About Last Month

May zoomed by, it was really busy. I'll post knitting photos another day, there are a few f.o.'s that need photos.

First was Norway Day where I dressed up as a boy and slayed trolls.

With the aid of an elixir.

In the end I saved the princess.

It all made my kid laugh. "Mommy boy".


I did some spinning with the guild and met Wonder Mike. There was also good eating, drinking, and shopping at the festival.

The next day I took an all day spinning class with Ossian Kidholm, who had come over from Norway to demonstrate at Norway Day. (I rented a wheel). Very informative and a good time to get to know some of the guild members better. Wonder Mike has a bunch of photos on Flickr from Norway Day, including Mr. & Mrs. Kidholm, and me in my everyday bunad.

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Next up was demonstrating at the Zoo's sheep shearing day. We had a lot of fun, didn't let the rain deter us. This is Mocha, I brought home a little bit of her fleece:


And a little of the alpacas' as well.

I already blogged about our trip to Idaho. Never got pics of the fiber I bought, but it was some local alpaca, more colors of Norwegian and Icelandic, and some Pygora.

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I forget when Mother's Day was, but I got a cup of coffee in bed, and a really cute card slammed in my face. I was impressed, it had a baby in a knit fruit hat on the front (I made several of them in the past). Is it horrible I can't remember what my gift was? Oh yeah, I got flowers, too. It was Daughters of Norway Day, and I was a hostess. I know something crappy happened, too, but I don't remember what.

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Next we went to Las Vegas. Wow, first time for all of us. It was hot and tacky. That sums up my feelings about the town. On the other hand, I got to meet Mr. TVP's old friend from grade school and his family. That was fun, especially since our trip east got canceled for this year.

The kid is still asking to go back to Circus Circus. He won a lot of crappy toys, which I ditched here and there. Who thinks a pillow with the word "Hottie" on it is appropriate for little kids? I let him keep the dog I won him by spraying water at a target so well that my Viking Ship won a race.

The biggest challenge was finding anything healthy for him to eat, without going to a sit-down restaurant. We resorted to apple "fries" from MacDonald's and room service. He got that hang of that really fast! Note many residents of the Island of Sodor on the bed.

We spent one day as a family and then took turns with the kid so the other adult could do more, well, adult things. Kid things included the monorail. Yay!!

And goldola ride at the Venetian (Boo!)

Got back and the next weekend was my cousin-in-law's kid's 21st birthday. Here is the least incriminating photo of the over-nighter:


The next day was our wedding anniversary. We had a low-key dinner with my parents. K. got ahold of the camera at our favorite pizza place.

I swear I don't know why that kid is such a ham.

Three Dot Blog Post

It has been so long since I have blogged that I don't know where I left off. I have been super busy, and have been fighting a sinus infection and tree alergies. I will just share some high- and low-lights of the past few weeks.

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40th Birthday part four involved a lovely lunch at a French restaurant with a dear friend followed by a trip to Imagiknit. It has finally sunk in. I am forty years old.

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I had the honor of being an escort at the institution of the new Daughters of Norway lodge, Elise Waerenskjold. There was a lot of marching, that's me in the stripes.

A friend drove, so I got a lot of knitting in. To my horror I discovered I left my laptop at the church. In a panic and feeling like an idiot I phoned my friend, the president of the lodge, who went back out and retrieved it. I had to drive all the way to Roseville with my poor kid the next day, an hour and three-quarters away. I was sick as dog, all feverish and trying to stay awake. Things turned out fine though, we had a nice visit and lunch, then K. and I went to the State Train Museum in Sacramento.

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Last Monday I took K. to the Conservatory of Flowers to see the train exhibit. He told daddy we went to the "plant museum". Little brains are amazing.

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A couple weeks ago I was so sick I told K. that I just needed to lie down on the sofa. He said mommy was "brokedown" and proceeded to comfort me with his trains, a book, a half-eaten frozen waffle he found on the floor, and a can of beer (unopened) . He said he was "mommy K" and I was "baby mommy". Just the sweetest thing ever.

