I still play with yarn. I swear.

I finished Lane and Mike's granny square afghan last night, weaving the last of the loose ends (and there were a lot of loose ends!) into the blanket. It was about four months in the making and I'm thrilled to ship it out to the newlyweds. I think it will be an excellent - and colorful - afghan to cuddle beneath during the grey Wisconsin winter. 

I've also had a few moment to finish the thumb (why is it always - ALWAYS! - the thumb?) on this pair of squirrel mittens. They are, unfortunately, the last of my holiday 2010 knits. Yes, that's right - 2010. I am a horrible dissertating graduate student. That's my story and I'm planning on sticking to it.

The Evening's Spoils

The strawberry-rhubarb jam is tangy! Almost like a Sweetart, which should be good on crusty toast. I did have a chance to try out the Weck jars I picked up in Ann Arbor a while back and golly, they are pretty. 

I did end up having something of an inner dialogue with myself after realizing I as preserving jam made from strawberries grown twenty miles away in jars that were manufactured 6000 miles away. Granted, I bought them in a small hardware in Ann Arbor, but I felt a bit frustrated with myself for buying them when I could easily purchase Ball jars - made in the USA, as the sticker on their packages now indicate - for less money. I also know that the environmental cost of these jars and their trans-Atlantic journey will be offset by the many years I will use them and the reuseable-ness of the lids... but still. 

My understanding for advocating for Weck jars is not only that they are beautiful - and they are, hence why I bought them in the first place - but also the glass lids, which are free of BPA traces. I still have to do some reading about the topic, but Tattler has BPA-free (and reusable!) lids for canning that I might give a go. They're more expensive, but if I don't have to buy new lids every season, that might be an okay thing. 

I know I sometimes get caught up in the aesthetics, whether it's my knitting or canning or the things I surround myself with. I get that all these decisions come with certain costs and I need to remind myself to be more aware of them as I'm not sure about the 5,980 mile difference between where my strawberries were picked and where my jars were manufactured.  

In a Jam

In a jam. Horribly pun-tastic, I know, but I couldn't resist. 

The Man Friend and I went to the Farmer's Market this morning and they had strawberries! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for strawberries to make their appearance and feared that they may not. The weather in this part of the country (as in many others) has been ridiculously wet this spring. In the past week, we've had some pretty forceful windstorms and the ground was so wet that trees were simply lifted out of the ground. 

Regardless, there they were: small, red blobs of promised summer. I snatched up two pints - one for eating, one for jamming - and come tonight, once I've made headway on the pile of work that still isn't done after a crazy week, I'll be making the season's first batch of rhubarb-strawberry jam. 

But first, the list of to-do. It never seems to end... 

The Problem Continues

Yep. More mugs. I'm almost ashamed, but when I saw them in the thrift store, mugs I had been regretting not adding to my collection since Christmas 2008, I knew they would be coming home with me. 

Yet another installment in a seemingly endless list of "I have a problem..."

First, it was silverware. Then came the mugs. I love it when the majority of people leave any given college town. It floods the local thrift stores with things they didn't want to move with and that I might like. Case in point: the Orla Kiely mug above. I love these mugs; they are hefty and hold a copious amount of coffee. I got three of them for my birthday a few years ago and have been lamenting not picking more up ever since. 

I've found five of the mugs at Goodwill over the course of the last two weeks: four of the gray and brown pears above and the green abacus mug above. I've listed two on eBay and am keeping the other three. I just need to think about what to do with all those other mugs I own... 

I also couldn't pass up this little beauty, a Jadeite coffee mug I picked up last weekend when in Michigan. 

So yeah. Another mug. Crap. 

I think I have a problem. 

Treading

I'm trying to keep my head above water, just enough to get to the end of the weekend. Having traveled back to Michigan for a good friend's wedding (amazingly beautiful bride - lovely setting - ferocious weather), I've been hit with a week of conference preparation (we're hosting - lots of printing, emailing, last-minute planning) and dissertation data collection (round two started this week - two weeks shorter than I was originally told - I'm too busy to panic about it). Add in a research project with a faculty member and the need to find a place to live in July and there hasn't been a lot of time for much else. 

