Og - Cia

Every baby needs a blanket

2012-01-15T22:55:00.005+01:00

When H was born, my dear colleague, Mary-Ann, knit him a baby blanket. I think it was the best gift in the world because that blanket warms not only the baby's little body, but also the mother's heart (and her shoulders during those late late nights of breast feeding).

That handknit gift has been so special to me that I think it is the best gift one can give to another person. It is a tender way to send an intense message of "Here is a piece of my heart, all my thoughts of you and your little one, weaved in every stitches I made for you. Every time you have this blanket around you, I am around you. Remember I care about you, I love you, I am with you.".

So when I got to know that one of my colleauges is going to have a baby in March, I decided that I also want to knit a baby blanket for the mother and the child. You see, I have been given the best gift. I wish I can do the same for this friend I also care a lot for.

I am more than half way through, knitting the edge now. I am using 4 mm instead of 3.5 mm.

Does anyone know how to get rid of coffee stains off alpaca? I know I am pretty uncareful, especially when this is going to be a gift. I just applied some PH-value neutral soap on the stain and wash it gently under cold running water. It is still wet...I am so nervous that it won't get off...What can I do if I cannot get rid of the stain? Except from knitting a new blanket.

WIPs

2011-11-27T21:11:00.004+01:00

WIP, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

There are several things on the needles right now. Like this selbu mitten. This is actually my first real effort trying to make a pair of selbu mittens, even though I have tons of patterns purchased. I don't know why, I just always think knitting selbu mittens requires so much more than what I am capable of, such as the patience, the inner peace to relax, the concentration, the techniques and the ability to decide which pattern to start.This time I got help from a colleague, who needs a pair of mittens "right away" and who happens to know that I am kinda "knitting-gal" ('coz I knit at lunch at work :=P). When he came to ask me if I could make a pair of mittens for him, I just felt "YES!", now I have not only the person who can decide the pattern for me, but also the motivation for finishing them "in time" and I can just pretent that I have the indefinite source of patience and zen to borrow from when mine runs out.

The photo above shows how far I got in two weeks. Not too much? Well, that's because I also work on these...

Yes, the goldfish mitten fever is STILL on. I have been trying to make a pair as gifts. Started from the left, the first two are identical in pattern, but not in size, so I casted on the third one, which mysterically turned out a different colored face and the pattern was a bit wrong above where the fin should be...I must have counted the rows wrong. Out of frustration, I casted the fourth one. Don't ask me what happened when I picked up orange insteand of gray. I guess my mind was not functioning at all on that train trip...So here becomes necessary for the fifth one...since I had little yellow yarn left, I casted on with gray, hoping that I would have enough yellow for this one, but only to realize, later, that in that case I will need to forget all the previous four fish. Now I have almost no yellow yarn left, so I will buy more of it. And the next question won't be easy: Should I make a pair with the first one (the yellow tail), or the last one (the gray tail)?

These are actually not Christmas gift knitting...I just pretent that I do not have a long list :)

hmmmm....still addicted

2011-11-01T20:44:00.001+01:00

hmmmm....still addicted, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Needless to tell, the goldfish fever is still on. All for H. I will start making some as gifts for friends later on. I just need to finish trying all the color combo I had in my mind first. I am trying to stick to the "natural" color combination of goldfish, so I 'm not gonna to make green and blue goldfish, yet. But how many color variations of goldfish are out there? Do you know?

Goldfish mitten two pairs

2011-10-27T12:45:00.001+02:00

Goldfish mitten two pairs, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

OK, I think I am getting addicted. Two pairs of the goldfish mittens done, and the third pair is already cast on.

Goldfish mitten in use

2011-10-22T19:09:00.002+02:00

goldfish mitten in use, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

We had a good day today. Both H and one of his cousins have birthdays this month, so we have a small family party for these two today. It feels actually very good to have visit this time. I am relaxed, not so stressed as I used to be. I thank my son who taught me to appreciate family moments more. I think I will be a better person with him :=)

H and I went to the local supermarket while DH was left home alone baking for the party. Then I had the chance to take some pictures of the lovely goldfish mittens in use, in better light. I took some other photos of the mittens before, but the lightning was too bad that the photos do not do the justice of how sweet these mittens are.

Here you can see the photos of the mitts. The pattern is a free Ravelry pattern available for downloading by Amy Christoffers. It is also a fast knit. I finished the pair in two days on train, in total around 2.5 hours of knitting time.

One year

2011-10-09T16:47:00.004+02:00

Yummy yummy, Chocolate muffin. Best to have birthday everyday :=) , originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Lille pjusken min har blitt ett år denne måned. Dette er jo helt utrolig. Så mye har skjedd i det siste året at jeg knapt føler tiden går. Og så er det plutselig, han er blitt 1 år. :=)

Jeg går fortsatt på behandling pga. problemene mine. Det er ikke lett, med noen nedturer av og til. Noen dager var jeg så engstlig at livet så så mørkt ut at alt bare forsvinner enda håp. Men totalt sett har jeg blitt bedre. Jeg har fått mindre og mindre slike "mørkdager" i det siste, og når jeg får tvangstanker, jobber jeg bevisst med metoder jeg har lært meg for å kunne fungere. Jeg har fått en ny behandler som er veldig flink. Vi begynte med det letteste tvangstanker og jobber med å redusere angstnivå, og jeg er informert at det vil bli enda hardere. Men jeg er innstilt til å jobbe hardt og bli "frisk" for min gutt.

Bursdagsbarnet fikk smak sjokolade for første gang, eller sjokolademuffin for å være presiss. Det er godt, det. Etter det har han også prøvdt kumelk. Det er ikke påvist allergisk reaksjon, og det ser ut at han liker kumelken også. Bra, da slipper jeg å være bekymret for at han er allergisk mot melk som jeg gjør og at han ikk få i seg nok kalsium. Jeg kan også med god samvittighet å slutte å pumpe ut morsmelk, uten å være bekymret for at han ville få magevondt av kumelk eller slik. Jeg skal slutte snart, og jeg føler allerede litt lettet bare med tanken på at jeg kan kroppen tilbake og ikke trenger å stresse meg hver morgen når jeg skal på jobb og må også pumpe før jeg dra.

Det er sur og kald ute i dag. Og jeg begynner å tenke/bekymret for at jeg ikke har strikket nok ullplagg til gutten. Nå er det bare å sette i gang og forsette.

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H celebrated his first birthday this month. It is unbelievable that he's already one year old. I still remember him as the little "ball" that made small kitty sound when I nursed him at night. Now he is already a toddler, crowling around and can almost walk alone without support.

It is raining and windy today. It feels very cold, so cold that I started to worry that H may not have enough wool clothes if the weather keeps like this. I have another sweater for him on the needles right now. I hope I can knit like a spider so I can for real knit several things at the same time.

30 hours on the train = a sweater for a toddler

2011-09-28T21:02:00.003+02:00

H in his new sweater, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

The sweater is done. I weaved in the ends last night. There are not too many of them, but I really do no t like weaving in ends :P.

It is mostly knitted on the train, as the pattern is very easy to follow. So behind it, there are some 30 knitting hours.

Here you see H posing in it. I did not see the lower part was folded in until I uploaded the picture. There is nothing wrong with the desing (and the knitting), I just have an active boy, and the boy has a careless mom. :=)

WIP

2011-09-27T19:28:00.002+02:00

WIP, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I have been thinking to not to blog until I finish this, but it is not that easy as I thought. So why torture myself? It is going to be a sweater for H. The pattern is from my favorit Norwegian knitter, the needle lady (Med Pinner is the name of her blog). She designed this sweater and has the pattern available for free on her Revalry.

We are going to vote

2011-09-13T21:46:00.003+02:00

we are going to vote, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Norway has local elections every four years. The local election was held on 11th and 12th September this year. I was not that interested in local politics before I got H. Now I am more engaged. It is also the first time I have gained voting right since I came to Norway. Not that I have never voted before. I mean we also have elections in China, probably to a lot of people's suprise. But the election in China has more of a superfacial character, more like a show to showcase and prove something that the world outside critizes that China does not have, like, democracy. Whether there is democracy in China is another discussion. My point of view is that it is getting better, but slowly, with many fallbacks, and sometimes the situation is really disappointing. But same as there is no absolute freedom, there is no absolute democray or authoritarianism, at least in reality. China has implemented an open-up police for soon 35 years. In my opinion, it does not do China justice to say that China today is a country of no democracy. The country is very different from the one at Mao's time as far as democracy and freedom is concerned. But I agree there is a lot to improve.

Well, back to where I am now. When it comes to local politics, I find myself more interested in health care for small babies and kindergarten offers. We have a lot of kindergartens in the region I live, but I am not sure how the quality is, as H has just begun daycare for not yet two months. So far, so good. But, again, there is always room for improvement.

I feel very happy that I also could vote this year, and I treasure this opportunity a lot. Next time I will do my homework better. Through these many years living in Norway, I have learned some of the differences among the different political parties, where they stand and their different polices. But next time, I want to learn more about the candidates from each party. Maybe I will go to talk with them when they have campaigns. What irritates me a lot this time is that the politicians just turn quiet when they see me approaching. When I passed by, they would talk to people after me, and they are often Norwegians. I felt this uncomfortable silience when I passed. Maybe because I have an "immigrant face"? Maybe they think I do not speak Norwegian? But how can they ever find out if they do not even talk to me. Or maybe they think I do not have the right to vote so they don't want to waste their time on me? Then they are very wrong. I gave my vote to the party that actually has a friendly party member who cared to smiled to me, spoke with me, and gave me a rose during their campaign.

P.S.

H is wearing a hat he inherited from one of his cousins. We are very fortunate to inherite a lot of clothes for H from my brother-in-laws kids. And it only gets better that the kids have a grandma who knit a looooot, so there are many lovely knitwear. The only pity is that H grows so fast that he has already outgrown some clothes. I tried to really "stretch" another knitted hat on him the other day that he protested so hard I was afraid he may develop some "post-hat-wearing-trauma". In the end, I gave up. It is a shame that he did not get the chance to wear another lovely piece, but I still want a kid who enjoys to try many more hats in the future.

Here is a close look of the hat.

Yummy yummy, garn tastes good

2011-09-11T14:16:00.003+02:00

Yummy yummy, garn tastes good, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I am working on a sweater for H to wear at kindergarten. Somehow the boy wants to help a bit, and he got a doze of lovely alpaca garn as his mom thinks an 11-month boy already needs some healthy exposure to wool and yarn.

Well, he's already gotten his own yarn ball to play with. It is a bit difficult for mom to knit a sweater from these.

The pattern is Barnegenseren Ikke helt ribba, A free pattern from the Needle Lady.

It is the first day of the local vote today. I have voting right this year, so I will go to vote. I want the place I live to be more child-friendly.

Mushroom trip

2011-09-07T20:44:00.007+02:00

Last Sunday we had our first mushroom picking trip this year. I picked some mushrooms to dye some wool. The one on the far right cannot be used. I remembered wrong.

Ove got us dinner.

Having a heavy toddler in your baby trolley up and down in the deep (and slipery) Norwegian woods on a rainy day feels like doing X-sports. Not so sure if it will become popular in Norway or China. But the boy liked it. He also had his first nap in the forest.

In general, I feel much better now. But weekends remain a bit challenging for me as I still think it is difficult to spend a whole day with the baby, and that there are two days in one weekend does not make the case easier. I mean I still lack the natural feeling oi being a mother, so it does not always feel comfortable and natural for me to be with the kid. I do not know what is the right (wrong) way to interact with him, especially when I am alone. This makes weekends a bit tricky, not always enjoyable, feels very long, and not exactly the first thing I look forward to, especially Sundays, when shops and libraries are closed.

Luckily, we can still go outside.

Three mitts

2011-08-31T15:14:00.003+02:00

Three mitts, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Remeber the two selbu mittens with thumbs on the same side my mother-in-law started when she was at primary school? Remember I said I will make two pairs out of those two mittens? Well, I have been trying, but things won't go as planned.

I charted the pattern down, cast on, started knitting since, eerrr, November 2009. After nearly two years, I got the first pair done, almost. I made several mistakes: First, the color of yarn is wrong. It should be natural white and black brown. The staff at the Norwegian Husfliden in Oslo told me that in addition to those two color, there is only one more color allowed in knitting selbumittens, and that is red. According to the same lady, the mitten should be strickly knitted in 2-plyed yarn specifically made for selbumittens by 2mm needles, which made my mistake nr. 2. I used 3mm and a sock yarn. I don't know what I was think when I picked up the sock yarns.

Well, I guess it is quite easy to tell which one is made by me, which are made by my in-law. In case some of you notice it, yes, the shape of the thumbs on my in-law's mittens are also wrong, partly because they were knitted by me, and partly because I did not do my homework of selbu then.

Despite all its flaws, I love my mitt, and I think it makes a perfect match with my in-law's. And most of all, I enjoyed every bit knitting it!

I am happy there is still another mitt with left thumb left :=)

fingerless mitten for a 10-month old

2011-08-30T09:05:00.004+02:00

fingerless mitten for a 10-month old, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

The kid spent a lot of time outside in kindergarten, playing with sand and pullin grass. I found a free pattern on Ravelry from Marianne Cant and after a slight modification, I have a mitten for a 10-month old.

You can see the boy wearing his new mitt here. His other hand is burnt when we were at the local library on Saturday. There was a hot water pipe very close to the ground, with no warning sign. He crawled around, touched the pipe, and burnt his right palm. He has now a huge blister on his palm and little finger, but the skin is not broken. I have applied some aloe vera and wrapped it in bandage in daytime, and hope the hand will heal without the wound getting broken at the kindergarten, as he, still, is a very active boy.

