My entire life, I have always wanted to be a professor of literature. One snag in my plan was the Great Recession, which hit fall 2007, and I graduated six months later. Rather than begin my journey to a PhD, I got a Masters in Education and have been teaching ever since. Yet the little voice in my head telling me to research and analyze is getting much more assertive lately. Therefore, I will be applying for graduate school for Fall 2013.

Obviously I'm hoping to be accepted somewhere. I'm contacting my old professors, who I hope have not forgotten about me, and I'm hoping to contact and meet professors from other universities who would be interested in working with me. I'm terrified about not being remembered by my professors and of not finding a program with mentors who are interested in working with me. But what can I do? I have to put my best foot forward and pray that I will be accepted somewhere.

Step one: email old professors and meet with them.
Step two: research professors at other universities.
Step three: take the GRE again, after studying.

Let's see how this goes!

There are a few knitting shops in Tucson, AZ. They seem to be spread out pretty well to avoid competing with each other. Due to my location of town, I have always gone to Kiwi Knitting Company, which I am very happy with. They have workshops, great classes, and knowledgable and friendly staff.

I had never gone to Purls before because it was across town and I had heard that it was expensive. Since it is my friend's knit shop (the store she takes classes at, etc.), she invited me to the scarf club today. I went to see what it was like. It cost $5 for the monthly pattern with an in-depth explanation about how to knit it and how you can alter it. The yarn, if bought for the project, is also 15% off. Before I had been inside 2 minutes, two friendly staff greeted me and showed me what I needed. By the way, I had arrived late and the club was pretty full. By the time I got my yarn, everyone was doing introductions. There were varying levels, but the information was great for beginners through intermediates, possible advanced knitters. In that hour, Myra explained the pattern, taught yarn overs, the crocheted cast on, and a bind off with a backwards yarn over, which is stretchy and good for lace. She talked about weaving in the ends, knitting from two ends of a ball, and mixing colors. I picked her brain even more about other lace projects, and, of course, TKGA Level 1 cable swatch that I've been struggling with. Lastly, she explained noops (which sound like a real pain) clearly, which is hard to do, and even told me a trick to make it easier on the wrong side! Although there were many people there, she had no problem thoroughly answering my questions. She is incredibly knowledgable and friendly.

In regards to the cable, she suggested knitting one stitch, leaving it on the left needle, knitting the trouble stitch, then dropping both of them off. I finished that swatch already, but if I run into that problem again, I will definitely give it a go!

I don't think I've ever learned so much about knitting for only $5! It was a real steal. Now I need to figure out how I can fit Purls into my schedule more often. One thing is clear, I will be a regular member of the scarf club!

Happy knitting!

Easter was last weekend and Lent is officially over. I succeeded in doing at least one good deed a day. Doing good deeds daily did help me to focus on bringing good into the world. However, like everything, too much of a good thing can be bad. Sometimes I was really stressed or busy and thinking of doing something good added stress instead of taking away stress. Nonetheless, I did at least one good deed a day and I hope to continue to do so throughout the year. Will I do so every single day? Who knows, but it  is something to aim for.

Here is the recap:

2/22 Ash Wednesday: Give mom lotion
2/23: Bring muffins to Dad's work; buy boyfriend a video game.
2/24: buy boyfriend present; make cookies for friends
2/25: give Dad lotion; write letter of recommendation
2/26: call grandma; listen to a friend; invite a friend to dinner
2/27: write letter of rec; run errands for boyfriend
2/28: help a student with knitting; pick up boyfriend
2/29: help students with knitting; give knitting student yarn and needles
3/1: help out a sick coworker; get another coworker coffee
3/2: smile; cover another teacher's class
3/3: volunteer for Tucson Festival of books; give friend 3 baby hats and a baby sweater that I knit
3/4: give fruit to Children’s Choir; make cookies and give to neighbors
3/5: organize coworker's classroom;
3/6: help student with knitting; bring neighbors cookies
3/7: call brother
3/8: print plans for coworker; cover another teacher's class
3/9: remind others to be kind; smile more
3/10: get gelato for family and help pay for dinner
3/11: volunteer at Tucson Festival of Books
3/12: help student with knitting
3/13: invite a friend to breakfast
3/14: call parents
3/15: treat mom to dinner
3/16: buy coworker a book with gift card
3/17: invite friend for dinner
3/18: call and email grandparents
3/19: help student knit
3/20: knit kippahs for student; email friends
3/21: mail a friend's hat and scarf package; see family members
3/22: buy Eegee’s for boyfriend, call brother
3/23: watch a movie of boyfriend's choice
3/24: email cousin; treat friend to drinks; give Dad tea
3/25: make 2 tortilla españolas for 1st and 2nd period
3/26: make tortilla española for 7th period
3/27: buy boyfriend expensive technology
3/28: give coworker birthday present and cake; go to Communal Mass
3/29: make boyfriend dinner
3/30: ask someone how they were and mean it
3/31: buy friend lingerie for bridal shower; drive friends to casino
4/1: treat parents to dinner
4/2: make phone calls for boyfriend
4/3: give former coworkers tortilla española
4/4: open door for older woman
4/5: make boyfriend chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner
4/6: sing Good Friday; help Dad with car
4/7: (Holy Saturday); sing at Annointing of the Sick Mass; buy bread for Easter
4/8: bring present to parents


Some of it is repetitive, but at least it was something! I will continue the updates at various times throughout the year.


