click on the sheep for a larger picture from my best birthday ever...

I totally captivated by this game... from the soothing music to the twinkly stars, even the little squeaky grunt she makes when she hops. :o)

I think I found some new (well, they're new to me) blogs, Mary's knitting notes, multi-crafter, G's knitting blog and katy knits. Welcome, folks!

Oh, and this surprises me not in the least:

The Completely Pointless Personality Quiz

One more thing: I saw this list of livestock breeds via knitting notes and the sheep on the road in picture over there to the right looked a lot like these spælsau.
spæl :: short tailed
sau :: sheep

and I added a picture of the Wonderful Wallaby over to the right and a little down.... under "latest finished object". (Click on it for a larger picture.)

Update :: Amalie wore this to school today. :O)

Knitting men.

Click on Pilt to enter the psychedelic world of Norwegian children's television in the 1970's.

Today's delightful thing: Shetha's television screen. Priceless! :Ø)

And I saw that Larry, who is looking for the right yarn to make his daughter a sweater from my pattern, has a blog!

Sarah is talking about Tunisian crochet, a.k.a. hakking. Cool!

Two new things: Cabling without a cable needle and my first two submissions :: 1 and 2 to the Mirror Project. (Thanks to Amy for inspiring me to send these in!)

I wrote to Hélène to make sure she got the email with the finished pattern (and to see if I could find out something ... see below) and got this almost immediate reply:

Hi Theresa,
Yes I did get the mittens and the pattern. As a contributor to that special
issue, you will get a complimentary copy. But if you want to subscribe, you
need to join TKGA at www.tkga.com.
thanks for checking in!
Helene

Does that mean what I think it means?? "As a contributor" surely means I'm a contributor, don't you think? jumping up and down and making happy noises

Apparently, though, you have to have a subscription subscribe to Cast On magazine to get a copy of the special accessories issue that will have those (ok, ok, my) mittens in it. But a subscription includes full membership in The Knitting Guild of America, and that sounds like a good thing, no? And I remember that Cast On got lots of positive comments on the knitlist...

Update :: From the knitlist post by Hélène: "So if you think you will want a copy of that special issue (will be sent along with the Fall issue and mailing around the start of August) you'll need to join TKGA (the subscription comes with the membership)." Join here.


I'm so excited!!

The Friday Five

1. What are your hobbies? Knitting, knitting, knitting and some gardening (I really need to take some pictures of my seedlings...) and occasional fits of baking.

2. Do you collect anything? If so, what? Knitting pattern books.

3. Is there a hobby you're interested in, but just don't have the time/money to do? Sewing. I'm getting seriously inspired by Sew Wrong and scouting out sewing machines at the stores in Oslo. Anybody have an opinion on a Huskystar by Husqvarna Viking? (Did you know Husqvarna is Swedish?)

4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a money making opportunity? Ah, kind of you to ask! I just sent a pair of mittens and a design submission to Hélène Rush of Cast-On magazine. I don't know yet if she'll use it, but you will know as soon as I do!

5. Besides web-related stuff, what clubs do you belong to? Well, I'm sort of an honorary member of S.'s model airplane club ... I go to lots of the meetings and tag along when he goes flying. You can see a picture of him explaining that his plane is a plane and not a bat here and one of the s-combat here.

We stumbled on an television interview last night (or maybe the night before) with Per Christian Ellefsen who played Elling in Elling, the quirky and wonderful Norwegian movie that was nominated for an Oscar ("Omg, John Travolta said Norway!") where they were talking about an proposed American version of Elling. WOW! Read about it here and here. It says it will likely be set in the US, but how I wish Kevin Spacey and Ed Norton would come and act in Majorstua, so I could go take pictures and generally give Sigurd yet another reason to call me a "crazy American." :O) (He says it with love.)

