The shawl is finished

Here is the finished prayer shawl. It is made from Lion brand Homespun yarn, color Tudor. I used nearly 3 skeins and added 9" fringe. The pattern is from the shawl ministry page: cast on 57 stitches and knit every row in K3 P3 for an allover nubbly look.

I'm pleased with how it turned out, and hope that the person who receives it will find comfort wearing it, coming as it does from me with my prayers for healing and grace.

Class is over

Finished my last session last night. I felt energetic and excited about the topic, and I think I kept everyone awake and engaged with the content. We ended on a good note. Now no class to prep for until a little before the next one in late October. What will I do with my life? It's a beautiful spring day, I think I'll go outside and enjoy the birds and flowers on my patio.

Vague musings on being a teacher

Today is April 21, my nephew’s 9th birthday and the end of my second week of teaching. I have one session of my class left. I spent yesterday obsessing over the lecture and flow of the class, and I think I ended up with something halfway decent. I’m feeling scared about my ability to teach this subject; I feel like a fraud. The early parts of the course were topics I felt passionate about and had lots of experience with. Wednesday’s session, which should have been a slam-dunk for me, Written Communication, was a bust, I felt. I don’t think I answered questions as well as I should have, I think I treated the topic really superficially, and I punted on the last half hour. The Fog Index exercise was stupid too. I didn’t know as much about that topic as I should have, and am afraid it showed.

I hope to engage the students in an exploration that will help them apply the concepts to their project on Monday. I hope to bring forth interesting content that will inspire them. This course has been more of a trudge than I expected. The Fall course came together so much easier, with more flow. Teaching is hard work. I wonder if it will be easier next year when I’m simply tweaking the material rather than creating it all from scratch?

Things are close in

Things do close in, and they are close in. That's one of the things I love about that quote. We're not sure what Walter meant.

I'd like to write about close-in things, things I care about. Like knitting. Right now I'm knitting a prayer shawl to give away to someone who needs one. Here's the web site that provides a pattern and a purpose for prayer-shawl knitting: http://www.shawlministry.com/ . My church gives the prayer shawls away to folks who are sick, dying, alone, or otherwise in need.

I love to knit because it forces me to sit down. I can do it while listening to music or books on CD or TV. I can do it while in the company of other people and it lets me feel part of the action while keeping my hands busy. It keeps me from biting my fingernails, nervous eating, etc. It usually puts me in a state of "flow." I just finished an Irish sweater for my husband and I ripped out and re-knit half the sweater in the space of a week, because I was able to ride a great, productive wave of "flow." It was so easy!

I was thinking

This blog gets its name from "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber. The quote goes like this:

"Things close in," said Walter Mitty vaguely. "What?" Mrs. Mitty said. "Did you get the what's-its-name? The puppy biscuit? What's in that box?" "Overshoes," said Mitty. "Couldn't you have put them on in the store?" "I was thinking," said Walter Mitty. "Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?"

I wonder whether it ever occurs to anyone. And it's true, things do close in.