Stamp of the Day: Swedish socks

Just a few days after I wrote the Socks entry here on the blog, a Swedish postcard showed up in our mailbox from friends in Sweden.  And guess what the stamp was?  Socks!  What a coincidence.  Socks are not really common stamp motifs indeed, in fact I can't remember ever seeing any other stamp with socks on it.  And here they are - striped, knitted socks on an official Swedish stamp. 

For the love of socks, and not just any socks...

I spend about half of each year wearing my favorite socks - those times when it is colder and you need something warm and cozy on your feet.  It is even better (I think) if the socks both makes your body and your mind happy, and therefore I love colored, patterned socks, especially striped socks. My favorite winter socks are from Smartwool, an American company that actually makes their socks in the US.  They have striped, cabled, patterned, funky, long, short and just gorgeous socks.  OK, so I am a sock woman...  Right now I have Swedish socks on, cotton with black and white stripes like a piano.

A few days ago I ordered a 3-pack of new socks from them.  I expected to get just the usual, three pairs of socks tied together with some plastic strap in a plastic bag.  But, big happy surprise when they arrived today.  I opened the postal package and inside was a long, narrow brown cardboard box.  On the top of the box it said "Lucky, lucky you!".  Ahhhh!  I opened the box, with a Christmas feeling in my stomach, and there they were, neatly folded up, three pairs of differently patterned red socks.  My heart filled with joy!  Not only did I get socks, but I got LUCKY socks!  Smartwool really knows how to please the customers.  Thank you, Smartwool!  And the box, that will be perfect for storing my jewelry-making tools...

Oh, I should also tell you that these wool socks can be washed in the washing machine (on cold, low temp), and last for a long time.  Yes, they do wear out, but that is because I wear them so much. 

PS.  I rarely endorse products, but in this case I really think this product is great.  And I didn't get paid a penny to write this, in fact, I paid over $40 to get three pairs of wonderful socks.  Nobody on this blog gets any freebies from any company in return for good reviews.  Nope, here we tell the truth as we see it.

Bits and pieces on the internet: itchy edition

Fossil discovery: Giant fleas from the Jurassic, that might have sucked blooded from dinosaurs (NY Times). How about meeting some of these 2 cm long creatures on the inside of your wool sweater?

Some of the Republican presidential contenders appear to want to live in a different century.  Like the 1800's or something. This is both sad and upsetting. (NY Times opinion piece by Charles Blow)

Did you know cashmere comes from goats?  And angora from rabbits? So, why are people OK with wearing the hairs from goats and rabbits, but not eating them? Eating the meat, not the hairs, I mean.

Itchy poison ivy doesn't let a simple fence stop it.  In fact, it enforces it and makes it its own fence.

So, what are you readers itching about?

It has been a slow time here on the edge of the mountain...

... since the last post, because both PP and I got sick in the horrible cold-flu that is whisping around in these neighborhoods.  We have been coughing, sniffling, and headaching, and used up more cold medicines this past week than we usually use in a whole year.  Bad stuffy noses and sinuses...

Since there wasn't much else to do than to let the viruses run their course in our bodies we have also watched some movies and finished some projects.  Clint Eastwood has graced our TV screen with his face several times (the Gauntlet, not one of this best) as has Robert de Niro (New York cop with a son in trouble in City by the Sea). Gosford Park is an English 1920s murder mystery where everybody could have done it, and it portrays the servants in a the giant mansion in an unusual and interesting detail.  Maybe a bit too slow and long, but that could have been because of the medicines too. A Perfect World with Kevin Costner was great, about a prisoner on the run who kidnaps a boy and their developing relationship, probably 1940s - not the usual good vs. bad people movie, and of course Clint Eastwood directed and acted in it too.

Still, my current favorite is Ken Burn's Civil War series, a documentary in 9 episodes made for PBS.  It is great, and captures the history and people involved in the Civil War in US.  All interview, still-life photos and he lets the story take its time, and it is the opposite to the snippet-rush-fast-special effects-stress movies and documentaries that are more common today.  For me that never really learned much about American history in school, this is like a wonderful education and charting new historical territory.

While watching movies I knit and knit, mostly scarves and hats, but also other things.  My favorite online knitting site is a mecca for free patterns and ideas - check out Ravelry.com (it is free to sign up). Right now I am working on a gray 1940s WWII Watch cap, not sure for whom, and is just about to start a lacy scarf for myself in a color called neptune.  There will also be new knitted cotton dishcloths that can be thrown in the washer every week, instead of linen ones that are thin and fall apart, or wettex that turn slimy and gross.  Here are some hats I have knitted recently.

