What Teachers Make

I just watched this video of Taylor Mali's poem, What Teachers Make.

I think it's fantastic. Must share.

Woolhead Works

OK, I've decided: I'm going to do it. I'm going to transition my Etsy shop from Sarah's Amiables to Woolhead Works. I know it's kind of a big deal, but I want to do it.

Why? A couple reasons.
1. I really like the name Woolhead Works (see figure below). "Sarah's Amiables" sounds kind of lame an unmemorable. I want a shop name I love and feel proud of.
2. Revitalization. Sarah's Amiables was getting stale and disorganized. Woolhead Works will be fresh, and (hopefully) much more organized and cohesive.
3. It makes kind of a neat parallel with how I've changed my own name.
To maintain cohesion between my blog and my shop, I'm going to transfer my blog to woolhead.blogspot.com.

As for twitter, I'm changing my username to SarahWoolhead. I've found my twitter usage has become more personal than business-related, so I think I'll continue that.

I think I'll let facebook fizzle. It was a cool idea, but I don't have the internet energy to maintain it properly. I'll try to focus more on my blog.

So there it is.

Color-Texture

Personality quizzes are fun, but crafterality quizzes are funner. Especially when they confirm something you thought already.

http://www.weavingtoday.com/blogs/madelyn/archive/2010/09/07/weaver-s-personality-survey.aspx

I am more color-texture driven than structure-pattern driven. It's true.

Free Poverty II

Check it out! I've gotten much better at the whole world geography thing!

Free Poverty

This is a fun game. You can donate water to people living in poverty by taking a geography quiz. It really reveals how little I know of world geography...

"Done Just Right"

This is a picture of an art quilt that will be featured in the 2011 Quilting Arts Calendar. I Love It. So vivid, so warm, so unique... and such happy memories.

little updates

I'm sore. Last Thursday we got a call asking if we would take pre-possession of the house we're buying, and immediately we learned we would close this Wednesday, so we opted for pre-possession, and have been moving all weekend. Lots of heavy lifting of mattresses and box springs and solid wood dressers and tables up the stairs, just Evan and me. Phew. I may not need to exercise for the rest of the summer.

Wedding is done, and it was awesome. Maybe tonight I'll post pics from my family on facebook. There are about 300 so far. Still waiting for the disc from the professional photographer.

I'm trying to get my head back into science mode so I can maybe graduate someday. I know I've got years left in my program, but it's all about getting the work done. I just had a meeting with one of my advisors, and I've got a LOT to do: write a grant, grab some more data and write a paper, learn about establishing and maintaining mouse breeders and colonies for our special genetically modified lines, iron out the best possible experimental design for an upcoming study (include behavioral measures? reduce mouse numbers?), learn a few new lab techniques, use said techniques to finish a study currently underway, begin another study to parallel the current (very large!) study in terms of experimental conditions but with a different means of analysis, and consider adding a study for potential therapeutic application of a new antioxidant agent one of my advisor's contacts has developed, while advising an undergrad and keeping him busy.

I want to huddle in a cozy corner somewhere and knit.

Super cool: grass sculptures

I just came across this link today, and it makes me smile pretty hard. Take a minute and go visit!

13 Most Amazing Grass Sculptures

name changing

I'm getting married in two weeks. (Yikes.) And I'm changing my name to his.

I've also been thinking about changing the name of my shop. I had originally decided on SarahsAmiables to include my identity and to keep my options open as far as what I could sell -- knits, jewelry, handbound books, whatever I felt like making. Still, I find I'm pretty much exclusively selling fiber-related items. And I find I'm still not particularly fond of the name SarahsAmiables. Yes, it's charming and friendly, but it's not descriptive, nor is it super memorable. So I'm thinking of shutting down that name and getting a new one.