But soon. (I hope!) 

A Toast

Amidst the craziness of graduation weekend, several of my undergrads, now graduates, asked me to give a toast at their celebratory gathering. I was both flattered and excited to honor them thusly:

I have a difficult time reading the newspaper yet find myself sipping coffee every morning, pouring over the headlines in the New York Times. More often than not, there is some inflammatory headline about the decline of America’s schools, the sloth of the teachers who fill them, and the ludicrous idea that just anyone can teach. My blood boils for a moment until I think about the people in this room. You, the TAL class of 2011, remind me that there are good, hardworking educators with fresh ideas, seemingly unlimited energy, and a deep-seated desire to help children live lives of their own choosing and I find myself suddenly calm. Over the course of the last two years, I have been fortunate enough to teach you, learn with you, and watch you grow into formidable educators. I am in awe of your resolve, of your diligence, and believe, whole-heartedly, of your potential. You will do brilliant things, just as you have done brilliant things over the course of your undergraduate career. When you do brilliant things, you enable the students in your classroom to do brilliant things. We say that children are the future; I propose that you, my friends, are the future and I can’t wait until the New York Times gets wind of the good you will do. So let’s raise a glass and toast to the TAL class of 2011 – to the hard work you have done and the harder work you will do. There is no one more equipped, more ready to handle it than you.

We're going to avoid the fact that I actually forgot to toast anyone, but I like to think my words were somewhat pretty.

Grandma's Embroidery Bag

This is a well-loved pillowcase. It somehow fell into my possession when I was seven and was a mainstay on my bed from that moment on, well into the college years. While it has been semi-retired for the last few years (at least until I can figure out a way to clean it more thoroughly), it's one of those things I can't bear to part with. My Grandma Donna, my mother's mom, made this for me; it's one of the few things I have from her, so it will move with me whenever, wherever. 

I've been thinking for a while about reproducing the pillowcase for my nephews, so that they might have something from their Great Grandmother - even if it wasn't made by her hand, it would be made in her spirit. I had been scouring vintage iron on patterns whenever I encountered them in the vintage and thrift stores but no luck. 

While beginning to prepare for this next move, I've been going through things. As in selling them on eBay or donating them to Goodwill. I came across an old paper bag that my mom gave me after my grandfather died while I was still in undergrad. It was one of those things that I held onto without ever really taking stock of what was inside. Lo and behold - my grandmother's embroidery supplies! Hoops and thread and transfers and needles. There's a threaded needle, just waiting for her to return to work. Strange: things and time. 

Perhaps most exciting of all: ducks. There may be pillowcases in my nephew's futures after all... 

Mom's Day

The last conversation I had with my mother went something along the lines of me telling her that I pushed her to do new things because I loved her, I was scared that she was becoming lethargic, more of a passive observer than a productive participant. It was possibly the most adult conversation we had ever had. My last words to my mother were "I love you," which has brought me no small amount of comfort. After her passing, going through the evidence of her life, I found print outs of emails, postcards sent form my travels, notes I had sent her when I went away for college. My favorite artifact: a postcard sent from the Vatican upon which I scribed, I was here and did not burst into flames. I doubt she ever became comfortable with my atheism. I sorted through these things this morning, remembering her and remembering how delightfully flawed and impossibly loving she was. Oh, I loved her, and continue to love her, in delightfully flawed and impossible ways. 

Leaving the Semester

The semester isn't quite over yet, but it's ridiculously close. I've spent the whole of the last two days meeting with my undergrads, engaging them in exit interviews before they leave campus for the summer. I've come to really enjoy the interview structure, allowing me a more personalized way to end the class. 

