More Sheep Pictures

I thought you might like to see more of those lambs.


There are two lambs that I hadn't shown you yet. The little black ewe lamb looks just like the twin black lambs, and I can't even tell which one she is in the pictures. She is the same size too. Actually, she must be center front in the above picture, since that is her mother, Star, nosing at her there. We lost the little twin ewe though. She was a bottle lamb, because her mother forgot that she had twins and only took the ram. A real sweetie too. She was a heart breaker.


The other newbie is Evita's little boy. He looks very much like Cornflower's white ram lamb, but has longer wool, and there is a different look in the face.


They grow up too fast.



Knitting



Although I have not started a new big project in a while, I am pretty much always knitting something. This pair of socks is my latest approach to combatting Second Sock Syndrome. I like the simplicity (once it gets going) of the figure-8 cast-on socks with spiral ribbing. I also like having a pair of matching socks done at the same time, and not having to go back and do another one of what I have just finished. If I had size one circular needles, I would have used the two circs method, but I don't. Please add them to my wish list. Instead, I came up with this solution. The toes were started individually, and I actually had eight needles going at once at one point. Once all the increases were made, I transferred both socks onto one needle and have been using double knitting to produce a tubular fabric while knitting back and forth. It's simple once you get it going, albeit a little tricky getting the stitches put onto the needle in the proper order and direction. Then you knit the front stitches and slip the back stitches (which means you slip every other stitch). It is important to remember to keep the yarn in front when slipping stitches.

One discovery has resulted from knitting this way. I do not actually hate to purl. In fact, I prefer the purl stitches in this project. The thing about purling in normal knitting is that it is usually slightly slower than knit stitches, thus it breaks your rhythm. When you are double knitting, and you have to move the yarn to the front in between knit stitches, that breaks the rhythm, and purling is faster, and thus preferred.

Peanuts

Did you see the Peanuts Valentine's Day special last week? It was cute, with all the love triangles going on. Nothing new, but cute. Do you relate to any of the Peanuts characters? I relate to more than one of them. Care to take a guess?


You are Schroeder!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

The description fits me quite well. And there does seem to be some connection between creativity and neurosis, doesn't there?

Thanks, Theresa, for the idea.

Links
Check out my new links page! And since it was getting cluttered on this page, I have moved most of those links to the links page. There are a whole bunch that I had not posted before, too. And still more that I intended to put on a links page but never got around to it, and haven't found again since my computer crash. If you would like to be linked, I am taking requests.

New Page Added
I've had intentions of adding a 100 Things About Me page for a long time. Well, I finally did. I added the link at top right, in the navigation box, or whatever you want to call it, or you can also click here if you want to read it.

Norway Presentation

Tomorrow I get to present the culture of Norway in class. It's a group presentation. We got to choose the culture and Norway, being one of my favorites, was my suggestion. Although my part is actually on Norwegian folklore, I have really enjoyed the research and have not limited it to just my topic. It was a great excuse to buy more books about Norway! My favorite of the new books is Tastes & Tales of Norway by Siri Lise Daub. Although I don't usually sit down and read a cook book, this one is an exception. Besides recipes, it has lots of information about Norway, including some mythology and folklore, so it really isn't entirely off of my assigned topic afterall.

When we think of Norwegian food, there are a few items that come to mind that seem to be more Norwegian-American than they are truly Norwegian. Yes, they do have these items in Norway, but we make a bigger deal about them here. These things include lefsa (potato pancakes, which are good), lutefisk (which is infamous, but is actually eaten), and gammalost (old cheese - often a subject of jokes, but it is a real food item). Here's an account of an American trying lutefisk that I thought was pretty good. Make Love, Not Lutefisk

Of course there is so much more information than we have any chance of covering in class. Here are some of the links I liked the best: (I mostly bookmarked the Norwegian versions, but some of these are in English, and you will be able to find a link to the English version of the others.)

• Det Norske Kongehus About the monarchy. Belated congratulations, by the way, are due for the birth of Ingrid Alexandra, on January 21. I did read about the royal birth on the new princess's birthday, but didn't think to write about it here. I'm a blogger, not a news reporter.
• You can find current news at Aftenposten. I'll leave it to them to keep up with all that is going on. The link to the English side (Okay - you can tell that I have been studying my norsk - that is a typo but I will leave it. Side is the Norwegian word for page) is on the right side of the page, a ways down. There is a small English flag. Yes, I could have posted the link just as easily as typing the directions to it, but I feel like being contrary and making you work for it.
• Odin is the official government information site, and has a little bit of everything.
• Sons of Norway has a great, comprehensive website about Norway. My favorite part is under the "Norwegian Culture" menu. That is where you will find the recipes, language lessons, etc.
• The University of Minnesota's Language Center has links to dictionaries, travel resources, literature, history, and lots of other good stuff - just go look at it.
• If you would like to see Norway, live, but can't go there right now, you are in luck. Webcams in Norway offers the opportunity to see the country by means of over 400 webcams.
• If you haven't had enough yet, there are even more links at InfoNorway

I also need to thank Torunn and Terese from the Norskklassen e-mail list for telling us about Norway from their perspectives as Norwegians. All the information they shared, particularly about the schools, was very interesting. I love the website that Terese sent in about folk high schools. I wish I could have done that.

Being a Slacker

We are still lambing. No, I don't have pictures of the new babies uploaded yet. But the interesting colored lambs are here! The new ones include another black ewe lamb with a white star on her head, and another white ram lamb with the same brown markings as Cornflower's lamb. I don't know how we are going to tell them apart except by which mama feeds them. Yes, there is some size difference at this point, but that won't last long. Evita (the dam of the newest lamb) always has huge lambs, and this one is no exception. His wool is also very long.

I have not done as much knitting as I would like, at least as far as things that are worth blogging about. I knitted a grey coif and a grey headband, each of which took maybe 1-3 hours. I still have pictures from last fall that I mean to post also, along with patterns (such as for the shawl).

You may have noticed that the pictures I post here are edited to minimum size in order to decrease loading time? If you would like to see some full-quality pictures, I have started an account with webshots. Click here if interested. So far they are mostly some of the most recent pictures I have used on this page, except full-size and full-resolution. You can download them as screensavers or wallpaper if you like. I will be adding pictures to my albums there, and they won't all be the same ones I post here. Webshots has an affiliate program also, which I have joined. There is a banner at the bottom of this page, and I will add a button to the right as well. If you click on either of those, webshots will pay me one cent per click. Any support is appreciated!