This is hilarious... his version vs. her version. :O)

Jon-Erik left the following comment in response to this post :

Thanks for linking to No Bra Required! Dori is my wife and I am very proud of her as you might expect. It is VERY important to pay close attention to your body and when something is even slightly wrong..CHECK IT OUT!! Dori may have waited longer than she should have, but we can't do much about it now. We just take it day by day. Thanks again, I'm glad to here that you are cancer-free.

and Shinnita left this one:

my granny had a modified radical mastectomy in november of last year. her cancer was caught early, removed completely, didn't spread and no chemo needed becasue of early detection. i had been very lax about self breast exams until then. not anymore. glad your cancer free and doing well. that was great advice to put on your page! :-)

Once upon a time...

Erica Lee is collecting knitting stories. You can email her or visit this topic at Knitter's Review.

Love the lovely girls. Judy is plugging me in a most delightful way. :O)

A different (for me) way to purl.

And just in case you think blogging is just for pundit wannabes...
Uhm, folks, they're talking about knitting blogs!. (Look about 9 topics down the page, just after cloning cartoon at the entry called BLOG COVERAGE.) Mentions Bonnie Marie and Beth by name! Cool!

Just in case you're wondering (I did) pundit :: (n.) one who gives opinions in an authoritative manner ... hmmm... I thought we did that.

I pulled out the latest swatch tonight (the aqua colored Rowan dk soft) at line dancing class and got some attention from the other ladies, one of which said "hun gjør det annerledes enn jeg" (she does it differently than me) referring to the way I hold the yarn wrapped in a loop around my left pinky finger. Another borrowed it and started purling (continentally) in a way I have never seen before, then proceeded to stand behind me holding my hands and showed me how, which was a bit difficult since she's about a foot shorter than I am. (Which just goes to show: Not all Scandinavians are 6'2".) It took me a few minutes but I finally got it and am fascinated! I think it might be the way Teri says she purls continentally...

With the yarn in front, laying across the right needle, insert the right needle into the next stitch as if to purl (ie, back to front) then the right needle gets levered to the right, goes over the yarn, pulling the loop so the yarn and the right-hand side of the loop make a bit of a V. The right hand needle then gets inserted in the middle of that V (back to front & under the working yarn) and then back into the loop (front to back) and out.

Anybody do it this way? Shall I take pictures? ;o)

Someone's been translating squiBlog into German. And she's right, it's spooky to see your own words changed thusly .... But since it's also highly amusing here are a few little things:

Ed il mio amico Carolyn è sicuro in Italia ed ha una vista bella di una chiesa su un mountaintop, di cui le flange mi dicono il tempo giornaliere!

Becky coincés sur son autruche.

It also translated "whoo hoo!" into "hoo de whoo!" (på fransk) and the Hee-Haw song to this (på spansk) :

"où l'OH où êtes vous ce soir?
Pourquoi m'avez-vous laissé ici tout seul?
J'ai recherché le monde fini et pensé je trouverais l'amour vrai.
Vous avez rencontré l'un autre et PFFFT! Vous avez été allés."

While we're on the subject of language, I saw this Norwegian-English dictionary and a list of the 100 most often misspelled and mispronounced words in English over at yourdictionary.com.

The biggest swatch I believe I've ever made. From the Garnstudio Silketweed...

Stacey works at Lark Books where Knitting in the Nordic Tradition, an excellent resource for ...well, knitting in the Nordic tradition, was published. Check out their knitting books. Makes me want to work in Asheville again...

In other news, Theresa has a new page up. And my friend Carolyn is safely in Italy and has a lovely view of a church on a mountaintop, whose bells tell me the time everyday!

Ginn's shoes are indeed Børn, quite possibly the world's greatest shoes.

Shannita's got grafting problems and Becky's stuck on her ostrich. Go help 'em out!

Beth got to hear the baby's heartbeat and Aimee seems to have survived her frogging intact, if a bit stressed.

Erica Lee, who's a "chatty knitter" (as I aspire to be) at Knitter's Review Forum has a new knitting blog. Cool!


I stumbled across some information today about the characteristics of Icelandic lopi, alpaca, mohair, linen, and New Zealand wool yarn at handknitting.com and once again : I really want some alpacas! And maybe some angora goats... I mean look at that guy! And these live in Asheville!

