Okay, this is how I feel:

The purpose of a Catholic School is indoctrination. I know that sounds bad, but it's true. The purpose of all schooling is indoctrination. Very rarely do you find a religious discussion at a Catholic school, one where the students are encouraged to ask the hard questions with difficult answers. In fact, one of my students asked, "If the Catholic Church is the one true faith, then why were there other religions before it?" The priest's answer? "Do you believe that Christ is the Son of God and in the bodily Resurrection? because that's all that matters." He completely brushed aside the student, probably because he felt that my student wasn't capable of an intellectual discussion.

I had the privilege of attending one of his classes of religion today. After five hours, rather than bring me closer to God/the Church, I wonder if I am even a Catholic. This priest had nothing but negative things to say about Judaism and he had many negative things to say about women. I bit my tongue through much of it. If I didn't have my knitting, I would have called him out on the crap that was spewing out of his mouth. I was tempted to call my grandfather and ask him if the priest even had accurate facts about Judaism, which I doubt. What did the priest have to say about Jews? Only that they refused to believe in the truth of Christ, so they willingly sinned. Frankly, that's bullshit. If the Jews didn't exist, neither would Catholicism. In fact, Catholicism steals many traditions from Judaism. Here's the Cliff's Notes of my class:

--Council of Trent: deems the 600+laws from the Torah unnecessary. In fact, states that the Old Testament isn't necessary because Jesus came and now we have the New Testament.
    --My rebuttal: If the Old Testament is unnecessary, then why do we read a segment at every mass? If it's unnecessary, then why do we teach and believe in the 10 Commandments? If it's unnecessary, then why do we read Isaiah, who prophesied about what to look for in regards to the Messiah? If we didn't have the Old Testament, we'd be missing a good chunk of Christianity. Also, if that council picked and chose what to keep and what to throw away, how did it know that was God's will? Or was it simply convenient for those fallible men...

--4 Gospels: There are inconsistencies in the gospels. However, that's a good thing. It's like if you're a judge and you see four witnesses who tell a story, they planned their story. Also, does it really matter if Jesus performed that miracle at this time or if he even did it? Does that change if you're going to Heaven? No, so inconsistencies don't change that Jesus saved us and it doesn't affect your salvation.
   --My rebuttal: If it's good/okay to have inconsistencies, then why can't we read the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary Magdalen, or the Gnostic Gospels or Dead Sea Scrolls? If we read them to develop a better relationship with God, then we should read them. People should have access to all of the hundreds of gospels. Again, if we can pick and choose which inconsistencies are important or irrelevant, how can we know if the New Testament tells the truth at all? There are so many interpretations of the Bible, so there are different religions. So what? We are all simply trying to find the best way to develop a relationship with God. Let us read and figure it out for ourselves.

--Jesus: Jesus didn't write because he wanted men's testimonies.
     --My rebuttal: If Jesus had written, we wouldn't need a Church to tell us how to interpret the Word because we wouldn't be able to argue with it; we would simply be willingly sinful (which most of us are anyway). I responded, in front of the group, that Jesus didn't write because he was too busy. The priest told me I was wrong and gave the above response. I should have told him that the best way to teach was through example, which was what Jesus was doing. He WAS busy! He died in his early 30s, but changed groups of people and performed miracles. He was traveling almost constantly and talking to tons of people. Perhaps Jesus didn't even have the education to write. And as far as the testimonies, well, memory is fallible. I have trouble remembering what I taught for my six different classes just the day before. The gospels were written, at the earliest, 70AD, or about 30 years after Christ. The people came from oral history, which tends to change details for cultures and to exaggerate certain things and cut others to make a story more interesting. So the New Testament could have gone through MANY changes in 30 years. So why are those four gospels still similar? They probably came from brother cultures or from a common storyteller. I believe that many things were changed even before the first edition of each gospel. Does this mean I don't believe in the Bible? No, but it means that if we only interpret the Old Testament as figuratively sometimes, then we should do the same for the New Testament. Read the stories to inspire you to be a good person and to become closer to God. That is all. I lived 14 years as a good person simply by living by the Golden Rule. You don't need an institution to tell you not to be mean.

For all of these reasons, and more, I went home wondering if I even fit in my chosen religion. I still believe in God and I love the saints and the Eucharist; I love how mass forgives you of your sins and reminds you to focus on being good and loving thy neighbor. It DOES make me feel good and it makes me feel closer to God. If anything, I bet that if I went to Seminary school, I would be a better priest than the one I heard speak today (I DO think that the Catholic Church should allow women to become priests).

And that's how I REALLY feel.

After my last post, I was inspired to resume knitting the bolero. However, I was perplexed when the pattern said "dec 1" at the end of the row. Do I ssk or k2tog? After researching a bit, I learned that you normally ssk at the beginning of the row and k2tog at the end of the row. SSK slants to the left and k2tog slants to the right.

That's my mini-lesson of the day.

Happy knitting!

Well, this week has not been so good for knitting. Rather than continue to work on the bolero, I started a shawl. However, I have been so busy at school and at home that I haven't had time to work on either!

I am also hesitant to work on the bolero because the left side/sleeve has more complicated directions and I'm worried about making a mistake. At any rate, I should plunge ahead and continue knitting because if I'm going to make a mistake, better sooner than later.

Tucson has also been freezing lately! It didn't break 40F yesterday. So this is the perfect time to knit. To all Tucsonans without heat and/or water, I'm keeping you in my prayers.

