Do I look fat in this?

Do you know that feeling when you're just sprinting along on a project, the end is in sight, you're closing in on your goal of a finished object, and then Whammo!, you hit the wall of sorrow? This happened to me last night. There I was, happily knitting away on the yoke of my resident cardigan-in-progress (this one if anyone's interested), watching TV, generally having a nice relaxed time. The pattern suggests trying on the sweater while you work on it so you can determine how deep you want the yoke to be, and me, being the obedient type, did just that. And terror ensued.



There is a definite problem here. The body of the sweater fits me just fine, but the arms! Do you see the sausage effect? What did I do to deserve this (my love for dansih pastries hopefully has little to do with this problem). Apparently I have disproportionately chunky arms compared to my torso. This is a theory I have considered before, but am now completely and utterly convinced is true. This is the third time I have to adjust a cardigan pattern to fit my overinflated appendages, a fact that indicates to me that there's nothing wrong with the world and it's pattern writers, but rather that there's something wrong with me.
Given that this has happened to me before, more than once, you might ask yourself how this could happen to me once again? Do I not have the good sense to try sleeves on as I knit them, adjusting them to the girth of my expansive arms? Do I not try on one sleeve before I knit the other one, just to save myself some time and heartache? Sadly, the answer is no. I just kind of assume, time and again, that patterns will work for me because they have worked for other people in the past. This assumption is stupid at best; I am well aware that we are not all created alike and that we bulge out in different places on our bodies. I even accept this when I'm shopping for jeans. But when it comes to knitting I just dive blindly in and hope things will turn out okay. Most of the time they do. Last night they didn't. I am now, to quote Elizabeth Zimmerman, eating the porridge of regret with the spoon of sorrow. Or something like that.
What to do next? Frankly, I'm too crushed right now to keep working on this project. I was really looking forward to wearing it, but since my dreams have been cruelly dashed, I think I need to move on to something else to get over the worst of the heartbreak. My red shawl-in-progress seems like a good option, it's a fun pattern done in a life-affirming color, I'm sure having some carefree fun with it will help me get through this. And then when I'm strong enough, which will hopefully be soon, I'll return to this sad little cardigan, unravel the sleeves from the bottom up and reknit them with some more stitches than dictated in the pattern.
Don't worry cardigan, I may be casting you aside in dismay right now, but I will return to you.

Country roads, take me home...

I would just like to mention that while I appreciate warm weather as much as the next person, I cannot for the life of me imagine what I did to deserve being landed in this blazing, sticky, clammy, humid inferno. Copenhagen! My eyelids are sweaty and they stick to themselves, making blinking a very annoying experience.
Also, this weather is not conductive to knitting.
Apparently it's snowing in Iceland today. Esjan, Reykavík's top-rated local mountain, is shrouded in white all the way down to its roots.
Only two and a half weeks until I go home. I cannot wait.

Visual evidence..

that I don't suffer from second sock syndrome. Both socks are here, and I like them alot.

Hopefully their recipient will, too.



I'm feeling kind of cultural today. I want to enjoy the arts, I want to hear music, I want to look at something stimulating, I want to read something inspirational. Fortunately for me, my cultural tastes are decidedly lowbrow. Those artworks that have most touched my life, and live in my soul forever, their shaping powers working my personality like putty, they are all of the popular culture variety. I don't think I'm alone in this. Don't get me wrong, I have a definate appreciation for more highbrow forms of expression, but only popular culture really lights my fire.
I'd like to mention, though, that I don't like the distinction between high- and low culture, and I don't believe in it. But it is a customary and widely used concept that in many ways facilitates categorization and clarity when it comes to these matters, so I'll make use of it for now.
I recently wrote about how I love the album Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout. I'm listening to it right now, and am still continually amazed by what a perfect piece of music it is. All the songs are beautiful and touching, and they flow effortlessly. It is by far Prefab Sprout's finest work, even though I also really like From Langley Park to Memphis. I have a silly love for the intellectual pop of the eighties, I honestly really don't know why. Some more of my favorite bands are The Waterboys and Big Country.
I also have an irrational love for Steve Albini. Mostly for the music he has made himself with his bands, Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac. My special favorite is Rapeman (I'm not a big fan of the band's name, though). I don't know why, this music just speaks to me somehow. I remember the first time I heard their music, it felt so weird, almost like someone had taken my inner being and turned it into music. And called the band Rapeman. Ridiculous, but true.
I also love television, and have severe problems with how most people see it as a waste of time. I don't watch everything that's on TV, far from it, I am a hugely selective viewer. But I think that the medium itself is both very important and very mysterious. Why is it so enticing? Why is it such a thing of beauty? Why does it rot our brains? I could spend all of my time thinking about television (and fortunately, I practically do!). The global television industry is probably more inspirational to me than anything else in the world, in all of its manifold aspects. Go TV! One of my big dreams in life is to one day make it to the United States, just so I can familiarize myself with how it it to be a viewer of the network and affiliates system. Also, I want to experience the flow of watching TV in the U.S., with all of the commericals. I imagine it must be a very annoying, but exhilarating experience. No public service principles, just pure commercialism. It's something I really want to experience, and I think it's so funny that it's such a mundane thing for millions and millions of people. For me it's the holy grail.
I am a gigantic dork.

