exclusive natural materials .. I think of his art as being peculiarly ritualistic: fire, circles, traces and marks. The National Museum has commissioned him to create installations playing with and off archaeological finds and instead of detracting from the objects, I think his works added to them. It was a pleasant surprise.

Next time we are through, we'll work our way through the second and the third floors. It's a labyrinthine museum and that is awfully appealing in its own right.

Tomorrow: another trip to Edinburgh (it's work-related) and Friday: another trip to Edinburgh (it's flight-related). Today was all about indulgence.

Interlude

Just a brief blog post about knitting. Most of my current knitting projects are things I cannot show you nor tell you much about as they are either earmarked for future publication (not mine) or future publication (mine).. which reminds me: are you a photogenic 20-something living in Glasgow who has always wanted to be a knitwear model and who is happy to get paid in tea/cake - then get in touch! I'm also looking for a test-knitter or two, but I will get back to this post-holiday.

My hands are playing up again, sadly, so I cannot knit for long stretches of time. I'm back to icing my thumbs(!) and wearing wrist supports. Knitting is not fully to blame for my problems but it is certainly not helping my hands recover.

I'm still going to pack a couple of projects for my holiday but I'm hoping that a little break from obsessive knitting will work wonders.

Cross fingers.

It's in the Air

IKEA's Christmas 2010 wrapping paper and Christmas cards include Selbu motifs. Very cute. Clearly I had to buy a roll of wrapping paper. Other recent shopping include a trip to Granny Would Be Proud, a fairly recent addition to the Glasgow crafts fair scene. Today they had set up camp at Hillhead Book Club, an atmospheric and eclectic bar/restaurant just off Byres Road, and we could not resist going. It was a good mix, actually. I tend to be fairly critical of crafts fairs as they can easily be quite bland or veer into unfortunate handmade-irony. The craft fair seemed well curated with some lovely touches: a photo booth where you could get photographed wearing vintage gear and Vintage Spectacles which let you try on frames dating back to the early 20th century. I tried on several 1930s and 1940s frames and now know where to get my next set of glasses. I may also have succumbed to some handmade buttons whilst looking wistfully at Sylvia & Nicola's bespoke dresses.

Somewhere else entirely I came across tops labelled "1930s handknit" which were neither. That is the side of the vintage industry which I really do not like.

Anyway, I have been buying Christmas presents too - and sent off my own wish list to my Danish family. I managed to think of other things besides 1-ply Faroese yarn and I'm pretty proud of that. Note self: I need to start utilising various online wish list facilities, so I do not start to panic come present-buying season. I tried using Wist but it never really clicked for me. Apart from the obvious Amazon wish list feature, do you use any other wish list facilities? Any recommendations?

(I cannot believe I'm already writing about Christmas! Then again I have just been swatching for some Christmas workshops I'm doing later this year..)

Things I have liked recently: + I met a girl recently who wore the nicest cardigan. I nearly ripped it off her back and ran away. + People can be incredibly wonderful sometimes. + Pretty film posters. I'm not sure I'm interested in the film, though. + We are now spending time apart but this is pretty sweet.

Highlight of my weekend? Probably not doing the laundry but it needs to be done, so I can start packing for my holiday. Not that I'm counting the hours or anything..