saturday on thursday or just another random list to clear my head

things i've learned in the past few days:

~ do not be tempted to cook with the beautiful, smooth, fragrant, white inner bark of an oak tree. it's bitter as hell.

~ once you have had the iPhone above, you cannot go back to an iPhone below. i smashed the screen on my 4S the other day and am borrowing a friend's 4 while it's at the iPhone hospital. the 4 is not the same as the 4S - it's slower and apparently cannot be used for actual phone calls (not that that bothers me all that much). i guess i didn't really know this as i went from 3S to 4S back in the day.

~ oak is heavy. really, really heavy.

~ a photo of a baby bunny is almost a shoe-in to go explore on flickr.

~ not all writing is equally easy. the more you care about it and the closer you are to it, the harder it is.

~ good things really do come to those who wait - we've waited three years to eat the first asparagus from our garden. it was heavenly.

~ when you read the no. 1 ladies detective agency books, you will want to drink excessive amounts of rooibos tea.

it feels like it's the weekend, but it's only thursday. that's because it's ascension day in denmark and therefore a holiday. because the danes are so religious and all. not. but hey, it's like having a saturday already on thursday, so i'm not complaining. here's hoping your thursday had all the goodness of a saturday as well.

losing and then finding myself: lessons learned

december 17 - lesson learned: what was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year? and how will you apply that lesson going forward?

i have an odd tendency to lose myself in my job...i wholeheartedly take on the identity that's desired of me...or rather the one that i perceive is desired of me in a particular company. i give my whole self and then some. or at least i used to do that. i got a bit burned out doing that a couple of years ago and so i've held myself back from doing it again. last year, there was the misogynist dinosaur which kept me from wholly giving myself over to a job i otherwise completely loved.

and then there's the past year that i spent in completely the wrong place. and although i knew from the beginning it was the wrong place, i did it for a friend and for the sake of a major lifestyle change. and i've learned that you can't do that. and that you shouldn't do that. if you know in your heart that something is wrong, it is wrong. and nothing will ever make it right. no friend (who probably isn't really a friend when it comes down to it) and no cool product that you believe in will make it right if it's not.

so the lesson i've learned is to listen to that voice in my head. and all of the voices of those who emailed me and asked me if i was ok, because i didn't seem to be myself right here on this blog (thank you!!). i feel a little bit like i lost 2010. i know that feeling will fade and it's because i'm still too close to it. i had to go through what i've been through so i could move to the next step. it's about building your karma, isn't it? or perhaps paying it off. and maybe i went for the wrong job because i had some karma to work off. or maybe i'm storing it up for the next time. or more probably both.

but what i learned is that i have to listen to my heart of hearts, to my intuition. she doesn't steer me wrong. but for all of that, i feel that voice is stronger and steadier than ever. and i'm ready to create what's next. myself.  together with real friends this time.

~ namaste

things i've learned...

...while knitting:

~ knitting requires a project basket. it's not always easy to find the right project basket and you might have go to 4-5 different stores, including antique stores,  looking for one.

the perfect project basket (+ giant ball of finger knitting by sabin)

~ you cannot knit and read at the same time. at least not if you're me. note to self: acquire audio books.

~ it's a bit hard to keep all of the criminals straight if you're knitting while watching midsomer murders and seldom look up because of your need to concentrate on the knitting.

~ splitty yarn bites.

~ it does get easier the more you do.

~ changing colors is WAY easier than you think it will be.

~ one of the reasons my previous attempts at knitting failed was that i had no idea what i was making, now that i know what i'm making, it's much easier to keep going.

progress! and i've even changed colors.

...picking up my loom:

bits of loom

~ you shouldn't lose the phone number of the people you're buying the loom from, because they won't necessarily remember you when you show up at their door.

~ a disassembled loom is a rather overwhelming pile of sticks.

~ a pile of sticks can begin an adventure.

