I Kitchnered like a Rock Star

I like knitting socks. They are the ultimate compact knitting project. You can justify splurging on expensive-ish yarn because you don't need all that much. There are tons of patterns to choose from, and once you have your method down, they aren't technically difficult to make.

Two main schools of sock making have them made from either the toe up or the cuff down. I learned cuff-down, and have been trying to teach myself toe up. I admit I've gotten kind of bogged down with the toe-up world, and will likely rip out the second sock (shown here on the left in green) of a pair that has been languishing for months and do a cuff down.

Socks are usually knit on really small (like 2-3 mm) needles, and with a fine guage of yarn. That gives a nice look and small stitches. For these big reds, I used a 6 mm needle (comparatively huge) and the next step up in yarn width, sport weight. Wow, combine those two and this thing practically knit itself.

But, I'd like to draw your attention to my Kitchnering. At the end of the sock, at the toe, the two sides need to be grafted together to close up the tube of knitting. The Kitchner stitch is a way to sew a knit stitch with a tapestry needle that closes the tube and looks like knitting. I almost always screw this part up, which is sort of a heartbreak when it's the last thing to do on a sock and it's hard to rip it out and go again.

So here are photos of the best Kitchnering I've ever done. I looked at the instructions, tried something a little different and it worked nicely.

Now, we'll see if the second sock gets made - maybe over Thanksgiving...

Low spot

I recently ended my relationship with CB, and I've been melancholy ever since. I know it was the right decision, but owing to how his personality isn't to blame, and what I potentially gave up, well, it's just going to take some time to feel better.

We met online, on a site for science-y types, and from the beginning we were 900 miles apart. We talked on the phone, sometimes for hours, and exchanged emails. About five or six weeks into it, he asked if I would fly out to meet him, and then we'd drive the eight hours to Los Angeles for a concert he had tickets to. Even though I've told this story several times, it still looks like I took this huge chance with this person I met online. I never felt any red flags come up and we had a great time. Nothing like spending eight hours in a car to begin to spend time together!

Since he travels for a living and is on the road for two or three weeks at a time every three or four weeks or so, we settled into a routine of me flying out there for a few days every 5 weeks or so. Sometimes we'd have to wait longer, and I remember the first summer we were dating I waited an excruciating 7 weeks while he went to Alaska, and then to Nova Scotia, and then I had to travel for my work. A big concern for me for the first year or so was that he'd determine that it wasn't worth the trouble, and would decide to end it. But he didn't.

We went to California twice to go whale watching, and I looked forward to the opportunity to travel with him while he was working. He leads bird watching tours and that would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, the money was never there, and I spent all of my vacation time on our monthly visits.

I will miss my time with him. We started dating a couple of years after I was divorced, but I was still, in retrospect, feeling the effects of having been married for 15 years and having the rug pulled out from under me. To be with someone who accepts and appreciates you for who you are is a rare and wonderful thing indeed.

I'm looking forward to doing more in my community, maybe getting some work done on the house and have decided I'll teach again next semester. I've missed talks with my sister acutely during this time, and it's been odd and sad not to have her counsel.

Thanks, CB. Our time together changed me for the better.

Things have changed

More on this later.

Happy Halloween!

When you have a "OK, whatever you want is fine with me" kind of dog, doesn't that obligate you to set up and take these kinds of pictures?

Arf!

What a day (and a half)

I knew this was coming, but yesterday, my car wouldn't start. Thankfully I have AAA, so the tow to the mechanic was free. I have a great repair shop, whose only downside is that they are too small to have anybody around to give me a ride to or from work. Mr W's dad was nice enough to lend me one of his cars, and my plan was to ask my coworker to help me get my car this afternoon.

Unfortunately, she was out today, so I ended up dropping off the borrowed truck and taking the bus to the repair shop. I have been lucky to not need public transit often, but it always reminds me of my first year of college, when I lived at home and took a bus down to Cleveland State University for classes. It started to rain a very cold rain about 5 minutes after I got into my car, and I was grateful for not having to do my car-getting in the rain.

At 170,000 miles, I asked the car guy, "when is it time to buy a new car?" He said my car is doing fine, has lots of life left in it, and that they'll tell me when that tipping point is reached where putting any more money into the car is a bad idea. It's good to have repair people you can trust.

The other thing that happened today is that I got the results back from the x-ray of my lower back. I had gone in on Friday, because my lower back starts to hurt after I stand for a while, and it's gotten to the point where it doesn't feel like I can stretch it out anymore to make it feel better. As these things go, they left a message on my home answering machine yesterday, which I didn't get until after the office closed.

It's so hard to read anything from "we've got the results from your x-ray, give us a call", so I tried hard not to read anything into it. The verdict: a low degree of bone degeneration (i.e. arthritis) in my hip, which I knew about and doesn't bother me, and what they called "mild scoliosis". Huh. As in a mild curvature of my spine. The recommendation is to get started on physical therapy and go back in a month or so.

Mild scoliosis? My initial reaction was something like, "That's awesome!" out of relief as much as anything else. It's been named and now is a dealable thing. I was thankful, but it's been a busy day and a half.

Health coverage guilt

I went to the doctor on Friday for some low back pain I've been having. It seems to be related to the hip injury I had back in 1991. The initial thinking is that I've compensated by shifting my weight to the left side and now my left lower back hurts.

I had PT for the hip at the beginning of the year, as it had gotten stiff and hurt sometimes when I walked. It's good. It feels pretty darn good. But my back is getting worse, and it's aggravated by standing, so it needs to be looked at.

