Steve McQueen

This post's title refers not to the actor, but rather to the finest album ever released by the insanely wonderful Prefab Sprout. Steve McQueen was recently re-released in a new, digitally re-mastered version that also includes acoustic versions of the album's songs. I simply must go out an get it. My beloved copy of this album has been lost for some years, so I have ample reason to spend some money on intellectual eighties pop.
I'm back in Denmark now. The weather here is ridiculously nice. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the temperature hovers around 25 degrees celsius. I have so much work to do that I intend to simply draw the curtains and not leave the house today. I have a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow, and I really want to sound like someone who knows just a little bit about their thesis topic. I'm actually quite happy to be back in Denmark because I spent way too much time socialising when I was back home in Iceland, and, sadly, not enough time working. The good thing about Copenhagen is that I don't know that many people here, so I have more time to work and can spend less time feeling guilty about neglecting my loved ones. For students, the hermit lifestyle comes highly recommended.
But back to the weather. Apparently this has been the warmest April ever here in Denmark. I was watching the news a couple of days ago, and they did a story on this unseasonably warm weather. Much to my dismay, the story was all upbeat, featuring interviews with scantily clad people eating ice cream. Needless to say, they all said they were delighted with the weather and hoped that it would stay like this, permanently. Now, I have nothing against nice weather, I enjoy it as much as the next guy. But I gotta tell you, I find this upbeat style of reporting kindof irresponsible considering that our own lifestyles are directly contributing to climate changes that, while currently delightful in Denmark, are likely to be catastrophic on a global scale. Ice cream or not, we shouldn't forget our responsibility to try to live in some kind of harmony with our environment. So, I hereby protest to upbeat weather stories on the news, and suggest that TV stations should be made to broadcast those two great films An inconvenient truth and The day after tomorrow constantly until we get the message. Cos the power of the media is awesome, you know?
Anyhoo, all this talk about the weather is really just to distract the world, and myself, from the fact that I have no knitting content to offer. I've been knitting some, but not much, and photobooth pictures will have to wait until I have the thing off the needles. It's just that kind of a thing.
The books are calling me. Ciao!

Economics

Sometimes I really wish I understood the financial world better than I do. Due to an upcoming election, all the Icelandic political parties are constantly going on and on about the economy and taxation and all these words I hardly recognize or understand. And that annoys me no end. I hate not understanding stuff. But I also think that what really gets to me is that I consider myself a fairly intelligent, educated woman. And these politicians are talking about stuff and using language that simply does not compute in my head. This leads me to the conclusion that I'm not the only member of the general public that has no idea what they're talking about. Then if I were to suggest that political discussions about economics should be put in the parlance of the people, I would be accused of advocating the dumbing down of important issues that need rigorous consideration rather than simplification. I don't want to advocate any such thing, so I guess the public, me included, just needs to get their act together and learn to understand economics in order to perform their civic responsibility.
But most of us are pretty busy people, and I can only imagine having time to familarise myself with economics and other issues of import if I give up something else, something that is not vital to democracy, something like, hmmm, knitting. Gasp! As if!
No, but seriously, I think that we all have a civic duty to try and understand what it is that makes our world go round; we all have a duty to understand what it is that those lovable politicians are talking about all the time. If that means that we have to educate ourselves, then so be it. Reading a few books never hurt anyone, and for those of us who like to spend their free time knitting or participating in some other kind of hobby where books aren't really convenient, there are audiobooks. So go out and acquire some knowledge! It makes listening to politicians way more fun.
In other news, I've heard that the cows are out and about in Cambridge. Hooray!

Icelandic sweaters of the seventies

My new years resolution concerning the increased knitting of accessories has so far been a complete failure. But rather than beat myself up about it, I'm going to blame the media.
Because of the enomous persuasive power of Icelandic television news footage from the 1970's I have been sucked into the vortex that is knitting a Lopi cardigan. In the 1970's everyone, and I mean litterally everyone, looked the same: the men had lambchop sideburns, the women had long hair parted in the middle, they wore flyaway trousers and a traditional, yoked Lopi sweater or cardigan. I've watched so much footage from this period in the last few weeks that I've unconsciously begun to adopt this look: I constantly wear my hair down, although a middle parting has yet to develop; I've unearthed a couple of pairs of bell-bottom trousers that I haven't thought of as cool since sometime in my teens, and ultra-modern knitting projects such as wristwarmers and tube tops have had to make way for the cardigan of the seventies. Lo and behold:



There it is in all of its "in progress" glory! Stay tuned for more hits of the seventies!

The inevitable

It had to happen. I bought Icelandic wool. It's for a cardigan. I think I need some therapy to get out of this cardigan rut, seriously. Anyway, the Létt-Lopi cardigan I'm going to make is of the traditional kind with a patterned yoke. The body of the cardigan will be a dark gray and the pattern will be a lighter gray, white and black. I did attempt to get a picture, but the light is not my friend today, and therefore wasn't able to get one that showed the colors propely. I'll just post pictures of the work in progress. I don't have a gray cardigan, so, in theory, I really need one. To coordinate will all of my gray clothes, you know? Very Important Project.
Lately I've been knitting on a green cardigan of my own design, which I believe I've mentioned before. No pictures of that either, sorry. It's turning out pretty nicely, much better than I'd expected, and I don't have much knitting to go to finish it. Unfortunately, I'm knitting with the last skein, and if it runs out before the sweater does, well then I'm afraid that that's the end of the line for this project. I probably could make some adjustments to the design so that it would use less wool, but then it wouldn't be just the way I want it. I think that this green wool would also make a fine shawl, and that my design can be knit up again with other, more plentiful yarn. So if I have to frog I shall shed no tears. It's all just part of the circle of life.
Speaking of the circle of life, there's this new, ostentatious trend that's taking Iceland by storm right now. Wealthy Icelanders have taken to hiring world-famous entertainers to appear at their parties. Recent examples include an Icelandic bank manager who got Duran Duran to play at his new-years party, a businessman who turned fifty and got Elton John to play at his party (hence the circle of life). And today news arrives of Iceland's most beloved billionaire's fortieth birthday party where 50cent apparently drove the crowd wild. I find this trend, as well as the fact that every time someone rich moves a muscle in this country it makes the news, both hilarious and pretty offensive. Hmm, maybe I just find it offensive because I never get invited to any of these parties. They should invite me though; everyone else brings the billionaires presents made by Prada or Porsche or gold plated diamonds or rockets to the moon, but I would be the only guest who brings a present knit with love and patience. I'm sure it would be much appreciated.
Apart from hoping for a party invite, I've spent the last days watching a stupendous amount of TV news. Then I've spent alot of time reading about TV news and thinking about TV news. Funnily enough, my interest in this subject is still on the increase, and therefore leading an interesting life with friends and knitting has kind of taken the back seat. And this development seems likely to continue until August 15., which is when I hand in my thesis. Man, this makes my prospects for the next few months seem pretty dim and dull. I really have to get my hands on a billionaire's party invite, and fast!