Strikkedukker - Arne Nerjordet » Bokkilden

2011-08-30T07:56:00.003+02:00

Strikkedukker - Arne Nerjordet » Bokkilden

I am currently waiting for my copy of this doll knitting book from the Norwegian designers Arne and Carlos. Can't tell you how excited I am! I also like the fact that they are active in promting their work and advertizing themselves like this and taking interviews on TV and on the Internet. You can find some interviews of them here. The interviews are in Norwegian, but the pictures are not :P- I like to see designers and authors on TV talking about their inspiration.

Talking about dolls, H will have his first birthday soon, I really want to make something speciall and memorable for him. I am thinking of a doll, either knitted or a rag doll. I feel so bad that I did not have energy and motivation to celebrate his 100 days, which is very important for new borns in the Chinese tradition.

Selbu knit

2011-08-25T11:57:00.002+02:00

I went to the Oslo Husflid the other day to buy some typical Norwegian presents for a friend coming from China. I hope I can afford this selbu-chair, but completely for myself only. Yarn shops are dangerous places for me, especially Husfliden :=) When I go out together with Ove and I see a yarn shop, I asked him to keep my wallet.

It's been raining. But it cannot stop my boy to have fun!

knitting directly from a silk cap

2011-08-24T19:11:00.002+02:00

knitting directly from a silk cap, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

This is what on the needles right now. It is a swatch by which I practice some knitting directly from a silk cap, or a mawata. I was inspired by Yarn Harlot and her lovely mittens knitted directly from silk hankies. So I was in China, I went around in search of silk hankies and silk caps. I had good luck :=)

I found that the shops where they sell handmade silk quilts and quilt covers also sell silk caps and silk cocoons. I brought a lot of silk caps back to Norway.

Well, I still need some more practice to pull the thread more evenly. But I believe this scarf is going to be light, warm and beautiful.

Another baby vest

2011-08-23T13:03:00.003+02:00

baby vest, pattern by Nicki Trench, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Knitting productivity has been high recently, not because I suddenly become a fast knitter, but, after the other day's sortment of my stash, I started a project to finish off some of the UFOs I found in the stash. I also try to controll myself to not to have more than three projects running at the same time. It feels good to have things done.

I have also started this year's Christmas gift knitting. Last year there was not much done as I was quite ill. And I think it is a good thing that I start early this year, so I will not stress out (too much). I am still having my weekly consultation in hopes that one day soon I can cope with my depression, anxiety and the obsessive–compulsive disorder. It's not been easy, but I am learning to be focused on "now" and "here".

Fall is coming now, and I just made a vest for my son. :=) This makes me feel good!

The little red vest

2011-08-18T08:44:00.004+02:00

What H wears to kindergarten today is this little red vest that I finished last week. It is a Drops Design pattern which you can find here. I started it when we were on vacation in China, and the yarn is fine merino from a Chinese brand from Inner Mongolia, called 'Erdos", it is pronounsed 'er-er-duo-s' in Chinese, and the charaters are 鄂尔多斯.

It could be quite tricky to buy yarns in China, from my own experiences. One thing is that it is not always easy to find the best quality yarns as a lot of them are not labeled. Also, they are marked differently from what I am used to. For instance, gauge is usually not marked on the lables, neither are recommended needle sizes. Even though some yarns are labeled, the thickness of the yarn is marked in another system. Actually, the needles are sized differently in China too. One of the online Chinese knitting/crocheting communities I frequently visit is www.bianzhirensheng.com. They have many active users, and one can find useful information such as the right needle sizes in the UK/US market with the ones equivalent in the Chinese system, like here.

The other thing is the worry of spending money on fake yarns. There are some famous yarn brands, which do produce high quality yarns and I'd rather pay for the quality. On the other hand, the market is also full of fake goods. To be honest, I do not know if what I bought is fake, especially when I often buy yarns online. I think to the end I have to trust the sellers and when man purchases yarns from the Chinese "ebay", www.taobao.com, the tip is to buy from a seller with very good reputaitons.

2011-08-17T11:15:00.005+02:00

I have tidied my stash last night and today. OK, I tidied because I need more space so I can stick more yarn in the drawers. I also thought that by actually taking a look at how much yarn I own I would eventually learn the lesson that there is a great deal of yarn in this house and it's time to stop buying new yarn untill I get a smaller stash. Well, that's what I thought last night. This morning, I think, yes, I have a lot of yarn, but still I should buy more, because my stash lacks bright color and there are too many single balls which are not enough for anything :P.

I guess that's one of the unexpected dangers of tidying your stash.

Boller

2011-08-16T12:42:00.006+02:00

Last sunday, we were out of bread, because suddenly there's a new bread-eater in this family. So I decided it was the time to bake some 'boller', which is a common snack here in Norway. I am not an experienced baker, but really, what can go wrong when man uses a pack of purchased mix. All I needed to do is to add yeast, warm water and let the dough and oven do the job itself.

And the result:

These, are not baked by me.

These, I wish they were not baked by me.

I swear, I really followed the instructions strictly, which is pretty much unlike me. I do not know what went wrong that all I got at the end was a mess. I wanted boller, not thick pancakes.

The comfort is that the boy likes it. And yesterday the kindergarten teachers did not ask me what the brick-like thing in the boy's lunch box was. Well, they may think it was some Chinese style bread.

Now I think I will just go back to knit the socks. I will still follow the instructions, and I may make mistakes, but I guess the socks will not look that far from the pictures shown in the pattern book.

I am back!

2011-08-08T10:13:00.003+02:00

We are just back from a 3-month family visit in China. It was lovely to meet my families, and see how much they love H. The food was delicious, and after a cold and dark Norwegian winter, it felt such luxury to live in an area with abundant sunshine and a everyday temperature above 25 degrees.

Now we are back home. Last week the boys were busy. H started at daycare and Ove at work. It is a bit wierd to have the house completely for myself again after these three months full of families and friends, and when I am used to that we all three hang out together.

It is now late summer, but already it could be a bit chill in the air in the morning and when it rains, which is quite often this summer, I heard. When we were in China, my mom knitted a blue baby pants for H. The pattern is from Drops Design, here.

And I finally finished a pants for him yesterday. I improvised the pattern and selected yarn from my stash. So I am pretty proud of myself for that during all these months spent on this project I actually managed the urge of buying new yarns in the name of this pants. Believe me, it was not easy, as that pants took me almost one year to finish and I could be quite an impulsive shopper sometimes. Now I am happy that it is finished and it does its job to keep my baby warm.

Hi!

2011-04-07T22:37:00.001+02:00

Hi!, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

My little boy was six months yesterday. Unbelievable!

Praying

2011-03-15T18:41:00.002+01:00

Japan, my neighbour, I pray for you!

Tenn et lys for japan!

The first pair of socks

2011-02-15T15:15:00.004+01:00

Hanrik 2418, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

OK, to capture a good and clear enough picture of constantly moving little baby legs is not as easy as I have thought. :=) But we manage to get one (with a bit help from dad) to show you this new pair of socks I knit for my son. I improvised the pattern while I knit.

It is snowing quietly and heavily outside. I am waiting for the boy to wake up from his afternoon nap. I have also other craft ideas in mind, but it is hard to start, especially when the house already is filled up with UFOs.

I packed out the wool socks Hanrik inherited from his cousins. Aren't they lovely.

Things have not been so well recently. The boy was sick, but he is getting better. I felt terribly anxious when he was sick. I also find new things to get worried about. This is not good.

I am trying to find one positive thing everyday. Still need some training on this. What I find out today is that at least nursing is getting better. I have been able to satisfy the boy's needs for milk, and at the same time frozen some for future use.

Hope Spring will be here soon.

Sunshine

2011-01-25T14:04:00.003+01:00

Hanrik 2346, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

It's been good weather lately. Still cold but with sunshine. I noticed that I feel much better when the sun is up. Yesterday I took Hanrik to a local shopping center by train. It was his first trip by train. I think he liked it. He was quiet all the way, very interested in the surroundings and views out of the window. A 30-minute trip is a long trip for a three-month old, I guess. He fell asleep pretty soon when we arrived at the shopping center.

Today the sun is up again, WOW! We spent some time training on head-lifting before noon. I planned to take him out to take the post for some fresh air and the precious sunshine, but he fast went tired and inpatient. So direct to the trolley and he is still asleep.

In Norway, parents can choose parental leave of either 53 weeks with 80% payment or 43 weeks with full payment (corresponds to the mother's income), and the parents can share it (except that 10 weeks of the total are reserved for the father). Ove and I share the parental-leave, 50% each. So we have been back to work since last week. When he is at work, I am home. When I am at work, he is home with Hanrik, and we exchange each Friday at work/home. We already planned to do so before Hanrik was born, partly because we both find it important to remain updated at work, and we both want to spend some time with our son. So far this plan is working fine, though I still need to figure out how I can fit in the doctor-visits into it.

When I am home, I also have time to pick up the old hobby when he naps, and make something for my lil sunshine.

Thank you for all the encouraging words from all the kind people even though I do not know you in person :=) Yes, it is still incredibly hard as I still have flash-backs suddenly, but knowing that there are generous people out there lending their hands to support me psychologically means a lot to me.

:=)

2011-01-11T15:03:00.002+01:00

Hanrik can lift his head and hold it for about three minutes today.

3 måneder og Cipralex

2011-01-07T16:07:00.004+01:00

Ove and I got up earlier than Hanrik today, hoho. Not because he slept any longer than usual, but because Hanrik needs to take the 3-month health check at 9 o'clock. We cleaned ourselves, set up the trolley, changed diapers, dressed Hanrik, and were ready to leave the house at eight. It was still dark outside. There is a short distance from our house to the bus stop. It has been snowing heavily and almost non-stop recently. It is not only slippery, but also heavy to push the trolley. Ove literally pulled the trolley all the way to the bus stop.

The check results are good. Hanrik are a healthy little boy. He is now 6,6 kg, 62 cm. I am very happy to know that he is doing fine.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with one of the two psychologists I need to have follow-ups with. I was recommended to start Cipralex 10 mg, a type of anti-depression meds. I am not sure if I really want to do this. The drug will go into Hanrik's body since I am still nursing. I discussed this with the doctor. She meant that side effects of Cipralex are seldom shown among babies whose nursing mothers take this medicine. The chance of the baby may be affected is very small. But there is a chance. I hesitated. I probably need medicine, but Hanrik does not. Then the doctor said that it is more important that Hanrik has a mother who is mentally close to him, than the breast milk he could get. He can go over to formula. Somehow she is right. But on the other hand, I am currently in a phase that I am almost uncertain about every thing. I doubt myself constantly about parenting and how on the earth I can become a good mother. Sometimes it seems breast milk is the 'only good thing' I can give to my child. If that is cut off, what's the use of me?

I bought the drug from the pharmacy yesterday, but decided to not to take it then. I don't think I will take it today either. But what about tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, what am I going to tell the doctor on the next appointment? Uff, I think I had a good day today. But it turns dark now.

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I dag tok vi Hanrik til helsestasjone kl. 9 på 3-måneder kontroll. Vi alle sammen stod opp tidlig. Ove og jeg stod faktisk tidligere enn Hanrik i dag. :=) Det var møkt da vi forlot huset. Ove trillet hele veien ettersom det er tungt å trille vogna etter så mye snø og noe umåket veier. Han måtte også dra vogna noe sted, istedenfor å trille den.

Det gikk bra med kontroll. Hanrik veide 6,6 kg, er 62 cm lang og har hodeomkremse på 41 cm. Helsesøstera sjekket også hofta hans. Jeg synes han var litt stiv på ene side, men helsesøstera sa at det så greit ut. Vi trenger å trene å ligge på mage så mye som mulig, for å avlaste hans hode og trene nakken. Ellers fikk han to vaksiner.

Ellers var jeg på DPS i går, og legen mente at jeg måtte begynne med antidepressiva Cipralex 10 mg. Jeg er veldig usikker på dette fordi jeg for tiden fortsatt ammer og alle antidepressiva går inni morsmelk. Det er ganske skummet å lese alle de bivirkningene mann kan få fra den medisinen. Jeg har diskutert dette med legen, som mente at undersøkelsene viser at det er så sjelden at bivirkningen påvises på barnet gjennom amminingen og at mengden av medisinen i melken er så lite at jeg ikke trenger å være bekymret for det. Hun sa at det er viktigere at jeg er psykiskt nært til barnet enn å kunne gi morsmelk. Hun sa til og med at hun ville anbefale meg å slutte å amme hvis jeg er så bekymret for at medisin kan påvike Hanrik. På en måte er jeg enig med henne, men samtidig greier jeg ikke å slippe tanken at melken kanskje er "den eneste gode" som jeg vet at jeg er istand til å gi til barnet mitt nå. Jeg føler at jeg vil bli enda mer ubrukelig for Hanrik hvis jeg ikke kan tilby ham "ren melk". Selv om sjansen for at barnet blir påvirket av medisinen er bite lite, er den lite bite sjasen 100% for oss, skulle det virkelig skje noe. Jeg ikke la Hanrik bli utsatt for faren.

Jeg vet ikke hva jeg skal gjøre. Jeg har i alt fall kjøpt medisinen, men jeg håper jeg ikke har bruk for den.