So I went to the doctor, and they recommend starting with an x-ray. I go over to the imaging center, and the sign says, "Please have your I.D. and your insurance card ready to hand to the receptionist". I have these things, so it's not a problem for me, but it got me thinking about the health care debate and that there are plenty of people who would not, could not go to the doctor to get themselves checked out because they simply couldn't afford it.

I feel guilty for having coverage and not doing anything about other people not having it.

It's too soon to know what the x-ray will show, and I have to admit that there's always a fear (always) that there's a big old tumor back there that only feels like back pain and off we'll go on it being Linda's turn to die young. I know, I'm getting ahead of myself. This class thing has been stressful, and I know that I don't want more stress in my life. I'm all about the balance stuff. On the flip side, it's been nice to put some money into savings.

Fall Color - Colorado Style

We don't get much in the way of fall color here. There's yellows, but really it's no comparison to what was routinely seen in Ohio. This pic is of one of the trees on my tree lawn, a Serviceberry. The robins love the berries in early summer, and it puts on a good show in the fall. We got a few inches of snow a few weeks ago, and I thought that would put the kibosh on nice color. This ain't bad.

Out of the goodness of my heart

I just got back from hosting a study session at a local coffee shop. After the first exam, I felt badly that some students were just not "getting it", and this was something I was willing to offer to help students understand the difficult concepts.

We've been studying cellular respiration and photosynthesis, which are two reasonably difficult topics, especially if all you've had was high school biology. I scheduled what I thought was a perfectly reasonable time of the day, 10 am - noon on a Saturday (today) for the session.

I brought my notes, the textbook, and the study guide. I got there a few minutes early and got a table for 4, thinking we could easily move to one of the larger tables if there were enough people to warrant doing so.

So I'm sitting there, feeling benevolent, and the first person walks in. Then, shortly after, the second (and last) person comes in. Who were these students, you ask?

They were two of the five who are in no danger of getting anything other than an A for the class, two of the best students in the class. They each had a couple of questions about the lab we did yesterday, which they had already stared writing up.

So, no one that really needed the extra help showed up. I was of course happy to help these ladies, who, being close to my age, have built-in cred with me. This experience has helped me to realize something, though. My teaching contributes maybe half of what they are going to learn (as measured by the quizzes and exams) in this course.

The other half comes from their efforts - to read the chapter, study, come to and pay attention in class, and do the online learning stuff. It's their deal. With the exception of a couple of them, they are more than smart enough to "get" the material. For those students, they really will get out of it what they put in. I feel sort of bad, though, for the ones whose expectation is that they will be fed this stuff and then all they'll need to do is memorize most of their notes and spit them back.

I'll do more of these sessions, but now my expectations are a little more realistic.

Man, I miss knitting - to my own peril!

This past weekend, it was my turn to watch Mr W, and we did a nice assortment of kid stuff and house stuff, and I worked on my school stuff a bit. Not enough. Throughout, I had this really strong urge to knit. Man, I miss knitting. So I started something small - a little knit ornament - and picked a scarf pattern that I haven't started yet.

I really got into knitting a couple of years ago. I was perfectly content in the evenings to listen to World Cafe with my feet up and knit for a couple of hours before bed. This worked well in the winter, especially. In the summer, my interest kind of wanes, and small things that don't warm my lap up (like socks) are good to work on.

You'll notice by the picture that I have several UFOs - that's unfinished objects, in knitspeak. From the left, there's the second sock of a pair I've been working on since spring - I'm trying to teach myself to knit socks from the toe-up instead of from the cuff down - I have to rip out the heel on these before I can continue, and the pattern makes it hard to do so, so I've done nothing. Next is a scrumptiously soft merino/alpaca yarn that I'm going to make a hat out of. Hope it gets done before it warms up in the spring. After that is the gold yarn for the ornament - just a few rows of that are done. Next is my Clapotis, which is done in sock yarn and is a scarf/wrap thing. Finally, there's my Radiate sweater that I wanted to complete this summer.

*sigh*

Oh, lest I forget, I have a vest for my niece that I really do need to finish. Before she's in high school (she's in second grade this year). Mental block on that one. Someday soon, I hope.

School has sucked out all of my free time. I am nervous because I'm going to AZ in a couple of weeks, and also going to Ohio for Thanksgiving. It's almost too much. I was barely prepared for class today, and completely forgot to write the quiz that was scheduled. I felt terrible. I'm hoping to get a lot done this weekend, which means no knitting, no housework, no projects.

I still like teaching, though.

Because I don't post enough pictures

And, because everyone needs to enjoy their own little spot now and then.

It's a good thing

In the class that I'm teaching, we are finishing up respiration today, and I have one more chapter (Photosynthesis) of material that I've learned, but learned a long time ago, to get through before we start something I know something about.

After we're done with Photosynthesis, we start Genetics - phew! There's still stuff I need to bone up on but this is much more familiar territory and I've felt like a bit of an impostor by presenting some of this stuff about metabolism and cellular respiration when I've just relearned it for myself and my knowledge of it is pretty shallow. I guess it is to be expected, and if I were to continue teaching, I'd "get it" more and more myself each time.

I did just find out, though, that my chances for a full time gig went down dramatically because a former full time instructor is coming back after doing a stint as a dean. All of the sudden, I'm not as motivated to stay on at the expense of feeling too busy. He's a great teacher, as is the lead instructor, so it's not like they are hiring poor instructors.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to talking about genetics stuff, and think I might have them do a - gasp - group project! Maybe a pairs project that is on some aspect of biotechnology. They respond really well to the extra stuff I throw out there, so I think they'd learn something from the exercise.