waving from home

I've been teaching my kids since there's no school now.  Yesterday, twins learned to sew on a button for the first time.

The good news is that everyone here at our house is fine, we have food, shelter, and good company.  We're all trying hard to work together.  My professor husband is managing his class online, and working in between helping with twins.  I have done a bit of writing when I can stay up late enough, or fit it in.

The rest of the time, I've been homeschooling two eight year olds, cooking, trying to keep things even remotely clean (hard with twins, two bird dogs, an old house and a spring melt), and keep everyone afloat.  And Passover is coming, and we need to get ready for that, too.

For me, it's not that different than usual, because I usually work from home.  However, I now have a lot less time to do it, and very little time to do it alone.  (Right now, twins are out bike riding with their dad helping them maneuver their way through all the snow melt puddles...)

The bad news is that I appear to have lost one of my writing gigs.  Today I received my copy of the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News and to my surprise, my column wasn't in it.  I contacted the editor to ask what had happened.  Apparently, my column didn't run--it was an oversight, but oh, by the way...from now on, he would no longer be paying columnists.  So, if I wanted to write for free, he would still put my columns on the website. Things change fast during a pandemic.

I'll be direct.  I was paid $75 an issue to write for this publication, which is not very much, but I wanted to support the Winnipeg Jewish community, so I did anyway...but I didn't write for free.  (Freelancing is, after all, my job and not my hobby.)  The editor did hook me up with the editor of the Vancouver Jewish paper, and for a while, both papers would publish my column and I would get paid more.  But now, due to the current crisis, I'm unsure of if and when my column will run again.  No more publication = no money from that gig.

Again, we are lucky, we have food, shelter, heat and health. (for now.)  I am grateful for what I have...but just now, I'm really sad and surprised to lose this-- I'll no longer be writing a column every other week for the Winnipeg Jewish community.

If you're sad about this too, contact the Jewish Post & News.  Show them your support.  Maybe somebody could help sponsor the column and help keep the newspaper afloat during this hard time...cause writers deserve to sometimes earn money to eat, too. 

Make money: Invest in student research

Every so often, I write about a topic that is important to me--but nobody wants to buy it.  Maybe the draft wasn't good enough, or they have too many other pieces to run?  Maybe the publication thinks that the topic isn't important enough to their audience.  In other words, they don't think anyone cares enough to publish it.

This is hard because I've already invested the time in researching and writing it.  The hardest part though is when it's an important topic, but nobody has aired it sufficiently.  The Professor and I spent a lot of years as graduate students.  Since then, we've also mentored graduate students--in the classroom, the lab, or by feeding them on a holiday.  It was important to me to speak out about the poor levels of financial support grad students get in Manitoba.  Here's my piece on this issue.  It was just published in UM Today--despite the proximity to the end of the academic term, I hope folks read it!  I'm thrilled this piece found a home. I hope it might make a difference.

Op-Ed: Make more money: Invest in student research

Short version: Investing in undergrad and grad research offers huge positive outcomes from a financial perspective.  Personally?  It means grad students can afford to eat without using the food bank and avoid living in rooming houses while they continue their schooling.

In family news, we have continued our hibernation and making frenzy despite several viruses.  Here is a beet chocolate chocolate chip Bundt cake...Maybe the second or third time I have ever used this bundt pan we got for our wedding!  (we get a lot of beets in our farm share at this time of year.  It's a root veggie time of year..)

This year, my kids decided our gifts for teachers would be all handmade.  This morning we gave out four bags with homemade jam, pickles, handwoven and handknit items made by kids AND beautiful hand done colouring and cards from kids.  I was proud of my twins.

One of my guys is currently alternating between wearing only two handknit sweaters.  They are: Freestyle Super and Stripe Freestyle.  (The dude likes stripes.  A lot.)  We are now collaborating on yet another one, with hand-dyed yarns that both kids helped make last summer.  This sweater will be a mommy hand-knit, but I'm not going to write another pattern.  To my surprise, those patterns do not seem to be as popular with other kids as they are in my house.  Again, it's a mystery...but I'm glad the designs find a home on my kids' backs all winter.

Last but not least, one twin is exploring crochet.  This is his version of a lion, before he put on the mane.  Can you see it?  (This is an abstract thinker, I was  impressed.  Rorschach Tests are like this...)