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Speaking of sweet, K. still gets to see his little friend every week. He loves her so much.

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I knit the pink glovelets with my birthday cashmere. The pattern is "Sweetheart Glovelets" by The Rainey Sisters.

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Did I mention I was giving a talk to my lodge about spinning? It went well, and we had fun with a spinning lesson on CD drop spindles.

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The other morning I was playing trains with K. after having fixed the engine "James" who had taken a bath, rendering his electronics non-functional. K. informed me that "mommy useful". For those of you without a little boy, Sir Topham Hatt, the director of the railway on the Island of Sodor, where Thomas the Tank Engine lives, often tells the engines they are "Really Useful". It is always the engines' goal to be really useful. I'm glad I succeeded. I often fantasize about living on the Island of Sodor. Although their safety record is not very good.

Hverdags Bunad Preview

Part of the reason for my lack of posting lately is that I have been working on my hverdags or everyday bunad. In contrast the fest bunad, the hverdags bunad is not heavily embroidered, or as regemented.

For the last three or four weeks I worked here and there to make the blouse, dress, and belt with the goal of finishing for our Lodge's installation of officers this past Sunday. A dear member, Paula, picked out the fabric for me and helped immensely with the planning, fitting, and execution.


I just made the deadline, attaching the belt buckles right before the meeting. I was so happy that I had something special to wear as I had the honor of acting as installing marshal, presenting candidates to be installed. I wanted to look nice for them. And to my surprise, our new president had just made herself an everyday bunad for the occasion, too.

I will wear it again in March when we go to Roseville to assist in the official institution of a new lodge there. I have a few adjustments to make (belt is too big, skirt 1" too long, cuffs too loose, other piece of silver won't stay on blouse). I will get full-length photos when it is looking more polished.

It is so great to have something fancy and Norwegian to wear. I usually put on a Norwegian sweater for our meetings but on these special days I wanted something nicer. I do have a plan for getting my fancy bunad done, I'm going to devote one day a week to the embroidery.

Paula is quite the bunad expert and is holding workshops so other members can make their own. The "Old Country Nordic Pattern" comes from Vesterheim, the clasps from Ingebretsen's in Minneapolis, and the jewelry and shoes I got in Norway for my fest bunad.

20 years of Anna Kolbjørnsdatter Lodge

Today we celebrated twenty years of our Daughters of Norway Lodge, Anna Kolbjørnsdatter, #36. We had a catered tea party prepared by our sisters of Sigrid Undset Lodge #32.

That's the beautiful program our Cultural Director, Jill Beatty, created.

We honored our charter members, past presidents, and deceased members, each group in a special, different way. And we initiated several new members. It was a day to celebrate all the talented women, past and present, who make our organization the sisterhood it is.


At the very end, all these candles, representing deceased members were lit. Then we proceeded up to the table, each member with a flower in hand with a late sister's name on it. When we reached the front, the name was read, a candle extinguished, and the flower placed in the vase.

This year is also the 100th anniversary of the first Daughters of Norway lodges.

If you are in San Francisco at the first part of May, be sure to go to Norway Day on the 3rd and 4th. It's a fun time, and there is a lot of entertainment and things to see, do and buy. Our lodge is performing a troll play on Saturday afternoon.

Norwegian Christmas Stocking

I decided to knit a Christmas stocking for my son. It was kind of spur of the moment. I got interested in Norwegian knitting about four years ago and have made a couple stranded projects. I joined a Norwegian Sweater Knit Along and was reading up. More about that later, I'm planning a Fana cardigan.

I had red, white and black Cascade 220 left over from a test project felting stranded patterns.

The charts and inspiration come from "Everyday Knitting: Treasures from a Rag Pile", "Knitting in the Nordic Tradition", and "Traditional Scandinavian Knitting". I planned on making it just like a sock, but when I got to the toe shaping I decided to move the decreases so that the foot would lie flat, like a Christmas stocking.

As it progressed, I was happy with the way each section looked. I was a bit concerned that the checkerboard was going to pucker, some of my floats were too short. I thought the heel was too big. And I didn't like the transition from heel to foot. I wish I hadn't decreased along the bottom.