Rain, rain, go away.
Come again another day....

p.s. just not tomorrow.

Regn :: rain


Icky weather = surfing and knitting, right?

So, this site: no bra required caught my eye at capturing light. Some of you may have noticed the encouragement to perform breast self exams and the reason is this: I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996 at age 25 and am likely alive and cancer-free because I discovered it myself. I will probably write about it at some point... but for now, just this: Do it. Once a month. Doesn't matter if you don't know what you're looking for, only that you know what is normal for you so you can notice changes. Ok?

Thor Heyerdahl : 1914-2002

"Who will dream for us now?"

It's a beautiful sunny day here today (weather.com says 57F!! whoo hoo!) so my attention is elsewhere. I used Cherry KoolAid to dye some gray roving and it looks gorgeous drying on the clothes line. Nice deep, rich color. S. got the grill out of the basement and it looks like the trees might have leaves very soon! I attached the arms of Amalie's Wonderful Wallaby to the body last night and plan to get mostly finished while movie-watching and Saturday-candy eating tonight. Ah, word for the day: Lørdag's godt :: Saturday candy. Very good system. Enables parents to say "no" to candy all week since it's not Saturday.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

All things duct tape-ish, including duck vs. duct ... found through alyshajane

(gasps) claps both hands over mouth (squeals in happiness and surprise) stomps both feet on the floor (grins happily the rest of the day)

... bagatell is smattering's Aortal link! I mean, how cool is that!!


Friday Five

1. What (are) your favorite TV show(s) and why? I watch Seinfield, Mad About You, the Simpsons and Alle Elsker Raymond (English title? Everybody loves Raymond, maybe?) because they all make me laugh, occasionally to the point of cachinnating. Of course, they're all re-runs. I watch National Geographic and Discovery, especially if there is a show about Neanderthals, wooly mammoths, where Atlantis might have been (South America or Antarctica? hard to say) or it looks like Steve Irwin might get bitten.

2. Who is your favorite television star? Lisa Simpson.

3. What was your favorite TV show as a child? Hee Haw.

"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the world over and thought I'd found true love.
You met another and PFFFT! You were gone."

Dad and I watched it together every week. (Dukes of Hazzard runs a pretty close 2nd.)

4. What show do you think should have been cancelled by now? Fear Factor (this would be the Norwegian version). Haven't watched it. Ain't gonna.

5. What new show do you hope escapes the axe this season? Torsdagsklubben. It shows live from Smuget in Oslo and I want to go! Otto Jespersen is so... hilariously... incorrect. Snakk norsk? Les avslutningene hans her.

News :: I've been finding it a bit stressful to add and update links in two separate places (here and at bagateller), so I've decided to have 5 randomly selected* knitting weblogs at a time featured here, with the complete list available there... ok? I love you all and I regularly read all the blogs on the webring...

*randomly selected: I closed my eyes and moved the mouse around. If anyone cares to give me some code to have them rotate automatically (in the manner of Judy's & Becky's), I'd be incredibly grateful!

Two things:

skAIN :: lovingly dedicated to Kate.

and Sarah's Stash and UFO Control, or "How to Say No to Your Inner Brat". It's pretty bad when I didn't even confess to you guys that I bought 6 balls of Rowan DK soft Tuesday.... it was on sale and they're going to stop selling it at the only place who sold Rowan yarns in Oslo! Honest!

Edited for spelling. What's an innter brat? goodgrief

What I found at a vintage clothing store in Oslo on Saturday for NKr. 95 (about $11). Warm, I can't tell you how warm. :O) The fibers on it are long enough that brushing it improved its appearance. The label says :

Myrjord Veveri a/s
Bø, Telemark
Woven in Norway. All Wool.