Hope you are having a wonderful December, no matter what you make or celebrate! :)

Catching up

I'm a little behind over here!  Ok, here is the summary.  We've had some warm weather, some time off of school (yes, already, there was a teacher-work day right after school began) and I just chose to give in to playing outside and decide to catch up later.  In Winnipeg, we need to enjoy warm weather while it lasts!

In sad news, we seem to have lost a Worry Bear somewhere along the way.  Since one of my kids needs his every day, I made a new one ASAP.  Same yarn, same ribbon...and I launched it on my brand new Instagram account, @yrnspinner.  (Yes, this is news...please follow me!)

My class last Friday at the Manitoba Fibre Festival was just fabulous.  I had a lot of fun teaching and my students were all eager to do more recycling and reuse.  We had fun.

I managed to take my twins back to the festival later in the weekend and we came home with this outstanding fair trade basket, handmade in Ghana, and sold by Big Blue Moma.  My kids knew the basket would immediately be pressed into service for spinning on the front porch and argued over who would get the amazing blue bead on the label.  (We're negotiating about that.  Luckily, I have other beads for the other kid.)  I took some time to myself to do some hand carding on the front porch while the Professor and twins were out on an adventure.  It was an amazingly rare and quiet moment!

All my columns and other writing work during this time has had to be done while kids are asleep or finally back at school, etc.  The Jewish Independent has recently run two columns: Apple-picking and tzedakah (tzedakah roughly means charity, although not an exact translation) and Concern over what to share.

In between play dates outside with Sally (almost 15 year old Pointer mix) and Sadie (our young Gordon Setter mix), I have also begun to post my patterns for sale on a new website called PatternVine...as well as my old standbys, Ravelry and Lovecrafts.com.  I'd love to hear if you've used PatternVine yet...it's new but comes well-recommended.

Here's to enjoying the warm days while they last!

Preparing

This past week, I did a little tour around my house and collected samples that I'll use for teaching my class on how to make and use recycled yarns.  It was a good opportunity to give beloved household items a good wash and airing!

Remember, if you're interested in taking this class on Friday at the Manitoba Fibre Festival, please register here!

These are only some of my supplies, but a short summary...the baskets.  These knitted baskets were taken directly out of household use.  The flowered one is used to hold medicines and odds and ends on a high up shelf in a kids' bedroom.  The white one sits in a hallway, usually filled with dog toys.

(We are still helping Sadie the dog realize that she can also return toys to this bin as well as distribute them around the house!)
This braided rug usually lives in the guest room.  It is made entirely of old clothing and is aging very well.  I recognized most of the clothing from around 1995-7 or so.  I made this rug for our first home in Durham, North Carolina, around the time we got married.

I wove this rag rug on a floor loom for an outdoor exhibit at the Forks in 2010, I think.  When it came home (a little worse for wear), I washed it, it cleaned up nicely and it became a rug in my guest bathroom.

Part of the reason it was easy to gather all this?  The professor and my kids have been working to paint our guest room recently.  It was an ugly brown color...we inherited it this from the last owner.  When we had our house insulated in June, the workers decided they could not insulate the house on the third floor from the outside.  (too high up, too hard to drill into the stucco to shoot the insulation in the walls.)  So, they drilled inside, and we've had a lot of chaos in cleaning up from this.  Because of the big bore holes, it was a good time to repaint...and we chose a cheery pistachio green shade.  The guest room is mostly reassembled now and looks so much better.  I feel relieved every time I see the new color!

Last but not least, I had an article come out recently in the Vancouver Jewish Independent about the start of the new school year and what we share when trying to connect with others.
That's the news from here!

I'm teaching on September 13th!

Yes, it's true!
I'm teaching a class on how to use recycled materials to make yarn...at the Manitoba Fibre Festival!  (The photo's from my book, Knit Green, an oldie but a goody...)
Check out this lovely kind blog post for more information..and
  To register, go straight to this page on the Festival website.

Other things, in brief...
Strippy McStrippit, my new cardigan design, is now live on both Ravelry and Lovecrafts.com.  (If you live in North America, Lovecrafts even carries Einband, the yarn I used for the pattern sample, so it's easy one-stop shopping.

