Turning a Heel and other Fiber Experiences

I'm in the middle of knitting my first pair of socks ever.  What makes it doubly challenging/frustrating/rewarding is that I am making it from yarn that I hand spun (not with a wheel) with wool from our sheep (although I didn't shear the sheep myself).  The progress thus far:

I turned the heel last night, which as any knitter knows, is probably one of the most feared of all knitting techniques.  This is why, after 15 years of knitting, I have not yet knit a pair of socks...until now.   With the advent of YouTube, where one can actually watch a video of someone turning a heel (and rewatch over and over again), it becomes a little bit easier.  I am not working from a pattern for these socks as I couldn't easily determine the weight of the wool, and it's not really consistent in size either.  So I'm using a general guideline that I found here and I'm supplementing with other information I find on the web.  It's also taking a considerable amount of problem solving and looking at how socks are actually put together (yes,my darling husband, I really am being productive when I stare down at the woolies on my feet for five minutes at a time). 

In other news, I am working on my hand-spinning technique and can actually create yarns with different weights.  I also went to my first spinners meeting this past week.  This is not the bicycle, exercise kind of spinning, although that would also be a good use of my time, but the old-fashioned wool spinning.  About 20 women of all ages and background came together with their wheels and shared what they had made in the course of the past month.  Some of the creations were truly fantastic including felted hats and cabled throws.  I brought my broken-down $40 garage sale salvaged wheel which looked pretty funny compared to all of the newer wheels.  Below is a picture of my wheel. 

This is basically considered a "clunker" now, as the newer models looks something like this.  Oh well.   The woman who runs the spinning group took a look at the wheel and determined that it may actually have been made for decorative purposes only as the tensioner at the left end isn't actually functional.  Now, who would go through all the trouble to reproduce a wheel with all the working parts except one?  She offered to take it home and try to fix it, and for that I am grateful.  So I continue to hand-spin and knit away, and the snowflakes continue to fall.

We haven't been hit nearly as hard as the folks on the East Coast.  But we are all preparing for another storm (or two) this upcoming week.  Along that vein, my darling husband, Bud and I have moved all of our wood inside and had the oil company fill our backup oil tank.  We also have taken stock of our freezer. We have no shortage of meat, but the green vegetables from the summer garden are dwindling quickly.  We may have 5 quarts of green beans left, and a smattering of corn, carrots and peas.  Bud ate the last of the apple sauce last night.  As usual, we have a plethora of potatoes and there is still some winter squash, although it's certainly not in prime condition.  If we get desperate, we could try the beets I froze two years ago, or the frozen kale.  We also have several quarts of homemade chili that my darling husband made a couple weeks ago.  100 days until the asparagus comes up, and possibly sooner for the lettuce (depending on if I get the coldframe up in time). 

Stay warm this week!

If you let them, they will play

Due to the long weekend, and the abundance of snow, we decided to host a sledding party for some of our friends.  The instructions were simple...bring your kids, your sleds and dress warmly.  While the temperature hovered around 15 degrees, the sun was shining brightly and there was no wind.  I wish I took pictures as the colors of the sleds and the parkas against the white snow and blue sky were striking.  After two hours of play in the snow, 7 kids, 7 adults and one Labrador retriever tromped inside for some hot chocolate and popcorn as the sun began to set over the western hill.

I am not a fan of the cold, but I find the combination of good friends and sunshine helps to bring me out of my shell.  More importantly, I find that given a wide open space and very little parental involvement, kids will play appropriately and learn valuable social skills, as well as hone their imaginations (oh, and have a good time).  In an era where everything has become so directed, imaginative play has become a lost art.  Kids are continually connected to a screen of some sort or another, or participating in structured lessons, sports or other activities where someone (or something) is telling them what to do and how to do it. Structure certainly has an important part in a kid's life, but not to the extent where there is no free time at all.  It is a good thing for a child to be "bored" as it forces him or her to figure out what to do with that time.  We find in our household that Bud will often want to "do" something with one of us. But if we're both busy, we send him off on his own.  Usually he ends up deciding to read his novel (currently, the Nicholas Flamel series) or coming up with some sort of game in his room to play with his guys (the Fisher Price castle  and figures Santa brought him when he was 3 and other assorted cars, trucks and blocks that he has accumulated over his short 8 years of life).  Wendy Mogel discusses children and boredom in her book, The Blessing of A Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children. 

One of the party-goers who also homesteads mentioned that her family often has a fossil-fuel free day, which requires the children to think creatively about how to spend their time without going into town.  If we as parents hunker down and don't cave in to the constant bombarding of "Can I play on the computer?, Can I watch a video?" etc., the kids will retreat and start some activity or other on their own.  If we let them, they will play.  Albert Einstein once said, "imagination is more important than knowledge".   One of my colleagues who teaches sixth grade actually has this quotation painted above her windows in her classroom.  Many may question this idea, but without imagination, there is no pursuit of knowledge.  If kids are trained to just google the answers to any questions they have, or ask a teacher or parent who will just give them the answer, then the creative mind within them withers.  We, as adults, need to foster the sense of self-reliance by letting the kids make mistakes, be bored, get into arguments with their peers, and create their own entertainment.  It's not neat and it's certainly not quiet, and it may be a little scary, but it's good, just like sledding down a big hill (with jumps) on a sunny January afternoon.

Hot Button Issues

This post is for my grandfather who has obviously been thinking about some of the major issues facing our country. He sent out a questionnaire to family members regarding health care reform; immigration; social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, gun control; foreign policy and domestic economic policy.  I have mulled over the topics for some time now, and I will attempt to write a concise response.