As I think about the interviews and my own teaching this semester, a few things pop out at me: 

* I like writing with my class. For the collaborative paper assignment this semester, students worked in groups using Google docs to write a paper around a hot topic in literacy education. I would go through each and every paper weekly and edit with them, leaving notes and suggestions in the margins. It's a time-consuming but valuable tool as I've struggled for years with attempting to think about how to help my students be better writers; feedback on the final paper always arrives too late. 

* I need to continue focusing on developing habits of mind with my students rather than simply a culmination of grades. I've been struck by my students and their focus on grades rather than learning content and by delaying grades until the end (rather cruel), I think I facilitated more development of content rather than simply checking things off of a list. 

* I need to think of more ways to include (a) children's literature and (b) phonics into my assessment class. I was struck by the lack of knowledge my students had about children's literature, despite thinking that they would connect students to literature and that would make the students interested in reading. How can teachers connect students to books if they don't read books themselves? Additionally, I was shocked to find the lack of phonics information held by my students. Normally, I teach the fall section of this class and we spend a large amount of time on phonics. That the students didn't have this makes me nervous - I need to think of ways to incorporate more phonics in everything I do. 

* I need to have these interviews earlier in the semester. I love getting to know them and can accelerate our relationships by moving this to earlier in the semester. 

Two interviews to go. The rest of the week will be spent finding an apartment, working on arrangements for a conference later in the semester, and thinking about extending my dissertation data collection. 

And there must be some knitting. Soon. 

Push

It happens every spring: the final weeks of the semester sneak up on me and I find my schedule over-loaded and my to-do list running over. Yet I'm surprised by this. Every. Single. Year. 

Have I learned nothing in my twenty-four years of schooling? Nothing? 

Ah, well.

Pictures from Luhvul

I giggle a bit whenever I visit Louisville, attempting to pronounce the city's name as the locals do. I still don't have it down, but I'm getting there. Scenes from this weekend's visit to the city, which includes some pretty awesome neon signs:

It seemed like the ice cream shop in this last shot is closed, but I loved the typography. 

Thrift Breaking: Fiesta and Silverware

I've collected Fiestaware for about a decade now, buying my first pieces in a Mervyn's store in Grand Rapids, Michigan the summer after my sophomore year at university. While my passion for the colorful dinnerware has waxed and waned, I always keep my eyes open for it in thrift stores. Up until Friday afternoon, the closest I had ever gotten to actually finding Fiesta at a thrift store was a mismatched teapot I found at a rummage sale for $5 more years ago than seems proper.

All in all, I found two plates, one dinner-sized and one bread-sized, and four mugs. Grand total: $4.46. Yep. I think that makes these pieces my least expensive Fiesta pieces ever. Granted, the plates, as seen above, are decently scratched. They have been well used but have much more life in them yet to live. They won't stay with me for long. Save for a lone coffee mug, I have plans for these pieces. I am not their forever-owner. 

Rounding out a good hour of thrifting Friday, I came across three more pieces of starburst silverware - including a fork in a pattern I've yet to identify. And spoons. Can you ever have too many spoons? 

On second thought, don't answer that. 

Thinking in Lists

I know I'm busy when I begin thinking in lists.

To keep with this state of mind, a list of things I've been thinking about in the world of the Internets:

I read this in Peggy Orenstein's Cinderella Ate My Daughter, but the Smithsonian Magazine goes into the historical background of our social construction of girls in pink, boys in blue.

I find this immensely entertaining:


I cannot tell a lie: I love IKEA. Expedit bookshelves, some day you will be mine. Preferably when I don't have to move. It do find their manufacturing practices here in the US to be interesting, though. "It's ironic that Ikea looks on the U.S. and Danville the way that most people in the U.S. look at Mexico"

Oh, Indiana. Yet another misguided attempt at school improvement. Invest in teachers, invest in students, stop investing in money-gobbling assessments. Please.

I have been slightly entertained by this comparison all week.

Kate, once again, leaves me slightly speechless. I need to stop being grumpy when I get ready to run in the morning. I can run, I need to relish that fact.

So many of my childhood memories are caught up in the mall. In the 90's. Hence my obsession with these photos. If only they were taken during those hilarious Christmas craft fairs... that would be awesome.

