Stuff & Nonsense

A few photos of some recent acquisitions:

• a notions case I bought when I was on a rock-star road trip last weekend.

• some vintage rick-rack I hope to use as trim on some underpinnings, a set of antique knitting needles and case, an odd Limoges disc that caught my fancy.

• some presents from LB: a nineteenth-century glasses case and a celluloid jewelry box

• I've sort of become obsessed with these boxes of late. I had one, from my great-grandfather's second wedding ring and suddenly found myself picking them up at yard sales for a quarter or at antique stores for a lot more. They're a lot harder to find than I thought, which is why I only own four.
  



• a Civil War CDV, three knitting post cards, a leap year post card I didn't yet own in spite of owning several hundred, and a Cavalier King Charles cigarette card.

Vacationing with a Vengance

For an academic, the end of the semester is simply brutal, with no way around it. The benefit, however, is that once grades go in, we're done. Completely. No unfinished projects, no meetings, no anything.

I took advantage.

LB, Steu, and I went to visit our friend, Rhys, for two weeks and watched his four-year-old open presents. Can you spot him?

With no television and almost no Internet, I knitted and knitted and knitted, finally finishing the cashmere sleeping socks I'd started in June of 2009.

I went to three different LYS and bought souvenir yarn.

I went junking.

I returned refreshed.

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Coming soon: New Year's resolutions.

Grading, grading, grading

Enjoy the pretty picture:

Crazy Day

Enjoy the pretty picture!

In Which Our Heroine Gets Stuff (Part 2)

The same day my Day of the Dead package arrived, I got a smaller package from my mother, who occassionally sends relevant newspaper clippings and freebie office supplies she picks up at conferences.

No complaints about the aforementioned (and not just because I know she reads the blog), but this time the package was exceptionally cool:

an assortment of vintage hankies (I am particularly fond of map hankies)

including some exquisite hankies from France.

And an awesome knitting postcard.

Thanks Mother!!!

Midterms

Midterms are due today. Enjoy the pretty postcard:

Postcard of the Day

My LYS is in the process of setting up a wholesale account with Sajou, makers of exquisite threads, notions, ribbons, and ephemera, who also happen to see these gorgeous postcards.

In the meantime, here's one from my collection:

Postcard of the Day

LB and I hit a local postcard show this weekend, and I set about trying to convince the vendors that yes, they probably did have postcards of knitters.

In a fairly short period of time, I did manage to find about six.

Deadline

This Friday I am giving a talk at the AKC Museum of the Dog on the antebellum works in their collection. I am only about a third of the way done.

Did I mention that the talk is this Friday?

In the meantime, I bought a post card.

Still More Packages

I blame Rachel. To thank me for some technical editing (which apparently disheartened her to the point of VOWING NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN!), she bought me these very cool grammar stickers and buttons.

I love surprises, so when Rachel suggested we work together on an Alice in Wonderland surprise for Tempest Tea, aka Jamie, I said yes.

Rachel knitted these sweet mitts from her own "Flamingos on the Croquet Lawn" colorway.

She also contributed a beautiful skein of her yarn in the "Hookah You" colorway.

Together we commissioned the lovely and talented but blogless Suzanne to design a set of stitch markers in Jamie's favorite lime-green colors (at my LYS, certain greens are known as "Jamie green").

We also gathered an assortment of Alice-inspired goodies.

For my part, I sewed a project bag using this pattern from Two Kates.

The current line of Alice fabric doesn't exactly scream lime green, but I'm rather proud of myself for making it work. The bag is lined with the green/blue fabric in the background, and the applique is different on each side.

Most importantly, I got to indulge my love for Alice ephemera. I've got lots of it. Lots and lots. As in several book shelves' worth of books alone. Plus a curio cabinet. Plus more.

I included an Alice postcard from a British artist I used to swap with.

I included an Alice edition and a tour guide to Oxford since, of all my friends, Jamie seems the most likely to actually visit Oxford and go on an Alice tour.

For the books, I made two perforated paper bookmarks.

One was the first stanza of "Jabberwocky."

while the other showcased one of my favorite Alice characters, Bill the Lizard.


I raided my drawer of Alice ephemera (what? you don't have one?) and headed off to Kinko's.

I had fairly rare copies of a Peter Newell coverlet pattern

and patterns for Peter Newell sofa cushions. Wouldn't these be an amazing needle felting project?


I scanned color copies of all my Alice advertisements


and then chopped them up to make wrapping paper


which I think turned out pretty cute.


So on that note, I think I'll take the advice of the King:

"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

Knitting Postcard

A few weeks ago, I went to the local postcard show and spent about three hours pouring through the discount bins. I didn't come up with much:

• only one knitting card (this one)
• one spinner (gifted to Kim before I had a chance to scan it)
• two weavers
• and a bull fighter (just because)

This card was mailed from San Francisco to Missouri on September 3, 1907.

________________________

... and in other news:

Steuey met a chicken.

Lena

I'm woefully short of inspiration this week. I'm overbooked with meetings and sundry commitments.