~ the windmill looks much better against a blue sky on a sunny day.

melby mølle

...from my child:

i am ever, eternally, in awe, of sabin's ability to jump fully into every moment. she never, ever waits or wants to wait for "the right time" to do things. if she wants to turn a cardboard box into an airplane/car for her bear, she just begins. she collects the things she needs as she goes along and as she thinks of them, but she jumps into the task from the very first moment. if she gets hungry along the way, she incorporates picnic supplies (cucumber, blueberries, tomatoes, a thermos), stowing them in the "trunk" of the car.

sabin's airplane/car - complete with a key and an ingenious seatbelt design

but she lets nothing stand in the way of imagination or of execution of the vision of the airplane/car that forms in her head - a boxed taped to the back to function as a trunk, yellow tape for the headlights, yarn and a matchbox as a seatbelt, a key of cardboard covered in black tape. i really wish i could be more like that. i get extremely held back in the "collecting the materials" stage of things and then it's sometimes very hard for me to begin the actual project.

the latest additions to the fabric stash

p.s. it's so cool that blogger has added captions to the photos. makes wordpress look even more like the internet explorer of the blogging world, and not just from a security standpoint, but from a lame, so yesterday kinda standpoint. go blogger!

the simple things - weaving

christina of soul aperture is taking her simple things one step further this time. she and her family will donate $1 to doctors without borders for relief for haiti for every blogger who participates in the simple things today. benefits for all - we remember that it is the simple things in life that are important and in so doing, help people in need all while being part of a worldwide chain of love and good will. i can't really think of anything better than that.

the feel of wool between your fingers.

favorite colors.

learning something new.

an age-old craft.

doing things in the right order.

evening light.

the company of enthusiastic people.

being at ease in oneself.

learning the basics.

a kind and patient teacher.

order emerging from chaos.

tools of the trade.

conversation over coffee.

tying knots.

threads and fibers.

softly falling snow.

what are the simple things you love today?

please do participate and do let christina know.

weaving - the beginning

i was so excited all day yesterday, as i looked forward to my first weaving class with the weaving club (vævelaug) in a nearby town. i thought about it all day, hoping they would be as nice as the ladies at the museum over in randbøldal, where i first was introduced to weaving, had been. so i kind of bounced off the walls and was rather unfocused on everything else i did all day long. maybe part of it was the prospect of actually leaving the house and being around other people too, but that's perhaps a whole 'nother story.

a couple of things tried to stand in my way in getting there. i had the address plotted into my clever phone and knew it would take me 28 minutes to get there, so i left in plenty of time. i got out to the car and as i drove up the hill, the empty light flashed on the gas tank. nice job, husband, leaving me with no gas. grudge book. husband has an annoying habit of seeing how far he can push a tank of gas before filling it. clearly he did not grow up in blizzard country. friggin' copenhagen city boy. so i was fuming and wondering if i had time to fill before i got there. i called him and yelled some incoherent (i was slightly manic about the weaving class, remember) things about chivalry being dead and "in my culture, men are responsible for filling gas tanks," and such, and then i headed north.

i got up there faster than the clever phone said i would, so i pulled into a gas station to fill. which is when i discovered that i didn't have my purse. apparently That Girl had packed up a bag full of weaving books and notebooks and pens and a camera and a sweater in case it was cold there, but she neglected to grab my purse. so now i had an empty gas tank - the light was staying on, rather than blinking on and off - and no means of filling it. and i wasn't going to be able to pay for my weaving course when i got there. nice start. but happily, in my head, i was able to add it to husband's grudge book entry, because as i was leaving he was going on and on about how i had to look for sabin and her friend and send them home from the sledding hill so they could eat dinner, so it was technically his fault that i didn't pick up my purse.

my clever phone guided me to the address and i saw a little building, all lit up, so i followed some other people in. i was a little surprised how smoky it was inside and by the wave of alcohol fumes coming off the woman by the door who greeted me. then she slurred, are you going to walk with us? walk with you? i was confused. and i had gone into the little clubhouse of a gangforening - a walking club, apparently for old smoking alcoholics. they probably even use those sticks, tho' i got out of there before i found out.

there was a time when that would have totally defeated me and i would have hurried home as fast as possible, embarrassed and confused and a little bit hurt. but i got back in the car and consulted the clever phone again for the address. i took a trip around the block and discovered that the area was dotted with all kinds of little association clubhouses. and finally, there was another one with lights on (across the street from the walkers - why couldn't they just TELL me that, by the way?) and i found it.

this time, it was much more obvious that i was in the right place. there were things like yarn and looms and combs and shuttles and nice people welcoming me rather than stumbling over to me and looking at me like i may have come from another planet. it felt a bit like coming home.

there are two rooms packed full of looms. i only had the macro lens on me, so i'll have to share a shot of them next time. there's a little kitchen and a little library and storage for many, many combs and shelves of yarn and spinning supplies and those thingies that help you turn a skein of yarn into a ball of yarn (must learn the term for those). it's a whole, sweet little old house devoted entirely to weaving - can you imagine anything more fantastic?