RIP, Flip Cam. I still love you.

In Which I Blather on about a Building

The above snap is from Widow at Windsor Antiques, a beautiful shop in Springfield, Illinois I visited a few months ago and never got around to writing about. It popped into my head today, strangely enough, as I was walking to class. Obviously, it wasn't always an antique store; the building used to serve a car dealership. The the arched windows on the right side of the building aren't windows at all, but garage doors, allowing the dealers to move large pieces in to the showroom. If French and Belgian antiques are your thing, this shop would be paradise. I'm  not particularly drawn to either of those styles, but I did fall instantly in love with the building. The building itself is amazing - literally a block or two from the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Dana-Thomas House - it is filled with amazing woodwork, beautiful tiling, and that amazing feeling of being in a building that had been cared for and aged well. Oh, the interior arches!

But I digress. I was thinking about this building today. It's stood there for decade upon decade and has managed to reinvent itself over and over again and, because of this, it has stayed relevant. That's a good lesson. One I need to keep in mind: reinvention is okay.

Breath in, breath out.

Sleepy Sunday

I went to an acting conference yesterday and was reminded why I am someone who can run the theatre house but cannot be on stage. The primary workshop was with Javier Cordona, a theatre scholar associated with Theatre of the Oppressed. While not TotO-specific, the workshop totally stretched me, making me uncomfortable at times but giving me insight into performance and the work needed to do acting work. The primary reason for going was to help me think of how to help the kiddos I'm working with in terms of their acting. Insight. Now to think about what to do with it. 

A little linky love before I head off to get work done: 

In the Czech Republic, they've found the remains of a male who was buried surrounded by domestic goods. Of course he must be gay. The oldest gay ever. Bury me with my knitting needles, please... 

... or perhaps just a wool coffin. Can I get this in fair isle, please? 

In preparation for teaching children's literature this summer, I came across this on NPR: children's literature or another genre entirely? 

Distraction, thy name is the Internet. The New Yorker says so. 

With data collection in full swing, I'm trying to stay focused on the task at hand and not borrow trouble about the job market. 

Lastly: How to steal like an artist. Brilliant. 

Happy Sunday, y'all. 

Crochet Color, Exhaustion Version

If PhDs were easy, everyone would have one. At least this is what I am trying to remind myself as I run back and forth from the elementary school, my video camera, tripod, and teaching materials in tow, while trying to balance giving feedback to my undergraduates, prepping for my trade books class this summer, and seeing the Man Friend on a somewhat regular basis. It's a lot and it's left me exhausted, but a good kind of exhausted. My brain is constantly firing and that's a good thing. I'm doing work that is interesting and helpful and I'm just taking it all as part and parcel of wanting to work with pre-service teachers. 

I finished these up last weekend and am just getting around to posting them now. I did break down and buy a skein of Cascade 220 in goldenrod. I know this was a stash-busting exercise, but I needed some brightness of the 70's variety. Also: this is one of my new favorite blogs. A granny a day indeed. 

I Might Need An Intervention

I need to buy a video camera for my dissertation research. So Friday, I set out to see what was available in the wider world of Bloomington and happened to stop into the Goodwill on the far side (at least from where I live) of town. I was talking with my aunt on the phone when I happened across the silverware section and audibly gasped. 

"What?! What?! Are you okay?! What happened?!" 

I was inaudible for a moment, overcome with the stack of Oneida Twin Star flatware that lay before me. There were spoons, large and small, and knives and - blessed be my heart! - forks! It was one of those finds that you dream about when you are collecting starburst silverware. Twin Star! For 20 cents a piece!

"Um... I just hit the motherlode of starburst silverware. You're going to have to talk louder. This might be a while."  