On an entirely different topic, if you want to read one of my newspaper articles--this one's about Canada's federal voting date, religious minorities, Jewish holidays, and reggae.  (No kidding, I had to throw in reggae...)  Check out this piece, published last Friday in Vancouver.
We are one people, one heart 

Taking care

The last few weeks have been frenetic around here.  Since before Passover, a month ago, I have been super busy--first with all the household preparations, as my husband, the professor, was out of town before the holiday, and then afterwards, with catching up on all the work that seemed to fall between the cracks.  I've been doing some editing, writing, and even some designing. 

Then, the news (shootings, floods, wars) has been fairly daunting, too--and after a while, a person feels run down.  My piece last week for the Vancouver paper, The Jewish Independent, as about this issue and how to do a little self-care in order to cope.  It's called Staying calm amid bad news.

One thing that kept me busy was getting ready to teach a handspinning class in our local fibre arts community.  I both love teaching and feel a bit out of practice...I started my career teaching full time, but now work almost entirely by myself.  That transition from 'extrovert' job to an introverted lifestyle has meant that sometimes I have to really psych myself up and prepare to do a teaching job.  I still love doing it, but I don't get to do it as often now.  

On Mother's Day, I joined five women who seemed as determined as I was to take time to enjoy themselves and learn something new--and the break did us all good!  

This first photo is of the bags of samples I created for the class: eight different kinds of silk, mohair and alpaca, all weighed and measured in a cheerful and reusable bag in spring time patterns, complete with lists of where to buy resources and more.  I also brought along my books to share for those who were interested in a signed copy.  

These days, many of my students seem surprised to hear that I did actually write books on these topics!  (Alas, although they are still for sale, fame is so fleeting!)  If you missed your chance to take a class on Mother's Day, you can, of course, always order the books online.  Here's a link to Fiber Gathering and Knit Green for good measure...If you live locally, I can also sign your books if you're interested.  (If you live far away, postage may be prohibitive.) 

Meanwhile, back at our household, the Professor and my twins did piano lessons, grocery shopping, and playing with our dogs on their own...and surprised me with flowers and a sushi dinner as a treat.  Sometimes a break from routine, some learning, and some time spent doing something you love... is a good thing! 

lead in the soil

If you've been reading my blog for a long, long time, you may remember this post back in 2006, where I mentioned lead contamination in our yard in Kentucky.  This is a snapshot of our yard, including my Professor husband, setting out the paths in our very 'fancy' lead remediation so we could have a garden.

Around this time, in March 2006, I'd written a long, detailed article explaining how to deal with this lead contamination issue and what it meant for safety.  I could not get anyone to buy it!  However, I tucked it away. For years it bugged me because I really did want people to know about these issues.

Sad to say, heavy metal contamination isn't rare...it's relevant to Winnipeg, too.  My article came out today on the CBC-Manitoba website:
Time to stop kicking the can down the road on lead levels in Winnipeg's soil

I'm hoping someone in power will read it.  There's somebody at the U. of Manitoba in the School of the Environment who has the right equipment to test lead. There's plenty of public interest and people want to fix this problem so school kids can play during recess.  If they must sample more, they could dig samples, cover the costs of running the tests at the U of M, and have the answers very quickly.  If they can't afford a real remediation team with diggers?  I bet if you gave concerned citizens a chance, well, we'd be out there with our shovels to start the digging and we'd wear masks to avoid ingesting it.  This is just an unacceptable thing, to keep children from playing on their school field and to leave for someone else to deal with later.

In other, happier topics:  The sun was shining for a moment and we caught photos of a new design today!  I am excited about beginning to write it up.  No big reveal yet, but it solves the problem of portable knitting for those on the go but who want to make sweaters.  Hint: It is knit in seven (totally portable) pieces. There is sewing up at the end, but I don't mind sewing, so it works out ok!

Last but not least--please don't forget:
the Pembina Fibreshed is sponsoring my Spinners' Tasting class--it's a chance to sample mohair, silk and alpaca (and maybe more...)!  It's on Mother's Day, in the afternoon.
  Please consider signing up if you're a spinner in Winnipeg!

I'll leave you with a photo from Fiber Gathering so you can think about camelids (alpacas and llamas are camelids!) while you rush to sign up!

Here's a cashmere buck (that's a boy goat!), for good measure....

2018 in review...and one more article

I am sneaking away from twins and dogs to post one last time before the end of 2018.