So, it's not knitted, it's woven (veveri :: weavery... is that a word??) in Bø (which is the exact same spelling and pronunciation of the Norwegian equivalent of "Boo!") in Telemark, which is an area in the south east of Norway, famous for a certain style of skiing. But the pattern and the colors remind me of Swedish Bohus patterns I've seen in Poems of Color : Knitting in the Bohus Tradition. Very happy!

Poetry in Stitches, continued ::

I first saw Oleana sweaters at Husfliden in Oslo. Incredibly beautiful sweaters with intense colors in fine wool or wool/silk blends often trimmed in velvet or silk ribbons that I drooled over. I found several links to some places to buy Oleana designs, and if you take a peek, you can possibly see why I'm drooling, not pulling out my wallet.

I picked up a Knitter's magazine in the US last October in which Solveig Hisdal's was featured. Oleana is a small knitting mill near Bergen, Norway whose goal is to show customers the link between textile patterns of the past and modern Norwegian design. The company is named in honor of Ole Bull, the famous Norwegian violinist, who started a utopian colony for poor Norwegian immigrants in Pennsylvania named Oleana. Their aim is to make, not more sweaters, but more beautiful sweaters. Their designer, Solveig Hisdal, who is continuously reviewing museum collections around Norway, is the author of Poetry in Stitches. See how I eventually came back to that point? ;o)
There are some higher resolution pictures at Pinnsvin design that show full pages of Poetry in Stitches. You can see "my" sweater there, and a sleeveless version with the skirts one should wear with them.

As promised, more about the Poetry in Stitches cardigan.

Carolyn's BBC Audio File's Norwegian reference is to nålbinding, which has blessedly given me a excuse to finally post all my bookmarked references to this ancient Scandinavian technique...

Naalbinding, also called needle knitting, makes ..."a sturdy, elastic fabric. In regular knitting, each loop is only connected to those directly above and below it, but in naalbinding each loop is connected to at least one on either side as well. Naalbinding is much slower than knitting, but it will not run." Phiala is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and has information on the simplest possible stitch and five variations. Lady Morganna has more illustrations and some pictures of garments made by using this technique. (The stocking is in the Norsk Folkemusset on Bygdøy... I've seen it!) And here is a list of nålbinding pieces dated to the Viking Age in northern Europe, along with discussions of the stitches utilized and a list of additional resources. There's also a yahoo group dedicated to nålbinding. If you have Folk Socks, you can see a sock made from this technique on page 32.

Trivia: The different names (nålbinding, nålebinding, nalbindning, naalbinding, etc...) you see mentioned here are not all a big mish mash of spelling errors, it represents the different Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish) and the "aa" is an alternate spelling for å, used for the poor people in the world who don't have the å to the right of p. The ø and æ, by the way, are to the right of l and make it very difficult for me to readjust to US keyboards where I hit enter instead of '. Enough trivia? Shutting up now! ;o)

Oh, one picture... ;o) I finished the body of the Poetry in Stitches cardigan tonight! Whoo hoo! (There is more information and picture and stuff about this project coming soon; not tonight, but soon.)

"We all know what it is to have a half-warmed fish
inside us...."

I can't decide whether I prefer using dictionary.com or yourdictionary.com. I might use m-w.com, but I usually go with the shortest address to type. Though Merriam-Webster does have a audio pronunciation feature which is marvelous...

Cable sweater (this one is Theresa's and she's 12) in Cotton Big Sport by idena and the sleeve. I made this one up as I went along, it was very easy and quick knitting. Any interest out there in me writing out this pattern?

(note : links open in a pop up window)

  

Brenda: knitter and science fiction novelist. There's a Norwegian connection to this story... at approximately 3pm on December 14, 1911, Roald Amundsen raised the flag of Norway at the South Pole, a month before the doomed expedition led by Scott.

And a big ol' Happy Birthday! to Becky's blue house!