Ikke glem

2010-12-20T14:38:00.004+01:00

I dag følte jeg i en liten stund at jeg er glad i barnet mitt. Jeg har lidd fødselsdepresjon siden fødselen, så jeg er ganske glad at jeg faktisk greide å kjenne at jeg elsker barnet mitt. Det er tungt å være mor og samtidig være deprimert. Jeg vet at jeg er glad i ham siden graviditet. Han er jo så fin! Men jeg har ikke følt at jeg er lykkelig siden fødselen, dessverre. Jeg er veldig glad at nå kan jeg også begynne å føle lykkelig å være mor, selv om det er kun få en liten stund, men det er en start, og vil sikkert bli mer og mer.

---------------------------------------------------------------
today I actually felt happy of being a mother for a while. I am very happy for this. I am suffering a period of serious postpartum depression, and was warranted hospitalization for about two weeks ago when all the emotion and exhaustion escalated. I am very ashamed of not being able to be a good mother and feel embarrassed to talk about this. But I have to. I need to face up the problems I have, and be brave to meet the obstacles. I am not going to fail my baby. I am not going to let it happen.

2010-12-16T23:57:00.004+01:00

Hanrik is sleeping. We finished bathing around 8 o'clock. Then I nursed, but he did not calm down, so we thought he probably did not get enough breast milk. Then we took out the bottle, spent almost two hours on trying to bottle him. He drunk 0 ml, still uneasy. We tried to let him lay on his belly, in case he had stomach ache. Ove also spent a lot of time trying to help him burp. Nothing helped. He was very awaken and wining quite a bit.

I started wondering if he would sleep at all before mid-night. Ove put him in his bed, gave him a pacifier. He fell asleep. Easy like that.

I hope I could speak his language now. So next time I can understand this little creature's needs better.

The other day I read a tip on a mother-baby magazine. It suggests that the mother can assemble all must-have things in a small basket and put it within reaching distance while breast feeding. Very clever and useful idea, I thought. So I tidied, and here are my absolute must-haves. I am thinking if I need to find a basket, a big one.

I am making a new baby blanket. I asked Ove for advise on two patterns, as I could not decide which one to choose. He chose a pretty light one. "Won't it be cold?", I asked? "Doesn't matter. You will not finish it until summer anyway.".

Here are the first two. Or the first one, as the blue and yellow one is not really correctly crocheted.

A new family member

2010-11-27T22:49:00.002+01:00

6th October, 2010. Our little family welcomed a new family member. Hanrik, born at 8:00 a.m., 2770 g, 49 cm.

Mini tutorial: how to make a baby pant by partically recycled sweater

2010-09-26T20:58:00.003+02:00

WIP (Work-In-Progress): baby pant (partially) made of recycled sweater, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Ove and I are expecting a baby boy in one month. After a rough check of the wardrobe, we found out that I have way too many clothes that I probably will never fit in again, and the boy has so many onesies, but no pants. So we decide to combine the abundance of too many outgrown clothes and the pants we definitely will need: here's what I did today.

To make this baby pant, you will need:

- some comfortable stretch material for the two legs

-sew machine, sewing thread, a pair of scissors

-a sweater or a blouse made of stretchy materials for the waistband and leg closure. Preferably that the chosen sweater/blouse has a tighter and more stretchy sleeves and waistband than the rest of the body, because those are what we will need. I used my XS-size blouse which I bought around three years ago and I do not think it will fit me in quite a while

Step 1: Cut out two front pieces and two back pieces of the leg. Sew the front pieces together and then the back pieces together.

Step 2: Cut the sleeves and waistband off the sweater/blouse, with ca. 1.5 cm seam allowance

Step 3: Lock the edges

Step 4: Sew the waistband from the sweater/blouse onto the pant waist, and the two sleeves as the leg closures.

Marius baby onesie

2010-09-17T21:01:00.001+02:00

dal2010 022, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

It is baby boom at work this year. Five babies will come. This week was my office neighbor, Marius' turn. He got a lovely son two days ago. Of course, I need to make something special for the lil Marius. and that must be a Marius pattern baby onesie. (The blue-red-white Marius pattern is one classic Norwegian design in knitwear).

It is the first time I knit baby onesie. I was, and still am, very suspicious on whether I understand the pattern right. Is it really supposed so that I should sew the bottom pieces together? I mean, how can we put the baby in then? Through the neck opening, like a sock?

I really love this Marius onesie, but I did not hesitate to give it away. It was planned for Marius' baby, so it should belong to Marius' baby :) I will make another one for P when I have time. Ove also loves the onesie, but he is now too old for one.

OK. I am now the only pregnant woman left at work these days. I am sized up...and it obviously influences the way I walk and move around. Like my colleagues called me when they see me: here comes the whale :)

Two and half weeks to go, then I will on maternity leave. I think I will need those three weeks before the due date to get relaxed and cool down...that, of course, should be a team work :)

WK 32

2010-08-26T18:34:00.001+02:00

Bergen2010 181, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

First day in week 32, only two months to go. How do I feel? Excited, nervous and a bit anxious. It is becoming "heavy", both physically and psychologically. I am ready and looking forward to meeting my Pea :)

I started this blanket a few months ago. The idea is to have two similar blankets made of grandma squares. One in the Chinese flag theme, the other in the Norwegian. But I chose the wrong yarn. Rauma finull 2-ply feels a bit harsh to the skin. Luckily, one of my colleagues is so kind that she will knit a baby blanket to Pea.

At the meantime, we are trying to figure out the rules of maternity leave. Gee, the rules are complicated, especially when we want to spend some time in China next year, combining the maternity leave with holiday and permission from job, etc. I am so happy that I do not work for NAV.

The baby room is almost done. Ove and I reached the final decision of the painting. We have now one blue wall, one yellow wall, and two walls with snow-flake wall paper.

baby boots

2010-07-25T22:14:00.003+02:00

baby boots, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Finished last week. I am not quite about the color,which is Ove's choice. I think I told him that I preferred a unisex color because we did not know the baby's sex when I decided to knit these. It is not really very unisex for me, but I think we can still use them for Christmas...even though they are pink. I felt them in the washy last week. They came out very cute.

Tomorrow morning at five, we will be off for Bergen for a few days. Heard quite a lot of that city, but never been there before. It will be the first time even for Ove. Since I am in wk 27, there won't bee a lot of camping and hiking. We've decided that we are just going to be two plain tourists, with some photo taking and hopefully, yarn shopping.

I will take a UFO with me: a body with Marius pattern.

Hope the weather will cooperate.

Quilt for P

2010-07-11T13:54:00.002+02:00

Quilt for P, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Finished! Though the bindings are not perfect (esp. around the corners), I am happy this is done. I have learnt a lot of new techniques, and beyond all that, I got a new sewing machine.

It is the first quilt I finished in my life, and it is made for my baby, who is still nameless. We have a list of names. We just need to agree on which to choose. We have time, I am due in late October, if he follows the plan. We will find out :=)

First Quilt

2010-07-08T08:41:00.001+02:00

Lucia quilting, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Ove bought me a new sewing machine because I am working on the first baby quilt for P these days. I have time to qulit a bit on weekends and while the FIFA games are on. This is the first time I work on a qulit, can hardly manage to sew a straight line. I just need to remeber to remove all the pins I put on this quilt when it is finished.

It only lacks the biniding now. Hope I can finish it together with the FIFA finale. I bet Spain wins the game.

the first sweater

2010-06-29T22:48:00.003+02:00

dal2010 148, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I finished this sweater for P in May. It is another version of Elizabeth Zimmermann's baby surprise sweater. I found the pattern in VK 2008. Do not remember which issue, but I will find out and come back with more info of the source.

I love the pattern and the result. I will make the sleeves longer the next one.

+++++++++++++++Update 10. July 2010+++++++++++++++

I found the pattern. It is in VK Spring/Summer 2007, in the article " EZ' Surplice Baby Jacket" by Meg Swansen. I have it here on my Ravelry.

Olive

2010-06-28T20:51:00.002+02:00

dal2010 239, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I am craving for olives recently. We ate quite a lot at dinner yesterday. Today I spent the whole day thinking that I must get more, so we went to the Greek restaurant nearby after work. I am now home with approximately 30 olives inside stomach.

Next time I will have a better strategy. The olives taste very good, but also quite salty. I stuffed quite a lot of bread down and drank a lot of water also. The restaurant make food under the Greek tempo also, but they do have re-fill of bread and more olives :=) while we waited. The result? My stomach was the size of a football and I was on the verge of exploding when the main course was served.

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Jeg har veldig lyst på oliven i det siste. I går spiste vi en hel pakke til middag, og i dag brukte jeg hele dagen å tenke på mer oliven. Vi spiste på en gresk resterant til middag. De har gratis påfyll av oliven og brød.

Jeg er fornøyd. Det er rundt 30 stykker oliven inni magen nå. Neste gang bør jeg ha en bedre strategi. Oliven smaker godt, men de er ganske salte også. Sammen med dem var det masse vann og brød. Da hovedretten ble servert, var magen nesten eksplodert.

Jin Hu

2010-05-02T15:48:00.002+02:00

dal2010 107, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I sewed a tiger for Pea. My due date will be in late October or early November (depending on which pregnancy calculator we use), but the year 2010 is the Chinese year of gold tiger, in Chinese, that's "Jin (golden) Hu (tiger)"so I think it fits the theme well that Pea can get a lil tiger as gift. I gave the tiger only one tooth, so it will be nice with my baby :=)

Jeg laget en liten tiger for Pea. Min termin er i sent oktober eller tidlig november, kommer an på hvilken kalendar vi bruker for å regne svangerskap. Men Pea skal komme i 2010 uansett, og 2010 er jo det gule tigersår ifølge den kinesiske kalendar, så det passer bra at Pea får en liten søte tiger som gave da. Jeg ga tiger kun et tann, så den er ikke farlig :Ø)
Jeg
Talking about the different calculators, the usual one used in many (most) countries in the world is 40 weeks, but the Norwegian one is 40 weeks + 2 days. No clue how come babies in Norway need two extra days inside their mothers. Probably because of the cold weather? In case you wonder, in China the doctors will tell you that pregnancy takes 40 weeks, but traditionally according to the lunar calendar, pregnancy takes 9 lunar calendar months. So we will see which calendar Pea feels like following :=)

La oss snakke litt om de forskjelige måter å beregne svangeskap. I mange land i verden, og kanskje i de fleste landene i verden, et svangerskap tar vanligvis 40 uker. Her i Norge er et svangerskap beregnet 40 uker og 2 dager offisielt. Vet ikke hvorfor norsk babier trenger to ekstra dager. For kladt, tror du? I Kina vil du høre fra legen din at det tar 40 uker, men hvis du følger den tradisjonelle måten å regne svangeskap, tar det 9 kinesiske lunaremåneder i et kinesisk år.

Så vi får se hvilken kalendar Pea vil følge her.

0-6 month

2010-04-04T15:04:00.002+02:00

baby lue 0-6 mnd, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I knitted this baby helmet for 0-6 month new born. How big/small is a new born size usually? Is it really so small as a yarn ball, LOL. Anyway, I love this pattern, and am thinking to make more in different sizes. We have also found many baby caps and helmets by sorting out/inheriting nine bags of baby clothes (0-6 months) from my brother-in-law's three lovely kids. So there won't be any frozen Pea :=)

Jeg strikket ferdig denne baby-hjelmlua for Pea før vi reiste til Stranda for påske. Hvor stort/lite er babyhode egentlig? Er det virkelig så lite som et garnnøste? Uansett, jeg kommer til å lage flere størrelser av det samme mønsteret.

We went to Stranda and had a cozy and lovely Easter holiday with all my family there. As you may imagine, we did some clothes sorting, and went through a lot of other baby stuff, such as trolley, quilts, baskets, etc.

Så reiste vi til Stranda og hadde en koselig og hyggelig påske med familien. Som dere kan se, her hadde vi gått gjennom enda mer babyklærsortering, takket være min svoger som har tre barn. Og alle er så flinke i å ta vare på disse. Vi har også sortert flere ting som babyvogn, tepper, kurver, etc.

Now we are back home and relaxing. I started a pair of socks for Pea, enjoying the Easter sun and peace.

På vei tilbake hjem begynte jeg på et par sokker for Pea. De skal ferdigstrikkes straks, kanskje i dag.

for Pea

2010-03-27T17:02:00.001+01:00

dal2010, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I didn't finish the knitting Olympics this year. My bad. I felt extremely tired during the contest but happily found out that this was because Ove and I are expecting a new family member, due in November this year. So instead of a jacket for myself, I finished the first gift for my lil baby, whom we call "pea" for now. I hope he or she will like the color...Ove's choice :=)

Knitting Olympics 2010

2010-02-15T11:38:00.002+01:00

Knitting Olympics 2010, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I am attending this years Knitting Olympics, organized by the great Yarn Harlot. My eyes lay on this project. It is a simply garter stitch kimono-style jacket from Drops design. The pattern can be downloaded for free.

Here is how much I got by day 2.

The head issue

2010-02-07T19:06:00.003+01:00

VK fall 2009 no. 10, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Last week I finished a new cap. Here is the photo. The pattern is #10 Cabled Cap by Suvi Simola, published on VK fall 2009.

I fairly enjoyed the knitting. It is a good TV-watching project. The cable pattern is interesting, but not over complicated.

The pattern provides only one size. I guess, supposedly, the differences in individual heads are not remarkably different enough that we should start marking heads S, M, L, XL. or XXL size. But I am really frustrated that almost all caps I knit do not fit. It happens to this one this time, and it happened to the green cap I knitted last year.

I simply do not know why. I follow the pattern, substitute yarn with right gauge and choose right size needles. But still...the finished caps do not fit. They are all ridiculously small when they are on my head, but they suit beautifully when Ove wears them.

