go obama, go go obama

seeing as the primary is about to come to a close, it may seem as though this post is a little late, but it’s never to late to embrace hope (super-cheesy, but you have to admit that deep down you know its true.  i like what he represents, his platform, and him- what a great and charismatic speaker.  plus, i think he could actually win (always a good thing).

also, look at this video, a very cute story- and one that i bet keeps hillary awake until 3 a.m.

i made yarn!

so, i did say that i would get to why i needed roving so here it is.  I MADE YARN!!!!!!!  yes, the wild child has learned to spin.  most of my yarn still looks like a curly coiled mess, but its getting there.

Ta Da!  its very much an “art yarn”, and will never be knit up, but its still pretty awesome

and here is the bonus shot of me making the yarn.  i won’t go into the details of it, but basically my yarn is (relatively) even because i tear my roving into thin strips and just spin those, instead of thinning out the fiber from a big handful.

the last week i’ve developed another satellite hobby to knitting, making stitchmarkers

(sorry about all of the blurry pictures,  it seems that crafty energy takes away from photographic energy)  this is the latest set i’ve made.  my markers are unique because instead of a solid ring that you place on the needles they are flexible wire, so they hang down comfortable when working instead of being pushed up by the knitting, and can flex to fit a variety of needle sizes

and there is just one last thing, it was a pretty simple garter stitch ipod case for a friend’s birthday, but it did involve a foray into the unknown land where only one needle is required ( and it isn’t even a sharp one you can defend yourself with)

i am totally in love with crocheted button covers!  they looks so cute and you can make buttons that match PERFECTLY.  i used this really awesome tutorial at crochet me.  ( check out the rest of the patterns while you’re there.  they almost make me want to become a hooker)

the stash

for a long time i was in stash denial, “it freaks me out to have a stash, i don’t like it” i cried as the yarn came in. most of the blame falls on the ravelry karma swap group. basically free yarn? i’m there! so, i present to you the fully self-accepting stash

level one- needles, fo’s and other detrius

level two-roving. why do i need roving? we’ll get to that tomarrow

level three- stuff i have plans for.

the next two levels are the yarns i don’t have plans for. the top one is nice yarn and the bottom is the not so nice yarns. call me crazy, but i get twitchy when the homespun touches the angora

then there is the bag of manos del uraguay and the bag of bernat cameo on the floor, and after that it’s done.  but, stay tuned for the three bags of yarn i just ordered.  (the word sale is my achilles heel)

there was only one needle!!!!!

so, the friday plan has also fallen through.  i like the idea of being organized- the practice not so much.  so, i’m back with a vengeance and a apology to subjecting you to all those boring planning post.  and what better way is there to get back on the blogging wagon than a nice long rant

we recently drove down to rehobeth beach and sis and i were watching videos on her ipod, specifically anthony bourdain goes to sweden.  he was supposedly meeting with two knitting snowboarders.  i know for a fact that there are actually knitting snowboarders, i saw a poster (now i totally want one to hang up, knitting guys are just as cool as fall out boy).  these were not them.  THEY WERE CROCHETERS!  there was only one needle!  didn’t anyone on the production staff have the mind to think back to when their mothers and grandmothers were knitting away and realize that knitting involves two needs, not one hook?  there were even lots of nice close-ups of the guy making the hat, in which it was quite obvious that

1. all of the stitches were not live or on a needle
2. only one needle was involved
3. the needle was a hook

as if that wasn’t enough there was the tellatale heart.  i caught just a glimpse of a red on black line drawing at first, but after re-winding a few times i was sure.  they were CROCHETING  with RED HEART.  why i ask, why?  not only is red heart the worst of all acrylics, acrylics are sometimes necessary but for those times there are caron, dark horse, vanna’s choice, and wool-ease, all of which lack that scratchy plastic-ness that defines red heart.  also, these people are from sweden!  home of Icelandic wools an fair-isle!  i can only hope that the pulled the red heart out of the back of the closet when they had been hidden after deciding that an american wouldn’t properly appreciate all of those stunning sheep wools that usually use.

the yarn  (a simple google search turned up no hat pictures, apparently the evidence has been destroyed)

time-commitment post take 2

the week of posting never even made it out of the gate, so look for a huge fo post next friday.

that sticky little time-commitment post

so, looking back my posting has kind of been going in a down-hill direction.  i think this is because to have a blog, you have to have something to post.  and my life is just not interesting enough to offer up a post-worthy even every other day.  to rectify this i have the The Plan:

i’ll post every day for the next week, mainly projects i’ve finished and yarn i’ve gotten, then i’ll post once every week, ususally on a friday.