My favorite idea right now is WoolheadWorks. I've been listening to an audiobook in which the characters keep calling this one guy "woolheaded," and I can't help thinking that it doesn't sound so bad, being woolheaded. It's funny and playful, and a little pun-ish, given that wool is my most common fiber selection. But just "Woolhead" sounds a little bare, not to mention that there's already a shop by that name. So Woolhead-something. "Designs" and "Studios" sound too lofty for me, but "Crafts" doesn't quite fit. I think I like "Works" for the alliteration, as well as its pragmatic sound; and it still keeps my product options open, moreso than "Knits" would.

So. What do y'all think? Stay with SarahsAmiables? Switch to WoolheadWorks? Something else entirely?

Baby Sweater

Here is my latest listing on Etsy:


A baby sweater I knit, commissioned by my mother, for the daughter of my cousin. (Is there a name for that kind of familial relationship? The daughter of my cousin?)


I used Cascade 220 superwash wool. I bought two skeins, which was clever of me because the sweater took approximately 1.09 skeins. So, grr, I don't have enough in this color for a second sweater. This one was a lot of fun to make. I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's pattern from the Knitter's Almanac. I'm thinking about altering the pattern a bit, maybe changing the lace pattern, to see what happens. :)

I've also got a scarf in the works for the RNEST monthly challenge. It's blocking now, so it's almost ready!

wedding dreading

Words becoming synonymous with "wedding:"

work
obstacle
expense
headache
trial/tribulation
time suck
money suck
distraction
complication
inconvenience
affliction
burden

even: deterrent


Evan told me yesterday that he looks forward to the day he could call me his wife. I thought for a moment and replied that I looked forward to the day after I could call him my husband.

Feline Favorites

I have made my first treasury on Etsy! I call it: Feline Favorites.

Speaking of felines, Jude has developed a new endearing but not convenient habit. At some point in the very early morning, generally between 3 and 6 am, he leaps onto the bed, climbs over Evan's head, purring loudly, and paces on my pillow until I wake up. He then settles in the little space between me and the edge of the bed, so I have to spoon him hang on to him lest he fall. Of course I have to pat him, too. Very sweet, but I think I would more fully appreciate the sweetitude 12 hours later.

prayer shawl

A couple weeks ago I finally finished the prayer shawl I started way back at the end of December. I brought it home to Cheshire last weekend, and my mom will see that it reaches the proper authorities.

Mom has also asked that I start knitting mittens instead of prayer shawls. Most anyone can knit a prayer shawl, but the church knitters are afraid of mittens, and Mom has noticed that the homeless people she encounters when she does Midnight Run frequently lack and want mittens. I am happy to oblige, because prayer shawls bore me half to tears, and mittens are much more interesting (and quick!).

Recent Spinning

I cracked out my Kromski Symphony after several months a couple nights ago, and presto chango, I have 4 more ounces of spun up yarn! I got the fiber from Maine Woods Yarn in the colorway "Erin."

I'm spinning it up as a sort of worsted-weight singles, though the resulting yarn is distinctly woolen. No, I really can't tell you what my spinning technique is. It's whatever I developed when I started on a drop spindle -- a sort of lazy short backward draw.

I'm so proud of myself! I let the yarn sit on the bobbins for a couple nights to de-energize, and last night I washed the yarn and hung it up to dry and set the twist. (I felt especially clever, propping metal rods over the top of the shower between the wall and the curtain rod, to hang the skeins from there, so they don't drip over the floor.)

What should I make?

Wedding Progress

Tier 1
groom: √

Tier 2
wedding date: √
wedding location: √
reception location: √

Tier 3
Dress: √
Dress fitting: scheduled
shoes: ballet slippers obtained, but not completed
organist: √
service music selected: not so much
minister: √
service order: more or less
bridesmaids: √
groomsmen: √
DJ: √
music selected: working on it
menu selected: √
cake: not yet
rings: working on it
photographer: sorta

Tier 4a
Guest list: √
Addresses obtained: √√ (bonus check for hunting and pestering)
Save the Date cards: √
designed invitations: √
paper, envelopes, stamps for invitations: √
hand-addressed envelopes: √√√√√√√√√
sealed and stamped envelopes: √
mailed invitations: √ (almost all of 'em)