I hope you take some time to bring good into the world as well!

At the beginning of the week, I had so much hope for being done! I had my packet for about a week before I got started, and tomorrow will be one month since I received my packet. So far, it has been fairly easy. I have never looked so closely at my knitting before! I have definitely mastered weaving in the ends and blocking, and my understanding of why certain stitches are certain ways has greatly improved.

That is, until I got to swatch 13, a simple cable. I have knit cables before and I have never had this issue: the knit stitch before the purls on the right of the cable were becoming loose and it looked ugly. Of course, the non-knitter would never notice, but it stood out like a parka in Death Valley in the summer! I frantically searched for articles in the TKGA website for how to fix this. They suggested that I make sure the working yarn is fully in front of my needles before making the purl stitch after a knit stitch. That still didn't work because I had been doing that. A knit doctor told me to keep the stitches closer together, which has worked so far. Another strategy is to purl from the bottom for the purl stitch following, and to knit that stitch through the back loop on the wrong side. The knit doctor said that would work for a swatch, but it would be harder to remember with a more complex pattern. I tried it anyway, but the purl stitches stuck out a little more.

I finally finished my second swatch, after much more pulling and knitting extra carefully. While it looks better than the first, it still doesn't look "finished." I'm hoping the blocking will help...Any suggestions? I am a bit desperate!

My reflections this week have really dampened my spirits. When I enrolled in this program, it said "Masters." I already have a masters, so I thought this was very doable. However, the level 3 is like the PhD of knitting according to the knit doctor. PhD, eh? I was hoping to finish this program when I'm starting my other PhD. While I want to be able to design my own knits and knit anything I want, how can I get there if I can't make a stupid knit stitch behave?!? That one swatch really humbled me and made me reflect on knitting altogether. I have only struggled with the swatch one week. Perhaps the committee will give me some advice. I could also ask someone on ravelry, though I'm not sure about the etiquette in contacting a stranger...

Today I am more optimistic. Given a year, I'm sure I could learn everything in a particular level. I am a dedicated learner, know how to research, and those who know me know that I am not afraid to ask questions, except to strangers. I'm sure I could learn techniques in the set time period.

So while I am not going to finish within a month, by April 20, I hope to send everything out.

Happy knitting!

So far, so good. My first few swatches are done and I have swatches 5 and 6 blocking while I work on the 7th one. I have also answered 7 questions and have already written the report. I feel that I am in very good shape and can hopefully finish the majority of the swatches before Monday. Perhaps I can send everything off in early May...that would be a month ahead of schedule.

I only had one mess up: Swatch 4. I should have read about bar increases before doing them. Of course I knew how to do them, so I thought I could tackle the swatch without referring to anything. Unfortunately, I learned a day late that the bar is to the left of the increase. So if you want mirrored increases you need to do it a little differently on both sides. If you want a 3 stitch selvedge, increase on the third stitch on the right and the fourth stitch on the left. I grabbed my binder, looked at my 4th swatch and found that, yes, my increases were uneven. I cursed, took it out of the binder, and started again.

Important lessons: knitting is more complex than it seems; research all techniques before you do them, just in case.

Happy knitting!

PS I don't think I'm finishing the lace shawl this weekend. I want to try to finish the swatches instead.

After inserting the lace wires...and realizing that I should probably order more blocking pads, I am wet blocking my cables and lace shawl. While I could have steamed it, I was too afraid to experiment on a project that took me months. I will try it with my swatches. And here is the picture of it blocking. The final picture coming soon :)

Happy knitting!

I have been super busy this week and hardly had time to sleep! Therefore, as you might imagine, I didn't have time to knit. So I have a few goals today, and none of them are April Fools.

-Block swatches 1-3 for TKGA and answer the first few questions. That's way over due!
-Block my cables and lace shawl
-Take pictures and post them of said shawl
-Start swatch 4 of TKGA

And my goal for the week is to try to finish knitting another lace shawl from a course I'm taking on craftsy.com. I'm already on half way through. Of course, the half I finished had 100 or less stitches. Now I have 230 and my last section will have over 400! Oh well. My goal is to finish one section today, start another one at the very least. Hopefully I can be blocking it Easter weekend. What do you think? Can I do it?

Do I have to work? Yes, I also have stuff to prepare for my classes, but I can always do that tomorrow. I finished all of my chores for today, so I think it will be a knitting day :D

Happy knitting!

(And pictures to come in the near future)