New Beginning Sampler

Any quilter under the tutelage of Helen Plaucshin will start with a Sampler. All of the blocks are different, fairly simple and mercifully large. My first Sampler probably took me just over a year. In the end, I gave it to someone that I loved and they still have it. In fact I don't even have a picture of it, but I'll try and dig up some of the fabric scraps to post. When fabric shopping with the always delightful Tasha, I found Anna Griffin's Blythe line at the Workroom. The owner Karyn had combined them with other fabrics to make a Sampler and it was so inspiring. So we begin again and I think it's perfect. I returned to my first set of notes from Helen and resolved to pick different blocks for my New Beginning Sampler. This is a Jacob's Ladder with a little peice of the British Isles snuck in.

A worthwhile purge

In a former life knitting, and sometimes quilting, was considered competition for my attention. I was persuaded to put knitting aside for years because it was deemed self indulgent. Spending so much time on Ravelry reminded me of the sense of accomplishment a finshed object gives you, as well as the happiness that comes from wrapping it around someone you love. I've made two pairs of socks since January and now and then I'm gripped with conflict because the happiness of picking up a project is complicated by guilt. I'm confident it will pass ;)

The photo attached is the trim on a hat which is an exercise in closure. I found some yarn that I bought to make someone special a scarf and I couldn't bring myself to just give it away. I want the alternate destiny for the yarn to be just as meaningful as the original plan. So, I emailed my friend Naomi in Jo'burg to ask about sending hats and sweaters to the daycare where she volunteers. The facility is subsidized for families living with HIV/AIDS who spend a lot of their income on treatment. I have enough to make several little sweaters and hats, though I am avoiding the green scarf yarn right now. I have six assignments due before the end of school and I don't know how using it will affect me. There's plenty of time for bawling after I hand in my last assignment.

Rationalizing with academia

Well then... another class with a blog component. It's my last semester of "Information School" and it will be all done but the crying in 6 weeks. I ordered my graduation dress from Anthropologie in January just to get stoked about it.

To get me a little bit closer to the end, I have to evaluate a Service System (as Jim Spohrer et al. sees it) and their use of social networking tools. It is taken from the article The Service System is the Basic Abstraction of Service Science presented at the 41st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2008.

Tasha got me hooked on a site called Ravelry.com in the fall. It's an online community for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners and dyers. It is the best Web 2.0 site I've ever seen and I am determined to work it into my assignment. I spend a lot of time on Ravelry, a bit unusual for me, so I figure there must be an academic reason that I am compelled to procrastinate in this way. What we have here is a pair of socks for Stephanie who was the other FIS intern in South Africa this summer. They are propped up against my "study sweater", found in a used clothing shop in London for 7 £.

I sent an email to the developers of the site to see if they ever had an commercial aspirations in mind for Ravelry. It is primarily social networking but I need to define who the customer or beneficiary of the service would be. I'll get Kelly's opinion as well. To think... I may be able to actually have a perfectly good rationale for all of the slacking I had planned for this weekend.