My Greatest Masterpiece So Far

I spent the last week working for the law school.  300 second-year students were learning how to put on trials in a week long program.  Lawyers came from around the country to teach them.  The first years, like me, worked the event as videographers, baliffs, and escorts to the several hundred high schoolers that served as jurors.   Throughout the week, I had LOTS of knitting time during cross examinations and closing arguments to finish my purple sweater.

While I've made other cool things in the past, sometimes they didn't fit perfectly, some didn't need to fit, and some where downright disastrous.  This time, I think I've made something to be proud of.

Awesome, right?  It fits like a glove (or rather, like a well-fitting sweater).  The only problem I can see is that the left sleeve appears to be slightly longer than the right.  Or my right arm is longer than the left...it is unclear. 

Both sleeves grew quite a bit in the washing anyway, so I think I will just redo the sleeve on the left one to make it the same length as the right.  Or I will just leave it as proof that it is handmade when people don't believe it isn't store bought.

Me celebrating the fact that everything I own is purple.

Booty shot.  Look at that fit!

One of my co-workers told me, "It looks like you bought it at a store."  I told him to bite me.  My million-hours-to-make sweater looked way better than store-bought.

BISIO UPDATE: April

I haven't done a BISIO (Because I Said It Outloud) Update in a super long time (since February....yikes).  So, in the spirit of accountability, here goes:

Grad School:  I'm signed up for Emory in the fall.  I will be doing first year as a law student.  I am quitting my job at DOT at the end of May to bum around (read: volunteer at the birth center full time) this summer.  I really need to find somewhere to live in Atlanta, though.  I am pretending that having a car isn't actually necessary, contrary to everything I've heard.

Sheep-To-Sweater:  I started my sweater!

Or rather, the sleeve of a sweater....

It obviously isn't made with yarn that I spun myself, but I am excited to say that I am in the knitting phase of my project.  In a couple of weeks I will be headed out to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival to learn about sheep shearing....I think then I will be able to say that I can do and/or understand each step of the sheep-to-sweater process, even if my final product is not the result of me doing each step myself.

Doula-ing: I explained in this post what I need to do to to get my doula certification.  I am currently working on one of the last things I need to do before I write my essays and turn in my certification application: observing a birth education class.  I am taking a Bradley Class with nine couples (the teacher and I are the only non-pregnant women in the room).  I am doing my best to keep my mouth shut in the class and focus more on learning from the instructor.  She is pretty amazing.

BISO Update: February

It's the last day of February; it still counts if I do a February BISIO Update on the last day, right?

Grad School:  Basically, the big news is that I was accepted at ALL of the programs I applied to and am going to....EMORY for a joint degree in law and public health!  What made me turn down Georgetown, you ask?  I won the Woodruff Fellowship at the Law School after a harrowing (that's such a lie...it was a lot of fun) three-day interview.  The interview consisted of meals with former Fellows, with faculty and staff, and with current students, a tour of the Coca-Cola World Headquarters, a cocktail reception (slash, secret social vetting process to make sure that we wouldn't be painfully awkward representatives of Emory and/or drink too much in public) and an interview with a distinguished panel of professors and Atlanta lawyers.

We toured the Coca-Cola Headquarters because Robert Woodruff was the head of Coke for 20+ years and was a HUGE philanthropist in the Atlanta area.  When he died, he left a large gift to Emory, endowing professorships and scholarships; half the buildings on campus are named after him.  This picture was taken before they gave us each a bottle of coke to drink as we walked around the building.  Tasty, tasty indoctrination...

There were 14 of us; 4 of us ended up winning the full-ride fellowship.  I am going to law school for FREE!!!  It is still a little hard to believe.  I am waiting for someone to jump out of a bush yelling, "haha, psych!"  In fact, I have been avoiding bushes all month until I get my official package in the mail.

Sheep to Sweater:  I have been failing at knitting lately.  I have finished only two projects in two months as spinning, fundraising and trying to finish my library books before they are overdue (failed at that one, too) got in the way...however, I am pleased to announce that I bought a sweater quantity of yarn (it was on sale...I feel more comfortable knowing I am not going to spend a ridiculous amount of money on my first sweater) and am going to make this sweater.

Grown-Up Hoodie by Kira Dulaney  I'm hoping the pattern comes with free pink hair streaks...

I think it is pretty cute and doesn't look TOO hard....The cabling down the back makes me think it will keep me entertained enough (rather than miles and miles of stockinette) to actually finish the thing.