Something unique, handmade and beautiful

marvelous blue handmade blue buttons, originally uploaded by knitalatte11.

Knitalatte has a blog (Resurrection Fern) with gorgeous handmade things, see here. How about these handmade buttons?

Coco - a movie worth seeing

"She made the tan popular after returning from a cruise to Cannes with a sunburn."

This quote is about Coco Chanel, who is featured in a recent French movie I saw called "Coco before Chanel" (link2). It is a gorgeous movie about a woman I knew very little about. She started out as an orphan growing up in an orphanage and lived through very difficult times until she eventually found love and started her clothing company. Through it all she was stubborn, brave, and different - she was the first woman to dress in men's clothes ("because it is more comfortable"), to refuse the corset and to refuse an abundance of embellishments on hats and dresses. She looked for simplicity in everything.

Coco Chanel was really a rebel - she refused to dress in the Victorian era's movement-limiting dresses, she refused to get married and insisted on working, which was unheard of for upper-class women at that time. She wasn't upper class at all, but lived in the upper-class for several years. I never really cared much for her fashion clothes, but with this movie, I have reevaluated so much of it. I think it was mainly because of the American women associated with the clothes - they don't seem to have too much in common with her. Plus I have a real problem with too much gold on clothes, pink tweed, and thick gold chains, which is what I have associated Chanel with in the past. But back to the movie.

The movie itself goes over many years but it seems to always be November or December in the movie - foggy and misty. I love French movies when they let the story take its time. In Hollywood I think they would have rushed it, for example not let a long sequence just show a horse carriage go across a lonely road for seconds and seconds and seconds. It really is a fantastic movie. Coco is played by Audrey Tautou, one of my favorite French actresses. (The color images are from the movie, the black and white photo is of the real Coco Chanel.)

Handmade for winter

I just finished my first knitted hat ever - and I like it a lot. There really are only two yarns in it, but one of the yarns are changing colors so the effect is green, grey, turqouise, blue and black hat. What do you think? It was much easier than I thought and fast, took less than two weeks with knitting here and there in small pieces of time. The yarn comes from one of my favorite yarn stores, Pins and Needles, in Princeton.

It is hard to photograph hats without putting them on someone's head :)

Here you can see the hat from the top.

Kravallslöjd (Underground handicraft)

My brother OK forwards us all kinds of cool photos from his iPhone and some
make it to the blog, like this one. In Sweden a new underground handicraft
movement has been cropping up in recent years: The Knitting Mafia. They are
anonymous and knit colorful pieces that they then sew onto light poles,
fences, and other objects in public places as adornments. Here is one
example, and I especially love the snake on top of the hat. Seen in
Stockholm of course.

A shirt not suitable for airports...

But that is where he wore it, my son (LA). We did get some strange looks...

The shirt design is a spoof on a WWII era government poster from the UK, with the original stating: KEEP CALM and CARRY ON! Now Panic and Freak Out seems to be more suitable for our times...

The story of the poster is interesting:
"Back in the spring of 1939, it was an anonymous civil servant who was entrusted with finding the slogan for a propaganda poster intended to comfort and inspire the populace should, heaven forbid, the massed armies of Nazi Germany ever cross the Channel.

This was the third in a series. The first, designed to stiffen public resolve ahead of likely gas attacks and bombing raids, was printed in a run of more than a million and read: Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory. The second, identically styled, stated: Freedom Is In Peril.

From August 1939, both posters began appearing all over the country, on billboards, in shops, on railway platforms. The third, though, was held back. This one was for the real crisis: invasion.

... For 60 years, the poster had been forgotten. Then, one day in 2000, Stuart Manley, co-owner with his wife Mary of Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, was sifting through a box of hardbacks he had bought at auction when he saw "A big piece of paper folded up at the bottom. I opened it out, and I thought, wow. That's quite something. I showed it to Mary, and she agreed. So we framed it and put it up on the bookshop wall. And that's where it all started." (link to full story)

The reprinted poster is now everywhere, and tens of thousands of copies of it has been sold.

Swedish-Asian New York

The day after AREA's 15th birthday she and I spent in New York. We went to our favorite handmade soap store - LUSH - and splurged on fantastic scents and suds. They have stores in Sweden too, and you should try this brand out. We are never going back to the supermarket brandname soaps. AREA got some clothes are the Swedish favorite H&M (cheap and popular here). We had lunch at the great Thai restaurant Republic. I wonder how many non-Swedes know that H&M comes from the names "Hennes & Mauritz".