OK. My head IS big. My mum used to joke around telling me that I do not need an umbrella when it rains, when my big head (and fluffy hairstyle) may well serve the same function. And it is frustrating to buy caps, because most of those in the market do not fit my head. Ask Ove...really, I tried every single cap at H&M last month, and they won't fit.

I mean, seriously, do I really have an XL size head? Is it because of my hair?

So we go for the most direct way for the answer. Ove and I measured our heads. Mine is 56 cm from ear back to ear. Ove's is 54 cm.

I give up. I do not know what happened. Å, C'mon, the cap is too small for me but fits Ove's head perfectly despite his head measures bigger than mine... Should I blame the pattern, the measure tape, or simply my head?

singlets

2010-01-26T21:03:00.004+01:00

dal10 057, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

My socks are singlets. I don't have enough patience to finish a pair at a time, and this is the result. Four singlets of different color and different sizes. The size of the sock is determined by my patience at the time. Maybe these socks are telling me something...a concentration problem, maybe?

The weather report says an extreme snow storm is approaching Northern and East Norway. Forgive me, but I can't help being very excited about this.

This year the Chinese new year eve is on Feb. 14th. I am already thinking decro the house...red. Hmm, can't wait for weekend.

for the season that's called winter

2010-01-10T18:32:00.002+01:00

dal10 046, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

The temperature dropped to -23 two days ago when we got up. It is miserable to go out, I think, not to mention the train is late every single day since 2010.

I take train to work to Oslo everyday. On a normal day, a one-way train trip takes around 50 minutes for me. It is fairly enjoyable, without lots of knitting, reading and dozing. But it is ungracefully unpleasant when the train is out of heat. We have to stay on board without heat for one and half hour. I took blanket with me.

On the bright side, I finished another triangle shawl. It is knit in hand spun merino with natural lanolin. 100 gram, 4mm needles. The yarn is soft and it smells natural.

The shawl is big enough to wrap both my neck and my (rather big) head :=). And it is finished just in time, right before the cold air hit us. So I don't free around my neck.

Now...should I move to the socks.

PS. the results of the experiment are available. But I haven't taken pictures yet. I guess it would be next week...when the sun rises.

Experiment

2009-12-29T17:04:00.004+01:00

Experiment, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I am making rolags out of four different kinds of wool. The left two are non-commercially processed wool, which means that I got the wool (almost) directly from the sheep :) The difference is that I washed the the gray one, but not the white. The gray one is also only locks, while the white is a mixture of various difference parts. I purchased the gray online a few years ago. Here is the blog where I documented the washing.

I got the white one from my parents-in-law this year, a whole bag of it. It is wool from more than one sheep. I know, what a luck pig I am! Here is the whole bag!

The two on the right are commercial wool which I bought. The green one is made into a long sausage, a roving. Instead of a long rope, the white one is made like batting.

I picked a tiny lil bit of each, and have carded them all. Now I am aiming to find out which one is the best for spinning.

Christmas gift for my father-in-law

2009-12-28T18:23:00.002+01:00

Christmas gift for my father-in-law, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Another hand-knit gift this year. I did not manage to knit a gift for everyone in the family this year. Next year I will start early.

More about this gift is on my ravelry here

One christmas gift done

2009-12-20T14:18:00.001+01:00

dal09-genser 038, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

At last, Ove got his Christmas gift 2008. We will go to buy more yarn for another sweater.

next week

2009-12-06T22:12:00.001+01:00

dal09 858, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

A lot of things will happen in the next week. First, President Obama will come to Oslo. There has been this huge make-over in Oslo in the last few weeks. Among many other tasks, the Oslo police have also welded (almost) all of the sewer well covers in Oslo city. Cool! They certainly have created a lot to do for themselves after the president leaves. There will also be traffic control on several streets. I don't know if this will affect the street where my work place is.

Then there will be the Climate Change submit in Copenhagen.

We passed by this super cool iron work on our way to the farmers' market on Saturday. There is another one besides this one. The pair guard an iron statue, which I forgot the name of. If we go to the market again this weekend, I will take more photos.

And then, the knitting for Christmas will continue next week, of course.

armless kitty

2009-11-29T18:31:00.002+01:00

working on Mimi's friend kitty, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I had fun making Mimi's friend kitty. Ove helped me turn the pattern and stuffed the kitty. He used up all my stuffing. So my kitty has only one arm now. I need to buy more tomorrow.

I used one of my old sweaters, 30% marine wool, 40% angora, and some polyester. It felted beautifully. Actually it felted several years ago...and that was one of the reasons I wore this sweater only once.

Here is a photo of my desk.

I also finished a gift for my "mysterious" colleague. '

We'll start drawing the gift from next Tuesday. I hope I can get some handmade gift this year. Last year I got a pack of tea bags.

Too little time

2009-11-25T23:08:00.002+01:00

dal09 837, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

One month left till Christmas. I am having a serious time issue here. So far I've only finished two Christmas gifts. That's way behind schedule. (OK, Ove just came back, read what I wrote, and commented "Same as last year..."...Tja, menfolk ). I am making progress of the in-law mitten, although slowly.

Besides, I keep discovering new adventures.For example, Mimi's Friend Kitty. I purchased a copy from her etsy account, and print the pattern out at work today. Believe me it was hard to concentrate on working the whole day. I can't wait to try it this weekend. I also found these holiday mice at Fuzzy Thoughts tonight. Lovely cuties.

And then we have a tradition at work to have own advent calendar. Each colleague should bring along a small gift and we'll have a mysterious lucky draw every day in December until Christmas. This year the theme is handmade gifts. I am very enthusiastic, but it seems like I just do not have enough time. The deadline is this Friday. I found a UFO selbu patterned sock for Ove from my stash. I think I will turn it into a small bag.

And tomorrow after work we are going to decro the Christmas tree at our Service Center. It will be great fun.

I am very excited, and probably too excited. :=)

in-law project

2009-11-22T15:55:00.003+01:00

in-law project, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Remember the pair of Selbu mittens my mother-in-law started when she was at her primary school? I charted the pattern down last week and I will finish them. I will knit two right hand mittens, so we can have two match pairs.

I also finished the birthday gift for my mum this Saturday. It is now on the way to Beijing. There is a picture of the shawl here.

Korsarens badehefte

2009-11-18T20:03:00.003+01:00

dal09, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I found this small pamphlet at a stand selling second-hand books when we were at the craft fair about two weeks ago. I love this cover. It is hilariously funny, and it is the first time I saw a mermaid with legs and toes. I also love almost all of the illustrations in the pamphlet. It is called Korsarens Badehefte, but I did not find any info about it when I google it. The content is mostly about ladies in swimming suits. There is usually a scene/plot with a few lines explaining the setting and/or with dialogues between a lady in swimming suit and a man, also, in swimming suit. All hand drawn. Ove says this pamphlet is probably a kind of sale catalog of swimming suits in the old time, and the content was probably considered rather "on the edge" as some of the drawings is quite explicit and may be viewed as "censurable" materials back then? On the inner page it was marked "1914", and the retail price was, as you could see on the cover, marked 50 øre, which is about 8¢ today. I'd guess 50 øre was not cheap in 1914? How much did I pay for it?

0.

400.000 tosk?

2009-11-12T22:15:00.002+01:00

Da jeg først kom til Norge abonnerte vi på Aftenposten på grunn av en språklig misforståelse. Du vet at det er folk som prøver å få deg abonnere på aviser ved å ringe deg eller snakke med deg på togstasjonen, sant? Jeg var oppringt en dag i de første 6 månedene etter jeg ankom Norge. Så vidt forstod jeg at det hadde noe å gjøre med aviser. "Ja" var det beste norske ordet jeg kunne den tida. Så sa jeg "ja" og "ja" til dama på telefonen. Noen dager etterpå begynte jeg å motta Aftenposten i postkassa.

I begynnelsen leste jeg Aftenposten med stor interesse, både for å lære mer norsk og fordi jeg var jo utdannet i kommunikasjon. Så det var naturligvis interessant for meg å se hvor proff og dyktig en stor norsk medie er. Dessverre ble det slik at jeg syntes vekten av avisen ble mer imponerende enn innholdet, spesielt når jeg begynte å forstå mer norsk etter hvert. For meg var det altfor lite "professional journalism", og altfor mye overdrivende "superstition, speculation" og av og til "prejudice". Det stilles ikke veldig mange kritiske spørsmål, men mye fordommer og misforstålser pga. manglende kunnskap. Jeg synes dette ikke er profesjonell og seriøs journalistikk, men rett og slett kynisk og lat journalistikk. Spesielt liker jeg ikke en avis som hele tiden mener at de fokuserer på fakta men har mange tabloide overskrifter.

Løsningen for meg var enkel: jeg avsluttet abonnementet.

Det var for 4 år siden.

Forrige måned fikk jeg en telefon. Det var en dame fra Aftenposten som ville selge meg abonnement. Hun snakket så fort at jeg måtte plukke ordene og sy dem sammen etterpå for å forstå hele bildet. Jeg var ganske sikker på at jeg faktisk hørte hun sa at hvis jeg begynner abonnement, så får jeg 17 kilo papir hver måned. Jeg husket at jeg tenkte "begynner de virkelig å selge avisene etter vekten?". Det er jo mulig, spesielt når det er snakk om Aftenposten.

Jeg fortalte meg selv at jeg ikke måtte fordømme folk, heller ikke en avis. Det er jo enkelte mennesker som står bak det som var skrevet. Så jeg ville prøve en gang til. Jeg fikk ikke 17 kilo men likevel ganske tykk bunke i postkassa etter to dager.

De første eksemplene er greie. Men nå merker jeg at hvetebrødsdagene nærmer seg slutten. Da jeg leste forsiden 22. okt, tenkte jeg "Våkn opp! Den dama som jeg sagt ja til på telefonen jobber jo for Aftenposten".

I dag leste jeg atikkelen "Monstertorsk Skremmer" (side 11, 12. nov) med stor interesse igjen. Jeg er opptatt av miljøtema. Men jeg måtte le da jeg leste "Anlegget har sine merder ved Skibotn i Lyngen og det er nå ca. 400.000 tosk i merden". Dette er jo fakta, ville jeg anta? Og jeg trodde at grunnen til at jeg skulle fortsette abonnementet var å lære språk, jeg.

Learn to tolerate

2009-11-11T21:55:00.002+01:00

I meet a lot of strangers everyday because of work. I learn to deal with them in the most professional way, try to understand them, help them, do my job. I enjoy it at work.

I learn to tolerate more than I thought I would, could, should. It is a challenge, for me, sometimes. I'm not good at hiding feelings and I have a tendency to "think loud". I find myself able to tolerate people who are stupid, people who are rude, people who are raged, frustrated, even people who are arrogant. But it is still difficult for me, sometimes, to not to show that I am irritated when the person I have to face to is, so unfortunately, a combination of all of those mentioned before. I feel sad for this kind of people.

Thinking about Christmas

2009-11-10T21:58:00.003+01:00

dal09 815, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Remember the craft fair I mentioned last week. I couldn't help at last so I went there with Ove. Here is what I found. 200 grams Norwegian merino (the white) and 50 grams really soft angora yarn (the lady at the fair has a farm of angora bunnies. She makes the yarn herself).

Here is more information:
About the Merino yarn. Check their pattern web page, lots of free patterns there.

About the angora yarn.

Instead of a craft fair, the arrangement is more like a multiple-theme exhibition. I found people selling all kinds of arts/crafts there, from carpets, scarp booking materials, paintings to ecological ice cream and a farmer market. I like the farmer market. Full of fresh and tasty goodies. There was also an indoor mini amusement park for kids.

I think I'll use the yarn to make some Christmas gifts. Of course I'll not spoil the fun by telling what I am going to make. (Well, if you read Chinese, you may find the secrets on my Chinese blog :=)

I also make a temporary wish list. A temporary one because I've come up with only one idea right now. (OK. I have several thoughts, but I think it would be better if I could do my homework first and make the list more specific. Add a link or alike, you know). So on the list today there is:

"I wish I will receive some angora hair/wool to experiment spinning of it". It is possible to order the hair here.

By the way, have I showed you the lovely birthday gift Ove gave me? There has been a lot of cat-chasing-for-hair-to-be-spun-into-yarn in this house since.

-------------------------------------Norsk------------------------
Vi var på varemesse forrige helg. Jeg var på jakt etter ekte norsk håndarbeid til jul, men fant dessverre ikke spesielt mye av dette. Det var masse rart der, med stander som solgte alt mulig, fra teppe, maling, til økologisk iskrem og bondens marked. Jeg elsker bondens marked, der er det nesten alltid friske produkter av lokale varer. Jeg har også sett hvordan man lager ferske sveler. Synd at jeg ikke fikk smakt det (fordi Ove sa det smaket veldig søt. Jeg burde hadde prøvd en selv. Dum!)

Selvsagt kunne jeg ikke dra hjem med tomme hender. Jeg kjøpte 200 gram norsk merino og 50 gram angoraull. Alt er laget av norsk merinosauer og angorakaniner. De var ikke så dyrt som jeg trodde. Ove fikk brukt resten av mitt håndarbeidsprosjektsbudsjett til å handle på bondens marked.

Sammen med turen er det også blitt en "foreløpig" ønsteliste for jul. "Foreløpig" fordi jeg for tiden har kun et ønske. Jeg ønsker litt angoraull for spinningprøve. Jeg tror at det kan kjøpes her. Forresten har jeg vist deg min nyelige bursdagsgave fra Ove? Siden jeg fikk gaven har Kua blitt plaget for ull...

