From the sublime to the ridiculous

I have recently started facebooking.  (It's like googling; it's a verb.  This is what my students say.)

A couple of friends and family members had encouraged me to join, and there are some things I really love about it.  I love being connected in with the people I care about.  That part is fun, since I have a far-flung family and don't make the time for phone calls and e-mails as much as I should.  And I have to admit that the novelty factor of "friending" people who I haven't seen or, in some cases, thought about in years, has not yet worn off.  The guy I went to homecoming with in 10th grade?  Teaches math.  The diva-with-a-heart-of-gold from college choir?  Opera singer in Toronto.  My yearbook editor from 2005?  Loving junior year of film school and pestering me with questions about "Lost."  That part is cool--the sense of network, of connection, of reconnection--it makes the overall experience worthwhile.

The parts that I'm uncomfortable with.  Well, they are legion.  

1. The aforementioned people I haven't thought about in years?  Well, they feel free to comment on my taste in books.  (Hey!)
2. Other people can post embarrassing pictures of me from college and tag them with my name.  And current colleagues and family members can click on them and see just how much beer I drank during the Europe trip of 1997.  (The nice thing is that I was such a goody-two-shoes that my hair in the 90's will likely be much more incriminating than any party photos.)
3. There is an uncomfortable sense of being back in the not-cool crowd when I see the photos others have posted from high school.
4. I totally overthink the status updates ("What are you thinking about?" it asks) because I have both a lesbian librarian and an ultra-conservative quiver-full Christian in my friend list.  Will saying "friggin'" offend anyone?  Is saying I like the show "Dollhouse" revealing me to be in favor of the subjugation of women?  If I'm gardening, am I pedestrian?  If I'm reading Lord of the Rings, am I a nerd?  Basically--this all comes down to feeling judged, and being a sort of private person who also, ironically, loves to connect. 
5. How long will it be before a current student sees one of those pictures of me drinking the beer in Europe?  How long before the worlds collide in ways that I can't anticipate??
6. With all the time I spend connecting with former/online friends--am I neglecting the actual flesh-and-blood people in my life, nay, in my house, even?

We're in the middle of a communication revolution.  

I read a recent blog post that spoke eloquently of how historians can look back at pre-printing press and post-printing press and see clearly how the advent of literacy for all (or most, at least) changed civilization--religion, politics, you name it. 

What historians can't comment on is how it felt DURING the revolution--to be a leader when the power structure was shifting under your feet--to be a follower, unsure of the ramifications of new freedoms and industries.

By the time our children are adults, I think the face of the change will be clear, the implications for education, privacy, and government.  But for now--it all feels a little katy-bar-the-door.

What do you think?  Do you facebook? What do you like--or not?

Fifi update

So while I've been musing on my summer-vacation-to-be, and philosophizing about life as we know it, I've also been knitting.  (I KNOW!  Imagine that.)

My May (...june...) project has been Fifi, by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes.  I bought Kristeen's new book, French Girl Knits, a couple of months ago, and fell in love with her design sensibility--feminine, romantic, yet practical.  She specializes in one-piece designs:  top-down, bottom up, and even side-to-side.  So, since I had this wonderful book in front of me with 18 designs in it, I immediately...got on Ravelry and bought the pattern for Fifi instead of starting anything from the book.  

Fifi calls for Rowan Calmer, six or seven balls of it for my size.  This wasn't in my budget--it costs about $12 a ball--so I searched Ravelry for an appropriate substitute and landed on KnitPicks Shine Sport in Chipotle.  Calmer is a cotton/acrylic blend, and so is Shine.  There was one other Fifi on Ravelry in Shine Sport and the knitter reported not having to do any modifications as a result of the sub and her photos were supercute.  So I ordered the yarn, swatched on size 7s, and it all looked good.

I don't know if it's because I don't knit with cotton very often, or because the sportweight wasn't a good substitute for Calmer, which is listed as either DK or light worsted depending on where you look, but I'm not 100% happy with the fabric.  It just feels a bit...floppy.  What was nice and smooth in the swatch is a little bit droopy in a full sweater.  I don't know if I should have gone down a needle size, or if I should have used Shine Worsted or Comfy instead (two more popular subs once I started looking more closely)...