Plus, all of the short stories I've been teaching are not ones I've read before. While I've enjoyed "Sonny's Blues" and "A Mouthful of Cut Glass," there's something to be said for teaching "A Rose for Emily" for the fortieth time. I still find something new each time, but I can just relax into it.

That said, meet Lena (click to biggify).

I found her for fifty cents at the spring post card show. Her name is pencilled on the back. Ann thinks she looks crabby. I think she's been dragged outside and is squinting as her eyes adjust from focusing on teeny tiny sock needles to the wide, sunny expanse of the prairie.

I love her.

More Postcards

The only way, absolutely the only way, I get things done is to remember to be kind to myself. If I fail to do something (like make dinner, do laundry, read for book club), I'm pretty good at letting go, not beating myself up too much.

At the moment, I'm trying to cram sixteen weeks of classes into a mere thirteen days. Class meets every weekday from nine to noon. Three-hour classes suck, no question about it. So I've divided the class as if it's a MWF class, in other words, three fifty-minute sessions.

It's working beautifully. I don't have to come up with three hours' worth of lesson plans. I need to come up with three hour-long lesson plans. Just about the time the students get squirrely, we take a break. Three hours of talking a day is blowing my voice and my feet hurt like a sonnovabitch, but things are looking good.

My spirit, thanks to doing almost nothing over Memorial Day and thanks to an upcoming road trip with LB, is much recovered from the bruising it took last semester.

Yes, I've got two students texting in class. I have to get twenty-five papers graded and back by tomorrow. I didn't manage a home-cooked meal for the first week. The house is a mess. I've barely knit at all, nor did I post on Monday.

It's okay. I'm okay. We're good.

________________________

Another knitting postcard:

Remember to be kind to yourself this week. It's really the only way.

Miracle of Miracles

I somehow got it all done. The day is all a bit of a blur, but I did get it all done and with nary a meltdown. Truly a miracle.

I hit the "Submit Grades" button at the 5:30 deadline, went to the history museum to see a documentary of William Clark, and then stopped by my favorite Spanish restaurant for some tapas around 10 p.m. It doesn't even seem possible.

I have not watched television in days. I've not even knitted, and who knows when the last time that happened was. Thanks to my crafty syllabus construction, I've only got about 30 pages to read for Tuesday and no essays to read until then either.

I've got to go down to Potosi to do a yearly rock star gig for about 100 camp counselors (cushy hotel room included) tonight and am off for the bulk of the weekend.

_________________

In the meantime, here's another knitting PC

Lenora's Dots

Before tomorrow at 5:30 p.m., I must deal with the following:

• Finish my shift at my LYS
• Manage dinner
• Read three chapters and develop lesson plans for each
• Teach a three-hour class
• Grade twenty three-page papers
• Grade forty final exams
  
• Decide whether or not to accept a revised paper from a student who, upon finding out he had gotten a zero for plagiarizing, realized he had "accidentally" left in a paragraph he had used "for research purposes only" and resubmitted a revised draft.
  
• Calculate and submit final grades

Holy crap. Is it any wonder that my resting pulse rate is through the roof?

How about another knitting postcard?
I'm feeling like Grandma, off her rocker and going places on a greyhound.

Brief Window

I am in one of those brief windows with nothing to do for school. I caught up on my grading this morning and the next batch of papers doesn't come in until Monday. I've got summer school to prep for, but don't feel like it yet.

Too much time is not good for me. I either spend it hatching plots that never come to fruition or doing nothing.

Time for a pretty picture at least.

I've talked about Mainzer cats before, but here's another batch:

Can you spot the knitters?

Well hello, Kitty!

My swap arrived! All the way from Paris, France! Seriously, half the joy of this swap was saying "Paris, France" over and over again.

I tried really hard to keep my expectations low for this, my first swap. I kept my focus on having fun finding projects that might please my partner, and since she was from Paris, France, I aimed for chic.

I won't post what I made until my package arrives in Paris, France, but her package arrived yesterday.

The fibery stuff:

• A purple headband, which I really like. My partner just pinned on the felt kitty so that I could take it off if I wanted.
• Knitted, black mitts, with a little bow. I can change out the colors whenever I like. I've very fond of these.
• A crocheted granny square with Hello Kitty. I don't know what I'll do with it, but she's very cute. LB was impressed with her whiskers.
• A Hello Kitty bag. I like this a lot too. I threw it in my trunk for farmer's market days. I'll feel all summery and eco-friendly.
  

The Hello Kitty stuff:

I was surprised to get a ton of HK stuff in addition to the crocheted items, since my partner said that Paris didn't have a Sanrio store. She let her two children each pick out one item to send to me. From top to bottom, left to right:

• a coloring book from her son (since I'm a girl and his grandmother says that coloring is relaxing)
• bubbles
• trading cards (including one HK Alice in Wonderland card. Squeee!)
• a macrame bracelet with a homemade HK charm
• 344 HK stickers
• 2 HK note cards
• postcards of Paris, France (note to self: remember to include postcards in future swaps)
• HK bath gels
• a box of HK chocolate candies. They're hollow eggs, with a small toy inside.
• HK strawberry Pocky
• A HK nail file
• HK peppermints
• A HK charm with a rotating face with different moods (from her daughter, "so I will know how my day will be")
• A HK pencil
• HK Pez
  

Other than the postage to Paris, France being like a punch in the gut, I had a great time. I hope she likes her swap.