The thing I am busy with

2009-11-07T20:27:00.004+01:00

dal09 810, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

It is hard to decide which one to continue when one has too many UFOs. Today, I spent some time knitting the other arm for Ove's sweater, some time making a small bag out of the crochet piece I made on a train trip (picture here). A moment ago I dug out this unfinished doll from the basement, and now I am fairly satisfied that the sweater I made for another doll fits her well. The other doll does not want it because the neck is knit so small (or the doll head stuffed way too big).

What should I do next? Knitting, finishing the small bag or make shoes and face for the doll? I have problems deciding things today.

We also have a TV signal problem recently. We've lived without TV for almost one week. It is wield, but manageable. Well, weekend could be a challenge. I watched two films already today. After I finish writing this blog, we are going to watch the third one, a thriller, preferably.

I am also struggling with tons of ideas on what to make for families this Christmas. Last year I knit 9 pairs socks. I take quite long train trip everyday on the way to work and back home, around one hour each way. This means I have at least 100 minutes for creating something on the train. Last year, the time was spent on knitting socks. I kinda wanna try something else this year. I've tried a simple triangle shawl project, which works fine. But what about the male family members?

I prefer the project portable, fast to knit but still remain interesting to work with (that's why I am a bit worried of scarves...), and better of one color for practice reasons on the train...

Any suggestion?

I also want to go to this craft fair at Lillestrøm tomorrow. I'd rather the pay day were in last week, not in the next, so I don't need to worry for spending too much...

Rowan

2009-10-31T15:36:00.001+01:00

dal09 797, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Last weekend we cooked some rowan berry jelly. It was rainy and cloudy when we went out to pick up the berries.

Influensa 100,000?

2009-10-23T23:43:00.002+02:00

hand made christmas gift, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Aftenposten skriver at 100.000 nordmenn er smittet (22. okt 2009)? Kan det stemme? Jeg har lett etter tallet på myndighetens nettsider (pandemi.no, fhi.no), men forgjeves. Hvor fikk Aftenposten 100.000 fra?

La oss si at det er sant at 100.000 er smittet i Norge. Hvorfor fikk vi ikke informasjon om dette tidligere? Får vi vite om dette hvis ikke det var to nye pasienter døde? Visste norske myndigheter om det høye tallet tidligere, før de to nylige dødsfallene? Hvis ja, hvorfor er ikke disse tallene publisert tidligere?

Jeg synes både media og myndightene er ansvarlige for den nye panikken og forvirringen om svineinfluensa i samfunnet. Selv om myndighetene har utarbeidet en nettside, mener jeg at det ikke er godt nok. Slik informasjon må finnes på en type media som kan nå flere, inkludert de som ikke kan bruke internett og de som ikke kan lese. Det er jo så mange av dem. Informasjonen på myndighetens nettsider er kun tilgengelig på norsk (bokmål) og engelsk. Hva med de som ikke kan disse to språkene, for eksempel, samer som kun kan samisk, asylsøkere og mange andre utlendinger? I tillegg er informasjonen svært vanskelig å forstå for de som ikke er utdannet som helsepersonell. Hvordan kan vi som ikke en gang vet hva "MSIS-statistikken" er forstå den informasjonen som gis? Dette fører til stort rom for misforståelser og misbruk av informasjon, for eksempel av unansvarlig media, som skaper unødvendig panikk.

Jeg synes norske media og myndigheter bør kjappe seg med informasjon om svineinfluensa i Norge. Jeg forventer en mye bedre jobb, spesielt fordi norske media og myndigheter er så flink til å kritisere andre land for å ikke være flink å gi informasjon, eller for å skjule informasjon. Men jeg synes ikke at norsk media og myndighetene har gjort noe bedre nå.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

2009-10-22T23:16:00.003+02:00

dal09 755, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

This is indeed a quirky book. I am half through. Not sure if I really buy the storyline of the zombie plot and the romance from Jane Austen. But, as said, I haven't finished reading the book yet. Maybe I will change my mind. I am currently at where Mr. Collins got married. One thing is for sure though: I definitely love the illustrations and the cover.I think they are cool, funny, inspirational and full of fantasy. Great materials to inspire new dolls as well.

en (kanskje) vanlig dag for meg

2009-10-21T21:50:00.003+02:00

I dag er det en hektisk dag. Det kommer til å bli en ny utlendingslov og utlendingsforskrift trådt i kraft 1. januar 2010, så vi har bestemt på jobben at vi må nok få litt opplæring om de nye lovene. Selvfølgelig må opplæring være tidlig om morgen slik den ikke påvirker arbeidstiden eller fører til overtid. Da blir det bestemt at vi skal ha opplæring klokka 8:00.

Jeg stod opp klokka 5:30 for å rekke toget klokka 6:00 til Oslo, slik at jeg ikke ble forsinket til opplæringen. Vi ankom Oslo klokka 7. Jeg gikk på kontoret, drakk kaffe, leste litt, forberedte meg til opplæring, som gikk fint.

Så tok jeg litt telefon.

Så fikk jeg beskjed å svare på e-post for å bygge ned restansen.

Rundt lunchen satt jeg i skranken som lunchavløser.

Etter lunchen forsatte jeg med e-poster ut dagen.

Jeg jobbet litt overtid etter vanlig arbeidstiden. Det blir aldri 0 i innboksen. errrr.....

I morgen blir det også travelt. Vi har en del som skal på kurs. Da må hele e-postgruppa hjelpe til å ta telefon. I tillegg er det åpen dag i morgen. Jeg skal møte opp som hjelper.

About steek

2009-10-19T14:50:00.004+02:00

dal09 746, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Maybe I caught cold yesterday when I washed yarn? This morning I woke up, feeling sour in throat and the entire body aches. Considering it is going to be an important week, especially on Thursday when, among many colleagues, I am going to face the public as a represent from the rather huge bureaucratic I work in, I decide it is right to stay home today just to not to worsen anything. Then I finished the first arm of Ove's gensey. Just another arm to go, then I will have to face the infamous Steek.

It is the first time ever I knit a sweater using Steek. I've heard of how "scary" it is, and when I think about cutting a knitwear, and if I mess up (which I do way too often), the horror becomes almost real. So I'm doing my homework. Here are some useful webpages:

Steeking Chronicles: Introduction
Knitty
Attaching Neckband

I've attended a knitting competition with the sweater for Ove on a Chinese knitting website. I've met many warm hearted and skilled knitters on this website, and as a Chinese, I also feel I am connected to part of the Chinese knitting community. If you have time, do visit there. You don't need to understand much Chinese in order to find the pictures of the knit projects. The website is organized as a forum, you only need to click the thread title, then you will find the project. The first four threads are rules and regulations of the competition. The entry of the projects starts from the fifth.

On the same time I enjoy my visiting on that website, I also got some feedback where people are very skeptical of the necessity of Steek. Many of them never heard of this technique. Some think the whole idea is just superstitious.

I don't agree.

Maybe I am too naive to wish there isn't stereotype in the knitting community, but then I realize our knitting community is part of the whole world. Unfortunately, that means what I don't like in the real world may also find its existence in our knitting communities. After all, it is real people behind the world and the communities. I cannot expect an Alice's wonderland, or the knitting community to be "softer" in any way just because the community is more woolly. It is true that we've gotta wool, but can I forget the pins and needles :)

Same as how it is in the real world, there are also different cultures and tribes, which not only are influenced by the knitters niches, habits, personal preferences of techniques and materials. It's boarders are also marked by the geographical boundaries. Blogging has contributed a great deal in shortening "the distance" and creating our community as one. But I do also realize that there is "another world" or "another community" where, unfortunately, many of the excellent knitters, and many of the excellent people, do not know about a technique, which is rather popular in other communities.

I think language boundary plays a great role here. But it is way too easy to say that when people do not have the linguistic tool to enable them to communicate online, many "local" communities become a boundary for the insiders to the bigger picture. Unfortunately, from what I've experienced, I notice that many may believe the community they are in is the only one, the entire world. This is sad, when we share the same enthusiasm but our access to each other's wonderland is blocked by...ourselves? Shouldn't the language challenge arise our interests and curiosity of our fellow knitters in the other part of the world?

The result of polypore dyeing

2009-10-18T21:57:00.002+02:00

dyeing of polypore, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I spent some time this weekend dyeing some wool of the polypore and ammonia mixture I made last week. The result is here. The photo was taken when the yarn is still wet. It basically shows the real color as how it is in reality. I hanged the yarn to dry in basement, and will take some better photos another day when the sun shines.

The color is sort of yellow brown. Ove says that he saw a glint of green, which I still have not seen. But I did think the color was a bit dark green when the yarn was in the dyeing pot. Here is a picture. Don't you think it looks like the military dark green？

And obviously I just could not resist certain temptation...

Anyway, the color becomes much lighter after I washed the yarn. I used a PH value neutral soap, because I was very concerned of the ammonia in the yarn...the smell. Maybe I shouldn't use the soap.

I still keep the fluid mixture, and will try one more time next week. Next time maybe I should use copper or alum as the medium.

Cell cozy

2009-10-10T19:26:00.004+02:00

Cellphone cozy, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Ove got a new toy, the Andriod phone HTC Hero. OK, I have to admit that I am not really sure why he's so excited about this particular phone. Isn't it just something similar like an I-phone? one of the multifunctional and multimedia thingie? But Ove has assured me many times "No, it is not an I-phone" and he's definitely amazed by how much this phone can do, check, tell. He was in bed the other day studying the stars on the phone... Thank god the phone cannot cook, or he may consider marrying it. Anyway, whatever it is is fine with me because not only did I inherit his old phone, I also got a commissioned job to design and knit a cozy for this new precious. The only requirement is that the design should include a hole on the top for diverse wires to be set in (headphone, for example) .

So the fun part began :) and the result is shown in the picture. You may find another photo here.

Here is the pattern:

The phone measures approximately 5.5 cm in width, 11.5 cm in length and 0.5cm deep.

I used needle size 2.5mm, selected yarn Drops Puddle, but I've lost the label, so I am not 100% sure and do not find the colorway on their website either. Sorry.

Cast on 36 stitches. Knit in Stockinette Stitch (knit all the Ks, and purl all the Ps) until the piece measures 11.5cm.

Knit 5 stitches, cast off 4 sth, and knit another 9 stitches, cast off the rest.

There should be 14 stitches on the needle. Continue stockinette stitches for 5 rows. Then on the new row, cast on 4 stitches where the hole is created. (There should be 18 stitches on the needle)

Knit 3 rows.

Knit 5 stitches, cast off 2 sth, knit 4 sth, cast off 2 sth, knit 5 sth.

Knit 5 stithces, cast on 2 sth, knit 4 sth, cast on 2 sth, knit 5 sth.

Keep knitting till the whole piece measures 14 cm. Bind off.

This is how it looks like:

Sew the knit piece into a cozy case. Sew on the buttons, done.

Here is Ove modeling the cozy. He looks satisfied, doesn't he :)

-------------------------------------Norsk----------------------------------

Ove fikk en ny mobil. En av de fancy som kan nesten alt. Jeg er ikke like begreset for slike ting som ham, men jeg ble glad da han ba meg å lage en pung for den nye mobilen. Kravet er enkelt: bare husk å la et hull slik at diverse kabler kan kobles inn.

Så her er den. Et lett strikket pung for Oves nye mobil. Jeg har inkludert et lite mønster på engelsk, men det er faktisk veldig lett å design sin egen. Litt matte og prøving, så går det.

Experiment/En prøve

2009-10-06T13:46:00.002+02:00

Prøver å få litt farge fra kjuke, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Inspired by the very talented Leena Riihelä, I started an experiment to get some color from the polypore I gathered yesterday. I use mainly two types of polypore: Fomes fomentarius (Horses' hoof) and Fomitopsis pinicola (Red Banded Polypore). According to the mushroom book I have (SOPP by Thomas Læssøe), these two types of polypore are common source of natural dye. Too bad the author does not specify what color it gives. So I'll give it a try to find out. Well, I guess I will find out what color the mixture of these two polypore gives, as it was too late to separate them now (I was too excited, so things got a bit too fast here)

Thank to Leena's very interesting blog, I find out that the dyeing pigment in polypore is not water soluble, but can be released in ammonia. I added approximately 50 grams of ammonia and about 4 liter water. It smells. Minutes later the mixture starts to bubble. But I can already see the dark brown/red color in the mixture.

I put the lid on and plan to let it rest for one week.

Now the hard work: waiting.

----------------------------------Norsk--------------------------

Jeg ble inspirert av en finsk dames blogg til å farge ull med planter og sopp. I går var vi på sopptur. Jeg plukket noen kjuker som kan gi farge ifølge soppboken min. Jeg bruker Knuskkjuke og Rødrandkjuke, pluss noen ukjente kjuker som jeg plukket i fjor. Det er synd at soppboken ikke spesifiserer hva slags farger kjukene gir, så jeg må nesten prøve å finne det ut selv. Men ikke denne gangen kanskje, fordi jeg allerede har blandet alle typene sammen. Jeg ble vel litt hyper rett før jeg skulle begynne... som vanlig.

Etter at jeg har lest en del av bloggen til dama, har jeg fått med meg at fargestoffene i kjuker ikke går ut i vann, men i ammoniakk. Så jeg brukte litt Salmiakk, og med en gang ble det rødbrunt som bildet viser.

Men det lukter ille.

Jeg har lokket på, og nå skal vi vente en uke og se om det blir noen fargeendring. Håper det lukter bedre etter hvert.

