Once upon a time (read, a few years ago) I decided that I could do a dressmaking class by night in my final year of college. The dressmaking class in effect, was a skirt making class, as this is the easiest of the garments, it turns out. We spent a lot of time learning pattern making and not so much time actually sewing up finished garments. Twas just after finishing this class that I decided I could cut out pattern pieces in newspaper and sew them up to make a cheap costume for a fancy dress party. I later added a top to it and put it in a fashion show held during Trinity Arts Week which featured a section for outfits made from recycled oddments by Trinity students. I had all but forgotten about this until the evening of Christmas Day when my cousin was telling me about her recent plastic bag creations, and her intention to make her next costume out of newspapers. From this, rang some bells, and the bells led to a quick bebo search for photos taken by my friend Maeve all those years ago (read, 3 or 4?) before I myself became a camera owner. Here they are swiped from Bebo to entertain your curiosity and fulfill my desire to post more frequently!
Knitting on double pointed needles enables you to knit a tube rather than a flat piece of material.
My tube shaped project of choice was to be a pair of wrist warmers in which two buttonholes acted as thumbholes! Nice!
Me with finished wrist warmers
Knitting techniques, I find are almost impossible to learn from words alone. In an ideal world, I would be learning from a friend or relative, but as my favourite knitting enthusiast no longer lives in the same country as me, I find internet tutorials to be absolutely brilliant in getting you over the couple of hurdles that you'll usually stumble across in patterns. (how to+youtube+knitting technique listed in pattern=pure brilliance!) Knitters love youtube. Who knew!
I adapted this pattern for wrist warmers on knitty. I kept the ribbing for the first and last inch of the pattern, but in between I wanted plain stockinette stitch. Knitting on double pointed needles produces stockinette stitch just by knitting constantly, which is a lovely surprise!!! (Usually, stockinette stitch is made from knitting one row, and purling the next.) Who knew!
"Mary and Joseph" or "What I did in school on Monday"
Increasingly, there is a very negative atmosphere in college these days. The general feeling is that we have a million assignments that we are drowning in, while our energy still goes on attending lectures where we might spend (as on Monday just gone) an hour folding, tearing and scrunching paper to make a nativity scene in low relief, that nobody will ever see... I hope that one day I'll do this with my future students and look back on it and be glad that instead of cramming for an Irish grammar exam (current concern.....oh so many rules to learn) I was making 3D stick figures that give no clue to their identity....
My amazingly talented, funny and truly lovely friend Claire makes beautiful clothes.She has flawless taste, and although I have only seen one finished garment (an oh so cute chocolate brown corduroy long sleeved dress. I want one!!) I know that she is constantly playing around with patterns and ideas, but, isn’t there always a but, Claire’s budding career as a designer has a shadow hanging over it; for Claire the designer has a significant though endearing flaw; a kind of humble inability to finish pieces.She is a perfectionist, which is great, but dangerous!If she finished and displayed some of her work, I have no doubt but that people would want and love her clothes.Like me, and like a lot of other people, she rarely works or does anything really, without specific, immutable deadlines, but deadlines, she can meet, and meet them well!So, in an attempt to force…ahem, help Claire, I have suggested that she complete 2 designs, make them up in an array of fabrics, and bring them to the Dublin Flea Market (held on the last Sunday of every month) who incidentally have the most whimsically lovely posters imaginable.
We are aiming for the September Market.I plan to be there too selling baked goods beside her, keeping her company, and luring people over to her stall in a non threatening manner with tasty treats.For once people see her clothes, how will they possibly be able to resist?Sneaky!Now you know!
“And what does this all have to do with you and your blog Marol?” wailed the children….
At the time of our conversation, I didn’t quite realise it, but Claire knows that I too have an inability to work without deadlines, and so, in return she has badgered me into committing to a weekly Friday blog entry.So, there, I’ve said it.I will be posting every Friday.Now you know that too.
Acknowledging and ignoring the Fear
I listen to a podcast called “This American Life” religiously and subsequent to the recomendation of blogger extraordinaire: Anjali.It is a brilliantly edited
collection of random stories and intriguing glimpses into peoples’ lives, which leavesyou convinced that the world is a beautiful place full of wonder and meaning at every turn, even if it is occasionally bittersweet and at times heartbreaking.Basically, it’s really good.The Irish listenership for the podcast is still very low, but it is a household name in the States so I hear.Ira Glass, the host of this wonderful show, has to his own admission done some truly awful broadcasting early in his life, but is adamant that in order to progress and get good, you have to just put yourself out there, bad as you might be at the start, and that is the only way to progress.And, as I would like to progress as a blogger, you my potentially non existent readers may have to ….for a time….endure some truly awful posts….but if Ira is right….I can only improve!!Now you know, now you know it all.
You wouldn't believe how happy I was when I finally saw that my tree was producing leaves!!! Hooray! Isn't it beautiful? I really can't believe I've never paid any attention to buds and leaves before.... The shame is mounting. Mounting.