Doula:  Nothing awesome to report this month.  I had taken time off to do the Vagina Monologues, but I am planning my trip to Boston this summer for the DONA International Conference.  Will get to learn new things, hang out with cool doulas, and visit Boston for the first time as an adult.  Excited!!!

March looks (moderately) less hectic.  No more traveling until April.  No more crazy fundraising.  Free time?  Probably not as much as I think, but perhaps....

Nostepinde and The Dreaded Yale 250

I stand corrected.  I stated the other day that "niddy noddy" is the best name for a fiber tool ever.  Then lady friend at Porpoise Knits weighed in to tell me that the best word is, in fact, "nostepinde" (or, apparently, "nostepinne" both of which google tries to correct to "goosestepping")  Yea, I don't have one of those...but they're kinda hot...

Anyhooo!

Now that I have submitted all my grad school applications (and am no longer afraid of plagiarists stealing my ideas...you know I was first...), I thought I would share with you part of one of my applications.

Yale Law School, in addition to the personal statement, diversity question, resume and other materials that most law school ask for, also requires a special essay that is lovingly known on the web as "the dreaded Yale 250."  The prompt is:

Write an essay of not more than 250 words about a subject of your choice.  The Admissions Committee looks to the 250-word essay to evaluate an applicant’s writing, reasoning, and editing skills.  The subject is not limited; the choice of topic itself may be informative to the readers.

Did you hear that?  The choice of topic itself may be informative to the readers....why does that sound so scary to me?  I originally joined my law-school-applying compatriots in hating this essay and wrote some horribly boring essay about something incoherent.  Then I deleted it and wrote this instead (possibly also horribly boring and incoherent...but it makes me giggle that someone on the Yale Admissions committee got to read about knitting):

I knit my first scarf in fifth grade. From there, I progressed to mittens and blankets. This summer I decided to embark on a more ambitious project: to knit a sweater from scratch. To accomplish this goal, I would need to learn how to shear a sheep, spin the fleece into yarn, dye the yarn into a palatable color, and knit a sweater that I actually could wear. 

I have had mixed success. My knitting has gotten progressively better as I have mastered working with multiple colors, casting on and off in different ways, and utilizing various needles. On the other hand, my dyeing skills are abysmal. My attempts at subtle, understated tones more closely resemble failed tie-dye projects from Girl Scout camp. My shearing skills remain untested. Although I recently visited a flock of ewes in my hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, I have yet to work up the nerve to wrestle one of the wriggling ladies into place while using sharp clippers to remove her fleece. 

Despite these initial obstacles, I am not worried about failing. I did not know about highway systems before working at the US Department of Transportation. I had never witnessed a birth before becoming a doula. Throughout my life, I have pursued interests that ignite my curiosity and often challenge my abilities. These experiences have given me the confidence to know I can gain the skills to succeed whether I am knitting a sweater from scratch, starting a new job or attending law school

Besides the requisite cheesy ending, I'm not entirely sure what information the admissions committee will get glean from this one....heh, knitting...

BISIO Update: December/January

Oh man!  I made it all the way through December without writing a "Because I Said It Outloud" Update.  I feel ashamed.  So here it is:

Doula: I am co-coordinating the volunteer doula program at the birth center now with two fantastic women.  I helped train eight new volunteers in December and we hope to get a bunch more in January.  Sooooo exciting!  I was in-charge of creating the January on-call calendar, though...what a stressful, complicated activity.   I also attended two births in November, one of which was qualifying towards my certification (only one more to go!!!).  The other randomly ended up being in support of the wife of a college friend of mine.  That was weird at first but extremely exciting.

Sheep to Sweater:  I went to spinning class.  Soooo much fun.  I need to practice, though, so I can keep up the skills/hopefully improve a little.  I learned that my Local Yarn Store (LYS) has roving (prepared fleece) so I at least have a local supplier for basic spinning supplies.  Made the (I think, pretty smart) decision to not necessarily clean my own fleece to be used in my sweater yarn.  Still deciding whether I should try to spin all the yarn for a sweater or if I am satisfied just knowing that I could.

I've also been doing some seriously awesome knitting (IMHO).  I made these Fair Isle Socks, this awesome hat, made some alpaca awesomeness for Devon (OMG Devon, I never took a picture of them!!!  Send pictures quick!!), working on my multi-colored mitts still (gosh, don't seem to have a pic of those either....).  Not that high-volume when I see it layed out like this, I guess.  But I feel good about it.