When I got it off the needles, I was even less happy. The ribbing should have been taller; the checkerboard was out of scale and puckered; the name was too close to the edges; the hearts didn't show; and even my husband said the foot looked weird. He's the one who talked me out of ripping back to the heel when I got done with the stars! But then he said, as a complement, that it looked like a sock, a giant's sock. Great.

Here it is pre-blocking:


I decided to cross my fingers and full it a bit to see if the puckering would go away. I put it in the sink with hot water and dish soap; agitated and rubbed it together a bit. It shrank just a little, but a lot of the flaws disappeared diminished. I was happy that the hearts "popped". I blocked it, forcing the name to the front, and pulling out a bit of the funky foot decreases.


Here it is hanging up. It is pretty rustic, but that's okay, I have come to like it quite a bit.

Daughters of Norway

If you are stopping by here because you are interested in Scandinavia, and are a woman of Scandinavian decent or your spouse is, I encourage you to check out the Daughters of Norway.

The goals of the Daughters of Norway are:

• To unite into a sisterhood, women who wish to preserve Norwegian heritage
• To maintain among members a knowledge of the history, culture, and language of Norway
• To build a strong support system and bond of friendship within the sisterhood

We have lodges throughout the West Coast, especially the Northwest; Nevada; Idaho; Montana; and Des Moines.

Our lodge meets monthly, we have a business meeting, a cultural presentation, and refreshments. We learn a lot, and eat a lot of good food. We have an annual Christmas party, and events in the summer. In addition, cultural groups meet to stitch, rosemal, scrapbook, and study genealogy. Sometimes we dress up like Vikings. Sometimes we coerce family members to do so as well.


At our meeting today we were graced with the presence of the Grand Lodge President and Vice-President. The cultural presentation was about Christmas cookies. Three of our members demonstrated Spritz, Rosettes, Krumkake, Sanbakels, and Julekake. Of course there were samples for everyone.


Afterwards we feasted. This is just a third of the table.


The cultural presentations are varied, and entertaining. A few meetings ago Norwegian Folk Dancers preformed. In June the topic was weddings. Our cultural director was able to borrow a brudekrone from Vesterheim. We all got to try it on.


And it truly is a sisterhood. I have made many good friends. They don't mind that I can be silly at times.

First Rosemaling

I took my first "official" Rosemaling class. (I had a great first lesson at my Anna K. Daughters of Norway rosemaling day last month, and did a couple practice sessions on my own). I am very happy with it, but I have to admit that the photo makes it look much more impressive than it is in person. Please do not click on the photo, leave it nice and small. Thank you.

Rosemaling is Norwegian folk painting. This is the Telemark style. You can learn about Rosemaling here. I have always admired Rosemaling, but never considered trying it. I have never painted and don't consider myself "artistic". But I have gained confidence in trying new things since I took a basic drawing class a couple years ago. Fortunately I was able to get an afternoon "off" from the baby one day to check out our Rosemaling group. They were very encouraging, I had fun and was hooked. And fortunately my husband was nagging me to spend more time away from the baby so I bravely signed up for an all-day class.

Our instructor was the accomplished Marley Wright Smith. It was daunting at first, but I'm glad she had us beginners do a "real" piece. We did some practice strokes, but she encouraged us to jump right in and paint on the wood.

I went into today's class feeling pretty confident, but that feeling left me almost immediately. I could not get my practice strokes to look as good as my previous ones, and when I laid down my first strokes on the wood they looked awful. I think every project has it's discouraging moments, though, when you feel like giving up. I pushed ahead, believing Marley when she said the detail work would bring it all together.

Well, the line work was fun but I still was not happy with my craftsmanship. Marley put in some strokes to bring it together, and fixed my "root", which had gotten lost. It really came together when I got brave and painted the border around the edge. I had to leave class a bit early, but was lucky enough to find the baby napping when I got home, so I fixed a few more things, scrawled my name and called it done. I just remembered - Marley said to paint the back, too.