In the wake of yesterday's attack in Arizona and countless similar acts of violence against innocent people, there is clearly something out of balance in our society.  Trying to pinpoint it is not easy, and certainly everyone will have his or her own thoughts on this topic.  For me, I see the root of the problem (and really the root of all the hot button issues) lying in the rampant capitalistic nature of our society.

It has gotten to the point where corporations, greedy for money, have gotten so large and powerful that they run our country in lieu of the government of the people, for the people (for an interesting take on our dependence on big business check out the Story of Stuff).  Look at big pharma, big agricorporations, big media, and even big education (in New York State, the Board of Regents has an amazing amount of control over what is valued in New York education).  While we keep telling ourselves that we are individuals and have that individual spirit, that we believe in the American Dream, the country's view of what is "sucess" is so narrowly defined (by big business) that very few people, even if they are good, hard working citizens, can truly live a comfortable, happy life (there was a large international poll conducted by Gallup about 5 years ago on national happiness and you can see some of the analysis here).   This has led to a great lack of trust in the government and people are clearly upset.

It's ironic that our country, so focused on being the best in everything--of being the world superpower--, is really in a downward spiral because of that hyperfocus.  We are so intent on this narrow view of success (making the most money as quickly as possible) that we have created this chasm between the rich and the poor, the haves and have-nots, that can no longer be ignored and is seriously threatening the fabric of our nation.  For example, big business exploited migrant workers for so many years and now the immigration "issue" has come to a forefront.  Don't punish the immigrants; punish the businesses.  The millions of workers who are picking our vegetables, constructing our homes, and cleaning our hotel rooms, are trying to make an honest living.  Yet our society is currently designed to elevate a few, while suppressing the rest, so that the dreams of these individuals are usually unobtainable and the cycle of poverty continues.  All the red tape and prejudice preventing migrant workers from staying in the U.S (even if they are here legally on a Visa) benefits whom exactly?
Another example: healthcare.  Young people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go through medical training (which automatically prevents a certain sector of our population from pursuing this dream).  Once doctors, they themselves are managed by big, greedy insurance companies and spend so much time doing paper work that bedside manners are completely non-existent and patients must feel a bit like cattle being shuffled along from one doctor to another in order to get a correct diagnoses of the problem.  Unless patients have the right insurance at the right time, a condition can easily bankrupt a family, and those individuals can say goodbye to their American Dream.  Why can't there be universal, free coverage for preventative care and treatment of common illnesses and conditions (this was my father's argument?). 

There is such a stigma against socialist practices as well as for big government intervention.  People see the failure of the Welfare program, and realize that Social Security is not going to be around for much longer in its current form.  Any media outlet will report that we don't trust our government to change our lives for the better.  But again, I don't think folks realize that the big corporations are driving the government, and we as consumers with capitalist spirits are driving big business.  Look at the Wars in the Middle East.  Regardless of the reasons for going to war, the question remains "why are we still there?"  Two words:  defense contracts.  These wars have been contracted out to these defencse companies, who thrive in this environment and make oodles of money; war for the executives of these companies is good.   Perhaps you would rather think that we are there to secure the area to save our national interests.  After all, there is so much oil over there; its certainly worth the hundreds of thousands of lives lost.  Why not invest all that money in alternative energy strategies here?  Let's look at solar and wind power.  We have the technology and the intelligence; we just need to apply it.  Or how about just looking at reducing power consumption.  Does a family of three really need a 5000 square foot home?  Are SUVs really necessary if you don't have 6 kids?   Are week long cruises a necessary vacation plan?  Do you really need to eat that avocado that traveled 3000 miles to get to you?
If the government was truly run for the people by the people, I don't think the general population would be so wary of its practices, because I think the government would make wiser choices, being free from the chains of corporations.  People, therefore, would not be so up in arms about universal healthcare, universal education with a variety of alternative programs (more on that issue later), a social welfare program that really works (look at Oportunidades in Mexico).  Trust would be restored and senseless acts of violence would not be so common.

What is an answer to all of this?  We have to look at community and we have to make sacrifices and be flexible (by the way, isn't it odd that we've been to war for nearly a decade and there has been no war tax?).  We also need to realize that fair is not equal.  What works in one section of the country, may not work in another.  Our federal government needs to trust our local governments to make healthy, wise decisions for their own constituencies.  For example, I work in a school district that is fine in terms of meeting the NCLB standards.  However, the 8th graders still have to take 4-5 state tests every year, amounting to 10 days (5.5% of the school year) lost to mandated testing. Imagine what could happen if we didn't have to administer the tests and we could bring some creativity and higher thinking skills back into the curriculum.  Another school district may need to focus on meeting the basic, non-educational, needs of the children (housing, food, adult guidance, good health).  Yes, in the short term, these districts may not be meeting the NCLB standards, but if these larger issues are not addressed, the cycle of poverty and despair and violence will continue. 

In summary, we need to tackle the core issues: the poverty and discrimination, the hate and the intolerance.  We need to let go of the "ME!, ME!, ME!" mentality and the "MORE! MORE! MORE!" ideology.  We need to not allow big business to run our government (any ideas on this one?!) or our lives, and we need to become a more trusting people and have faith in one another.

My grandfather wanted to know our political leanings.  While I tend to vote democratic, currently I am disenchanted with both major political parties due to their reliance on corporate funds and not being bold enough to say "Enough already!  Let us do what is truly in the people's best interest!"