I've caught up with knit list digests today. (whoo hoo!) Seen:

• this page of links to size and measurement charts is from Fiber Gypsy which has lots of other helpful resources.
• Desktops from spin2knit.
• and this cartoon. :o)
  

The highly observant Judy noticed that a sweater outside Garnstua, in the picture I posted a few days ago, was a hooded sweater with bear ears. I haven't been back to investigate further, but I think I found a picture of the pattern from Knappehuset! Which as far as I can figure, means The Button House. :o)

I didn't mean to do this but I couldn't resist. Silketweed from Garnstudio ...half silk, half lamb's wool... mmmmm.... I'm making a swatch tonight and want to create some sort of shell. Hey, Gwen, want to design something together? ;o)

Stacey is... she called it "leading my double life"... I'll call it being my Asheville conciousness. ;o) She's been to Blue Moon Bakery and Earth Fare! Want to know more about this wonderful place in the mountains of western North Carolina? Experience a day in downtown Asheville.

I haven't mentioned this before, but I have an obsession with Scotland. (That might have been obvious by the reference to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, but then again maybe not.) I don't know if it started because of Diana Gabaldon's marvelous books

• Outlander
  
• Dragonfly in Amber
  
• Voyager
  
• Drums of Autumn
  
• and Fiery Cross

but they certainly fueled it. (If you, too, are captivated by these books, check out the Ladies of Lallybroch. You will be among friends who understand.) I have some excuse... the mountains of western North Carolina was a settling point for many Scottish immigrants, including my mother's people.

What's the point? I found Looby Lou's Knitting in the Nitten' today. She's just outside of Edinburgh! And I'm hoping she'll tell us all about knitting in Scotland! :o)

Presenting: ...drum roll... Bagatell's first free pattern! It's a adult raglan sweater with simple cables at the raglan decrease points. Please, please leave a comment here or email me if there is anything about this pattern that is unclear or just plain weird. Or if you have a suggestion for a name for this pattern. :o) It's the first sweater pattern I've ever written out.

note: I'll get a (better quality) picture up soon, but for the time being it's viewable here. (And on the "gallery" page.)

Ok. For the past few days there have been these incredibly and I mean incredibly loud booming, exploding noises somewhere in the vicinity of our house. When outside, one can hear a faint horn signal that this is about to happen, but it's raining. And cold. I am not opening the windows. The exploding is likely some building project using dynamite to blast rock. I feel like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. And I wish they would stop.

Veni Vidi ViDYE :: Check out Shetha's dyeing! WOW!!!

Betsy was wanting a picture of twisted purl stitches in a discussion on the knit blogs group so, here 'tis:

--nice, normal untwisted stitches. The loop is lying in a relaxed way with the part that's on the front of the needle towards the right.

--twisted stitches. See (through my lovely new swallow casein needle) how the part of the loop that is to the RIGHT is on the back of the needle and the part of the stitch that is visible (ie, on the front of the needle) is pulled to the left?

Update :: I've added some new pictures to the page of things I see. And (yea!) spring is springing here (=high of 46 F forecasted today) and the crocus are blooming which means I'll be taking a bunch of pictures.

Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy Birthday dear Stephanie,
Happy Birthday to You !!!

LYMI !

(Stephanie is my wonderful, 4-years-younger-than-me first cousin who lives in N.C. I remember the first time she ever drank from a real cup.) ;o)

Click here to see a picture of my local yarn store, Garnstua. (The Yarn Room). :o)

which children's storybook character are you?

this quiz was made by colleen

Spotted at Urban Gypz. She's learning to spin tonight at Earth Guild, the place where I bought my first needles, yarn and learning to knit books! How cool is that??

I really like this little song by Lars Lillo-Stenberg... it seems rather well-fitted to a weblog. ;o)

se på meg, her er jeg
se på meg, her er jeg

se på meg, her går jeg, se på meg
du ser vel at her er jeg,
du ser vel at her går jeg
du ser vel at det er meg, bare meg
ingen vet hvor jeg skal dra
ingen vet hvor jeg kommer fra
men du ser vel at jeg har det bra...

look at me, here I am
look at me, here I am

look at me, here I go, look at me
you see, of course, that I am here
you see, of course, that I'm walking here
you see, of course, that it's me, just me

no one knows where I am going
no one knows where I come from
but you see, of course, that I'm doing fine...