At Republic I had milky hot cardamom tea, the orange drink in the photo below, and lemongrass noodle soup with scallion, chicken, and cilantro. AREA had pad thai which also was great but the photo didn't come out good. The restaurant has no chairs, only long tables with backless benches, so at first it feels very different. Great photo art on the walls, and exceptional food.

Swedish sleep

We have a ban to post photos of people's faces here on the blog, but I think this one is OK. If you can't tell who this cutie is, don't worry, you are not meant to. The people that know know. Funny thing happened with the camera, because the blanket was purple, not blue. I think it is that 'vivid' setting that changes it.

for modern techno babies

Seen in Vancouver. My Dad always wondered where the OFF button was on our heads, and look, here it is, in the Ipood baby shirt. If you have a small car (like a Mini Cooper) and a baby, then you of course need to have the Mini Pooper shirt too. No, KV, I didn't buy one for your newest one :)

Stamp of the Day: Fox in Socks

From the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss, here is a sock-related stamp from the children's book Fox in Socks. I wonder if Dr. Seuss was translated into Swedish? His unique language must be hard to translate, and in English it is wonderful to read his books to children. In this book, there are many tongue twisters, like this one:

"Now, when Tweetle Beetles fight, it's called a Tweetle Beetle Battle. And when they battle in a puddle, it's a Tweetle Beetle Puddle Battle. AND when Tweetle Beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it a Tweetle Beetle Puddle Paddle Battle. AND when Beetles battle Beetles in a Puddle Paddle Battle, and the beetle battle's puddle is a puddle in a bottle, they call this a Tweetle Beetle Bottle Puddle Paddle Battle Muddle. AND when Tweetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles, and the bottle's on a poodle, and the poodle's eating noodles, they call this a Muddle Puddle Tweetle Poodle Beetle Noodle Bottle Paddle Battle. AND--"

Can't you just imagine all those bugs in the puddle paddling around and battling each other? Yep, this book is really entomology in disguise.

A solution to lost socks?

If it´s a very small black hole the sock might stay in the washing machine with this device... If you search for sock clips you find a huge variety, it´s a widespread phenomenom!

Or as Robert N commented on Flickr;

" Its not the black hole in the washer. Oh there is a black hole, I found that, but thats not where the socks go. I know because I looked and there weren't any socks in it. So I staked it out and found out where they went. A sock eating Gremlin (actually more of a Grendel, but whos counting) lives in it and shows himself only when he smells socks. When I caught up with him, with his hand on one of my socks, I asked him why only one sock at a time and he told me that he figured if he ate too many we'd stop putting them in there. So I banged him over the head, knocked him out and dropped him off at my friends house the next time I was over. I'm watching to make sure another one doesn't move in. " Source: http://flickr.com/photos/ansy/2166823563

Have fun with sock clips! I myself have a gnome eating out the soles of my socks, but he likes my husband's better...

By EH

Microscopic knitting...

It is the time of year where the knitting comes out and people start making scarves and socks, at least here in our house and neighborhood. If you want to make a smaller project, here is some inspiration.

Or you can knit a Yoda! Or Christmas balls. A pack of monkeys. And I LOVE these korknisses (cork gnomes?). Considering how many corks we have, this is what we should make.

Träskor (wooden clogs)

Swedish clogs for sale in New York City, in a very personal way (article from today's NY Times). This reminds me that I need a new pair, mine are falling apart.

Stampy shirts

I came across this little website where they sell T-shirts with Scandinavian stamps printed on them. How about a giant viking ship stamp on your chest? Check it out.
They have T-shirts with political propaganda posters too, cigar ads, steamship travel, quotations, coffee art, and lots of lots of T-shirts based on stamps from across the world. Or how about some T-shirts with old motifs from Idaho?

This is post no 500 on this blog, but there are a couple of drafts taking up space on the list that I don't dare to delete, so maybe it is only number 497? Only O.K. will really know.

There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.

Sweden is marketing outdoor clothes

This article at the Swedish State Department's website brings back memories - look they even have a Kånken backpack from Fjällräven! And my first backpack, a christmas present from my parents, were a Haglofs one, blue. It molded in my basement here in the US, so I don't have it anymore, but it survived so many camps and hikes. Some of the new Swedish companies I don't know much about. But Swedish clothes have a different quality, that is for sure!

Fashionable rain gear

As seen in Chicago, the latest for the kids!
I think MH would love the fire car.

Certainly a bit different from the old green Tretorns we had.

Blown away III: Untied