Grad school:  I've officially applied to all the programs that I am going to apply to.  That would be joint JD/MPH programs at Emory, Columbia, Minnesota, and Michigan and just law school at Yale, Stanford and Georgetown (gotta reach for the stars, right?).  I didn't bother turning in the UCLA application because it was too annoying (I'm ignoring the sneaking suspicion I may have destroyed a beautiful legal career in LA over paperwork issues).  Now I have 10-12 weeks of nightmares about my letters of rec not getting to schools in time before I hear back from schools.  Also, interviews at Georgetown Law (this week) and the Michigan School of Public Health (early February).  Not sure where I want to go, so it would be nice to know where I am accepted so I can go visit a few places.  With all the cold weather around here, I am beginning to think I should have chosen some warmer places...

That's what's up.  More pictures of things next time

BISIO Update: October

I had a bit of a posting issue last week, and the "Recent Knitting Projects" post looks like it went up on Monday instead of Wednesday.  If you missed it, please go back and read it 'cause I made some pretty stuff recently.

Grad School:  Folks, this sucks.  I mean, really.  I have letters of recommendation writers lined up.  I have accounts set up with LSAC (the online application center for law schools), SOPHAS (the online application center for schools of public health), and Columbia University (who spitefully refuses to be part of SOPHAS).  I have uploaded my resume, begun to enter information is all 12 separate applications I have to fill out (despite the common app that will supposedly make the process easier), and have written a pretty uninspiring personal statement that I now get to rewrite a thousand times.  Sigh...

Sheep to Sweater:  I am going to Iowa in a week for the annual Smith Family Picnic (more on that later, I promise).  Iowa, the land of farms and, in turn, farm animals.  I am convinced that I can find a kindly farmer who will let me hang out with their sheep for a while. However, the folks we are staying with informed my dad that they sheared their sheep in July (JULY?!?!?!), and that they probably don't need a new haircut for another year or so.  Pft! 

Additionally, knitting blogs that normally make me so happy have started to make me feel super insecure.  Rationally, I understand that very few people are into knitting as much as I am.  In the larger scheme of things, there are probably more blogs and experts on any other topic in the world than there are on knitting.  And knitting is a relatively young craft (compared to spinning and weaving that is.  Only about 1000 years old), and people are coming up with new ways of doing things all the time.  And yet, reading blogs and books and seeing the cool things that people have designed, I feel like everything in the knitting universe has already been said and done and accomplished.  Thank goodness I have other skills to fall back on, right?

Doula: One of the coordinators of the volunteer doula program that I am part of is leaving.  I am going to step up to help out as part of a three-woman team to keep the program in tip-top shape.

I have ideas....

Because I Said it Outloud (BISIO) Update

Here is a little first-of-the-month update on where all my goals (doula, sheep-to-sweater, and grad school) stand at the moment.

Doula:

Folks, I have been on-call so many days this past month but haven't been called.  I am hoping to remedy this lack of baby-birthing this weekend with 48 hours of on-call awesomeness.  We can only hope the midwives want help over LABOR Day weekend (best pun ever).

Sheep-To-Sweater:

Sheep:  Friends around the country (we are talking, Iowa, Vermont, South Dakota, Washington, and Virgina) have emailed me to say they are on the hunt for sheep.  I was going to go to the VA Fall Fiber Festival this October, but Crafty Bastards is that weekend, too.  I might just wait until the MD festival in the spring.

Spinning:  I've signed up for a class at the Torpedo Factory/Art League for early December.  It is called "Crash Course in Spinning."  I hope it isn't actually "Crash and Burn Course in Spinning."  I have no idea how to prepare for this one.  I can't wait for the materials list, but in the mean time I am just learning about different kinds of wool.

Dyeing:  I've learned to dye wool (more on that soon) at my local knitting studio.  I have serious doubts about my skill in this area, but I think I am passable.  I might host a dye practice party if I can find enough people that care about yarn to come do it with me.

Knitting: This is the area I feel most confident about.  I am doing my first "sweater" currently.  It's the Microspun Baby Hoodie by Lion Brand.  I wanted an easy way to learn about sleeves and button bands and had just enough purple Microspun to do it.  I am currently pretending that I swatched ahead of time and that my gauge isn't horribly off.  In other words, there better be an abnormally small baby out there that needs/craves a purple hoodie...

Grad School:

Applications come out September 15th.  This does not amuse me in the slightest, as it means that I will actually need to fill out said applications.  Still aiming for Thanksgiving as my self-imposed deadline.  I've been reaching out to people for advice on the MPH portion of the JD/MPHs I will be applying for.  I have had both amazing (thanks Stacy, Paula, Ebeth, Addington and others) and ridiculously unhelpful (you shall remain nameless) advice from various sources.

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Basically, progress is being made, and I am not totally wasting all my time knitting sheep or watching NCIS.  And we can all be grateful for that.