Today this article came out on the CBC:
When it comes to parenting advice, the best tip may be to throw away the books

(There were a lot of good photos in this piece, but here's this is the one that reminds me most of my experiences!)

Since having twins, my work time has been limited.  There isn't time for writer's block or procrastination...because no matter how hard I try, I only have a limited number of hours to fit in everything.  (If it doesn't happen during elementary school hours, it happens at night or when I can slip away for a moment, like right now.)  Despite these challenges, I still love when I get to work: writing, editing and designing.

In 2018, I've written and had 63 articles accepted and published.
I published 4 new knitting designs on Ravelry and on Loveknitting.com.
I helped edit the wrap-up documents for the Kelowna Community Resources “Breastfeeding Art Expo”
I taught a fabulous "Learn to Spin" workshop at the Norwood Knitters' Frolic in January 2018 (while I had pneumonia...don't try that one at home, folks!)

I'm sure there is more to add here, but to be honest, I'm too tired to remember it all. :)  Here's to a productive, happy, and healthy 2019! 
All the best,
Joanne

Oh well

I had a lot of plans in mind for January. Somehow, the month has escaped.  Here is a photo of some handspun that I dyed while I was sick.  I shouldn't have been doing it, but I've had several days when I felt sort of better and wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment.  This was some grayish/oatmeal Border Leicester/Romney wool, blended with a small amount of mohair.  I spun enough for a kid's sweater.  I started spinning this in July, when Wolseley Wool, my local yarn store, hosted a few spinning nights.  (It gave me a great excuse to leave home and spin.)

Naturally colored wool makes a great palette for dyeing because the colors come out with depth--textured and rich in the end.  This quick snapshot doesn't show the depth of color, it was cloudy, but I dyed the yarns to order for my kid, blue and green, and left it out in the dining room for all of us to admire and enjoy a shot of color.

Both my twins were home with me for a week due to illness--today is their first day back at school, I hope they make it through the day.  (More on that another time, when I am more energetic.)

A couple of details in the meanwhile.  I left home to teaching my spinning class, which was well-attended and went very smoothly, considering all the illness and antibiotics at home. There are 11 new spindle spinners in the world!  Hurray!  (I hope they keep up the good work!)

Whenever I am really sick, I enjoy a good wallow in bed with a book when it is possible.  Since I had two little kids home with me, that wasn't always an option, but I did discover something. Rosamunde Pilcher's books are now available as ebooks, and you can download them from Amazon or check them out from the library.  I have been a fan of her books since I was a teenager.  Everything is sort of ok at the beginning of every book, but in the middle, there are hot baths, cups of tea, bracing whiskies, dogs, cats, warm farmhouse kitchens, and eventually, at the end, it is always "happy ever after."  There is something to be said for this kind of reading while sick.  I own some of these books, and I prefer real books to ebooks...but these were written long ago and some are out of print.  Here are a couple links through Amazon to the ones I have read (again) so far.  I'm now in the midst of Voices in Summer.

If you're not sick and up for an exciting spy series, I've been really enjoying Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope mystery series, but only when I wasn't sick and thinking straight!

Learn to Spin! January 21st in Winnipeg

Want to gain a new skill and chase away some winter doldrums?  Here it is!

Every January the Norwood Naughty Knitters host a fun afternoon of shared crafting in the lovely sunny venue of the Norwood Community Centre in Norwood Flats, with vendors and craft circles throughout the afternoon.

 As part of our ongoing skills sharing program, the Manitoba Fibre Festival is pleased to offer a class at this event. Please email us to register – info@manitobafibrefestival.com

LEARN TO SPIN ON A SPINDLE

Instructor: Joanne Seiff

Sunday January 21
Norwood Community Centre
57 Walmer, Winnipeg, MB.
3 hours: 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Registration fee: $30
Materials fee: $30 – includes everything you need for this class. 

Handspinning with a spindle is an ancient craft that is still important even today.  Everyone in a household, including children as young as four, used to help spin yarn that clothed the family and kept them warm!  Join Joanne and learn a bit about wool and learn to use a handspindle to make your own yarn.  When you leave this class, you’ll own a spindle, some extra wool, and you’ll be able to practice spinning at home.

For more information, check out the Fibre Festival website!