There are a couple of other issues with my Fifi, which you can see in the photo below:

1. my center cable is off center, since the stitches to the left of the cable (the little buggers are on the right in the picture, but remember the sweater was knit top-down) are really loose.  I've not had this problem so dramatically before, and I knit a lot of cables, but that's probably also because the cotton is so much less elastic than my usual wool.
2. The pattern calls for inserting a few short rows at the bustline to ease the fit.  It doesn't give directions for doing this unobtrusively, though...and as you can see from the WEIRD GAPING HOLE in the picture, I don't think I did this right.  There weren't any directions, so I followed the short row directions in Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, and the short rows just came out kind of funky and gappy.

I'm going to soldier on, though, because the fit is fundamentally OK and I think, cotton being what it is, that I will be able to shape it during blocking.  I plan on making elbow-length sleeves rather than cap sleeves, and I've also switched to size 5s for the sleeve ribbing to keep it a little snugger.  So we'll see.  If the sleeves turn out well I may reknit the body on 5s or 6s.

Happy Monday, everyone!

I just saw this on a blog I visited and thought, hmmm?

Please do not link to this blog, any post (or part of any post) , any project or any photo on Ravelry. I do not want their kind of attention and hope you will respect my request.
Thank you.

There is something I am not getting here.  "Their kind of attention"? 

I'm sure the blogger has a good reason for this, and I respect the wishes (not that I was tempted to link) but--what?  Nefarious Ravelry?  Big Brother and all that?  So confused.

Summer: the double-edged sword

One of the best things about teaching is its cycle of open and close, renewal, and fresh starts--every year a new chance, a change. As the season turns and another school year closes, my mind turns to new opportunities and summer studies.

It's hard to refute the stereotype of teachers getting "three months off" a year, especially since I have worked in the private sector and know the pain of an entry-level job that accrues a mere week or two of "Personal Time Off," or PTO, a year.  For most, PTO time is intended to cover both sick and vacation leave, and the corporate lackey also receives, grudgingly, a few national holidays, which stud the calendar like raisins in a pudding (an image I think I just stole from Louisa May Alcott.  Or someone).

That said, my husband and I have had very few summers "off."  Either he, or I, or both have taken classes, worked a second job, or some combination of the two every summer for the past twelve years.  

This summer, though, marks a milestone:  No classes.  No summer work.  Just family time, and lots of it.

All this freedom?  Oh no!

My summer could look like this:

1. Read classics I've always meant to read; study Anna Karenina with friend Michelle
2. Bike or run every day; look amazing
3. Finally develop that rhetoric/linguistics unit for my AP class that's been half-baked in my mind for two years
4. Refinish bedroom dressers (only 12 years late) and finally get rid of horrific yellow wallpaper in master bedroom
5. Weed-free garden; clutter-free home; healthy organic meals daily

Or, it could look like this

1. Eat crap, gain (more) weight
2. Futz around on computer, wasting hours per day
3. Procrastinate on school because "I have so much time until September"
4. Dither over house projects and end up starting many, but leaving several half-done

So...

How do I make option A happen and option B go away?

Your rainbow is shaded yellow.

What is says about you: You are a joyful person. You appreciate optimism. You're good at getting people to like you.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Toni passed this on to me, which was so nice!  Thanks, Toni.

The rules are:

1. List 7 things you love
2. Link back to the person who gave you the award
3. Pass it along to 7 other bloggers.

So.....

I love:

1. My husband
2. My children

3. Science fiction & fantasy

4. Knitting (duh)

5. Reading and writing nonfiction

6. Really great singer-songwriters

7. Sitting on the dock at my family's cabin on Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho

And I will pass the award on to:

Clumsy Knitter

Alana

Jo

Julie

Beccalou

Amy

Tami

What Grownups Do

A conversation between my husband and my daughter, age almost-3, yesterday.

Miss E:  I'm getting to be a big girl.  I'm almost a grownup.

M: Oh really?  What do grown ups do?

Miss E: (Thinks.) Turn on the lights. (Something she has recently learned to do, being exactly the right height, on tippy-toes, to juuuust baaarely push up the switch.)

M: What else do grownups do?

Miss E: (Thinks again.)  Turn them off again.  

A second conversation, during a marathon Nerf basketball session in big brother's room.  Mr. D has recently become very interested in money, how it works, how much he (and we) have, and personal buying power.

Mr. D: What would you buy with a million dollars, Miss E?

Miss E: (Without hesitation) Strawberries.

So there you have it.  A million dollars' worth of fruit, and magical ability to make lights go on and off--that is what it truly means to be grown up.  Rich indeed!