Shetha was wondering about handpainting with kool-aid (and paas dye) and I thought I would point the way to painted yarn at Knitter's Review, and this this list of links (one of 'em is specifically about Easter egg dyes) from Barbara M. Harris-Pruitt who also brings us the color chart. Ta da!

Ooooo, and I just saw this one about painting roving... Pretty.

Check out the quirky little Norwegian commercial for Milo, the wool-friendly soap.

Trainer: "Come on, jump, it's only 10 meters down! Yeah, come on, jump! Jump then!"
Sheep: "Bæææ"
Text: My wool likes Milo best.
Man in sheep suit: "Was that good enough now?"

Maggie's Rags Knitting Tips includes:

• how to start a new ball of yarn
• teaching kids to knit
• finger knitting
• getting rid of cast-on problems
• what "worsted" means
• finishing tips
• getting rid of ladders
• lengthening a finished sweater
• and much, much more!
  

Lemon Lime Yarn. I am quite happy about the way this one came out, even though it's still rather gray in spots... likely where I had the hank tied.
The other skein I dyed at the same time was much less green (theory: it was the one I added to the pot second, so it didn't take up as much dye) I let it dry last night and "overdyed" it again today with the Grape... I'll take a picture when it's dry and wound up.

Since I forgot to take a picture pre-dyeing, here is a color chart of the yarn I used. It was the light gray, number 88.

Lessons learned: Only do one skein at a time and be sure there's enough Kool-Aid for the amount of yarn. Perhaps 2 packs for 50g of yarn would have ensured a more vivid color. And I'm not quite sure what the best way to keep the yarn loose enough to dye well, but still keep it from tangling up. Anybody have any suggestions? I did use a splash of vinegar, and was fascinated by the fact that the water was completely clear after 20 minutes simmering on the stove. Absolutely Amazing. :o) This is a lot of fun. Give it a try!

Oh, and check out Bonnie Marie who in a serendipitous manner just took a class on Kool-Aid dyeing and is talking about it today. :o)

We didn't get to see the PowerPuff girls but Amalie translated names for me...
Buttercup is Bell
Blossom is Blomst
and Bubbles is Boble.

I also know most of the Winnie the Pooh character's names...
Pooh is Ole Brumm
Piglet is Nasse Nøff
Eeyore is Tussi
Owl is Ugle
& Rabbit is Sprett

Amalie and I went to the library today while her dad and Theresa went to go pick up a friend to spend the night with us. I got Amy Tan's book The Bonesetter's Daughter and Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen on tape. And we rented Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I find those little oompah-loompah men scary, but I'll try not to influence her when we watch it. They were not, I repeat, not green in the book which was one of my favorites. Oh, and did you know that Roald Dahl's parents were Norwegian? Now you do.

I also picked up some yarn, 3 balls of worsted weight stuff for the blanket I've got stashed away somewhere. I'm making little dishcloth size squares out of stash yarn to put together to make a wrapping up on the couch blanket. And I bought some Gjestal 1/2 wool, 1/2 alpaca yarn called Alpakka in a light gray color to try Kool Aid dyeing! I'm so excited! Clara mailed the Kool Aid to me and I have : Cherry, Lemon-Lime, Solar Strawberry Starfruit and Grape. :o) This is how it should come out. We'll see !
In progress with the Lemon-Lime... looks like green spaghetti to me...

Take the Which Powerpuff Girl Are You? Test.


seen at entrelinhas... :o) Anybody know what language that is?

A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling.

Aha! I figured out the name of the other bird I've been seeing a lot of lately, eating peanuts, mostly upsidedown :: a european nuthatch which is called spettmeis in Norwegian. I really like this one.

Dave Barry cracks me up. I literally cannot read his columns without having to leave the room to avoid breaking Sigurd's concentration (he's working on something extremely complicated that has to do with translating Norwegian to English, or vice versa...) with my hysterics.

