the non-finishing blues || September 25, 2003 ||8:45 am

A couple days ago, Annie was talking about how satisfying it is to finishing things. I completely agree. On many forums and listserves I've read discussions about process vs. product, and while I certainly enjoy the process, for me actually making something is high up there on the list of reasons why I knit.

Thus, I've been pretty frustrated lately that I can't seem to finish anything. The three projects I'm actively working on right now are all pretty big, so I feel like the end isn't even in sight. Plus I haven't had any real extended knitting time lately, just an hour or so in the evenings plus whatever I can get done on the subway.

I may break down and start a hat with my new cashmere, just so that I can finish it really fast. A hat in bulky yarn takes me no time at all. And I may even submit it to Knitty, which might make me feel better about starting something new even though I haven't finished the two sweaters and a shawl that I've been plugging away at. There is an impending deadline, after all. Yeah, I like this idea.

Happy Birthday to Me || September 19, 2003 ||11:53 pm

And guess what I got for my birthday from my bosses? Cashmere. And plenty of it. Well, not enough for a sweater, but enough of the really expensive new Karabella Supercashmere to make a hat & scarf or something. Yay.

It's been a nice day. I had a couple hours to myself after work - at my own request - and while writing in my journal I felt compelled to make a list of my works in progress. It wasn't quite as harrowing as I feared it would be. But I also made a list of planned projects which was a little more scary. I won't bore you with the details here.

And then my darling husband took me to dinner at Cafe Mozart, which has really amazing desserts. And they do a whole ceremony for birthday guests involving a Mozart wig and a very dramatic version of the Happy Birtday song. And a sparkler in my dessert. It was all very exciting.

Speaking of excitement, as one of my birthday presents, Scott worked on my website! It should be live very soon. The anticipation is unbearable, I know. You'll just have to keep waiting.

I really want to go to the Howard Dean event at The Avalon tomorrow night, but since I don't have any other plans for the day, I may just stay home and knit and work on some patterns that are overdue. I'm pretty torn actually.

I was supposed to have my steek class tomorrow, but unfortunately not enough people signed up so it's postponed until February. It's actually fine since I can use a day off, and could also use more time to prepare for the class. I think the reason more people didn't sign up this time was the class descriptions just got to people last weekend (at least that's when I got mine), and also the Big Apple Knitting Guild's annual luncheon is tomorrow.

But in good teaching news, I've scheduled several classes for this fall at School Products. I'm glad to be developing my repertoire. And just as soon as I finish my website, you can read about the classes there!

Back to the grind || September 16, 2003 ||3:10 pm

I spent most of the weekend in Ocean Grove, NJ enjoying Annie's knitting retreat. It was really lovely. I was one of the few women there who weren't Annie's students, but I felt completely welcomed by everyone. Despite predictions of rain, the weather held out and we got to spend plenty of time sitting on rocking chairs on the porch, looking out to the ocean. Saturday night we went down to the beach and drank gin & tonics and sang showtunes. A good time was had by all.

And I started a cardigan for my sister, a Christmas present. I'm adapting a pattern from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Patters book, working with bulky yarn and size 10's, a rare thing for me. It's flying! I made the left front in a day at the retreat. Here it is (I hope it's not too dark for you to see the cable):

I'm really liking this cable and would like to do more of Lavold's stuff. I hear her new yarn is beautiful, and a DK weight, which is great. Thrilled as I am at how fast this sweater is going, I still don't really like working with bulky yarns. Not very wearable as far as I'm concerned, and the big needles are harder on my hands for some reason. It seems like working with thicker yarn and needles, the whole motion of knitting becomes bigger, so my hands are doing more work. But maybe I'm just making that up.

My beginning knitting class at Makor is going exceptionally well - last night (the second session) everyone learned to purl, including one woman who had missed the first class. I have a few students who had knit as children, for whom I need to come up with some more interesting things to work on than the easy stuff I normally teach. I think I'll give them some cables to work next week and show them how to read a chart.

I'm a little bummed to learn that my steeks class at Urban Knitter might be cancelled because not enough people have signed up. They do want to reschedule it though, so it may be just as well since then I'll have more time to prepare.

Also I could use Saturday to catch up on some pattern writing work that I've been putting off. I'm trying very hard to not freak out about how behind I am, in fact. Denial is my friend.

Time's a flying || September 08, 2003 ||10:22 pm

It's hard to believe next weekend is Annie's knitting retreat. I'm thrilled that I'll be getting out of town this weekend. Only the second week after Labor Day and I'm totally swamped.

I just had my first class of the semester at Makor. What a great group! Several of them learned to knit when they were kids, which of course helps. Muscle memory is everything. But the rest of them really picked up casting on and the knit stitch quickly. Typically in a class of 10 or so I'll have one or two that are nearly hopeless cases. Not a single one this time. Woo hoo!

I also started teaching the seventh and eighth graders at All Souls yesterday. It's going to be an interesting challenge and I think I'm going to learn as much as them (if not more). Most of the hour was spent playing getting-to-know-you games, but in the last 10 minutes we started a discussion about the curriculum. The topic is racism. And they seemed more engaged with the discussion than the games. Kids are full of surprises.

I'm excited about all the things I'm doing, but I feel like time is slipping through my fingers way too fast. I have a lot of knitting to do in the next few months. Too many things started and several Christmas presents in the planning stages. I'm trying to take less work home, but I can really use the extra money. Plus I enjoy the work. Can I please have some extra hours in the day? Maybe I should train myself to live on four hours of sleep a night.

Otherwise occupied... || September 04, 2003 ||12:07 am

Yes, I've been MIA. I've noticed the last few days that I seem to have some sort of addictive personality. I get obsessed with things, rather than merely interested.

I've just come from one of the Dean Meetups and it was really great. I've also been spending a lot of time on Dean's Blog for America, which can be rather engrossing, particurly the comments. It's a really wonderful grassroots campaign, and I'm so excited to be a part of it. Don't forget to watch the presidential debate tomorrow (Thurs) - 8pm eastern time, on PBS.

My other new obsession is Friendster. If you haven't heard about it, it's this website where you can link up with other people you know, and theoretically meet new people in a kind of six degrees of separation way. Mostly I've had fun viewing the profiles of various people I went to college with not too long ago. Oh, and you can also add testimonials to your friends' profiles. I don't have any testimonials yet, so I'm going to write some about my friends so that they'll do the same for me.

So with all of this activity, plus having gone back to my "other" job yesterday, I don't have much knitting news to report, and no pictures to show you. I'm still plugging away on pretty much the same projects I mentioned in my last entry.

But I am gearing up for the classes I'm teaching: Beginning Knitting at Makor, and Steeks at Urban Knitter. I'm particularly excited and also nervous about the Steeks class, since it's the first non-beginner class I'm teaching. Nothing like jumping right into the deep end, right? Fortunately, I'm familiar enough with the techniques that I feel pretty confidant in my ability to teach them. And I'm heard excellent things about Urban Knitter, so I'm happy to be hooking up with them.

I'm also gearing up for teaching the Jr. High class at my church, The Unitarian Church of All Souls. Check out the website - my darling husband designed it. I so vividly remember what it was like to be 13... what a horror! But the kids I've met so far seem really great, and I'm very excited about it. The curriculum is called Race To Justice, and it's about race (duh) and self esteem. Looks really great.

So that's my life in a nutshell. More soon - hopefully with pictures. Plus one of my other (many) goals is to make some improvements on this blog, such as linking to my favorite blog reads, etc. Hopefully I won't put that off too much longer!

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