Thursday, February 9, 2012

Chilly

It's been a bit on the chilly side in Lillehammer lately. -28C/-18F at the barnehage the other morning, but a balmy -23C/-9F down at our house. We've been so pleased with our new soapstone wood oven that we installed a few weeks back. The stone retains heat for hours after the fire has burned out, and we're able to turn down the radiant floor heating. Tika's lovin' life, snoozing away in front of her new altar.


As for keeping the rest of us warm, I was greeted with a note from "Greta" at the barnehage that read "Jeg trenger en ull genser" (I need a wool sweater). I was mildly annoyed, maybe because it had been only just the day before a teacher had said to me, "Does Greta have a wool sweater? She gets cold outside." I thought, "the kid has a bucketful of fleece sweatshirts, vests and wool long underwear. Is this not enough for you people?" But my annoyance was also, "jeez, how quickly must I respond to these demands? A day is barely enough time to dig through storage boxes, as if I had a dozen wool sweater packed away for a rainy day." But, if I've learned anything in the last 18 months, it's that Norwegians love their wool, so I stopped in to the local Salvation Army (on the tip of a Norwegian friend) to search for a pint-sized wool sweater. No luck. 


So. . . I rose to the challenge. I picked up some thick Aran-weight wool, and on Friday night I began knitting a pink and pink striped sweater. (Yes, you read correctly: pink and pink). Roll-neck, raglan sleeves, roll hem, using an 18 month size pattern with thicker yarn and bigger needles. I knit and knit and knit til my fingers ached and my hands were nearly permanently curled. I hoped to be finished by Monday morning, to triumphantly return to the barnehage with a handknit wool sweater ("oh, she needs a wool sweater? here, I just whipped this up over the weekend"), but it proved to be a bit too much. Instead, I will almost as triumphantly return to the barnehage on Wednesday with one. 

8 comments:

  1. AHH! As a barnehage "tante" I understand your annoyance with the "wool, and wool, is good enough for children 11 months of the year." Seriously. I grew up in MN where it gets FAR colder than vestlandet and had next to no wool in my wardrobe for all of childhood. AMAZINGLY enough, I grew into adulthood without any frost bite or any sort of traumatic winter experiences. That said, I love your ambitiousness and the need to prove those barnehage workers that you're American kid can be just as well dressed (if not better?!) as the little natives.

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    1. But, but, no one can EVER survive a Scandinavian winter without wool! What kind of immigrant are you?! I can't stand the stuff unless there's a very soft layer between me and it. Love the dog in-front-of fire pic! They're so sweet when they conk out like that.

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  2. I had no idea you were so good on demand like that. Allow me to send you another note from "Greta", "Jeg trenger et par nye Manolo Blahnik, storrelse US8" :)

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  3. Emily, Amazing coincidence. My boss sent me home yesterday with a note, "Terra needs a wool sweater." Please get started immediately.

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  4. I am outside for almost 3 hours a day at my barnehage and I do not own any wool clothing! I Will never dress like a norwegian, never, i tell you! I have given in to the all in one park dress thingy now that the temps are -15c, i still dont look like a norwegian in it though, rather more like a fat mechanic! Sånn er det!

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  5. Super cute sweater Emily! I love the buttons on the side. I still can't believe you knit that in just a few days. Impressive! Can I send you a scarf I started a few years ago and have never finished?

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  6. Gorgeous fireplace and very impressive sweater! You are right, Norwegians love their wool. :)

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  7. This post made me laugh: we got the exact same note from the barnehage last year! Unfortunately, our daughter is wool intolerant, so we convinced them that they just had to accept fleece as an alternative ;).

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