See? Without the knit list, I'd have missed this cartoon. Carolyn and I are apparently having a loosely structured support group here for "knitters who feel wishy-washy about reading the knit list" -- open membership.

"Hi, my name is Theresa and I spend hours each week reading about yahoo!'s spam policies and why it isn't okay to talk about ...shhhh... airplanes... in order to get some truly marvelous information."

Becky has me wanting this rocking chair (Sigurd : "that's not a rocking chair" Me : "it is too a rocking chair, see? the page says "contemporary rocking chairs history"!" Him : "neida" Me: "That is a rocking chair!" Him: "Can't they see that's not round?" Me: "What?!?" Him: "rounded... curved" Me: "Well, anyway, I want one") from a Norwegian company called Stokke which also has very cool high chair that a kid can use from 6months all the way to adulthood.

oh, and Carolyn has convinced me to keep reading the knitlist. ;O)

(Warning: whiny and not to be construed as being indicitive of reality any any way. In other words: Do Not Worry, Mom)

It's typical with me to begin feeling as though I'm seriously ill when I'm on the mend. A couple of weeks ago, I had those dizzy spells, then felt better, then started having some sinus pressure, a weird sound in my right ear (as though pressure was changing), and a little bit of dizzy-ness again when I got up in the morning. So I was using nasal spray... I'm an addict, I know. Now I'm having all those normal, run-of-the-mill cold symptoms and "came off" of the spray yesterday, took a Benadryl last night and had a good night's sleep and have just a bit of a headache and some pain in my neck (likely from falling asleep on the sofa while we were watching Italian for Beginners ...Danish with Norwegian subtitles... whoa) and am totally convinced I have something like meningitis! I mean, come on. I don't even have a temperature! What is that about!?
hypokonder :: (n.) hypocondriac

In other news, the girls with us this week. They had all of last week off and started school again yesterday. Amalie and I have been converting an old shoe box into a portable Barbie closet. I'll take a picture when we get it finished. It's been rainy and overcast this week, until a few minutes ago when the sun came through. Yea!

The birds are coming back to the birdfeeders. We have two, one with sunflower seeds and another with peanuts. Sigurd saw "Woody" the flaggspett (great spotted woodpecker) return a few days ago, we've got grønnfink (green finch), bokfink (chaffinch), I saw a stær (starling) yesterday, there's ringdue (wood pigeons) in the woods and skjære (magpies) running around. (Don't fuss, Stephanie, that's what they're called! :o) ) As well as the kjøttmais (great tit) that have stuck with us all winter. Feed your birds! :O)

fugl (pronounced "fool", almost) :: bird

Wow! First the webring, now the group! Thanks Ivete !!

Congratulations to Beth who's knitting baby socks! And to Ivete who is becoming a bona fide sock designer! :O)

This is a list of fables, fairy tales and folklore that are available online. I'm very much looking forward to reading Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales in Norwegian, since it is very close to Danish (written, that is. Spoken... don't get me started.)

Not all the links work, but the ones for Aesop's fables, the Blue, Red, Yellow, and Violet Fairy Books by Andrew Lang are all available in their entirety!

I'm sure several of the stories are Norse in origin, like The Story of Sigurd. And Soria Moria (which is the title of Amalie's 3rd grade reading book) and East of the Sun and West of the Moon, called Kvitebjørn Kong Valomon in Norwegian (the White Bear King Valomon) are a couple of the stories that Peter Christen Asbørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Møe collected and published in Norway in the 1840's.

I heard Pat Shaw, a lady who has translated some of these stories into English, read one of them at International Summer School here in Oslo last summer when I was taking a Norwegian class. Very cool.


oh, and one more thing fairy related...

First, here is the newly created page of pictures of things I see whilst out and about. I'll be adding to this whenever the battery in the camera is charged.

Second, I'm going to point in the direction of the question How Do You Knit? again 'cause a) I'm really interested and 2) Kate was kind enough to send folks over. ;O)

and Third, I added my galloping gourmet experience to the Friday Five, from Friday.