2sticks4me's Blog

Getting ready for the holidays

2sticks4me — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:51:36 +0000

I haven’t written for ages and am now motivated by the excitement of maybe winning some knitting tools and yarn. If you are reading this, I put my wishlist on Knitpicks for some pretty nifty little tools that could make my hobby a bit more fun to do. http://www.knitpicks.com/cfCart/viewWishlist.cfm?wishlistid=8F924737-DAA0-634E-74E026E63CCE26EB&media=WLBL
Realizing that I have been intertwining knitting and education, I realize that sometimes it’s like that in school,,,,things are just going along sometimes smoothly, sometimes with some rockiness but the monotony of the same schedule becomes comfy and doesn’t stretch the imagination. It’s like knitting a sweater with all the same color and stitch. Make look lovely in the end but was a very predictable path to get it done.
I know that I need things changed up a bit now and then to get the blood flowing again and to force the oxygen back to the brain…let’s hear it for holidays, for changing the schedule just for the fun of it and making each day in our schools a totally new and engaging experience. And, if I win the contest that prompted me back to writing…well, I’ll start a new fiber project!

Trying new stitches

2sticks4me — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:01:16 +0000

Have been stash busting and working my way through a book of knitting stitches at the same time so I now have a growing collection of scarves … not exactly the type of collection needed in the heart of Texas. Perhaps my friends and family hanging out in northern climes will come to appreciate my handiwork. I find that I rarely keep anything that I knit and find the most pleasure when I am creating something for another person. The few things that I do keep are often replicated so that I can share with others.

Have you ever really looked at the teachers in your midst? They create for others all the time. I have never met a good teacher who wasn’t knitting together some ideas that will make concepts and facts more meaningful for their students. They work their way through books of stitches almost everyday trying to find the stitch that will best suit the students in the classroom with them.

Today as we listen to the political debates raging around the country about how to cut education costs, it makes me wonder where the thought came from that you can use cheap products to create masterpieces. Isn’t that what some are talking about? Cutting our school budgets to the bone ( or in some cases, amputation) will not help teachers, counselors and coaches provide the experiences that will foster creative, thoughtful, skilled citizens for the future. Instead of looking for new stitches to build meaning for their students, teachers will be scrounging for scraps of yarn and darning needles to plug the holes in the fabric they now have. Do we really want to clothe our children in harsh, scratchy cast-offs when we can afford a resilient, stretchy, made-for-you education?

Frogging

2sticks4me — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:40:43 +0000

It took a lot of thinking before I frogged a project for the first time. For those of you who don’t knit, frogging means ripping out row after row of knitting…maybe even going back to the original yarn ball. I’ve asked folks over the years how the process got the name and there is agreement that it’s because you are going to “rip it, rip it”. (Even wikipedia offers this definition.) Over the years I’ve been able to see things in the knitting process that I didn’t see as a beginner and even now I find that the more I knit the more I understand the process and what to look for in the details…though I still dreamily drop a stitch here and there. Luckily I’m better at fixing the omissions along the way.

So, being terribly depressed by all of the flaming rhetoric on what’s wrong with education, I find myself wanting to find a way to “rip it, rip it”. I want to rip away the uncivil talk that has permeated the bits and bytes dedicated to the topic in the past few years and start a row anew. I want the fantastic teachers that I work with on a regular basis to feel the radiance of knowing that they are an important part of our society; I want the students to know that their course through the formative years in schools are so important to our future that we will insure that they have the best teachers, the most creative and visionary leaders. and the most wonderful supplies and tools. But what can I do to help make this a reality? I find that I am feeling less and less motivated to do something….kind of like not wanting to get the half done sweater off the shelf to finish….but I know I must. I have watched, taught, listened to teachers and worked with them for most of my life. It’s a process I know better that knitting and I know there are many stitches that have been dropped…but it’s not too late. You can frog anything and make it beautiful.. I’m going to start by supporting those teachers I work with. I’m going to work with the students I can. I’m going to become vocal about what we can do to make schools a place we are all proud of whether they are bricks and mortar, on the computer or in a field. The saddest thing I read today was a blog by a sophomore who wrote that he can’t wait to be in the “real world”. For teachers, students and all those who work in schools, I would hope that is the REAL world and not just a make=believe waiting room.

