Pictures - A Start

I know, I know.

I'm a total blog failure lately.

And it's not really because I'm preparing for a campus job interview (yahoo!) which means writing a presentation/lecture, researching the school, and trying not to worry myself to death. It's really all about spending too much time on Ravelry.

My alpaca leg-warmers. This is what I ended up doing with that KnitPicks Decadence I didn't know what to do with. Very handy here.



Some spinning:





The blue-ish stuff is the gradation-dyed merino I got at the Allegan Fiber Festival. When I bought it the seller warned me that the dye could make it difficult to draft. It's true - I really needed two hands to do it. So, with the help of this video (and all those weeks of practice with the supported spindling), I finally learned to successfully use a drop spindle!!


More soon, I promise!

Tagged

So, Beth tagged me for an 8 random things meme. This finally woke me out of my stupor, so I'm going to post 8 random reasons I haven't been updating my blog. (Those aren't actually the official rules of the meme.) The official rules are:

8 Very Random Things

Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I've been sucked into the great time warp that is the Ravelry "Big Issues Debate" group forum. If you don't already know what this is, don't ask. And no, don't get antsy because you're still on the ravelry waiting list - I mean, no, get antsy, 'cause Ravelry rocks, but not because you're missing out on this one particular forum, because either you won't care or it will eat up all your time, so no need to get there any sooner than necessary. For those who've been there, I only need to say three words: pinny porn, and pie.

2. While I was out in Long Island (where I was headed last you heard on this blog), my wireless card for my laptop suddenly decided not to work anymore. So I was limited on internet time on a public computer, and I had to spend every moment I had on job search stuff. It sucked!

3. I was totally buried for the first week or so after getting back to NYC in visa stuff. The good news is, my visa will be here on the 2nd!!!! yahoo!!!! And trust me, you do NOT want to know how much insanity, time and money was involved in finally getting it. Suffice to say it wasn't pretty, and I wasn't in a good place from which to post. (btw, the less than great news is that the earliest flight I could get after that was the 8th, but at least I'm finally going!!)

4. Since the visa thing got more or less under control I had to frantically bury myself in the job search thing as there were a bunch of deadlines right around now. I'm still busy, but it's under control as of late last night after I pulled a 12-hour stint in the campus computer lab to finish getting the last bits together.

5. I haven't been knitting or even spinning. Not one single bit since I got back to NYC. Too much other crap going on, and lots of exhaustion, and not much space. I did do some cool stuff while on Long Island and even have pics sitting on my camera, but I can't use my laptop at all where I'm staying at the moment, and it's a pain to bring to the campus computer, and yadda yadda. Sorry. Will catch up when I can.

6. I haven't properly read a blog in a while either, for all the reasons already mentioned. I hadn't realized before quite how much you all inspire me all the time. I can't wait to get back into it!

7. I have a crick in my shoulder from too much web browsing. Seriously - it's the mouse clicky-clicky action, as opposed to typing. And it's not all Ravelry's fault - the job search stuff is at least half of that.

8. I think I'm out of random reasons. Much less good reasons.

I'm too lazy to tag properly, but here are 8 blogs I've discovered thanks to Ravelry (not that there are only 8 that I've discovered there - ha! - a far cry, but the number works with the meme and I have my shoulder to think of. Maybe I'll add more later, and/or there's my nifty new blogroll in the sidebar, which somebody on ravelry showed me how to do.)

Recent Ravelry-Related Finds:

Knit Exploits
Femiknitzi*
The Knit Mongrel
Everybody Else Is
SwayKnits
Lori's Knitting Blog
The Missing Link (a podcast on the history of science, medicine and technology by a Ravelrer)
Worm Spit (by a guy who spins silk and has incredibly awesome videos about it...)



*Off-topic, but if you're open to the idea of a Harry Potter fanfic, she's writing one that kicks total popka, so you might want to introduce yourself to her and ask her where to find it.

Spin Out!

So I managed to attend Spin-Out! Well...sort of. Actually, it went like this. I was going there with two friends, and we planned to eat lunch in the park, enjoy the spin-out for a couple hours, and then I'd go straight to the bus (a mere 20 blocks away) which would take me to Long Island. Sounds like a great plan, right? Except for the part about dragging all my stuff with me during this whole outing, including the 20 blocks of half-running to make the bus on time. And we started out late. And got delayed again picking up food at Fairway (why do I always think this will be a matter of only a few minutes' delay??).

Here I am trying to coordinate with friend Meg who was also late, though for different reasons, and surrounded by my stuff (half of which you can't see, but note the KIPer bag on lap). (Also note that all photos in this post were taken by friend Aline, because I was too lazy to take my camera out of my bag. Also because Aline is a better photographer than I am - you'll notice.)



That was in Strawberry Fields, about an hour later than when we'd intended to get there. I was already totally exhausted from dragging stuff at this point, and one leg was going a bit numb for some reason. Not good. All this, and I wasn't even carrying a spinning wheel (unlike, it seemed, everyone else in the park).

Moments later, we had finally made it to Spin-Out:





At first all we could do was plop ourselves on an open patch of ground and breathe. Then stare at the pretty view. Then ravenously devour our lunch. That taken care of, I suddenly realized that Nishanna was right nearby with her lovely Ashford Traveler wheel (look at the bobbin go!):



You guys remember Nishanna from the first Yarn Harlot event I went to, in Brooklyn? It was great to see her again - it's amazing to feel like I have old friends when I go to a thing like this. And just as soon as I'd spotted Nishanna, Spinning Spider Jenny appeared! I met her at the same Yarn Harlot event. She was spinning silk on a tiny tiny spindle at the time, and I couldn't take my eyes off it. Afterwards, I started reading her blog and found out she's a famous spinning teacher. For months I read her blog, not comprehending most of it but totally in awe of spinning. Then I finally learned, and went back to her archives and read through it all again with constant waves of "a-ha!...now I get it!" washing over me...and here she was again, in the flesh!

