Knitting club

I joined a knitting club at the international school - it meets every other Thursday night.  This week was our second meeting.  It's mix of beginner and experienced knitters.  And folks are from all over, so the knitting styles run the gamut - English, Continental, Norwegian - it all goes on.  We are all working on ragg socks.  Tove, the lady who sat next to me on Thursday, is a veteran knitter, so she is challenging herself to learn a new technique.  She is knitting two socks at the same time on one set of needles.

I love how everyone's heads are bent in concentration.

We meet in the teachers' conference room.  This week, we had ladies who hail from Poland, Spain, Italy, Norway, Japan, China, and the U.S.  No men have joined in yet, but one of Grace's teachers, Mr. Mauro, said he plans to come.  That would be a hoot.

Once I got home on Thursday, I realized that I had made a mistake while I was chatting - one purl stitch from my previous round was all out of whack.  I couldn't see how to easily fix it, so I followed my friend Tina's advice.  She said if I get stuck on my knitting, to ask any lady passing by my front door for help.  Chances are, she would know how to knit.  The next morning, I brought my knitting along on my walk to drop off Isaac at school.  Then I stopped a lady on the street, asked her if she knits, and had her show me how to fix my mistake.  It worked!

Here's my progress so far.  I am halfway done with the ribbing on one sock.  It's hard to make time to do among all the other responsibilities of life, but it sure is rewarding.

To be honest, I didn't stop a complete stranger to ask for help.  She was Hedvig Ingebørg's mom from Isaac's barnehage.  But she was walking down the street, and I did stop her and ask her for help on my knitting.  :)

Shortcut Sunday

Katie (after two years of growing out her hair) requested a haircut this weekend.  She wants it to look like Annika's hair, from the Pippi Longstocking books.  She also wants to dye it black, but we'll leave that for when she goes away to college.

This is the product of a pair of kitchen scissors and a few haircutting tips from the internet.  I am proud to say I only cut Katie's skin one time.  She looks cute as a button. 

The "kids" play trains. 

Sleepover

Sam had his friend Adrian over for a sleepover on Friday night.  Adrian stayed all day on Saturday to play - they had a blast.

Learning some new games from Adrian

Isaac and Grace in the Duplicator

Saturday was awesome weather.  We spent most of the day outside playing in the neighborhood. 

Sam ran into some nettles, but Adrian knew a home remedy - he picked a nearby weed and Sam held that over the nettle rash.  Might have been all in his mind, but Sam said it felt much better. 

Katie picked some lovely flowers.

With the home remedy taped on (and the ever-present paper gun) 

Grace met Dave at the end of his run. 

Photo by Katie (1)

Photo by Katie (2)

Parent coffee at barnehage

On Friday, Isaac's class at the barnehage hosted a coffee for all the parents.  His class is called Smia.  All the classrooms are named for areas of the neighborhood in which the barnehage is located.  The other classrooms on the first floor (for the youngest children) are Øra and Bekken.

In the morning, the kids in Smia baked raisin rolls to share with the parents.  In the afternoon, the parents were invited to come and enjoy each other's company in the great room.  There was a slide show of the kids in action.  And each family got a jar of cookies baked by their little one.

Dave checking out a picture of Isaac (in the green) and Per Andreas

Dave and Isaac in Smia.  This year, the class is doing a project on birds, so many of their activities focus on birds - where they live, what they eat, what they look like, etc.  The papier mache bird hanging from the ceiling is about 18 years old - from another project years back.

A babysitter!

Grace all decked out in her morning gear

Dave gave a seminar at NTNU today.  When Sam saw this picture, he asked if we were playing Hangman on the board.

We moved the clocks back last weekend (Halloween weekend), so now it is getting dark as Isaac and I walk home in the evening.  Here's the view of the river on Thursday night in the dusk.  

Captain of the stroller

It's traditional after the Algebra Seminar for the group to go out for pizza.  For the occasion, we got a babysitter for the kids (first time in Norway).  Our babysitter was the magnificent Maggie Naylor.  As Dave and I walked away from the house kid-free, we contemplated skipping out and crossing the border into Sweden.  We didn't.  We had pizza at the local Peppe's on the river, followed by a beer at Den Gode Nabo (The Good Neighbor).  

Some of the Algebra group at the pub.  You can't tell much from this photo, but the building is completely kitty-whompus.  Like so much that you walk at a slant when you walk around the pub.

Katie the cook

Katie signed up for cooking club after school once a week.  It is taught by Greta, the Norwegian lady who runs the cafeteria at the international school.  Today was her first meeting of the club.  She came home proudly with a couple of cookbooks and displaying the raisin rolls she made.  They were a hit with Sam - the rolls were devoured within minutes.

Norwegian Halloween

For some reason, there have been more kids than usual running around the house lately.

Katie and Isaac work on coloring a Halloween picture of Winnie the Pooh.

The kids all got the chance to go trick-or-treating for Halloween.  We've never actually done it before back home in Texas.  We've always gone to trunk-or-treat parties, so we never got the door-to-door experience.  We pushed the clocks back on Sunday night, so it was dark here by 5:30.  Sam's friend Adrian came over and they hit the streets with Katie through the neighborhood.  I took Grace and Isaac to trick-or-treat at the houses of the neighbors we know.

Things are a bit different here than in the U.S. People aren't so hyper about the candy being wrapped.  Many people hand out unwrapped candy or nuts or fruit.  Also, many of the homes are multifamily dwellings, so it's a bit of a gamble as to which doorbell push will result in successful reaping of candy.

We had quite a few trick-or-treaters visit our house.  We pretty much depleted our candy bowl.  As Dave pointed out, Norwegian candy is a bit wacky.  For instance, one candy is called Violets.  It looks like Sweettarts but it tastes like you are eating perfume.  Blech.  Another favorite of Norwegians is salted black licorice.  Yuck, yuck, and yuck.  Chocolate they do well, but most stuff beyond that is unpredictable.

The kids noshing on their candy post-trick-or-treating (while looking at a website dedicated to guns for Lego figures - sigh) 

Isaac has a lollipop glow. 

Grace doing a chocolate dance.

I joined a knitting club at the international school.  Our first project is ragg socks.  I have started mine a few times - I keep magically introducing extra stitches.  I need to diagnose my technique issues.  Where is Tina when I need her?