I started gathering starburst silverware toward the end of the summer. I was in a thrift store in Michigan with the same aunt who was on the phone when I happened upon the silverware and began casually going through it. I had dabbled with the idea of collecting Oneida Twin Star right after college, when the now-defunct Betty Crocker catalog resurrected the pattern for exclusive sale through that particular venue. Within a few weeks, the Betty Crocker catalog was no more and I hadn't thought about the pattern much since. Going through that tray of silverware, I became smitten all over again and not just with Twin Star. It seems there was a wide variety of starburst designs and I quickly found a spot on the floor and began sorting out the silverware. My aunt, she has patience. 

Having gathered about twenty pieces that first outing, a bit of an obsession was born. I began haunting the silverware bins at the local thrift stores, hoping I would find those familiar little stars. Some days, I would find just a piece or two - mostly butter knives and spoons, very rarely forks. Other times, I would find a multitude of pieces, close to thirty pieces - including forks! - of a Mar-Crest starburst pattern at a Goodwill in Springfield, IL. When I was driving home for the holidays, I stopped at Goodwill stores along the way and collected over fifty pieces. That's the thing about flatware: it's cheap and the ideal thing to thrift for when on the road due to it's portability. 

So far, I've collected twenty-eight different designs. For quite a few of them, I only have butter knives, but it sounds impressive, no? I love the idea of setting a table with mixed-and-matched sets, cohesive in the midcentury modern starburst fabulousness. There are still designs out there I would love to stumble upon (like this!), but isn't it all about the thrill of the hunt and the serendipitous finds of the thrift store? 

I took some time last night to identify as many of the patterns as I could. They're noted in the photos over on Flickr, should you be interested. 

A bit of crochet color

I still don't quite know what I am doing with all these granny squares (a blanket at some point, I would imagine) but I'm enjoying playing around with the color combinations. I think this particular combo is my favorite thus far: Cascade 220 in chartreuse, como blue, and Atlantic blue. 

I'm getting to the point that I can whip out six of these little things in about an hour and a half. Two episodes of This American Life. There are worse ways to spend Sunday afternoon. I'm up to 48 of these things so far. I figure I need about 372 to make a blanket large enough for a bed. So, yeah... a whopping 13% done. Go me. 

All this started as a way to use up some of my stash. I'm getting there, slowly but surely. 

Highs and Lows

Thursday was a ridiculously high day: I met with the course coordinator for the IU campus I will teach at the coming year to discuss classes and I'm going to get to teach some really phenomenal bits: tradebooks in the classroom (educational talk for children's literature), another assessment class, and (I am most geeked out about this one) research in language education. I essentially get to teach a class about reading research to connect with practice! It's my dream class, providing a conduit between those two seemingly separate worlds and I find myself dreaming of readings. Seriously. I'm pathetic, I know. Thursday was a high. 

Friday was a low. I made an appointment at the student health center to wrap my head around what was happening with my breathing. As in I wasn't doing it all that well. I figured this was my new head cold - I used to get them every fall and every spring but hadn't since moving to Indiana. My lungs ached, my throat was scratchy, they hurt after running. What the heck, right? Allergies, apparently. I've never had allergies in my life, so the world of inhalers and things are totally new to me. So after the PA decides that I don't have bronchitis, as this was diagnosed in the spring, but allergies. He writes me prescriptions and I go get them filled and I go to pay and find out that my student health insurance has expired. Hm. This has never happened before. As a fellowship recipient, I should receive health insurance through the end of the summer. I spent the first portion of the summer working as a graduate assistant for another professor in the department, putting together materials and helping out with teacher study groups, fulfilling my fall duties for my fellowship with a separate contract written for the spring. Apparently, those two contracts were never looked at together, so it looks like I am just teaching one class, not enough for health insurance. (It is important to note that both myself and the office manager in my department cleared the fall semester arrangement with people, so imagine my surprise when my insurance comes up as invalid!) So, the baseline frustration: I have allergies. They don't know to what yet, but I have a massive amount of prescription drugs and inhalers waiting for me upstairs in my bedroom. I do not have insurance. At least not right now. My fingers are crossed that the people in control of contracts and things are working on it. 

