Transitions

 Note, I am posting from a different device, format may be wonky!

What’s happening here? We had a longer warm period than usual, but alas, all good things come to an end.  We harvested our last herbs and greens, and the frost came.  All of us got used to life spent indoors, although we are still outside a lot.  Temperatures below freezing do not keep us home bound! Sadie the dog is here, on the steps, asking about her walk.

I continue to spin through deep stash.  This is some Polwarth that came originally from Australia, but I bought it in a fiber arts business retirement sale.  It is well aged!  That said, it is spinning up beautifully on my Quebec wheel.

Every fall, a kid or two gets a sweater.  This year, I made another one out of Icelandic plotulopi (unspun.). It is light and warm, if not the hardest wearing.  We were aiming for colour blocking here, but then my kid asked if I could knit the original early 20th century tile pattern from our bathroom into his sweater.  Of course!  I sent him into the bathroom with his iPad and then I knit it from the photo.  I did imagine doing those rows in the bathroom, just to see the tile in person, but thought better of it!

To keep cheerful clothing around, I also made myself another jumper using the 100 acts of sewing pattern and Rifle Paper Company print.  My biology professor husband (currently on strike at the U of Manitoba, but that is another story) suggests I am now dressing like a herbaceous border. I ignored him. I like it!

Last, but not least, our heroic boiler had finally died and we are in the process of getting a new one installed.  So, for now, no central heat, and a lot of toys to tidy in the basement so the new one can be put in.  I am excited about this, although it is an expensive home repair while my professor is on strike…because, well, in Canada, heat is life!  We are doing ok with running two gas fireplaces, a little radiator space heater, and of course, I am wearing a lot of wool…

Last day of school & Gratitude

A friend recently gave me this knitting project bag.  It's got funny things on it like:
"Mother: [noun]-One person who does the work of twenty. For free."
And
"The joys of motherhood are experienced when kids go to bed."

I'm extremely glad that I had my twins, and I love them a lot.  However-- I'm also pretty sad that grade 1 is over as of lunch time today!  During the summer, we have some summer camp time, and a lot of "hang out with Mommy" time.  It means I have to work at night, on weekends, or whenever I can fit it in...so blog posts may be fewer, and well, I get fewer breaks to do grown-up things like work.  (Maybe it's surprising, but I love working and being by myself and miss it terribly when I'm on full time mom duty.)

Yesterday was a taste of things to come.  We had a day off (right before the end of school) and we got hair cuts, went to the pediatrician for a check-up, brought Sadie the dog to a play date with a trainer and picked her up again, walked to the bakery together (and boys purchased bread/treats on their own), had meals and snacks, played in our front yard wading pool... and ran one other errand.  Yes, we had take-out for dinner.  I could do no more!

The errand: I picked up my engagement ring and wedding ring from the jeweler's.  Yesterday was our 20th wedding anniversary.  In honor of this, I had my rings resized so I could wear them consistently again.  Twin pregnancy and Lyme disease/post-Lyme means my knuckles swell...and getting the rings on and off had become really a trial.  So, I reconfirmed things with the Professor this way.  The jeweler said "Here they are again, like brand new!"  But I didn't want brand new.  I wanted older, a bit worn, and still fitting.  Oh well.  No one's fault that my knuckles got swollen.  I need to be grateful for what I've got!

In order to counteract this feeling...here's a link to my latest article,which just came out today:

Do you have a gratitude list?

stash additions

I promised a look at the lucky finds I brought home from our trip.  It took a stellar day with gorgeous sunshine and an hour to shoot all the photos I wanted, but it was worth it.  Sometimes just touching fine yarns, imagining the potential in things--it can be inspiring and hopeful.  Here are more images from the photo shoot.

Here are the odd balls of Brooklyn Tweed and Kidsilk Haze I picked up--all yarns someone did not use, donated, and I got for $5US a ball.  Can you imagine colorwork or fuzzy mitts?  I can!

It will be so hard to decide if the blue balls, knit together, will be gorgeous on their own, or if I should use that rose colored tweed to offset the blue and save the mohair for some other purpose.  (mohair is warm but does kind of go up your nose when it is cold, nose drippy weather and wearing mitts...)

A friend was at a yarn shop that was going out of business.  She specializes in art quilting but said she could not stop touching this Alpaca/silk yarn and had to buy me what was left.  I got it in a package sent to my parents' house.  Wow! Just touching it is a tonic for what ails you.  No idea what this will be, something delicate, obviously.  I will need to put into my stash to "marinate" until the right project comes to me.

Last but not least, I got these skeins of Quince & Co. Puffin.  I was delighted by this.  My twins mostly like sweaters knit from DK-to Aran weight yarns, but I could see this becoming a bulky weight version of Stripe Freestyle.  It would be a fast knit and I need to get going, because my guys are growing and need sweaters for next fall.  (It's Winnipeg.  Winter is always coming.)