Did I mention she was from Paris, France?

Knit PC#2

Postcard #2 from my trek to the bargain bins:


__________
Academics: Thanks for the clarification on .odt. I understand why people might want to use it, but I can't read it at school. I can't download any programs onto my work computer, so students will have to be sure to save files as .doc, which one would think is an insurmountable burden to scatter-brained procrastinators.


I emailed him right away on Friday morning and asked him to resubmit, but haven't heard back at all.

Knitting Postcard

Postcards shows are pretty odd places. Delitologists drag about their wheeled carts with their binders and their lists and spend up to two days going through the tables. They complain loudly about ebay and cell phones and other modern inconveniences. Although they may make a brief, awkward attempt to hit on the one single woman who shows up, they're more interested in finding that last missing postcard and crossing it off their list.

At the semi-annual postcard show last week, I took Suzy's advice and limited myself to the discount bins.

Ebay and such have lowered my tolerance for discount bins. Want to collect postcards of cheese? Leap Year?** square dancers? knitters? A few key strokes, a willingness to pay, and you can.

The same holds true at postcard shows. As far as prices, the most expensive postcards can be found in binders behind the table. I seldom look in binders because prices tend to start at $15 and could go up 10 times as high. The next most expensive cards are in divided boxes. Prices range from $2 to about $30.

Each vendor brings in thousands, tens of thousands of postcards. Leap Year usually gets its own section, cheese shows up in the food or Dutch sections, square dancers show up in the dance or music sections.

Knitters are much, much harder to find for some reason. There are categories for spinning wheels and sewing, but never for knitting. I've had some luck looking through foreign postcards for costume shots, but finding knitting can be pretty much a crap shoot.

I only had $6 to my name, and although in the past I've paid at least that much for a single card that I wanted, this time I knew I wouldn't be looking at any of the sectioned boxes. It would be the discount bins only for me.

I managed to find five knitting postcards, one spinning postcard (for Ann), and one October birthstone postcard (for my sis).

Here's the first:

_________________

** Damn, I haven't collected Leap Year postcards since I finally managed to get LB to pop the question after ten years, and I totally got sucked in to ebay for a few moments there. I'm back.

Frenzy

Yesterday (Wednesday) was to be a day of relaxation and knitting at Ann's.

And it was, once I went to 2 different motor vehicle offices, finally ending up down at city hall to try to register my car, finished my grocery shopping, and went on a Hello Kitty quest for my swap partner, all before 11 a.m.

The part at Ann's was indeed relaxing. Tammy gave me this perfect sock bag for my project. I can't even count the number of times lately that I've yanked my needles out of this sock. I made much progress on Sock Project #4 and am only 9 rows away from turning the heel.

Today (Friday) was also supposed to be a relaxing day, with teaching done at noon, plans to go to the postcard show, and plans to find a fish fry at a Mexican church for dinner tonight.

Then for some inexplicable reason, I woke at 6:30 and decided to make honey glazed roasted chicken and red potato salad for dinner tonight. So I did, all before 7:45 a.m., completely forgetting about the fish fry.

Tomorrow (Saturday) was supposed to be, if not relaxing, at least highly structured.

My two classes are doing a service learning project planting trees at a park and historic site. When I had initially contacted the park, I envisioned a history-rich project, but used the fact that they wanted us to plant trees as a lesson in service learning. Service isn't about what's in it for us. It's about the needs of the people we're helping. I'm still struggling with this a bit because, really, if I had known ahead of time that we'd be digging holes and planting trees, I would have picked another project.

Earlier this week, I executed an heroic attempt to forestall any frenzy or panic on the part of my students. I test-drove the ranger's abysmal directions, driving in to the site from every possible direction. He had a charming habit of inventing names for the exit, names which appear nowhere on the exit sign nor on the map. The addresses he gave me could not be found by google maps.

I rewrote the directions, posted them online, and made handouts (complete with maps). I alternated between being nurturing ("You can do it. I tried it. From the highway ramp, it's only ONE turn!") to mocking ("Look, it's not like I'm asking you to find a barn in a different state in the middle of a cornfield on a moonless night.** There's a river and a big national monument. You can't miss it!"). I even wrote out instructions on what to do if they missed the only turn.

Then this morning, after my first class had let out for the day, the ranger called. Apparently several highway exits, most of the downtown streets, and the streets on all four sides of the park will be blocked off for a major sporting event.

My students will have to snake their way in through a warehouse district and get past barricades in order to get to the work site. There is no backup plan if they miss the turn.

Are you fucking kidding me?

The rest of my day will be spent revising the directions (without the time to test-drive them) and trying to contact students.

Tomorrow, I expect a barrage of panicked phone calls from students who have accidentally ended up in a different state or on the wrong side of a barricade.

I feel tense.

___________________

**spoken from personal experience when I tried to find my way to a gig and one of the ugliest fights LB and I ever had.