Blame Sonja

Well, it sure is hard to get motivated to write my blog when my favorite blogging buddy, Sonja from fusionknitting.com, is taking a nice long break. Where are you, Sonja? I miss you! Come back……PLEEEEEAAAASSSEEE…….

Classes are almost done. Only about 3 weeks left…..I can’t wait……I will have all of December to do nothing…..

I have learned a lot in my classes. My classmates are, for the most part, professionals in the K-12 arena. Only a handful of us (out of 23 in my cohort) are involved with higher education. I’ve learned about the difficulties of being a teacher/administrator in the public school systems. I’ve learned about the competing demands and shifting priorities that the teachers and administrators have to cope with…..and the lack of political will for any real change. I’ve also learned about how important diversity is, not only for our children, but for society as a whole. And I’ve learned so much about our shameful, discriminatory past in education…..about how whole segments of our society were intentionally ignored and prevented from exercising their rights as citizens to get an education. I love what I’m learning in class….but I am also learning so much about myself. And I don’t like it.

I’ve always known that I tend to be on the lazy side when it comes to school work. I love going to classes, I love doing the reading, I even like doing research and writing papers. But I only like it when I am doing it on my own schedule and in my own time. I keep turning in my papers 2-5 days late…..so far, my professors have ignored the lateness and I have gotten wonderful grades, but it is only a matter of time before they start taking points off of my assignments……I have a paper due next Wednesday….my goal is to turn it in on Monday…….but that means I’ve got to start writing it tomorrow……….why oh why do I sabotage myself in this way? I know I am smart and I have a lot to offer, but I just get so darn lazy and figure that my the quality of my work will outshine the fact that it is always late………this is something I am going to work on……after all, I have two and a half more years in this program…………..

I have started to knit with a master knitter…..her name is Mae, and she is self-taught on the knitting machine. But she is good enough to have sold her knit items to Bloomingdales, Neiman-Marcus, Bullocks Wilshire, and other high end stores. I found out about her through another volunteer at weSPARK. I contacted her, and she agreed to let me go over to her house and watch her knit. I went once and learned so much during the two hours I was there! Since the main purpose of knitting for me is to augment my work wardrobe, we agreed that my next project will be a Chanel-type suit. I’ve already knit the back, sleeves, and right front of the jacket. I have to re-knit the back because there was something wrong with the yarn. The yarn I used is Venetian from Newtons. It is a tweedy black and white yarn. The pieces that I’ve knit look beautiful, so far. Mae told me that I need to keep the tension very tight so that the fabric will drape a certain way. It is way tighter than I am used to knitting, but she is right, the fabric does look and feel better.

I also knit a baby hat with cables and I knit the pieces of a baby blanket. I just have to latch the pieces together and put a worm edging on it. It is a baby present for my friend, Pri, who just had a baby boy named Ravi.

Okay, that’s all for now….I have a lot to tell you, especially about my daughter in the Peace Corps…..but I’ll save that for another post……