In the meanwhile, here's an "outtake" of what things looked like as I moved yarn around on my porch.  Sadie was taking a rest (note the squeaky ball) in the shade while I took photos. Even more photos to come soon in another post!  Stay tuned.

PS: Please join me in wishing the Professor a very happy 45th birthday today!  Here's to many more!

Happy 5778! and more

Sorry for the radio silence over here.  Just when the second week of school for twins started here, our dear professor (Daddy) went off to England to do some research in museum insect collections.  I am proud to say that we made it through more than a week on our own.  Two six year olds, two older dogs (one pretty sick) and one very tired Mommy.  Holding down the fort is hard work.

Every day, our professor sent us photos of what he saw while he was in London at the Natural History Museum, in Oxford, and then at a symposium in Cambridge.

Here is a little sampling of his photos.
This is the museum in Oxford where he worked.  The red shirts at the front were volunteers for a day of student visits...he said there were balloons and signs and helpers, and lost looking young people everywhere.

The outsides of these museums and the display spaces are really something to see.  Behind the scenes, according to the professor, are even more interesting--sometimes disorganized, dark, and overwhelming.  He saw very old insect collections (like, 400 years old) and more.  Here is a shot of what behind the scenes looks like in Oxford's museum.

In Cambridge, he got to attend a symposium for his grad school advisor.  (Yes, the professor attended that Cambridge for this Master's degree, he's a Churchill College guy.)

Here's a shot of the punters on the river in Cambridge.

 What happened at home?
My article ran on the CBC here.  I got a lot of interesting and somewhat confrontational feedback.   Little of it seemed to apply to managing responsibly as a single parent for a week.  (You'll understand more if you check out the link, it's about creating legislation and education campaigns for the July 2018 marijuana legalization in Canada.)

The 2017 Manitoba Fibre Festival happened, and I was there for only an hour or two with both kids as I didn't teach or help this year.  It was remarkable to be there as a regular bystander.  Only a few people knew me or said hello.  It reminded me how capable others are--there were great classes, many volunteers, lots of helpers.  While I missed some of it, stepping down from being involved was obviously better for getting over Lyme disease,improving my health and taking care of my kids.  However, I was left a bit hollow about the whole thing, still sorting out my feelings there.  I've taught at a bunch of festivals, given a key note at one or two, done booksignings, and helped start this one.  But for now, I am 'between' festivals.

There was also a really super review of my book, and I was so grateful for it.  I have fallen down on marketing it.  However, the short version is that I'm proud of having written From the Outside In and even more pleased that I figured out how to publish all those newspaper columns both affordably and independently, in book form.  That said, I'd also like to break even on the whole thing, so if you haven't read my book, please check it out!

We topped off this very busy time with a really wonderful family Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year, to celebrate 5778.  Happy New Year!  Both boys were unhappy that I didn't manage to invite guests to our holiday meals, but one very tired professor (with jetlag) returned just in time... so now we're back to two parents, two elderly dogs, and two very busy grade 1 students, starting a new week of school.  (Easy by comparison to last week)

It was rainy and cold here this weekend, and I'm knitting like crazy to get ready.  Kids keep growing like weeds and need new sweaters.  Winter is coming!  (Winter is always coming in Canada)  Are you knitting anything new?  Need some pattern ideas?

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...

on the radio

One of my lovely blog commenters said something like "Gosh I'd be nervous if I were interviewed on TV/radio, etc.!" You know, I'd be nervous too if I'd known it was going to happen... In Neepawa, it all just happened to me in the 15 minutes before and after the class I taught. I didn't have a chance to get nervous. Then I actually had an opportunity to get nervous this week--and I forgot!

Several months ago, I sent an informal email (about knitting, of course) to someone at a radio station in Virginia. The announcer contacted me once or twice, and we set up a time to talk. I even put it on my office calendar.

Yes, but how often did I look at the calendar? Not very often, of course, because for the last 2 weeks, there were 2 sets of guests on the 3rd story of my house, so I "decamped" and didn't use my 3rd floor office so I wouldn't get in their way. Yesterday, the last set of guests left. (More on that in a bit...)

Today I was grading engineering graduate student papers--at 20 minutes or more for an academic level paper, it takes a while-- and the phone rang. There was that radio announcer. He said we'd go live in 2 minutes.

"Huh," I thought and looked at the calendar. Oh. Right.

If you want to hear what I sound like on the radio, here's the link. It wasn't a long interview, thank goodness. I'll be curious to hear what you thought of it. Cause, you know, if I'd remembered that I was going to be on the radio? I might have gotten nervous.

About those guests...my wonderful Professor and I just looked at the most recent water bill. It covered the months of May, June and July.

"Gosh," he says, looking worried and surprised. "Our water usage has gone up!"

There was a long pause then. "Do you think, " I ventured, "It might be those 11 guests we had between May and mid-August?"

Oh yeah. It might be that.... :)