and everyone was so nice. the teacher is an artist who makes his living as a weaver. he has a studio in frederiksværk and i'm looking forward to going there at some point to see his work. the first thing i will weave is a sampler where i will learn different patterns - 8 different little 20cm x 20cm squares, which will then go into a book that i will make, to use as reference for my future weaving. the teacher had a big bag of yarn that he had been given, so i could choose three colors from it for my sampler. hmm, guess what colors i chose?

no surprises there. my first task was to take the yarn from skein to balls, using a winder of some sort (i will learn the technical terms, i promise). one issue is that i'm learning all of this in danish and i didn't really have the vocabulary for it in english to begin with! so much to learn!

the light blue was hopelessly tangled, so i ended up having to do it by hand, which took the better part of an hour. the other two went as they were supposed to and in no time, i had them wound into balls. what was most fascinating about the process was the way my teacher handled the skeins of yarn. it was so clear that he had a level of comfort with them borne of years of working with fibers. i felt a little bit in awe.

by the time i had it finished and we had talked through my pattern and how many warp strands i will need to set up on the loom, it was time to go. i'm so excited to learn this from the very beginning - including how to set it up! even just talking through the pattern with my teacher made me understand better some of what i'd been reading. i'm definitely a person who needs to be shown things rather than only told them!

what's really wonderful about the group is how nice everyone was. they all talked to me even tho' i hadn't met them when we were all back in kindergarten. they were interested in how i had found them and where my interest in weaving came from. i could feel some of the spirit of camaraderie that i had been hoping for (and didn't find) with the local art association i joined last year. it felt a bit like coming home.

and i so want a loom for my birthday. it already feels like an eternity til next tuesday.

a danish vineyard

i've said before that i'm actually quite ok with global warming because it seems to have a good effect on denmark. both winters and summers have gotten warmer in the decade i've been here and that seems like a good thing. of course, we can talk again when the sea levels rise and the innocent creek that's today a 100 meters from our house is lapping at our foundation...but in the meantime, i'll enjoy.

yesterday, after our visit to møn's klint, i visited a good friend who grew up on møn. her parents still live there on a large farm and she was home for the easter holiday. on the farm, they have a vineyard, with a number of kinds of grapes from the alsace and other regions similar in climate. they grow both reds and whites. rondo and regent grapes are the reds that they grow. one of the whites was related to riesling (but i neglected to note the name of it).

the grapes were not yet showing any sign of budding out, but irene's dad wasn't worried. he said they'd be budding in the next couple of weeks and that was fine. he said it was more important that there wasn't too much rain at the end of june/beginning of july when they flower and set their grapes, because they are self-pollinating and if the rain washes that away, the crop is not as large as it should be. and even more important was a sunny, warm september, when the grapes are ripening.

i asked if they could feel the effects of global warming on their project, but he actually said no. even without global warming, møn has more days of sunshine than anywhere else in denmark. and it's also frost free for 250 days of the year. the rest of denmark has, on average, 180 frost-free days. i definitely learned something there. i knew i loved møn, but didn't realize it was because the climate was so much milder.

irene's dad has gone together with 13 other guys and formed a collective to do this winemaking project. they've bought all of the necessary equipment and have it in an old butchering room on a nearby gods (very large manor-house type farm). a few of them raise the grapes and others do their part in the various stages...sorting the grapes, squashing them (not sure that's the technical term), then the entire process surrounding letting the wines age and eventually blending them. irene's dad said with a bit of a twinkle in his eye that the collective isn't very democratic--those who contribute the most and know the most make the decisions and the others just have to live with it.

they've got big stainless steel vats which were full of reds that would be ready to blend in a few months.

they're really mostly having fun and learning as they go along. they're making very drinkable table reds, port and even sparkling wines in the spirit of champagne. the club gets together and eats a big meal once a year in knight's hall of the otherwise mostly unused little castle nearby and tries out the fruits of their labors. i'd love to be a fly on the wall for one of those evenings.

the picture from yesterday was a close-up of the wax cork in this little oak barrel of port:

we tasted a bit of port that had only been aging for 6 months. it was still pretty grape-juice-agtig. but the deep, rich port color was already there and it will no doubt be wonderful in another 6-10 years.

looking at the oak barrels, i had visions of them branching out eventually into whiskies finished in port casks, along the lines of the good ones from glenmorangie in scotland. i'll have to suggest that next time i visit. it seems like just the thing for this particular gentlemen's club.