Monday afternoon things

 * I finished the potholders (subbing a new one in for the blue and yellow, which I wasn't satisfied with)

I'm especially pleased with that "extra large three color plaid" one (the one on bottom right), it's a very nice combination and I want to make myself one (but with different colors, I used up all my red and green on these). These are for the AAUW gift exchange.

I like making these. As crafts go, they're about the most "immediate gratification" that produces something actually *useful* (there are faster crafts online, there's a whole "five minute crafts" channel on YouTube, but most of those are aimed at keeping kids occupied, and don't really make a Thing in the sense of it having a Thingness where it feels useful. These are useful in a lot of ways, as I said before).

Also the thing that amazes me about the potholder loom is that these are just the simplest possible over-and-under weave, and yet, careful color placement can get you all kinds of different patterns. When I was a kid and made these (with far inferior nylon loops - these are cotton, they're nice and chunky, and they don't melt if they get too close to a burner like the nylon ones will. I have one or two that are slightly scorched from having that happened, but they don't melt or easily catch fire - I suppose it's possible they could, but I've never had it happen, I've only had them hit a hot burner and get a bit of a scorch mark on them). But back then it was about the weaving, the finishing something. Now, for me, it's about the color placement and seeing what pleasing designs I can make by carefully planning it out first.

Harrisville Designs - their subcompany that does these is called Friendly Looms - is the one that makes these. The loom I have is metal. One thing I've learned is that when you're binding these off, it's *very* helpful to have a couple bulldog clips to clamp down the last side loops, or you risk it starting to unravel before you get to the last side. I think the pegs for the loops could be a hair longer, but then again: that might make it harder to do the bind off, I don't know. 

* Did a bunch of catch-up work today, posted all the final exam reviews, wrote a last hourly exam for one class, prepped the final for another (the good thing about finals? They don't get handed back so you just have to look over the old ones and replace questions that don't work, or that cover something you didn't cover this semester, and they're good to go).

I've promised myself that if I get x amount of work done this week, I am going to go to Sherman/Dension on Saturday. There are a couple things I'd like to get and it also would just be nice to get to JoAnn's and maybe pick up a bunch of individual Christmas cards from somewhere that has a bigger selection than locally (our Hallmark store is now a weed shop and a nail salon on the other side, so most cards I buy here are from Walgreens', which doesn't have a great selection - the Target is much better, and sometimes Five Below has some really idiosyncratic cards, and since some of these are for "Bunny Staplus*" idiosyncratic is good)

(*Bunny Staplus is a made up non-religiously-affiliated winter holiday that CPAAG on Ravelry does.)

Again, if you'd like a card, e-mail me, and if I'm unlikely to have your address, e-mail me your address. I probably will do these in the evenings of exam week and send them out before I leave town.

* I did remember Hanukkah starts on Dec. 7, and had a card for the person I know who celebrates it, so that will go out tomorrow to give it plenty of time to get there before the first night. The Christmas type cards can go a bit later.

* I had someone ask me for some consideration (in the form of an exam accommodation and extra credit). I said no on the extra credit - I do not need more work to grade right now - but said I'd give them the final early, and now a colleague of me tells me the person was not entirely honest about the circumstances of the request (as in: they probably actually could have worked around the issue, or they painted their "I have to leave EARLY because of Reasons" as more urgent than it was, and they might merely be leaving early to get a jump on the holiday). And I'm annoyed. I make it known I'm flexible and I try to be kind - and periodically I do get taken advantage of. And I don't know how to respond to it.

Oh I know, on some level it's on the person who lied - just like my minister has commented he will give money to (certain) people panhandling, and if they use it to buy liquor or whatever instead of food, that's "on them," but.....in this case, this request does put me out a little bit, and so I'm irked.

I don't want to become the person who requires things like a copy of the obituary naming the person making the exam-make-up-request as a relative or friend of the deceased if they want a funeral excuse, that's kind of hard on someone at a difficult time. But I also don't like my good will being taken advantage of, and I don't quite know what to do.

* But yeah, feeling like I need a treat/consolation/something. Also the "allergic reaction" was probably actually a cold - three days away from the dog and I'm still coughing a little bit and have a little congestion (no it is not COVID, and the symptoms are much closer to a typical cold for me - no fever, no fatigue or muscle aches, all the symptoms are upper respiratory and are in fact very allergy like)

* I almost finished "Diana of the Dunes" last night. There's a (weak) link there to Henry Cowles, an early ecologist who did his research (on dune succession) at the Dunes. But it's also just kind of a sad story. I know it's a fashionable a posteriori "diagnosis" but I suspect Alice Gray was "on the spectrum" as they say - she got bored easily with things, she didn't like talking to other people, she had some odd behaviors. But eventually she got chased out of the dunes by developers and by the fact that a corpse found there, their death was linked to her common-law husband (who probably was not guilty of it, it seems) and it seemed people just eventually made it impossible for her to continue in the life she chose. 

I suspect that happens to a lot of "oddball" people - they find a way to live that is comfortable for them and not hurting anyone else, and yet, people can't tolerate that someone isn't conventional. 

* Still knitting on the sock I worked on over break; I have a few rows left to finish the toe. I wanted to get in some more piano practice tonight though, after being away from it for over a week, so I didn't spend as much time knitting as I might have.