Two new articles: About universities and routines

Would you let an accounting firm determine how to run your local institutions of higher learning? My latest opinion piece for the CBC is about how Manitoba's government is relying on a report written by KPMG to make big changes at Manitoba's universities. 
KPMG's value-for-money report fails Manitoba universities 

Another article ran recently both in Winnipeg and Vancouver:  It's how we use religious ritual and routine to cope during times of sadness.  It's called:
Jewish routines help us cope

On the home front, we've been busy with grandparents visiting from the US, grade 1, and adjusting to life as a one-dog household.  It's been busy.  Last night though, as I was helping one kid in the shower, he said earnestly, with great concern:

"You work really hard, Mommy.  So hard!"  I asked what it was he thought I was doing... I expected a long list of things like 'making lunches and dinners for us, doing laundry, walking the dog, etc' --things six year olds can see their Mommy doing.  Instead, he said:

"Well, you write one long book every day!" 

(I was very flattered, but tried to explain that a good week might include perhaps two essays, and/or a knitting design...lately, we've been so busy that I have hardly managed that.)  So, now I have something to aim towards.  One long book a day. :)

Teach your children

This article went live a while back and I missed posting about it:
Teach it to your children

That was, in part, because my family took a little jaunt to Calgary.  The professor was helping run a conference at the University of Calgary.  We went along because none of us had ever seen the city.  I was pretty nervous about managing for several days in a new place with two six year olds, but it all worked out fine.

First, I planned the heck out of it...and in our spare time, both boys chased jack rabbits around the university campus. :)
  We went to Heritage Park on Sunday, the Calgary Zoo on Monday, Custom Woolen Mills and the Carstairs park/splash pad on Tuesday, and then Dad (The professor) joined us after his conference was over to go to The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller- to see dinosaurs on Wednesday,  Then we did a day trip from Calgary to Banff and back to see the Rockies and a good puppet show on Thursday.  On Friday, we flew home.  You should have seen the mountain of laundry...it seemed like the view in Banff, actually.

The boys and I had fun, and oddly, some things turned out to be better at home.  ("We like our zoo better than this Calgary one, Mommy!"  And--"We like your food at home, Mommy!"  All that was heartening)

And---Yes, I'm pretty beat, thanks for asking!

Since then, we've had a lot of appointments, errands, and chores to fit around 'free play' until school starts.  We've got the bubbles, the wading pool in the front yard, and Mommy's spinning basket available to wile away the afternoons.  (Knitting is not as portable as spinning on a spindle while chasing little boys...)

I am thinking a lot about those poor folks in flooded-out Houston and trying to read news reports when I can.  We were emailing with some old friends who have two kids, 4 and 7, earlier this week as the storm began, but haven't heard anything in a while.  I am trying not to worry about it too much--as they are surely busy with much bigger concerns right now...but like most everyone else I encounter, I am keeping those Texans in my thoughts.
    
I am also either hopelessly behind on all my work or I guess some people would say I'm on vacation.  (Hah.)  I imagine my vacation will start right about the time that Grade 1 starts next week?!

Slow Fashion October and related ideas

I started "slow fashion October" early --based on my last post--but I was inspired by the Fringe Association blog to mention it.  I'm always exploring how to re-use, or read labels, or buy less and make do...our lives are so full of waste.  Here are a few randomly connected things that relate to this theme:

1) I had a blast teaching at the Manitoba Fibre Festival.  I'm really worn out though.  The spinning class was inspired, in part, by a really out of control stash...since having kids, I just don't spin as much.  I loved sharing 10 small packets of non-wool fibers and information with my students, and maybe sending them home with these .5 oz-1.5 oz packets of flax, ramie, silk, cotton, llama, alpaca...etc. will enable them to try something new.  It also helped me to share something I'd somehow managed to amass too much of and redistribute it to good homes.

2) I also have re-issued an old favorite.  I re-visioned the Plum Ribbed Cardigan in Berroco Remix, a yarn that uses all recycled fibers.  I originally designed it for Knit Picks in 2006.  Eventually, copyright returned to me and I always intended to reknit it for myself but never got to it.  This week, I released it on Ravelry in a new format.  It includes new photos, metric measurements, and yarn suggestions.  It's also available for only $5US as an introductory (retro) price.  Please check it out!

(I loved being able to feature our family friend as a model.  This image was taken by one of my twins...there were dogs, twins and more racing around our yard as we tried to shoot this sweater in style.  I think this sweater suits her, but...I loved it too much to give away, so I am still wearing it, too!)

