Did you know that more knowledge sometimes makes you more ignorant? When you have learned something it becomes difficult to understand how others don’t know the same things as you. There is really no way to unlearn things that have been imprinted in us. You might be able to forget some facts but there are certain things that will stick no matter what and you need to make a mental effort to put yourself in the shoes of someone that doesn’t know these things. You are probably not aware of many of these no matter how understanding you believe you are.

I grew up in a place where your knowledge automatically had some boundaries because of the homogenous nature of the population, scarcity of other living creatures, and the isolation of the country. Pretty much everyone was white and Lutheran. Farm animals types you could count on your fingers, there were approx 6 wild animals and only approx. 85 regular bird species. The occasional appearances of samples outside of that range were exotic and rare. Everyone celebrated Christmas and everyone ate their hot dogs according to the same formula. My world was small and clearly defined. I find that many of the things I learned as a kid are the things that are most difficult to break free of as being the only “right” thing. I am still secretly annoyed that hot dogs in other countries don’t follow the same formula as they do in Iceland…

When I lived in Tulsa I went to a State Fair where they had some animals together with roller coasters and disgusting corn dogs that certainly didn’t abide to my approved way of eating hot dogs. I was walking around some sheep when a guy with what sounded like an Indian accent asked me: Is this a sheep? I was dumbstruck that someone even asked that question. I mumbled yes and ran off to my friends to make fun of that guy that didn’t even know what a sheep was. It took me years to understand that not everyone might grow up with sheep being among the first six animals you are ever exposed to.

I have at least partially learned my lesson now. After having been exposed to people from many cultures I have a much bigger understanding of the diversity of the world we live in. However this knowledge again makes me ignorant. Ignorant towards the lack of this knowledge among other people that have not been exposed to this diversity. I get annoyed and make fun of them for not realizing that their limited world might not be the only “right”. I have even caught myself getting annoyed at people from Iceland that are shocked that hots are not served the same way as there… yeah that is screwed up 🙂 .

It is almost impossible to unlearn something or understand how someone might not know something. We however might get a slightly more peaceful world if we all made an effort to understand why people think a certain way before lashing out at them for their ignorance. We would at least get more peaceful and respectful online forums. Don’t treat ignorance with ignorance!

Before I made the following body suit and t-shirt I had no idea there was an animal called Elk. The fabric I used was a knit called Elk Grove by Jay-Cyn Designs for Birch Organic Fabrics. Bought at FabricWorm. In Norwegian you use the word elg for a moose and I just assumed it was an alias. For some reason I googled it. Turns out there is a large American animal called elk. I was a bit annoyed as I thought I was making my kids moose clothing. I thought long and hard if I should tell my four year old that this was a different animal. An animal with a Norwegian name (wapiti) I have never even heard. I figured I would just let her believe it was a moose but I am secretly annoyed every time I look at it and am unable to forget the facts here. Maybe I will one day be shocked that someone doesn’t know what an elk is…

In any case, I made a body suit for my little boy in size 80 from Ottobre 01/2012. I modified the opening to be on the side as I did here but this time I got it right. This will be my go to body suit pattern from now on because the fit is nice. I had initially only planned on making the body suit but my little girl wanted a matching t-shirt. How could I say no? The t-shirt is from Ottobre 3/2012. This time the sleeves fit and all was well. I modified the neckline to be round in the front instead of the V-shaped in the pattern. Simple sewing project but I think I have had it with t-shirts and straightforward body suits for now.

We had planned taking photos of the “moose” clothes in the woods but it was too wet. So we went back to the beach where we took the pirate photos and my little monkeys fooled around a bit. Jónatan is now strong enough to be lifted by his sister and she is finding it really fun carrying him around. He really loves his sister and thinks it is really fun when she is playing with him.

We even managed to get one image of the three of us where we are mostly normal so that I can finally update my two year old Facebook photo with both kids. We just needed to pretend we were the powerpuff girls to get this one.

Little man dancing in the sand

Finally we are all somewhat normal