Of course, just as all this is happening and I haven't even yet stood up and actually seen the rest of what was going on (and just when friend Meg had arrived, with whom we were supposed to be lunching and whom I probably won't see again until next spring...) I realize that I have all of 20 minutes before I have to move to make that bus. Damnit!

So Aline and I, the ones who had at least eaten, took a quick turn around the spin-out to ogle the wheels and rovings and talented spinners:







It was such an amazing sight! And everyone there was so *great*. One woman (in the bottom picture, above) was spinning a "core yarn," i.e. a boucle made by spinning a commercial yarn with mohair locks held perpendicularly so that they wrap around the core in little twirls and bobbles. I also got to see nearly every type of wheel that I've been surreptitiously researching online in recent weeks (don't tell Hubbster). The hitchhiker is really cute. Okay, they're all really, really cute, but the hitchhiker is affordable and cute. I also recognized Cara and Kay but was too shy and star-struck to approach them. It was just surreal to be surrounded my buzzing conversation from which words like "etsy" and "blog" and "setting the twist" float up over and over...I'm used to those words usually coming up in real live conversation in the context of me explaining what they are to someone who clearly thinks I'm nuts.

And then...I had to run. With all my stuff.

Here are some pictures Aline took after I left, which accurately reflect the glorious day in the park that I ran through on my way out:







I did manage to make it to the bus stop on time, sweaty and sore but otherwise fine. And I made it safely to Long Island, where for the next few weeks I get to enjoy this:



Life is not so bad, really.

A Recommendation

I'm afraid I still don't have my camera cord, so no pictures yet, and this post also won't contain any knitting, but I do have something quite special to tell you all about.

My dad has started blogging!!

I've been pushing him to blog for a while now, and for a long time before that I was pushing him to write a book (the blog is intended to be a sort of trial before getting into larger-scale writing).

No, it's not about knitting.

But I think some of you might be interested anyway, and I personally know it's going to be fascinating and great because I've been the audience for these ideas for many years, and it's exciting stuff.

Some of you might remember some nostalgic posts I've written about my childhood, in which I mentioned that my parents, though very young and on a tight budget, were (are) absolutely brilliant parents. My dad is also a brilliant teacher, recently retired from a career in the public schools in Michigan. I tried recently to sum up, in very few words (and you know how hard it is for me to use few words), the influence my dad has had on me. This summary was for the dedication in my newly finished dissertation. I'll quote it here, but first I have to explain that it contains a Russian word that's of central importance in the dissertation: vospitanie. The word is untranslatable because it refers both to education and to moral upbringing: it is the process through which a child becomes a knowledgeable, mature, moral, civil and generally well-rounded adult. (My dissertation is a microhistory about a single Russian gentry family in the mid-nineteenth century, and focuses on gender and ideas, especially vospitanie). Here's the dedication:

This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, who set me on this road and have been unfailingly supportive throughout. In particular, I thank my mother for teaching me to be always alert to how gender affects experience and ideas. And I thank my father for engaging me in discussions of education and history nearly as soon as I could talk, and continuously ever since. I could not have asked for a better vospitanie.

That's the best explanation I can give for why you should check out my dad's new blog, which will be a way for him to record, explore, and reflect on what he's learned in his several decades as a father and teacher. Help him get going by asking him questions! Join the discussion!

Teaching Our Children Well

A Good Cause (and good prizes...)

I just donated my little bit to Heifer International as part of the Spin-Out charity drive. You can do it too, even if you can't make it to the actual Spin-Out in Central Park, NYC on Saturday.

By the way, Heifer International is this really cool thing - not only did it teach me how to spell "heifer," not only is it a really good cause, but the way it's set up just tickles me. Cara from January One started a Spin-Out "registry" - and it works exactly like a gift registry. Imagine the Spin-Out event is a wedding. All the guests want to bring gifts, so they go to the store where the couple are registered. In this case, Heifer International. There you can shop for all the wonderful, useful things that people need in the world (including sheep and warm woolies!). There are items in all kinds of price ranges, and what you buy is gifted to someone who needs it desperately. Nice, isn't it?

Oh, and you should see the link to the Spin-Out page above to see the prizes on offer. Every $10 you donate gets you one entry in the raffle. There are tons of prizes and they are AMAZING - including at least two spinning wheels!!! There's also yarn, so if you don't spin and you win, I bet Cara could arrange that you get yarn instead of fiber or spinning tools.

And I should be digging up my camera cord soon, so I can go back to regular posting!

Thanks, guys!

Wow!! That's certainly a record number of comments on my previous post!! Thanks so much, to all of you, for all your support - this blog definitely played no small part in helping me to finish, by getting my popka in front of the computer every day and putting me in a good mood for the day's writing. And it has been wonderful beyond words to get so many lovely messages of congratulation from so many people!!

PS - oh, and did you see the new knitty? First, I'm just so glad there's *one* knitting magazine that isn't being forwarded somewhere I'm not this year! Knitty is always right there where you want it. Isn't muir totally going to be the next It pattern? I want to make it, anyway...(Beth & Erika, don't you think the Briar Rose would be perfect??) For the record, I also love neiman and cinderella, and am impressed as hell with henry (because of the finishing details) and Q (Hubbster will probably make me make henry and I'll die of boredom but it will be worth it in the end: a prediction). And I love love *love* back to basics. Will certainly be making that one, too.

First Ph.D. in the family!

I just passed my dissertation defense - with distinction! It was great - way better than I even let myself hope, I feel great, everything is great, I'm going off to drink champagne. More soon!!