Although yesterday was an incredibly busy day, I did find time to knit. If you saw me at 9:30pm, you would have sworn that I would have fallen asleep on the couch in minutes. However, after running around all day and working 12 hours, I did find time to knit from 9:30-11pm. I could hardly keep my eyes open, but it was worth it.  I'm about halfway done with the back of my bolero, which I hope to have finished by tomorrow. Since it's stockinette stitch (knit a row, purl a row), it's very easy to work on and to talk to other people or watch TV.

I learned how to do two things yesterday: purl through the front and back of a stitch and to purl through the back loop. I know that ptbl is a way of twisting the stitch and purling in the front and back is an increase; it's the same as knitting in the front and back, except on the purl side. With all these increases every row, my back piece looks a little funny, so I checked the drawing. Of course it didn't have a picture of just the back piece. I reviewed the pattern again and I can't find any mistakes, so let's hope the pieces fit together in a few weeks!

Happy knitting!

My name is Lily and I have a problem: I buy WAY too much yarn. I already have a basket of yarn (okay, it's a big basket), but I bought more yarn this morning. I have enough yarn for projects to keep me busy until August at least. I must try to stay away from yarn websites. (I have included the one that tempted me).
Knit Picks

Last year I taught my students about limited resources and why we need to conserve them. To illustrate the fact, I had them write short stories. One of my students wrote about me knitting up all the yarn in the world until there was none left. Although that will never happen, today I feel that she really figured out my personality and knitting addiction.

Hopefully I won't have to write about buying more yarn until I finish what I have!

As you all know, I love to knit. However, I keep very few projects for myself. To date, I only have a hat and part of a scarf that I have yet to finish. And since I live in the desert, I never think to dress warmly because it's been 70 degrees in January. You can imagine my surprise when I left the house and it was 37 degrees! I also work at a private school, so I had to stand outside 15 minutes this morning as students arrived at school. Next project: shawls for me.

Well, the bolero is coming along fine. I wrote out the pattern in a detailed manner to ensure that I don't make a mistake. I have already knit a few inches and I'm hoping to have the back finished by the end of the week. Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but I'd like to finish the whole project in 3 weeks. Let's see what I can do!

So far I've learned one interesting knitting fact: if you slip a stitch at the beginning of the row, it makes a salvage, which makes that edge easier to connect to another piece of fabric. I have a feeling that I will be learning lots more on this project, which I love! I also learned to knit English method, with the yarn in my right hand. I am currently learning the Continental/German method with the yarn in my left hand. Supposedly this is the fastest way to knit and it's easier to switch between the knit and purl stitch. I still think that the Spanish method of putting the right needle under your armpit is the fastest method. However, the owner of a local knitting store told me that that method is harder on the wrists and that circular needles are the best. Do you have any opinions on that?

Happy knitting!

Well, I thought this sweater thing would be easy--and it will be--but I did have to start over today after 17 rows of 80 stitches. It could have been worse.

See, I teach middle school. One of the first things I teach my students is how to follow directions. I start the year with a specific worksheet that tricks them so if they don't follow directions, they look silly. I always thought that I was amazing at following directions, but today I was humbled. After a month of glancing over this ONE sheet, and after reading it closely yesterday, I neglected to see the word "each." So I was simply increasing one side of the back part of the bolero instead of both parts. It would have also taken me twice as long to increase to 86 stitches, so the measurement would have been off. I had no choice but to start from the beginning and undo a few hours of work. It could have been worse.

This also caused me to reflect on knitting. If I ever had to do a science experiment again, I would see if students who knit perform better in math. Why? Knitting forces you to follow directions, for if you don't, you can't create anything without it looking funny. It also teaches you to work a little more slowly and to do every stitch perfectly; it basically slowly transforms you into a perfectionist. If you don't do everything perfectly, it could cost you HOURS, if not days, of redoing the work. Therefore, when applying knitting lessons to math, I would assume that students would read directions more carefully and to do the exercises to the best of their abilities without error at any step. Otherwise they would have to redo the exercises, which takes more time.

So I have started again, but this time with an important lesson: every single word in the directions counts.

Well, I FINALLY started my first sweater project. Okay, it's really a bolero because I didn't want to take 3 months to make a sweater and realize that the size is off or that sewing the parts together is really messy. That would upset me to no end.

Therefore, I've studied the pattern for probably an hour before even lifting a needle. I finished two scarfs since I've been back (basically this month), and though I still have two scarfs and a hat to knit, they are on the back burner right now.

Last night I made my first gauge. For those of you who don't knit, that's basically a small portion that you knit to see if your number of stitches will match the sizes of the pattern's stitches. If not, you could make a doll's sweater or a tub's...My gauge is almost perfect. It may be a millimeter shorter, but I think that's close enough. I still have a lot to learn about gauges and I will probably laugh at myself in the future, but oh well.

I also started working on the back of the sweater. I cast on my stitches and am finally working! It's all stockinette stitch and seed stitch, which are two very easy stitches to do. It's therefore relaxing and I think it will move faster than I thought.

That's all for now. I took pictures and I will post them later today :D

Happy knitting!

Well, I know I had big plans to start my sweater project in January. Unfortunately, I have to finish up a few other projects first. Like any other knitter (I imagine), I sometimes have multiple projects going at once. Here's what I have to finish:
--3 cable scarfs
--1 hat

With all of my work, that will probably take me through January. However, I'm going to finish the project with the needles I will need for the sweaters and I will hopefully do my gauge and start before the end of the month.

Happy knitting!