Dropping stitches

2sticks4me — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:56:28 +0000

How is it that even with careful counting I end up a few stitches off in my lace pattern and have to go back to fix it. I can look at this as a life lesson I suppose, that I need to reflect more often to make sure all is well and “fix it” before moving on. The philosophical approach leads me to the larger picture of what I’ve done with my life…are there relationships that need attention, projects to complete, places to go. Oh, yes… So knowing this sounds trite, I do find parallels in my knitting and life.

I still want to know what to do so I won’t goof up the lace pattern. Maybe I just daydream too much and am not counting as carefully as I should.

I hope all my dropped stitches in life are as easy to pick up.

The Holidays are here!

2sticks4me — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:31:59 +0000

I finished a doll’s blanket and a shopping bag to give as presents and will be looking for the parts of reindeer that I knit last year to be assembled this year. After sewing a full bedroom set, pajamas for two year olds, and helping with a set of ten stockings, what do I want to do…more knitting, please. The quiet repetition is calming and watching the yarn (or plarn) change form is exciting. I’ve read that other people consider knitting much like meditation and I can see why. Well, usually…finding a dropped stitch or having to rip out several rows because I miscounted a pattern is not soothing at all but it is a lesson learned.

I’ve found out a lot about myself through my approach to knitting. I re-established myself as a knitter after many years not with a scarf or a hat. No, I started with a sweater – a full tunic length with a twisted rib pattern. Next was an argyle for my son which took much longer than I anticipated because I never stopped to think about what I didn’t know about argyle. In each of these garments there was a pattern that took shape from following the instructions but I had to work through the first several repeats before I could see it. Now that I have been knitting for a while I see the pattern more clearly in my head before I need to go through the process several times. Looking back through other parts of my life I see a pattern that I hadn’t noticed before – I jump in and then look for the patterns. Once I see the patterns, I’m on to another task or project. I do admire those who can create the same item many times but it’s not in the cards for me.

So, the question arises for me, is this a result of the training I had over the years as a student or is this my personality?

Adding some yarn

2sticks4me — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:31:38 +0000

I have been asking the world what they did in school this past week in school that was fun on Twitter. Got a few nibbles so I posted the same question this week (#mostfunthisweek) and will keep it going through the school year to see what grows. It feels like the first few rows of knitting when you think you have all the stitches on the needle and the yarn isn’t twisted but you’re still not sure if you have it right ’til you finish the first two rows. Hopefully the responses will turn into a virtual sweater that will warm the hearts of educators.

On the yarn knitting side of life, I have completed my second shopping bag made of shopping bags using a different plastic and really like it better than the first. It’s softer! Who knew that plastic could be described that way? I am now eyeing any plastic bags that come into sight with a new point of view. I am finding that the dry cleaner bag is offering some potential as it has the weight and feel of the department store bag but is clear…could offer an interesting result. But, oh, I have several sweaters to complete….

I wonder if my knitting style could be transferred to one of the personality dimension tools that we use in education for looking at different learning styles. I know that I am quite the random thinker and that certainly correlates to the way I knit one piece for a while, change to another and then return to the first. Maybe looking at the way our students work through their own hobbies will give us a window into how they absorb and synthesize information.

Plastic Bags

2sticks4me — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:43:54 +0000

I finshed my first knitted plastic bag last night made from the bags from the local grocery store. The process was amazing. First of all, I had to find several websites on how to cut the bags to make the “yarn” before I found one that made sense to me which illustrates how we all take in information so differently. Then as I was working on it, I commented on how the material felt. I hadn’t really thought before about the different feel of plastic in the same way that I do wool, cotton or other yarns but you know, I have discovered that I really like the feel of some better than others. Am also moving to larger needles for another bag. Don’t know how many of these I’ll make. It seems like a good present to give people and it sure will keep dozens of plastic bags out of the trash but I’ve always tended toward learning the process rather than production. Well, as long as I keep forgetting to take tha canvas bags out of the back of the car, knitting the plastic ones will ease my conscience.

Knitting my ideas

2sticks4me — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:12:35 +0000

Talking to my son the other day and said that I sometimes thought about writing a blog but got lost in what to write about. He said, “Knitting, you know you love to knit.” Even then I resisted since there are so many well written blogs that have catchy names, witty authors and good ideas – all centered around knitting. Then it occurred to me that I knit all day even on days when no yarn touches my hands. I knit together information to help the educators I work with. I knit together ideas for the family for reunions, parties and other events. I sometimes even “knit my brows” though that’s most likely a sign that I need the meditative feel of yarn in my hands and the gentle clicking of needles to soothe the soul. And, so …now I write about knitting.