Ove's gensey

2009-10-04T13:41:00.001+02:00

Ove's gensey, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I still cannot believe that I finished the body part last night, after two years, dude. I hope I can finish the arms before December, so I can have enough time to gather the courage to cut the arm pits. This is a traditional Norwegian design which not only requires patience (from the knitters and most importantly, the recipient) and skills, but also the true brave heart (with assistance of a bit alcohol if needed) for any knitters to grab a pair of scissors and cut the knitwear...Maybe I'd prefer the tube like body as how it is now.

I just try to pretend that I didn't see all those ends crying to me to be weaved in.

Finally weekend

2009-08-28T22:42:00.003+02:00

dal09 648, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

How exhausted I am today! Actually I feel quite tired the entire week. The pressure at work recently has really gotten my nerves. It seems like there are emails to answer forever, endless queue on the phone, and tons of tricky and difficult cases. Yesterday I saw a case which has been under evaluation of possible expulsion since 2003.

Or maybe it's the weather? It's been raining the whole week, almost. And we're approaching the summer end. I feel it hardly just started.

Otherwise, we went to play basketball with some colleagues and someone from the Ministry of Finance after work today. One of my colleagues booked the student gym for one hour. It's just for fun, nothing really meant to be competitive. We ran, jumped, sweated hard for one full hour. It turned out Ove and I together scored nil (well, no doubt it leaves much bigger room for improvement...), but I feel much better after the game.

Tomorrow...hmm... tomorrow I think probably I'll knit up a bit more of this sock, and maybe have a mushroom trip, if the weather's fine. Maybe just get cozy with a cup of hot tea and a book. Anyone out there is also reading WoT (the Wheel of Time), book 1?

Finally an FO

2009-08-23T15:29:00.004+02:00

dal09 645, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Started last winter, the project of this fingerless mitten with beads was finally finished last week. I like it a lot. And the knitting itself is really easy and quick to accomplish....errr, if you don't do it like me waiting months in between of the two mittens.

This year's mushroom-picking debut took place yesterday. We find plenty of "horn of plenty" (Craterellus, also known as Black chanterelle), which we've cleaned and put to dry in the basement. Besides, I also found some good coloring mushroom (Cortinarius semisanguineus) that, according to the books I have, can give a lovely bright red color to wool. My only problem is that I didn't find enough. The ratio of fresh mushroom to yarn is 10:1 in plant dye-ing, meaning that I need a kilo fresh mushroom if I have 100 grams yarn at hand.

I guess there're going to be more mushroom trips soon.

What I did with the Tansy-dyed yarn?

2009-08-16T22:00:00.002+02:00

dal09 614, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I knitted a pair of 'Fetching' for myself.

Still good

2009-08-14T23:18:00.003+02:00

dal09 601, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I dug these out from my mother-in-law's UFO piles. Both she and her mother are enthusiastic knitters. Now plus me, we have a gang of three. The one I found are a pair of unfinished gloves only with thumbs left unknitted. With great pleasure, I finished them.

These gloves are her craft class homework when she was in primary school. They were graded 'good' by the teacher. The reasons that they were not 'excellent' are, according to my mother-in-law, they were not finished on time and, obviously, they are not a pair. Two left thumbs...I always thought it is only me making this kind of mistake. Guiltily, but I have to admit that the second I discovered the mistake, I was so exited and secretly feeling happy that I was not the only one. And it just makes it even more fun when it is your mother-in-law who knitted a pair of gloves with two left thumbs, isn't it, Anne? I feel we are becoming even closer. See, we make the same mistake. Do you also have a pair of gloves with one having a thumb sticking out right in the middle of the palm? :)

Plant dyeing of tansy

2009-08-08T21:06:00.004+02:00

dal09 587, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Summer is the harvest season of tansy, which commonly viewed as weeds. It grows everywhere, and is very accessible in the area I live. Actually, I find it in abundance in my garden as well as along the way to the train station.

Last weeks I dye-ed some 100% wool yarn by tansy. Here's the recipe:

1, I used 100 gram 100% wool yarn. First small cook the yarn in alum water. I bought alum powder for plant dye from the local pharmacy. 100 gram yarn needs 20 gram alum. Dissolve the powder in warm water, add the mixture in the pot where the yarn will be simmered. Alum helps the color to set and stay. You can also dye without first process the yarn in alum water, but usually this leads to faint color or the color will not stay long as expected.

Try to keep the temperature around 90 degrees, which is the state that the water is about to cook. The small bubbles around the edge is a sign of just right.

Allow the yarn to be small cooked in approximately 1 hour. Then switch off the heat and let it cool.

2, Both tansy leaves and flowers can be used in plant dye-ing. I used only leaves. For 100 grams wool, I need about 300 grams leave. The plant can also be dried and restored for use when fresh ones are not available.

It is not necessary to chop the leaves.

3, Mix the plant with the yarn. I used the same water which I used to cook the yarn, adding a lil bit more to ensure that I have enough water ( a bit over the yarn) and can stir the yarn in the mixture freely. Again, control the temperature at around 90 degrees, and let it cook for at least one hour. Mine was about two hours on the stove.

Dinner is noodle soup :)

Switch off the heat and let it cool.

4, Wash the yarn. It is usual some small plant bits got tangled in the yarn during the process, so it necessary to clean them off by hand. I also used some PH value neutral soapy water to wash the yarn thoroughly. Risen and let it dry naturally.

5, Enjoy this lovely bright yellow color!

-----------------------------Norsk---------------------------

Forrige uke farget jeg litt garn med reinfann, som er en alminnelig plante. Jeg fante mye av den i min hage og langs veien til togstasjonen.

Jeg bruket alun til beising. Alun kan man kjøpes i Apotek. 100 gram 100% ull trenger vanligvis 15-20 gram alun. Det er lett å beise garnet. Blander garnet med vann og alun. La den små kokes i omtrent 1 time. Skru av oven.

Det er unødvendig å hakke reinfann. Både bladene og blomstrene kan brukes i plantefarging. Det går også an å plukke så mye man vil for å tørkes, slik at man kan plantefarge i vinter. For 100 gram garn, trenger man rundt 300 blad eller blanding. Det tar minst 1 time før man kan skru av varmen.

More progress

2009-07-25T23:53:00.003+02:00

dal09 405, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I must have been feeling quite guilty, hence pretty strong-minded to keep knitting this sweater for Ove when there are loads of lovely summer knits available this summer. I've been making progress with the sweater. This picture was taken a few days ago, when I was in the middle of chart 3. Now I am two rows away to start the neck. Yeah!! So far there hasn't been much ripping yet, but as the appearance of the term "at the same time" increases when it approaches the naughty zones such as neckline and shoulders, I am prepared.

I've newly discovered another knitting magazine on the news rack, called The Knitter, and I fall in love of their two recent issues featuring summer knits and patterns in flower theme respectively. But I really want to finish Ove's sweater this large project before I could feel comfortable to allow myself to cast on another project, especially given the tons of UFOs already in the house. So don't be surprised if you find me knitting summer lace shawls this winter.

All right, though I will not (probably might not) cast on another new project in the near future, I am still allowed (by myself) to buy yarns...and I just bought another 4 skeins alpaca yesterday.

finished---partial

2009-07-14T20:11:00.002+02:00

ready for chart 3, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

This is how far I've done with Ove's Christmas gift last year! Hehe, probably I should make it a tradition that he can buy me yarns as Christmas gift and I'd allow him to make an order of a knitting project he'd love to receive for the coming year. Really sounds like a good idea.

I finished chart 2 two days ago, and will soon move on to Chart 3, Yohoo! Can't wait for it.

BTW, this sweater has been a yarn eater...

---------------------------------------
Dette er julegave til Ove i fjor. Jeg bør ta det som dette: for hvert jul kan Ove gi meg garn som gave, og han kan bestille en strikkeprosjekt som han ønsker i det nye året.

Summer...continues

2009-07-06T16:09:00.001+02:00

dal09 300, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Summer

2009-06-16T23:35:00.001+02:00

dal09 177, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Sommeren er endelig kommet. Det har blitt mye grønt både inne og ute. Vi har grillet allerede to ganger, selv om begge ganger hadde jeg oppfattet "oppholds vær" og "lett bris" litt forskjelig enn det kanskje egentlig betyr. 'Oppholds vær' er bare forholdsvis sagt, ikke sant? I forhold til været om vinteren. Og ' lett bris'? er ikke veldig lett, ærlig talt...

Ove har begynt med jordbærplanting i år, og er mistenksom på at alle som er levende kan ødelage jordbær-babiene. Hjertet hans var sikkerlig knuttet da han oppdaget at noen (sannsynligvis med 4 bein) har gravet opp sine jordbære.

Det er fremdeles mye grønt i hagen, selv om plenen vår har blitt totalt erobret av løvetann, da maskinen gikk på streik sammen med de som ville ha en bedre pensjonordning. Forskjellen er at de fleste er kommet tilbake på jobb, men maskinen er fremdeles i utstand.

Ellers kommer vaskemaskinen på lag med plenklipperen i dag. Denne gangen er det litt forskjelig enn forrige gang da den nektet å jobbe. Denne gangen har maskinen prøvd å jobbe i de siste 24 timer, uten stopp. Håper den kan ta sommerferie snart.

Face

2009-05-03T22:50:00.003+02:00

Dal_09 565, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I redid Blue's face a bit. This is a hard lesson to learn how to paint directly on fabric. Next time, I will remember to gesso.

I kind of like her gray dress, but Ove thinks I should trim the edge better. Maybe, I will see. Maybe I should make some underpants for her first. The dress is see-through under sunshine.

Here are her accessories: a shawl, a scarf, and a lue, which originally was knitted to be a sock, but I made it too small, and I didn't really like the color, so I decided to turn it into a sweater for Blue. But I made the head way too small (sigh, it seems like I can never learn). Now it is no way that Blue can squeeze her head through.Well, it becomes a lue.

May 1st

2009-05-01T22:56:00.001+02:00

Dal_09 497, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Today is the International Labor's Day. Here we have sunshine, flowers and demonstrations. LOL. Not a bad combo though.

Spring

2009-04-13T18:56:00.001+02:00

Dal_09 308, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

It is spring now. Snow melts, and bird chirps. Lovely. I also finished the green cardigan during Easters. What's on the needles now? Ove's Christmas gift in 2008. hehhehehe.

Choice

2009-03-08T15:01:00.005+01:00

Dal_09 126, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Again, it is snowing. I do not want to nag about this all the time but, I've really really really had enough of snow this winter. I long for spring everyday, and kept getting disappointed every weekend. Why does all the snow come on weekends? Just to make sure that I don't miss watching it?...

OK. Let's be positive. Let's ALWAYS look on the bright side of life (I try to convince myself that, yes, there ARE bright sides of life). So I made this for my swap partner. It is a disco-diva monster. She has the most beaming eyes and flashy skirt on the disco floor. Not to mention how cool her hair is. :)

Though slowly, I've made progress of the cardigan. It is going to have arms soon. I got up early today and sneaked a trip down to the freezing basement to bring up this:

Then I spent the whole morning digging for 15 identical buttons, only to realize later that I needed just 9, because I misread 9buttons/15mm as 15 buttons...It makes me feel better because it really pissed me off when I could not find 15 identical buttons. Strange that I don't feel made when I don't have many sets of 9 identical buttons either.

Choice is a tricky thing. I love all of the following three matches, but whenever I thought 'OK, I will go for this', there came the little devil's voice in my head 'sure that you don't want to choose the other two?'. I haven't started the 111st time to ask Ove for opinions yet. But I guess he will be driven crazy in no time as soon as I started asking him again. And I am afraid he will lose his cool, and throw my button away, or rip my cardigan...Maybe I should ask my cat instead?

To protect the little sanity remained in this house, I need some serious help.

So, the question is 'which of the following matches do you think is the most pleasing one to the eye?'. The three nominees are:

Here are their memorable performance:

And the winner is...You can vote now!

--------------------norsk-------------------------

Det snør igjen. Jeg lurer på hvorfor det snør ofte i helg? bare for å være sikker at jeg ikke miste sjanse å se på den hele dagen?...Jeg spør Ove om når våren kommer nesten hver dag, noen dager en gang, noen dager to ganger...

Jeg trenger litt hjelp av å velge hvilken knappe-combo matcher det beste med genseren? Egentlig liker jeg den med grønne og purpule knapper, hva synes dere?

Spring

2009-03-03T14:27:00.002+01:00

Dal_09 087, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Spring is not here yet. We just had some new March snow yesterday. But I can still feel like spring, can't I. See, I can't wait till it turns green...I knit in spring color already. Besides, Ove and I planted chilies, leeks and celery last Saturday, and I can't wait to see them sprouting.

I have been sick. That's why I am home today and yesterday. Nothing big deal, just coughing, pain in the chest, plus sour throat which is so serious that I cannot make a sound...which might not be a bad thing for Ove :=) I think it is just a normal flu, I hope so. Actually, I already started feeling much better today.

I am just taking a break from my knitting right now, will be back to the scary hippo episode on Animal Planet, featuring a crippy fat male hippo who attacks tourists in Africa.

-------------------------------------------Norsk-----------------------------
Jeg har vært syk, så jeg er hjemmet. Det er bare vanlig influensa, synes jeg. Jeg har det så vondt i halsen at jeg ikke kunne lage mye lyd...kanskje det er ikke en dårlig ting for noen...:=)

Jeg venter på våren, ja, jeg har ventet på den siden November i fjol. Forrige lørdag var det sol, flott! Ove og jeg plantet chilli, seleri og purre. Og dagen etterpå kom det snø. Hva kan jeg si? Typisk!