3) Here's my most recent piece on the CBC.  It's about international moving costs and the recent Canadian Liberal government aides who moved from Toronto to Ottawa.  They racked up enormous moving costs...roughly $126-189 per kilometer, paid by taxpayers.  Our stipend from the university? $3.95 a kilometer.  We were happy to move so that the professor could do research and teach in Canada, but why is it that some people get gold-plated moves instead?!

This seems tangential to slow fashion, but it's not.  Making economical and careful use of one's resources is important.  When I work with other people's yarn or expect to bill someone else for my services, I try to be reasonable because I don't want to promote waste or excess of any kind.  We need supplies and income, but not enough to insulate our houses!  This too (unnecessary stash, or out of control waste of yarn or charging too much)  is a form of unnecessary waste.  It's a lot of money!  Taxpayers could use it on groceries or ....sweaters... instead.

Note: "Plum Ribbed" is FULL of ribbing, (the knitting pattern) and that is why it is named this.  Please feel free to knit it in any color you like!

Mending and Making

I just read about a great idea in Sweden to boost reuse.  The article is about offering tax breaks for those who seek repairs on clothes rather than just discarding them.  It's not called Make Do and Mend but it should be!  Meanwhile, I have not even paid anyone for doing my mending.  I started with hand-stitched patches to deal with the normal knee rips that every pair of little kid jeans gets.

Then I had a good reminder about how much time I spent on it---and a suggestion to get iron-on patches.  $20 later, I had what seemed like a life time supply of boring matching colors and fun kid-friendly decals.  I am going through a surprising number of these (I put a boring patch on the wrong side and a fun one on the right side) and now wish I got that tax break on the iron-on patches instead!  I've patched three pairs of pants today...and it's the second time I've done it in the last week or so.  Twins=twice the number of jeans...

Things are well underway over at the Red River Exhibition for the 4th annual Manitoba Fibre Festival.  While I've been at home, corralling twins* and preparing for my classes,  I've heard that the festival was on TV this morning and everything!!  I'm going to be teaching two classes: One on knitting styles--Explore our Diversity and a second "Spinners' Tasting: It's NOT Wool!"  I am slowly transporting loads of supplies out to my car so I will be ready.  (Office is on third floor.  Car is on ground floor.  I am getting in my exercise.)
  

I also still have a few stray copies of Fiber Gathering and Knit Green available if anyone wants a signed copy....so I am shlepping those out to the car, too. :)  No special signing table or anything, but if you are at the festival, track me down before or after my 9-10:30 class or my 1-3pm one.  I'll be happy to sign it for you.

As part of my preparations (and fruitless search for one tiny tahkli spindle....) I have tidied up a bit.  It was a reminder that this (like all years) is a good one to mend more and make more from scratch!  I sure have the materials on hand.

  If, like me, you are about to celebrate 5777, Happy New Year!  May it be a sweet, happy, healthy, productive year for you.  L'Shanah Tovah!

*This week, the Professor has been off in the US doing fieldwork and attending a conference.  It's been all me, twin five year olds and two dogs.  Thank goodness for kindergarten so I get some breaks!  We've just about made it through (He should be flying home today) but I am really looking forward to a day off (even though I am teaching, it's like a special holiday for me...) at the festival!

the Cubby Imp

On Sesame Street, there is a segment called Abby's Flying Fairy School.  The one I can't get out of my head is called "the Cubby Imp."  Essentially, there is this lonely guy who lives beneath the cubbies at school, and he steals people's stuff.  The characters at the fairy school have to get into his little lair and retrieve all their belongings.

The thing is, our household is usually pretty good at keeping track of our stuff.  I have the same keys my parents gave me to their front door when I was eight.  I hate losing things.

When I was pregnant, over five years ago, we did a bunch of painting and moving stuff around.  Substantial parts of my fiber arts life got moved around, including my floor loom, and I was just not physically able to sort it out then.  Plus, a lot of it was still in boxes from when we'd moved the year before, because that was how I'd stored it in my office.  It's a pretty easy leap from there to conclude that I have not had loads of time to tidy since having my twins, either. :)

Since then, things have been shifted and reshifted.  I am preparing to teach at the Manitoba Fibre Festival next week.  (Please come!  It will be super!)  I have all my students' bags stuffed with goodies, and all is well except for one thing.  I cannot find my tahkli spindle.  Now, you can teach about support spindles and cotton spinning without this spindle, but I just don't wanna.  I have this spindle and its little bowl, dang it.  I do.