The EZ revelation

I've been down with some kind of weird flu or something for the past few days; symptoms have been headaches and footaches, along with general exhaustion. I haven't really had the energy to blog, or even read blogs, let alone do any serious schoolwork. However, luckily for me, my order of two books, Knitter's Almanac and Knitting without tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman, arrived just in time for my illness, so I've been able to enterain myself with those. Hooboy, could that lady ever write a text on knitting! She is just so down to earth, and no-nonsense. None of that ridiculous perfectionist crap that some people (read: me) have a tendency to brainwash themselves with. Anything goes with her, and if you screw up she points out a zillion ways to fix the problem in a totally relaxed way. I like her and intend to get more of her books, as soon as I have some money.
I have finished the secret socks, both of them. I was going to show you a picture, but for some reason Blogger won't let me. Hopefully, if I try again tomorrow, it will.

Issues of Import

Boy, do I feel sorry for all you non-Europeans out there. Year after year, you miss out on the awesome festival that is the Eurovision Song Contest. Finland offered us a fantastic show last night, and while my favorite didn't win, I can totally see why the winner did. As I get older I come to appreciate this contest more and more. Just a few years ago I would watch with a kind of ironic distance, finding the whole spectacle embarrasing rather than enthralling. Now, I'm just enthralled, not least because the show is great to knit to. I can't wait for next year, when Serbia will be hosting.
Something else important happened yesterday: Iceland had an election (notice my excellent priorities: Eurovision Song Contest first, government issues second). Again, my favorite didn't win, but still I always love an election. Watching democracy in action is pretty cool, even if it really rams home the point that me and my opinions belong to a minority. But that's okay, better luck next time.
I still haven't fixed my camera issues. I'm not going to bore you with the details of why not, but I'm working on it, albeit very slowly. So, brought to you by trusty photobooth:



One finished secret sock (sans blocking) and his in-progress brother. I changed the pattern a little bit, and didn't decrease as much in the gusset as I should have. I also just kind of winged it with the toe. When I got to the toe I was watching this movie starring Johnny Depp that was on TV, and I couldn't immediately locate the book the sock pattern is in. It wasn't anywhere close to hand, and I'll be damned if I let a small matter like a knitting pattern interrupt my viewing pleasure when Johnny Depp himself is at stake. So I just did some kind of decrease and then grafting, whatever. It turned out fine, although pretty different from what the pattern wanted me to do. Who cares, as long as it works, right?

Shhh, it's a secret!

A blog is maybe not the best entity to confide a secret in, but look at these:



This is the first cuff of the first of a pair of socks. I'm afraid that's all I can divulge at the moment, cause, you know, they're a secret special occasion present. I'm pretty sure the intended recipient doesn't read the blog, but just in case, let's all just keep them on the hush-hush, okay? I can probably also tell you, without spoiling the surprise, that the pattern is superfun to knit and the yarn, which is called strømpe- og jumpergarn (that's all the information the ball band provides, no manufacturer or anything), is unbelievably soft. It's just normal sockyarn made from wool and nylon, but it's nicer and softer than what I've worked with up til now. Hopefully I'll have these knitted up soon, so I can continue working on a certain lovely cardigan. Yes, a cardigan, big surprise. I tried taking pictures of the cardigan in progress with the photobooth, but they all turned out to be too crappy for public consumption. I will try to find a way to bring you visual proof of the cardigan, but you'll have to bear with me.
In other news, things may just be looking up on the camera vs. computer front. These pieces of equipment still resolutely refuse to have any kind of dialogue, and I've tried everything I could think of. I was practically on the verge of just buying a new camera (desperate measures on a student's budget). Well, I finally went to see this professional computer guy, and at first he was stumped, just like everyone else I've brought this problem up with. But then he helpfully suggested that I may simply need to reformat my camera's memory stick, since I used to work on a PC but now have a Mac. I really hope that this will solve the problem for me and that I will be able to offer a properly illustrated blog in the future, with pictures of my FO's draped artistically over tree branches, on location at the lake behind my house. And I could show you the lake! And my house! Wooo, just the thought gets me all excited. Wish me luck.

Blue, but not down

Hi! Lord, the last few days have been so beautiful here in Copenhagen, the sun has been shining nonstop and I've been cooped up in my apartment working on a serious assignment. And no, I don't mean the knitting kind. If only.
So I've spent the past five days typing away at my computer from morning to night, practically no time to knit a single stitch, let alone take my knitting to the park and enjoy the fine weather. But yesterday I finally finished the damned academic project from hell and sent it off to its recipient, and promptly proceeded to take my latest FO outside to take some lovely sun-drenched photos of the little (no, rather large actually) beauty gracefully perched from a blossoming treebranch.
And lovely photos they were. However, because of the ongoing communication problems between my camera and computer, the blog will not get to enjoy any of them. Ha! I've now had this laptop for six months and I still haven't figured this problem out. That probably makes me the biggest techno-dolt that ever lived, not to mention one of the least motivated people on the planet. Trying to figure this problem out seems to be a bit of a bother, so rather than deal with it, I live with it. This is me in a nutshell, really. Anyhoo, this problematic laptop is still equipped with trusty Photobooth, and so I offer you this:



This lovely creation is knit with four skeins of Drops Alpaca. I got the pattern free from the Garnstudio website, which is, incidentally, my favorite free knitting pattern site of all time. They have that romantic Scandinavian vibe that I love so well, and offer over 3000 free patterns (if you can read the Scandinavian languages). I heartily recommend them.
As the sun rises in the sky, I can feel my overwhelming need to knit cardigans dwindle slightly. Indicative of this is that currently I am locked in a death grip with only one in-progress cardigan, as opposed to my customary three or four at a time. I view this as progress. Hopefully, one day, I will make a full recovery from cardiganitis, and only knit a couple of cardigans per year. Until then, I find shawls a useful distraction. I've already cast on for another one, so that should keep my cardigan cravings in check for a while. Hopefully.