And today: today, I am sitting in my kitchen, drinking the last of this morning's pot of coffee and attempting to plan out what to do with my day. I need to finish taxes, accomplish some feedback, read some articles, volunteer for a play. Lots of stuff to do. Now to do it. I'm ready for an even-keel kind of day. 

In Memoriam

I knew Daphane in college, when we were both working to become teachers. She was terribly dedicated and worked hard in her coursework and eventually went on to become a teacher in the Detroit Public Schools. In addition to being a competent, caring teacher, she was a passionate mother and a good, solid friend. In the years between then and now, she and I kept in sporadic contact, emailing at the holidays and when we encountered teaching dilemmas we felt the other might have insight into. I'm still in shock of it all; there is the space that she once occupied but no longer does and I'm never comfortable with that. 

Rest in Peace, Daphane Ramey. You will be missed. 

Chicago Weekend

Highlights: 

* The chicks at the Museum of Science and Industry. They're just so cute. 

* Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me was hilarious. If you have a chance to see a taping - do it. The podcast is 47:30, but the taping was two hours. There's tons of stuff that are edited out - all of it hilarious. 

* Wandering the Lake Michigan shoreline in the morning. 

* The Vivian Maier exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center. Hauntingly beautiful. 

* The food, of course. The Chicago Diner makes the best milkshakes ever, hands down. 

But now it's Monday. Spring Break is officially over and I'm trying to catch up on those few things I didn't finish last week... 

Linky Love: Packing Edition

I'm heading to the Windy City tomorrow with the Man Friend (our first trip - a bit un-nerving) for a taping of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and a visit with my good friend Anne. I think I have everything packed and am just waiting on my sheets to dry before I can go to bed. We will not talk about the orange soda mishap that resulted in my sheets needing to dry. Anyway: links!

Embrace from Ben Sollee on Vimeo.

Ben Sollee won me over in 2008 with Learning to Bend and I found his 2010 collaboration with Daniel Martin Moore, Dear Companion, to be equally lovely. His new album Inclusions is due to hit May 10th and if Embrace is any indication, it's going to be another exquisite collection of songs.

I love it that Local Yarn Stores are making it work - 11% increase in sales last year.

OMG. I all sorts of want. I will restrain because I already have too many unfinished projects lying around, but I think this solidifies my obsession with cuckoo clocks as I want to make this as soon as I can.

I'm ignoring the gender and just declaring this inspiring. After Chicago, of course.

I didn't quite plan on retiring anyway, so this is good news.

I've been fascinated with NPR's series on cultural fragmentation and enjoyed their insights into iCarly, particularly the gendered findings re: audience.

Jesse Brown is a bit of an intellectual badass and he is raising some very interesting issues regarding technology and entertainment regulation in our neighbor to the north.

RIP, Zune. I'm not surprised.

Oh, Japan. You make my heart hurt. This is the where I've sent money, should you be interested.

More Color

A bit more color. I'm finding myself drawn to some pretty retro combinations. Strangeness abounds. 

Thrifty Finds: Embroidery

I've had some decent luck finding some really adorable pieces of embroidery at the antique malls and flea markets lately. I found the above last weekend, which is ridiculously adorable and earmarked to be a holiday gift for a friend. There's something about the cheerful flowers that just makes me smile - hopefully, it will make the recipient smile as well. 

This is a slightly older find. I think I found this at one of the antique markets in Coldwater, MI when I was traveling over the holidays. I originally bought it for my Aunt, who collects samplers, but have been second guessing this as I find myself wanting to add it to my repertoire of wall hangings. It was a ridiculous $2.00 with 60% off, bringing it down to an unbelievable $.80. Obviously, it needs to be cleaned, a task I will take on once I figure out how to remove it from the professional framing with the least amount of damage. But those colors... seriously awesome. 

Come to think of it, I picked up another embroidery piece at an auction over the holidays, although this was Christmas-related and is already packed away with the holiday things. Part of me thinks I'm on the look out for these since I'm making no progress on my own cross stitch projects...