Episode 78: Weekend adventures

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Today’s segments include: drafting, fully drafted, lit review, three favorite things, and noteworthy. Pull out your knitting and let’s knit together!

Drafting:

Fish lips kiss heel socks by Sox Therapist in White Birch Fiber Arts 80% SW merino, 20% nylon colorway Nothing Says Screw You Like a Rainbow on size 1/2.25mm 32″ Hiya Hiya sharp circular.

Nanaimo socks by Cookie A in Marigoldjen 75% BFL, 25% nylon colorway Earl Grey on size 1/2.25mm 32″ Hiya Hiya sharp circular.

Spinning Into the Whirled Targhee colorway Winds of Change on my Ashford Traveller spinning wheel.

Fully Drafted:

Fish lips kiss heel socks by Sox Therapist in Lollipop yarn colorway Color Addiction on size 1/2.25mm 32″ Hiya Hiya sharp circular.

Lit Review:

What I’m Reading on kindle: How to Be Both by Ali Smith for my book club.

Update: I finished the section called “Eyes.” Here’s a favorite quote: “cause the life of making is a matter of double knowledge so that your own hands will reveal a world to which your mind’s eye, your conscious eye, is often blind.”

This section was very stream of consciousness and tough to read. The section called “Camera” is supposed to be a lot easier, and a lot clearer, so I’m looking forward to it. So far, so good.

What I’m Reading on audio: Americanah by  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

From Goodreads: From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a dazzling new novel: a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home.

As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu—beautiful, self-assured—departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze—the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor—had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion—for their homeland and for each other—they will face the toughest decisions of their lives.

Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today’s globalized world: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s most powerful and astonishing novel yet.

My thoughts: I am absolutely in love with this book so far. The storytelling is gripping, and the reflections on America are incredibly insightful.

Here’s a favorite quote: “Ginika told her that ‘fat’ in America was a bad word, heaving with moral judgement like ‘stupid’ or ‘bastard,’ and not a mere description liked ‘short’ or ‘tall.’ So, she had banished the word ‘fat’ from her vocabulary…She said the word ‘fat’ slowly, funneling it back and forward, and thought about all the other things she had learned not to say aloud in America.”

What I’m Reading on paper, nonfiction: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

From Goodreads: At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled “quiet,” it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society–from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.

Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.

Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts–from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a “pretend extrovert.”

This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how introverts see themselves.

My thoughts: As an introvert, so far, I am finding this an incredibly empowering book. I have been struggling with many things over the past year, and among them, finding my voice and empowering my students through a teaching style that asks a lot of questions rather than only providing answers in a world that just doesn’t value that style. My hope is that this book will help me sort some of that out so that I can articulate the value of listening and asking questions to my students.

Three Things:

1. Grace and Frankie: The story of an unlikely friendship. Grace, an uptight character played by Jane Fonda, and Frankie, a free-spirited wife and mother played by Lily Tomlin, are brought together when their husbands, who are business partners, announce they are leaving them to marry each other. All of the main characters in this show are incredibly endearing. The couples also have 4 children, who are imperfect and spectacular. Grace and Frankie is a show full of strong, interesting, multi-dimensional, older, female characters who, you know, do interesting stuff. Along with Orange is the New Black, this show renews my faith in high quality TV about real women.

2. Stash dash: I am really enjoying participating in TheKnitGirllls stash dash this year. It’s been awhile since I had time to participate in a knitting challenge.

3. Memorial Day weekend adventures in Philly