Nå er jeg hjemmet alene, sikkerlig kjeder meg mye. Tror jeg skal tilbake til TV og se litt mer av dokumentasjonen hvor en flodhest angrep en turistbåt.

longing for spring

2009-02-15T15:24:00.001+01:00

Dal_09 054, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

In China we say 'It is not cold when it snows but when it melts'. There is no more snow this week, but the temperature has been hanging around minus 10 this whole week, and it dropped to minus 20 on Monday.

One more thing on my list of 'the worst things ever can happen' : an almost one hour trip on a train with heat off at 7 in the morning in a Norwegian winter.

The days are getting longer, and you probably can understand how much I long for spring now. I started planting, knitting in spring color and God, I cannot wait anymore.

Snow cake

2009-02-08T17:19:00.001+01:00

Yes, more snow here. Isn't it lovely? The entire garden turns into a huge creamy cake.

For a non-skatter and a lame skier like me, this kind of days mean more knitting, and it makes even more sense when I tell you that I lost both my lue and one of my gloves on the train, right?

a new toy

2009-01-17T17:27:00.002+01:00

JulDal08 118, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I found this old spinning wheel in an antique shop yesterday, and now it is mine. I have been dreaming of having a spinning wheel for long time, now I finally have one. I am completely bathed in joy now, though I am not very clear about what I am going to do with it next? I know I want to use it, and the seller told me that it is in good condition, still usable. I have spent some time on Google, Youtube, and Wikipedia today, trying to figure out what kind of spinning wheel I have, and how it works. So far? I am still green.

Can anyone help me to take a look, is it a single drive, or a double drive?

Any suggestion on some good resources online? I want to know how to connect/thread the wheel and the flyer, and where I should start first....

-----------------------------Norsk----------------------------------

En gammel rokk har jeg kjøpt denne uken. :) Jeg er veldig glad i den, selv om jeg vet absolutt ingenting om hva som trenges nå for å gjøre at den funker. Jeg tror at jeg trenger å binde noen deler med en tråd...men hvordan det bindes, vet jeg ikke nå. Jeg har brukt mye tid på Internet i dag for å lære meg litt. Hittil har jeg gjort meg vel kjent til historien om rokk og hvordan den fungerer i teorien. Men når jeg ser på rokken foran meg, vet jeg fremdeles ikke hvor jeg skal begynne.

Last year I tried

2009-01-13T20:47:00.004+01:00

DAL2008 088, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I went to the gym after work today. Considering the first time of training of this year actually happened in the first month in this year, it is not bad at all. :) Let's keep up with the good work!

Aleart! I have gained another size up since November last year. It is pretty scary, especially given that it is still winter now, and the coldness has completely frozened my interests to go outdoors. Outdoor activities in winter like skiing and skating, to me, have become outdoor activities to be watched on TV, if nothing else available.

I tried to learn skiing last year and actually had a tour-de-hagen i my garden last winter. I have the photo to prove :) I learned how to ski forward, backward, ski fast and slow, but I got exhausted and bored before we moved on to how to turn, to stop and to get up once fall. Maybe this explains why my neighbors ignored the TV, and watched me skiing in the garden instead.

Should I pick up my skis this year? I guess it would be useful to learn at least how to stop.

Noen er slemme

2009-01-09T21:54:00.006+01:00

Jeg har bodd i Norge i snart tre og halv år. Jeg er heldig fordi jeg har lært noe norsk. Å kunne litt språk har hjulpet meg mye, ikke bare for å forstå og å bli forstått, men også å bli kjent med norsk kultur, og ikke minst for å finne en jobb som jeg liker.

På jobb bruker jeg både norsk og engelsk, men stor sett norsk når jeg kommuniserer med kollegaene mine. Jobben min krever at jeg snakker mye norsk på telefon. Da opplever jeg at ikke alle er snille. Noen er faktisk slemme.

Jeg tenker sjelden at mennesker er slemme. Jeg tror at mange ikke egentlig er slemme, men dumme. Men jeg mener det når jeg sier at noen er slemme, fordi de angriper meg som en person med mindre verdi enn dem på grunn av min aksent på norsk og de små språklige feilene jeg gjør av og til.

Jeg kom til Norge etter jeg ble voksen. Det er vanskelig å lære et nytt språk når man blir gammel. Jeg vet at jeg har aksent når jeg snakker norsk. Jeg kan høre det selv. Jeg er også forberedt på at selv om jeg prøver å lære norsk hver dag, kan det hende at denne aksenten skal bli en del av meg hele livet mitt. Jeg skammer meg ikke for det. Og de fleste jeg snakker med har ingen problem med å forstå hva jeg sier.

Det er interessant at de som fortalte meg at de ikke forstår språket mitt er for det meste etniske nordmenn, spesielt sinte nordmenn. Jobben min handler om å svare på spørsmål. De fleste som reagerte på aksenten min er de som ikke fikk det svaret de helst ville ha.

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T15:47:00.003+01:00

JulDal08 107, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

There has been no snowing for several weeks here at Dal, but the it has been cold. Not only the plants are covered under soft rime, but also my lions (see under). This morning I woke up and found the temperature at -15. Then I found this picture in my camera. Am I living in a Kittelsen drawing?

My lion. Doesn't he look a bit given up?

The steel handle alone the stairs in front of my door. Woolly, woolly.

They remind me of the physical lectures I had in middle high, about electronics and magnetics.

The plants all look like this when examined closer.

Guess what we do in such cold days? We go ice fishing. Patience, patience is a virtue.

And make something to keep the body and the soul warm. My contribution to the Special Olympic Scarf Challenge.

Right. Have I told you what I received from my in-laws this Christmas? Soft white woolly wool!! I am not bragging. I am just extremely happy. :)

The funnier part? I don't know how to clean wool. hehehe....bring up the laptop.

Ønskelist++Wishlist for 2009

2008-12-20T16:02:00.001+01:00

DAL2008vinter 101, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Kanskje er det litt sent, men jeg ønsker disse likevel... som alltid :)

Maybe a bit late already, but I wish to have these... as always :)

1, strikkegarn/knitting yarn, 100% ull/wool, bomull/cotton, silk, alpaka, mohair (det tar ca. 600 gram å strikke en genser. It takes around 600 grams to finish a sweater)

2, mønster/patterns. Jeg elsker gamle norsk design, for eksempel selbus votter, Setdals kofte, mm, men andre typer er fine også.

3, strikking bøker av Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

4, abonnement på strikking blad ROWAN, VK, Alt om Håndarbeid og Knit Simple

Chocolate flavor / sjokolade smak

2008-12-14T21:07:00.003+01:00

DAL2008vinter 117, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Ten days to go. I've finished some knitted gifts and packed them today. Otherwise, I still have a pile of socks :). and eight socks to make, including three to make the three I already have into three pairs.

We also made some pepper cakes today. Ove said that according to Christmas tradition here in Norway, we should bake and prepare seven different kinds of cookies before Christmas eve. But we both find it a bit tricky when neither of us know the complete recipes of the seven types. So we decided to go for the easiest this year: pepper cake.

Well, did I say the easiest :) these were the first tray...as you probably can see that yourself based on the color, they were burnt. But in my house it is difficult to throw away things. At least not before my limits are tested. I took a plateful while I skyped with my father.

'is it chocolate cookie?' he asked.

Present to my mother

2008-12-07T23:37:00.001+01:00

DAL2008vinter 075, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

My mom had birthday last month. I was thinking to make this surprise gift to her. Finished today. Will be sent out next week...I still have some ends to weave in.

---------------------------------------------norsk--------------------------------
Mora mi hadde bursdag forrige måned. Jeg har tenkt å lage denne ferdig før hennes bursdag, men jeg hadde all for mye på pinner. Men gaven ble ferdig endelig i dag. Jeg skal sende den ut til Kina neste uke.

Full speed

2008-12-01T22:13:00.003+01:00

DAL2008vinter 059, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I got a quarter of a sock done on the train back home today. With this speed, I can finish a sock in two days, but I still cannot finish all the socks I promised. Maybe I should start knitting during lunch breaks at work. I've developed a new instinct these days: bring two things with me everywhere: wallet (so I can stop by a yarn shop) and my UFO socks.

I am slightly stressed about the sock thing, but a bit stress is healthy and can be constructive. Most importantly, it can prevent me from being distracted by these...I bought all these after I went to have a cup of coffee with Fabiana and Jostein, my old classmates from master study.

Fabiana is going to get married next year (his cute Norwegian boyfriend proposed last month)...and I simply got hyper just thinking about the possible baby onesies I am going to knit once they have kids. I left them in such a super hyper mood that I think people in the street can hear the songs in my head. Pity there was no yarn shop nearby, but a bookstore would do. I dropped by the nearest bookstore, and left in an even more super hyper mood that I think I will definitely dream of some knitting-related tonight.

Hmm...tomorrow I should make a wish list, of more yarns to knit all the beautiful patterns I have put on the post-Christmas list.

++++++++++++++++++++++norsk+++++++++++++++++++++++

I full fart er jeg i gang med sokke-strikking. Jeg tror at jeg sikkert skal utvikle et nytt instinkt i løpet av dagene frem til jul: å ta med to ting uansett hvor jeg er: lommeboken (slik har jeg råd til å stoppe ved en garnbuttikk) og sokkene som ikke er ferdig strikket.

Jeg kan strikke ferdig nesten en fjerdedels sokk på toget en vei fra jobb til hjem. Med slikt tempo kan jeg antakeligvis strikke ferdig en sokk på to dager, men jeg lurer på om jeg har nok tid til å strikke alle sokkene jeg har tenkt før jul. Kanskje det er på tide å begynne å strikke i lunsjpausen nå.

Jeg gikk for å treffe to gode venner fra masterstudiet etter jobb i dag. Fabiana, som er fra Brazil og er en veldig god venninne av meg, skal gifte seg med sin norske kjæreste neste sommer, og nå er de i full gang med å renovere den gamle leiligheten de har kjøpt..og de planlegger å ha barn :). Fabiana sa at det er så mye støv at hun har tenkt å sove med maske på :)

Det er utrolig hyggelig å se at din gode venn lykkes. Og jeg ble selvfølgelig litt hyper etter bare å tenke på at snart kan jeg begynne å strikke for de små...

Vi spiste, pratet, og jeg var så glad for Fabiana og livet at jeg tror at hele Oslo kunne høre hjertet mitt sang.

Christmas: I am burried

2008-11-30T13:18:00.001+01:00

DAL2008vinter 053, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

in a mountain of socks...socks that are not in pairs.

So far I have promised myself to make ten pairs. Because I know I am an easily bored person, I even created the 'twin' technique to knit my socks, namely I will not knit the second one right after the first one is done, instead I will start a new pair. And this strategy directly leads to the result I am facing now: I have 7 socks, 5 are singles.

Maybe I should concentrate on the positive side: I have at least one pair.

as long as I don't think about the 13 socks to knit, in the next 24 days...does it sound doable?

---------------------------------------------Norsk-------------------------------
Jeg er begravd under en sokkehaug.

Jeg har lovet meg selv at i år skal jeg lage 10 par håndstrikkede sokker. Hittil har jeg 7 sokker, ikke verst, men bare to er i par, resten er enkelte sokker som venter på den andre halve.

I de neste 24 dagene skal jeg strikke ferdig 13 sokker, høres det mulig ut?

Ja, så lenge vi Ikke snakker om det skjerfet, onesey-en, og den kjempestore genseren.

Happy Birthday to myself

2008-11-09T14:29:00.003+01:00

DAL2008vinter 003, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I turned 28 last week. I don't know about others, but having a birthday late in the year is weird to me. It not only influences whether I was the youngest or the eldest in the class at school, it also makes the answer to 'how old are you' complicated.

For example, before the actual birthday, I was still 27, but we somehow expect the answerer to give her/his age within the frame of a calendar year, instead of his/her own...biological year, which is actually more precise regarding age. Though there is only one year difference in the answers, it does matter for people like me who react a bit to own age during certain period of life. Before 25, I can still play around. After 25, crisis. :+) Of course, there are a lot more to expect after 25 and a lot more fun from experiences different from those before 25. But still when I look back and see how eager I was when I was 16, dreaming to be 18 or 25 the next day...I probably would give it a second though in my next life.

Anyway, there is fun in everyday if I have the heart to find it. And for sure there will be more fun in the year to come, just look at the lovely gifts I got from Ove.

Meanwhile, my mom is going to have birthday by the end of this month. I am working on knitting a scarf for her.

Stop the snow!

2008-10-29T19:56:00.002+01:00

DAL2008haust 277, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

It snowed today. The first snow in winter 2008. This year's first snow is actually three days later than last year's, but I guarantee you it is the same coldness.

-------------------------------norsk-------------------------------

Årets første snø besøkte oss i dag. Det har vært forferdelig kaldt siden i går og jeg tenkte på snø, så kom den i dag. I heisen på jobb snakket to damer om 'endelig blir det vinter nå.' Endelig? og Nå? Jeg synes vinteren har begynt for lenge siden. :=)

A lil bite of Norway :)

2008-10-26T00:00:00.007+02:00

Morr sausage, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

We stubmled upon a small direct-sale of sausage at Kløfta yesterday. They indeed had some very tasty sausages. I tried some with garlic flavor, spicy pepperoni, and I was absolutely amazed by the blueberry-flavored sausage, which we bought some home.