hopefully, this will work out better, and you all will know just when to check back for an update

ability grouping could help all students, not just the brightest

as you may remember i wrote a rather vitriolic post about one approach to single-sex education. so, here is what i think another solution to rearranging classrooms is- ability grouping

the very words strike fear in all those who subscribe to the american values of equality, and that anyone-can-do-it attitude. however, when you take a closer look ate what ablility grouping is when it is done right you can see that it benefits everyone. first off, modern ability grouping programs do not have fixed “tracks”. there is frequent testing and at any time a student can switch classrooms, so students do not just slack off because nothing they do matters. instead there is the positive message that when they work hard they get ahead. there are also many more positives

• students get to be with peers who think and communicate at their level
• the bright students are not held back by the slower ones, and the slower ones are not rushed ahead by the bright.
• teachers do not have to dance between ability levels, each lesson only has to be tailored to one level. also, each student gets more attention because the teacher does not have to go off and catch-up some people, or move others ahead. no group is left to sit while the other is being helped
• students get a class room where the lesson always challenges them, but never leaves them drowning

the little unexpected things

yesterday i saw a clown at the metro. we were sitting in the care waiting for my sister to emerge when up pulls sparkles in her bright yellow wig and big red nose. for a while we just stared. how often does a clown ride the metro? and then sprkles handed me a magenta balloon dachshund through the window. after that she was gone. for a few minutes our life had been the setting of an absurdist play.

so here he is, reposing on my dresser

the siren call of gadgetry

so, i have absolutely to desire to buy yarn for “stash”. none at all. if i do i can feel it haunting me, calling out with its little voice “make me into something, make me into something.” and that is both creepy and irritating. However, i have discovered the chink in my armor- knitting accessories. the pretty little stitch markers, the row-counters, the circular needle sets, they all call to me. i mean, they will make my knitting so much easier, more convenient. how can i resist? while trawling the web i found this latest labor-saving device from knitpicks

so, we can agree that it is completely pointless, would probably tangle the skein, and get strangers to cross to the other side of the street, but oh how i want one.

seperate classrooms could be the answer to flagging grades, but schools need to think before they act

i just read this great article on single-sex education. (if you want to be shocked, informed, and understand what i talk about next if suggest reading it)

while i am a fan of single-sex education i think that the way Sax goes about it is incredibly messed-up, and gives it a bad name

• The neurological philosophy of single sex-education so clearly divides everything into charicteristics of girls and characteristics of boys that it doesn’t recognize the overlap, and the fact that not all students will fit their profile. there are girls who will act and think like boys, and there are boys who will act and think like boys.
• not only that, but the profiles are so stereotypical. girls are artistic, verbal, social, and fragile. boys are action oriented, strong men who don’t like to read. they completely re-enforce gender roles, and wasn’t the point of single-sex education to free boys and girls from stereotypes?. Gender is a broad umbrella, and there are many kinds of people underneath it, a fact that Sax’s approach completely ignored.  his approach pushed teachers to first think of the students genders, rather than their individual characteristics
• also, if handled badly seperate lessons and approaches could turn into watered-down lessons for one of the groups. The lesson plans and paces could end up being on radically different levels, with the excuse being that that is the level appropriate for that sex’s mind, and we get yet again have the problem of separate but not equal.
• then there was this disturbing quote- “[sax] maintains that a school’s teachers and staff need only 14 hours of training — two 7-hour days with him — to prepare to switch from coeducation to single-sex” fourteen hours!?!?!?! this is a whole new teaching style that we are talking about, a whole different way of looking at students and this can be done in only fourteen hours. its sounds like people who receive this kind of training will resemble their taught-to-the-test students. they will be able to answer the question, but not explain why that is the answer
• and the even more disturbing “Sax credits Bender [a teacher following his lessons] for helping focus a boy who was given a wrong diagnosis of attention-deficit disorder by telling him that his father, who had left the family, would be even less likely to return if all his mother had to report was the boy misbehaving in school.” so, you are telling a kid that it is partially his responsibility to make his father come back, and then partially his fault if he doesn’t come back. that is just so twisted
• finally there is this problem which can occur with both single-sex approaches. while single-sex classrooms are fine it is important that there be structured time where the two genders interact. only by actually interacting with each other in a supervised and structured environment will the two groups dispel gender stereotypes and learn to interact with one another, an essential life skill.
• however, what irks me most is how sax is trying to use science to justify all of this, much like how eugenics was used, on a much larger and more dire scale, to justify segregation.

so, single-sex classrooms can be amazing experience and a great help to students, but they need to be VERY closely supervised and thought out.