Tier 4b
Bridesmaids' dresses: √
tuxedos: silly lazy groom. no check.
Website: √
Registries: √
Local hotel info: √
Driving directions: √
Rehearsal dinner: in progress
Flowers: ... I don't really want real flowers because they die and cost more than the frigging dress... maybe I'll knit/crochet them.
Color-coded multi-sheet formulated Excel spreadsheet for RSVPs: √

Tier 5
Favors: got some ideas
Table naming scheme: again, some ideas
Centerpieces: 70%√
Card box: I have an idea. Just need time.
Guest book: ideas
Pen for guest book: √
Holder for pen for guest book: ideas
Cake topper: do I need this?
Gift log: √

Tier 6
honeymoon: If I make it through this, whatever happens after the wedding will count as a honeymoon by comparison.

RNEST April

RNEST has had another monthly challenge, themed "Earth Day / Eco Friendly." I made this nest, shown above, as my dedicated entry.

Then, on a whim, I threw in this cowl, since I made it with environmentally friendly yarn, and I think it looks awesome.


Keep an eye on the RNEST blog and vote for my entries if you like them!
*Edited to add: the RNEST April Challenge entries post is up here.

A Couple Things I Love

A quote:
Esther: First and foremost, there has to be passion. The world is full of stuff that nobody needs, dead stuff. When the passion is there, others will be able to see it too, and what you make will sell.
From the Etsy Quit Your Day Job article for Star of the East




This other Quit Your Day Job article about Dolan Geiman. He just seems like a groovy dude.




This project: turning the bottoms of soda or water bottles into a desk organizer. I'm working on it right now. I can always use more organization.




PhD Comics! I've recently re-rediscovered them.

The greatest non-action action figure

Sant Fe II: Convention Center

I really like the convention center in Santa Fe, much more than the one in San Diego, which was essentially a huge-beyond-all-reason hollowed- out cement block.

Here's one of the entrances. Adobe!


This is one of the halls. On the right are the doors to the room for the poster session and some of the rooms for the symposia and other presentation. On the left is a table with a constant supply of coffee, water, and soda.


In the main lobby there was a fireplace. I loved that fireplace! We weren't always sure that the heat was on in this place, so after a 2-hour long symposium, many of us would flock to the fireplace to warm our hands.

Santa Fe I: Around Town

Two Fridays ago I flew out of Rochester to Santa Fe (well, Atlanta, then Albuquerque, then took a shuttle to Santa Fe) for the American Society of Neurochemistry meeting (sounds pretty dorky, huh). All the science kept me pretty absent from the blog, and twitter, and most things internet. But here's the first part of an account of my time there. (I'm breaking it into several parts because I find blogger cumbersome when there are too many pictures.)

Part I: Around Town

This is the first thing I saw on Saturday morning as I stepped out of my hotel room. What gives? I thought Santa Fe was in the southwest, in the desert! Aren't the southwest and desert supposed to be warm and sunny? As it turned out, Santa Fe was mostly overcast -- I only used my carefully packed sunglasses for about 15 minutes -- and we got a couple inches of snow.


I walked by this wall on my 1-mile commute to the conference center every day. Yes, there was a shuttle, but it only ran at the very beginning and very end of the day, and I thought 2 miles a day would be good for me. I love this wall. I saw something new in it every time I passed it.


This is the plaza near the conference center. I was surprised at how pedestrian-oriented Santa Fe is. I had expected something like New York or Boston, or maybe San Diego, with tall buildings and nasty traffic. Actually, Santa Fe reminded me more of small-town Oberlin than any city I've ever known.
This plaza was cool. On Saturday there were vendors out on the sidewalks, and at night, they lit up Christmas lights in the tree branches.


This is a cute little cafe where I got my first fend-for-myself lunch on Sunday. I was lured in by a sign outside promising sandwiches. The cafe was burried in the depths of a building filled with cool artsy shops. Walking past them was difficult.


Here is the Cowgirl Barbeque, where I got dinner on Monday night when I had no specific plans. Cool place. There's always music playing when you walk by, and all the waitresses wear cowgirl hats.