hats hats hats

A,

Oh! So many new techniques! I looked at your links and was so intrigued. I'd done the three-needle bind-off, but I've never even done a short-row before, let alone on a sweater or some fancy Japanese version. One of these days I need to work on some technique. As in, not a project per se, but a dabbling of different techniques that I've never looked into. There are so many things I want to try. You must show me pictures when you can of your sweater and how this is working out.

I finished two baby hats this weekend; a pumpkin one and a more muted hat with a modified basket stitch. No pictures, since there was that difficulty with the alarms being set on Monday morning and so the baby hats were whisked away before I could take a picture of them. One of James' coworkers had a baby this weekend, a little girl. I've been promised pictures of the child in the hats, so maybe we can get that up here someday.

Another hat project is in the works, this one is going so well. It's even and lovely and simple but pleasing to knit during class or grading reports. It's really not anything exciting to report yet, just some ribbing. It's a project for James. I was realizing today how much joy there was in knitting. I'm even branching out and have three projects in the works at one time. Such a change for me. And then I was thinking, did I even knit anything last year? I can honestly only think of one project that I worked on the entire year. That can't be right, can it? Can it really? That's utterly depressing. I don't really even understand why knitting is so satisfying. It seems to be so repetitive, and yet, it never fails to entertain. It's even absorbing just to watch other people knit.

I had my students fill out index cards with information about themselves at the beginning of the semester. I found these cards a couple of days ago and was going through them. One of the questions I asked them was what are you interested in doing with your education--what major or career goal might you have. Over half of my students want to be doctors. I found this incredibly fascinating. That is a hugely high percentage of students that are interested in this profession. Now, I know that first semester general chemistry lab is not representative of the future success in all the sciences. But still. Knowing what I know now from you and your experience of not only getting into medical school, but thrashing around with it once you are in, I cannot imagine that many of my students will make it. I feel like they need to be warned. Although, perhaps if they are freshmen this is just a whimsical goal. Perhaps there should never be anyone to tell them that they can't do something.

I don't know, really, but it made me all the more prouder for you, because you have made it so far and you have so much to be proud of. Alright, so you're aiming for 'average' right now. But your new peers are in the stratosphere, so the word average doesn't hold much weight anymore.

I have tests to study for tonight, so I should get on top of that. Strangely, the urge to "succeed" is slipping from me, and I'm starting to care less and less about my classes. Hmmm, maybe I should work on that motivational thing.

James' test = Friday. I'll let you know.

K