Happenings

The semester is rolling on, and all of the things that seemed so far away in January are now here.  In some ways this is good - some of those things are exciting and good things - but in some ways it's not so good - some of the things that need to be done aren't done at all.  I think this must be pretty normal (at least, I tell myself that it's pretty normal - I can't be the only one?).

I am still finding time to knit and spin, though.  I have now completed the body of Vitamin D and will be on to the sleeves soon enough.  However, as I cast the body off, it suddenly occurred to me that I have had plans to knit a shawl for a young woman of my acquaintance, a young woman who (just yesterday, it seems) used to babysit the girls (in fact, it just hit me that when she started babysitting the girls, she was about the same age that Older Daughter is now) - and now she's graduating from UC Berkeley.  How cool is that?  I asked her mother, a friend of mine, when graduation is, and she said it's in early May.  Eek!  So I have cast on for Whipporwill, in very much the same colors as the one I knitted for myself, and I will dedicate myself to that for the foreseeable future.  It may not be done in time for her mother to bring it to graduation, but it will be done by the time she moves back down here.

I have also begun sampling more fiber.  This is the Brown Merino from my fiber sample box.

I split the ounce of fiber in half.  The goal is to spin one half into a worsted two-ply and three-ply, and the other half into a woolen two-ply and three-ply.  Above is the worsted, three-ply on the left, two-ply on the right. I think you can see just how much rounder the three-ply is.  This is some gorgeous fiber, although with more in the way of coarser, darker hair scattered throughout than I'd expected.  Some of it shook out, some of it was incorporated into the yarn.  I will be interested to see, once these are made into skeinlets and washed, whether it is possible to feel those coarser hairs, and whether they change the range of garments for which I might consider this particular merino.

I have hopes of spinning up the other half tonight (since I'll be spinning woolen, it will go faster), but I have something else to do.  Tomorrow morning, bright (actually dark) and early, the girls will be leaving for New York City for this year's Montessori Model UN meeting.  Younger Daughter did this last year, but it is Older Daughter's first year, and they are both so excited that I know absolutely that they will not be sleeping tonight.  Last Wednesday, we went to hear them practice giving their speeches, which was very exciting for us as parents.  The issues that students in their group (they are delegates from Romania) have to address are varied, ranging from child soldiers to the conflict between Palestine and Israel over heritage sites.  The fact that they have the opportunity to think about these things, and then to discuss possible solutions to these issues with their peers, is amazing enough.  The fact that they then have an opportunity to hear the final resolutions of all of the working groups read out loud on the floor of the General Assembly of the United Nations - well.  That just gives me chills.  Those resolutions which pass are then (I kid you not) forwarded to Ban Ki-moon. 

There is no greater gift to give a child, I think, than to give her a sense of herself as a member of a broader citizenry, and of herself as able to participate in change for the better.  I hope this is something that both girls carry with them.

On a smaller, but, I think, equally exciting note (to Younger Daughter, at least), each school that participates must forward a design for this year's conference T-shirt.  The design for the T-shirt is then chosen by the organizers from among the hundreds that are submitted.  This year, their program sent forward a design that Younger Daughter and a classmate from the program designed together.

And the organizers chose it.