I think the Cubby Imp took it.  AHHHH!  Actually though, I know that I have brought it as a demo spindle to other classes I've taught.  I wonder if it got left somewhere, like at a spindling class I did last winter.  Or, more likely, I brought home everything after the workshop and dumped it in my office and thought...I'll just sort this out later.  The thing is, I am exhausted after my workshops are over, and then I have to jump right into Mommy gear, and I lose track of things.

This never happened before I had twins!  

(Clarification...I was tired after teaching workshops. I had clutter... but I cleaned up and knew where things were...nearly all the time.)

A kind friend (the one that reviewed the spindle, above) is going to bring hers so I can show everybody what one looks like at my class.  AND, I still have a week to look for the darn thing.  However, it seemed like a good opportunity to start cleaning up.  I am trying.  Still, I am plagued by feeling like this darn spindle has disappeared because of fairies, or cubby imps or something.  It kills me that I have lost MY tahkli.  I don't even want to buy another.  I want to find the one I misplaced, you know?

--If you were a student in one of my spindling classes recently and read this blog (like, in the last few years...), did you see my brass tahkli spindle with the little brown pottery bowl it spins in?  When did I last have it!?

a new op-ed on higher ed

Over the weekend, my new article came out on the CBC:
Underfunding higher education is hurting Manitoba's economy

As the partner of a professor, the two of us are sometimes wrapped up in knots over what's going on in universities.  How things are funded, how a professor's teaching load and classes are assigned, how to manage the hundreds of emails and students and details.  What is particularly interesting is that by choosing not to get a PhD or become a professor,* I have a different perspective.

From outside the ivory tower, sometimes you can see how individual professors or departments have lost track of their mission.  For instance, professors are, in part, teachers, but often lack any kind of training in how to teach.  So, they struggle with how to be effective instructors...and their assignments sometimes don't match the objectives they hope their students will master.  Their students don't learn all that they could, because the professors lack the teaching tools they need.  Some professors don't even like teaching!  Professors aren't perfect, by any means, but they are experts in their particular field of research.

Yet, in an era of cost-cutting at universities, there's a tendency to push professors to do many things they aren't trained to do:  master travel vouchers and reimbursement software, deal with all their grant funds with no training in accounting, nurture students with special needs or challenges (again, without any training) and more.  Getting a PhD means you are smart--in your specific field of expertise--but it doesn't mean you are good at everything.

Sure, smart people can figure out how to do a lot of things, but how long does that take?  I often wonder what would happen if professors were unleashed from some of the bureaucracy and allowed to really innovate in their areas of strength.  There would likely be new patents and ideas, technology and business start-ups.  There would also be some great teaching, because some professors are, at heart, very good educators.

If there were competent people in supporting roles, managing grants and travel and all the details that keep a university functional, well, professors might get to spend a lot more time on teaching and research-- in our house, that might mean more science and less time fighting over small bureaucratic change.

If you're curious:
*I have two master's degrees.  One in English Education, and one in Religious Studies.  I started out trying to get a PhD in Religious Studies, but midway, my advisor retired without any kind of plan in place for his grad. students.  I am the only one of his students from the period who got a degree out of the situation.  I had a serendipitous opportunity much later to go back to school again to earn the PhD, but at that point, I'd already done 5 years of grad school and two degrees. It would have required a long commute, more years of study and yet another university.  (I'd already attended three)  I decided I was done...I still wish I'd managed a PhD, but since it's hard to get two academic jobs in the same city, I might not have managed to stay married or have kids.  Life's all about choices...

Gray February

Most exciting things first:
This weekend I submitted an opinion piece to the CBC and it went live less than a day later:
Why Manitoba needs a more diverse teaching force

I'd want to point out, of course, that good teaching is crucial, but it is only one part of this assessment; we have no idea if Manitoba's students' test scores are representative of their skills, if the tests done were biased, on and on.  There are a lot of unanswered variables in social science, but, well, this is only one essay about the U of Manitoba's faculty of Education's new diversity admissions policy.
You can't say all that in less than 1000 words. :)

The best part of it all, I felt, was reading the (as usual) mostly knucklehead comments, which sort of illustrate why a diverse, effective teaching force is a good thing. (in aiding tolerance, for instance, which was seriously lacking in some comments) Then there was one absolutely erudite comment about the certification standards from a really qualified Manitoba teacher, educated in Britain.  That made my week.