Drawing of the buds of my (potentially dead) Ash tree
Lesson 1: Shame=excellent motivationaltechnique In our first week in college, our Science teacher gave us a quick "test". He handed out a load of buds and asked us to identify them by tree. I was completely and utterly clueless. It turns out....I have never really looked at a tree in my life....ever. The shame.
Lesson 2: Don't plan a lesson unless you have the means of supplying the relevant resources Ego completely devestated, I started looking around and trying to identify trees by their buds. I became quickly obsessed. I have countless pictures of buds on my camera; some of them identified;others....less so!! I entusiastically planned a lesson for the infants on distinguishing between Ash and Oak trees. I was REALLY into it! I did this however, before having located an Oak tree to source buds from. Ash trees; I was finding everywhere. There was one conveniently located a couple of steps from my door, which I used to play on when I was a kid. (We were later evicted by bees...) I snapped a collection of twigs from it with only a minimum amount of regret. It was for educational purposes after all... Locating the Oak however was quite the adventure. I found a picture of the kind of buds I was looking for on trusty Google images, and off I went. I was a constant source of annoyance to my familial chauffeurs (aka:brothers). "Could you slow down here, I just need to check the buds...." I went for walks. It wasn't happening. I went to the grounds of the the University in my local town. No dice. A million beech trees, some sycamores....but nothing that resembled an Oak. I did eventually locate some Oaks....randomly and thankfully. It was a strange and challenging thing to have to locate on demand though. I couldn't google it. I couldn't scan back in my memory. Where have I seen Oak trees before? I had no reference point. My brain had not been filing this information it would seem... And so, it was a worrying time for me. I assure you.
Lesson 3: Ensure you don't use cuttings from dead trees when trying to monitor growth in the classroom. After our lesson on buds, I had placed two cuttings in jars on the windowcill before encouraging the children to check their growth daily to see which one will bloom first.
Yes. That's right. I am now thinking that the conveniently located Ash tree mentioned above is in fact....dead. Actually, I'm not entirely sure just yet. There's still time. It might yet sprout. I'm praying. Vigorously! In the classroom jars, the Oak's leaves are emerging now, but the Ash is looking worryingly inactive. My Ash tree at home is looking similarly dubious....and yet....the Ash tree down the road is as developed as the Oak tree that I have in the classroom. I may have to sneakily replace it one morning with a tree which is definitively alive...
(Lesson learned: Science is tricky...Who knew...)
And all this matters because....
Oak before Ash, we're in for a splash Ash before Oak, we're in for a soak!
The arrival of leaves on Ireland's two most common native trees are traditionally used as a weather forecast for the upcoming summer. Currently, there are three possible scenarios in existence... A. The Ash tree in my garden is not dead and the Oak did in fact sprout before the Ash. Ergo: We should be looking forward to a lovely Summer. B. The Ash tree in my garden is indeed dead and I have no idea which tree actually sprouted first. Ergo: Cross my fingers and hope for a lovely summer, regardless of any evidence to the contrary...like i usually do C. The Ash and the Oak are sprouting simultaneously....so we're in for a mixed summer??
Either way...I think I will have to repeat my experiment again next year...
Day 3 of my induction week: We have art. The teacher shows us this youtube video.
This is the "stimulus" he tells us for "the bit of art" we are about to make. We daydream about our future classrooms equipped with electronic whiteboards, and the kinds of wonderfull things we will be able to do with them. We ignore for the moment the possibility, nay probability that we will not have these kinds of resources at hand. We will find a way! We are young and full of the joys that we see vividly ahead of us.
The teacher gives a small talk about the importance of visual literacy, about not only encouraging kids to produce art, but also to give them the vocabulary they will need to talk about their art, their classmate's art and famous works of art. Give them the vocabulary young while they are still unafraid of giving their honest opinions! He talks to us with a minimum of arty jargon, no condescension and yet manages to impress upon us the importance of going forth and imparting necessary vocabulary. I am impressed. I am filled with optimism for the years ahead. "This. Is. Great." I think to myself.
We sit at 5 or 6 oil cloth covered kitchen style tables. We are a group of 33 young teachers in training. We listen to our teacher talk a little about Kandinsky and the sort of questions we might ask our future students about his work. "I am eliciting responces" he tells us as he walks through the easy introduction to our task. We nod sagely and imagine ourselves busily elicting in our future imagined classrooms.
Before long, we are all 33 of us sitting contentedly, pastels in hand, totally focused on our little pieces of card. We are playing with colours. We are building our own concentric circles in squares. We are dabbing sponges in dry powdered paint and water. We are experimenting. We are learning the words "wax resist" and we are doing it too. We are artists for an hour, but not only this we are happy in the knowledge that we will at some point be able to provide a group of 30 odd youngsters with this same experience that we are now enjoying ourselves. We leave the room full of hope for the teachers that we want so much to become.
Later that day, we emerge from lunch and we are greeted with this happy sight! We are the unlikely artists of a new temporary outdoor exhibition. People are passing and conversations are being sparked. We are pleased. Silently we make a mental note to ourselves: We will display our future students' work creatively.