Though I didn't buy them, I took some photos of some other sausages which, to a Chinese eye, are typical Norwegian. For example, the Morr sausage, which is shown on the right side in the photo above. I did a small research on the net and found out that Morrpølse, or the Morr sausage, is considered so old a Norwegian food tradition that the production and tradition of eating Morr sausage can be dated back to the Viking age (8th -11th century). It is almost like a living food legend, isn't it? The name Morr is from the language of the Old Norse (norrøne ), meaning 'internal organs'. As the name indicated, a Morr sausage made stricktly based on tradition would include only the internal organs, however, modern days Morr sausage are mostly made by lamb meat, plus some blood and internal organs, such as heart, lung, intestine, stomach, kidney, etc.

In addition to Morr sausage, I also found sausages made of elk and reindeer meat. I hope there wouldn't be too many buying the reindeer sausage, for Santa definitely will appreciate it to have eight left for his sleigh：）

And I hope the sale lady would allow us to take more photos.

------------------------------------------------Norsk------------------------------------
I går var vi på Kløfta da vi kom over et kjempegodt pølsesalg. Pølsene var direkte fra fabrikken, derfor var de solgt billigere enn i butikken. Det var så mange foskjellige smaker å velge mellom at det faktisk tok litt tid før vi kunne bestemme oss. Vi prøvde hvitløksmak; den var bra! Så rødvinsmak; det var godt! Så blåbærsmak, å, det var himmel! Den blåbærsmaken var sikkelig god, så etter å ha prøvd mange andre smaker bestemte vi oss for å kjøpe den med blåbærsmak. Og jeg vil gjerne anbefale den til andre. Den smaker litt søtt, men veldig friskt.

Jeg skulle ønske selgeren lot meg tar flere bilder, for jeg vil skrive om pølsene i bloggen min som jeg gjør nå, og det var så mange forskjellige smaker der. Da kunne jeg lære mer om pølsene og smakene når jeg kom tilbake og ha bildene til å minne meg på dem. For eksampel har jeg et bilde av Morrpølse. Jeg visste ingenting om Morrpølse. Så begynte jeg å forske litt på det, og nå vet jeg at Morrpølse kanskje er den meste berømte og kulturelt viktigest pølsen i den norske mathistorien. Tradisjonen med Morrpølse-laging kan bli datert tilbake til vikingtiden rundt 800-1100-tallet. Og produksjon av pølsene er basert på mange teknikker i tørking og matkonservering i Norge. Ordet Morr finnes i norrønt, et gammelt nordisk språk. Morr betyr 'innmat', og traditionelt var Morrpølse lagd kun av innmat. I moderne tid blir Morrpølse lagd stor sett av fårekjøtt, i tillegg til blod og innmat. I noen tilfeller blir blandingen av svin, vilt, storfe også brukt.

Hvis jeg ikke husker eller forstår det feil, har jeg spist Morrpølser noen ganger. Den smakte greit for meg, men jeg er ikke veldig begeistret for den. Men Ove og familien hans spiser mye Morrpølser, særlig svigerforeldre mine og KJ. Nesten hver gang jeg er på besøk, kan jeg finne noen svarte, tørkede pølser i kjøleskapet. Og ja, de så gamle ut, nesten som fra Vikingtida.

Sunbath

2008-10-19T14:48:00.004+02:00

DAL2008haust 254, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

Finished last night, photo taken today. They are both knitted from the same pattern in the book Weekend Knitting: 50 unique projects and ideas. How I love this book. I have not found a copy available in the Norwegian book market yet, but I keep borrowing it from the library, again and again.

The weather is beautiful today. The sunshine woke me up around 11 in the morning. We let the cat go out for a walk, and she seems enjoying the sunshine, the grass and the fresh autumn air a lot. I also love how the finger dolls enjoy their first sunbath on the scarf-to-be for my father. I think they are telling each other adventures ：）

-------------------------------------------norsk-------------------------------

Det er en pen dag i dag. Sola skinner, fulger synger, og det gjør oss glade. Vi stod opp rundt 11 tida i morges, og det er ganske tidlig for oss i helga :=) Ove åpnet døra for Kua, som ville gjerne gikk på en gress-tur i så pent vær. Jeg lagde noe nuddlesuppe, men har brukt massevis av eddik istedenfor soy sause i suppa. Og nå har jeg veldig sur suppa, og det er veldig mye fordi jeg var grissulten da jeg lagde den. Jeg prøvde å spise halvparten, men nå må jeg ta en pause før jeg kunne spise ferdig resten.

Ellers blir disse søte fingedukkene ferdige. Jeg strikket dem ferdig i går kveld, og har fått perfekt vær til å ta nydelige bilde av dem. Mønsteret hentet jeg fra boken Weekend Knitting: 50 unique projects and ideas. Det finnes mange fine mønster som kan bli strikket ferdig på kort tid. Jeg selv har prøvd to par fingerløse hansker, et håndkle, og selvfølgelig et par UFO.

Jeg fikk svaret fra barnehagen om hvor mange barn de har, slik jeg kan forberede meg godt til å lage julegaver til barna og de voksne. Det blir 58 stykke da :=) Holy cow! Å strikke 58 dukker blir en morsom utfording i alle fall. For nå? 2 ferdige, 56 igjen.

Weekend

2008-10-18T23:45:00.003+02:00

DAL2008haust 247, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I love weekend. It is the time when I can sit down, knit a bit, while watching TV or listening to a CD-book, without literately feeling guilty. I do watch TV and knit on workday evenings, but, you know, I always have the strange feelings of workday evenings are not for relax, but for rest so I can work better the next day. I kept asking myself questions like 'Maybe I should finish the book borrowed from the library two weeks ago?' Or maybe I should go to bed early tonight so I don't need to stress out tomorrow morning?'. But almost every evening throughout the week I ended up with knitting, watching Mythbusters, C.S.I and So You Think You Can Dance, no book finished, and the battle of getting up breaks out every morning.

Every morning the battle starts at 5:15, the time I set up my cellphone alarm at. I wake up every morning that time just to push the alarm off so I knew, painstakingly, that one hour later I must get up. Ove gets his alarm set up at 6:30. He pushes off his alarm, but since I spend more time in the bathroom than him, I am still the one who should get up first. I tend to oversleep 2 minutes, but on some days the universe is so chaotic that 2 minutes turn out to be as long as 5, 7, and 10. If you happen to live at Dal in Norway, and you see two people running like crazy along the motor way towards the train station around 7 in the morning, you know who they are and what happened.

So that's why I love weekend. I shamelessly slept till 2 pm today. Last Saturday I got up at 4 pm and went to bed at 10 pm. Ove spent the whole day playing computer game (OK, I have to clarify this if I want to have peace tomorrow, which means avoiding having a big nagging baby in the house all about 'I did not spend the whole day, but almost the whole day'. So here it is the truth. In addition to spend some 5 hours sitting infront of the computer playing game, Ove also cleaned the cat toilet, did the grocery together with me, cleaned the kitchen under the pressure from me, oops, I mean under a bit of hint from me. AND despite all the hurdles and difficulties, he also went down to the basement to push the magical button twice of the washing machine, so at the end of day he deserves the credit of 'doing two rounds of laundry', and yes, he did hang up the laundry, but for ONE time, Ove, not two times. I was counting. And satisfied now, darling? ) . Right, back to the weekend thing, though we are being lazy and extremely un-self-disciplined, neither of us seems to feel a bit of guilt (Well, I am sure we will, when the consequences come). I finished two finger dolls which will be Christmas presents to the kindergarten, buried my sofa under UFOs, cast on a scarf for my father, and continued a few rounds of Ove's sweater, which is showing signs of being a piece of myth, since I knit and knit for almost one month, and the 6 cm border seems will never be there. Well, I still have tomorrow, still weekend, to figure that out. :)

Do you see my sofa?

You never know

2008-10-13T22:05:00.001+02:00

DAL2008haust 238, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I am planning to knit a set of finger toys as Christmas gift for the toddler class in the kindergarten where I worked as part-time substitute teacher. I am pretty satisfied with how the head turns out. The only question left now is to decide what it is...a donkey? monkey? snake? robot? a lightening rod?

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Jeg tenker å strikke noen fingedukker til barnehagen der jeg jobbet som vikar før. I kveld begynte jeg prosjektet. Så langt er jeg ganske fornøyd med hvordan hodet blir. Det ser ut at det eneste spørsmålet igjen er å bestemme hva dukken er. slange? apekatt? robot? eller en lynavleder.

Fun

2008-10-12T18:41:00.002+02:00

DAL2008haust 228, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

I am having fun this weekend. First I finished a sock, and I almost reach the toe of the second sock. I had a lot of fun playing with Alan Dart's Noah's Ark patterns. It includes several creative and fun patterns, such as this ladybug, and many many more. I am thinking to knit a set as a gift to the kindergarten where I used to have a part-time job.

Not only socks

2008-10-09T23:51:00.001+02:00

DAL2008haust 187, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

As the TT sock project is going well, I am also working on other Christmas gift, for example, a pair of fingerless mittens (my, another pair to work on. Do I hate myself?) It's been long time since the last time I work on knitting with beads. It is fine. And the result is so beautiful that I don't even mind threading 600 tiny mini beads onto the yarn before the real knitting starts (Well, I did mind it when I was working on threading the beads).

I do not knit with beads a lot, because I hate threading the beads onto wool yarn. I am always worried the fine yarn will break and I hate counting beads. If I need to thread 300 beads, you may find the same amount of them on the floor, in the sofa, on my pants, stuck on the cat's ears. This pattern asks for 600 beads. I spent two nights doing nothing but threading bloody tiny beads. And obviously beads and yarn could be a funny combination to Ove. You know, he usually asks me what I am knitting when he sees me starts a new project, but he has (had) been pretty clear that what I was doing was knitting.

Until one night last week when I was bitterly threading the small beads onto the yarn and cursing the amount of the beads required by the pattern (Well, I should curse myself because I was the one choosing the pattern, and there were several other patterns which were much easier and requiring far less beads). Confused but still curious, Ove asked me

O: 'What are you doing?' (It could be the bead and the small embroidery needle, or it could also be that I probably looked quite stressed, dude could obviously tell that I was not knitting though I also had yarn, knitting needles on place.).
L:'Threading beads.'
O:'Why?'
Question ignored due to busy counting.
O: 'How many do you need?'
L: '600.'

What happened after that was really not a typical thing Ove does. In general, he is nice, kind and really empathetic. But this time, dude burst into laugh instantly, that kind of 'ahahahahahaha' type of laugh.

I was speechless. Actually, i still don't know what to say. Maybe threading 600 beads on wool yarn really is hilarious. I don't know. I only know that I lost my temper, my beads, and my counting.

But does the result worth all the fuzz? definitely yes. I am in love of this mitten. And I am thinking to knit my mother a pair after I finish this one. And Ove will do the beading job.

A good planner

2008-10-08T21:23:00.010+02:00

DAL2008haust 195, originally uploaded by Ove and Lucia.

A good planner thinks ahead. My knitting history has told me that I might be a good planner when it concerns gifts, but definitely not a good plan executive. Rather, given the UFO record in this house, 'plan killers' may be a more suitable hat. I swear I was thinking to complete the project every time I started one. However, I asked myself why I end up with so many UFOs. The answer is quite obvious when I take a look at the UFOs: single socks, sweaters waiting for the second sleeves, left mittens/gloves waiting for the other half, dolls missing one arm/leg... If there exists a hospital for knitters, you will find me at ICU for SSS (Second Sock Syndrome), SMS (Second Mitten Syndrome), or SLS (Second Sleeve Syndrome).

I have the thingie with knitting pairs.

And I must be crazy when I thought 'Oh, yes, this year I really wanna take my oath that 'I take the handmade pledge', because I will give out only hand-made gifts this Christmas. And socks are fun to knit, nice gifts, and I can always knit on the train.'. you see, I was not even thinking in the right direction. The right question to ask is not about whether socks are nice gifts, fast and easy to knit, or being portable knitting projects. Actually the question should not be (well, not only be) about socks alone. It should be about whether I, the knitter, are capable to knit things in pairs. What was worse is that slow knitter I might be, quick shopper can no one compete with me. I got this sparkle of idea on the train to work in the morning, and on the train back home I had got these. And you can tell I got two socks on the needles already (I was so inpatient that,despite of the needle mountains at home, I even bought new needles so I could knit on the train right away). Of course, the two socks on needle are not in a pair. (And No, I am not going to spoil the surprise and joy by telling you who will get which. Ove, you are not allow to tell either.)

I got panic. How am I going to knit so many socks, I mean socks in pairs? Remember, I have a plan of Christmas gifts. I just need to have another plan to carry that plan, well, to take some kind of damage control of any foreseeable over-stash and/or last-minute stress, I guess.

The plan to carry the plan of sock-knitting is what I call the 'twin trick' (TT). This for sure will sound weird: I imagine myself being impregnated of several pairs of twins, and they are all mixed up in my tummy. And which one goes with which one to make a pair? you can only find out when you are done with all of the hard labor. God bless me I will never go through such mess in real life bb producing. But let's go back to the socks. Though I am going to knit several pairs, I am not going to knit them in the order of pairs. Instead, I will knit all the first ones first. And that's why I have bought only one ball of each of the yarn. (Told you I am a planner, didn't I?)

I think (pray) this strategy will work well for me. I keep telling myself that though the two socks from the same pair look identical ( supposedly so, I guess), they indeed are unique individuals, hence I should stop any stupid reluctance to knitting the second ones, to knitting it with the less passion, more curses or in a speed which is dramatically slower than the first one receives. It is not fair for the second sock. A mother would not deliberately deliver the second child slower or love him/her slightly less just because he/she looks the same as the first child. So any of my stereotypes toward the second socks is pure stupidity.

Well, I guess I would need another plan to cope with the situation when the second looks differently from the first.