Other things that are making my week... We have completed our first weaving, with a lot of Mommy help.  These were done on picture frames, using loopers cut from wool socks with holes in them.  The warp was cut up felted sweater strips, leftover from all the wool soakers I made for cloth diapering.

We've had perhaps another 2 or three more preschooler viruses since the last time I posted...digestive issues, colds, coughs...; to be honest, I've lost track.  I have become remarkably zen about the whole thing.  When someone is too sick for preschool, or needs to come home, I take a deep breath, drop all my plans...and just resign myself to returning to the couch with whoever needs me.  I've not done a lot of things this winter.  Oh well.  The house is pretty mucky, too.  I'm thinking of trying to clean up this week, since Didi (my mom, twins' grandma) is coming to visit, but I don't have high expectations.  It doesn't help to expect too much, cause then I feel upset with myself when things are back to basics all over again.
Perhaps because of the great retirement sale at Shuttleworks or maybe just because I needed a pick-me-up, I decided to go crazy and order the bulky flyer set ups for both my Schacht Matchless spinning wheel and my Majacraft Little Gem.  Maybe it was my Valentine's Day gift to myself? This is, I think, my first big wheel-related purchase in maybe 8 years.  It's been a bit of adjustment to figure out how the new things work, but it's exciting, too.  I see very big skeins of handspun in my future...someday!

Before I switched the flyers on the Majacraft, I amazed this kid, home sick, by whipping the wheel out of its carrying case and setting it up so he could check it out.  He was stunned; I don't think he had ever seen how it folded it up before.  He got to treadle and do some wool teasing, which he enjoyed.  (fluffing up locks of wool into clouds for spinning.)  I was rewarded for all this with a seriously firm admonition to "Clean up, Mommy, your office is very messy."  He then offered helpful hints.  Great.  Thanks, kid.

 Finally, I am planning to relaunch some older patterns and reknit some too, this year.  I am also working on a sweater for myself, the third time I am reknitting the Cuddle Coat.  Honestly, this sweater design has a curse, it has never had a decent photo of it.  However, the first one (in my little headshot, that is #1, with Harry the dog) is so worn that I have to mend it, the second one was trashed after it was absolutely worn to pieces, and here's the third.  Yup.  That is some boring looking gray/brown knitting!  If you click on it though, you may see the texture, little bits of color, and softness of the yarn.  Feels great.  Looks just like?  February.

In honor of that....stretch of time, cold, dirty snow, cloudy February, I have a brief sale on Ravelry:
20% off all my designs on Ravelry, through the end of February, with the coupon code....you guessed it:
February

Here's some more gray-brown in case you missed it or it happens to be sunny in your neck of the woods.... :)

News you can use

 The Manitoba Fibre Festival is coming up!  It will be October 2nd and 3rd at the Red River Ex in Winnipeg.  This year is exciting; there is a new location, lots more space, shearing demos, sheep, loads more vendors and more.




I'm teaching a workshop: A Spinner's Breed Tasting.  Imagine a wine tasting flight (an oz or two of several wines) but for spinners.  (Now, we won't be eating fleece!  Just spinning it!) I hear there are still spots open so if you're local, please sign up soon.  I'm getting all the different samples and hand out ready.  It will be fun!  I can't wait!

I've also been getting ready for winter as only a knitter can.  I've been designing a new sweater 'on the needles' (as I knit) this summer.  As one of my twins says, "it's a sweater for mommy" and likely to suit others as well, so I hope to write up the pattern soon.  The best parts?  It's light and lofty, really fast on size 11 needles, and all in stockinette.  It's over-sized and knit all in one piece.  I could knit on it while I played soccer with my kids in the park.  (cross body knitting bag, big blunt needles, and endless stockinette in the round...ideal for many hours of summer play.)  Here are some sneak preview shots as the sweater blocked.  It's knit out of Alafoss Lopi, an Icelandic yarn that is perfect in all weights for winter here.  Light, lofty and warm.... it's still warm here during the day, but winter is coming.  I can feel it.

There's always more to say but I am short on time, so will leave you with photos instead. :)