Knitting Fun

Our friends are having a baby, so when I saw this pattern for a soft and fluffy crab at knitty.com, I had to knit it for them. I'd like to say I knit it for the baby, but I don't know how much a baby can really appreciate a stuffed crab. I'm not even sure how much a couple of adults can enjoy one, but I hope that since these two are pretty cool and creative, it's an amount greater than 0. I know I've had a lot of fun making it and playing with it.

The knitty one is cute--thanks, Amber Allison (designer). I modified it somewhat, so my crab's legs aren't as fat as hers. I added a little rattle inside, too, so mine is definitely louder. Not that much louder, though; I don't want it to be annoying! Plus as you see, I have a cute hubby to go with mine.



I knit some socks, too. The yarn, Noro Kureyon, did most of the work; I bought it for its crazy colors and color changes. No, the socks do not match--or they do, but not in the typical identical twins way that socks do. The stitch is Falling Leaves, also courtesy of knitty, though I sort of improvised on the sock pattern.

I've been thinking about education a lot lately, of course, but I'm not sure what to post because so many of my ideas are so unformed, and I'm not sure how comfortable I am having a public journal of thoughts that are bound to shift and evolve, especially when those thoughts could affect my career. I will say that I am re-reading Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children, and I'm appreciating it a lot more this time around. I've also been getting into the curriculum for the Elementary Mathematics Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here are the Core Questions of EML (from last year's slide show):

1. What is involved in expecting complex mathematical work of every student, and enabling it?
2. How can teachers work to reverse patterns of inequity related to race, family income, language, and gender in their teaching of mathematics?
3. What does it take to build a respectful and mathematically-focused learning environment?
4. How can professional educators make the intricate and often “invisible” work of teaching available to and learnable by others?

I am excited about these questions and the opportunity to work with some really cool people this summer!