tychoish, now without a net

So I’ve once again been thinking about graduate schools, and the eventual implications of those choices and some choices I’ve made at this point.

Saturday night, I said the following “If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably be a Cultural Anthropology major,” which only vaguely resembles truth on second investigation. As far a social science goes, I like cultural anthropology a lot, but I don’t really want to do that major, so I’m glad I’m doing what I’m doing, but that statement has pushed me to look at yet another breed of graduate programs.

I started this grad school search process by looking at neat clinical programs where where was some sort of women’s studies possibility. There are problems with clinical psych programs, they don’t tend to be flexible, and they tend to be really hard to get into, and I want to have other options.

My next step on this journey, was to look at personality psych programs. Now there aren’t many here, and they’re hard to get into, (but I think a bit easier). They seem to address psychology using units of study that I think are appropriate, and at least theoretically I’d still be able to practice clinician if I wanted to (because the internship and licensing process is fairly distinct from the research portion of the Ph.D., so that’s cool. Also tied up in this is an interest in community, life history, and narrative psychology (psychologies?).

This has also lead me in the direction of interdisciplinary social science Ph.D. programs, mostly psychological anthropology, cultural psychology. I have 3-4 spaces for courses over the 2006-07 school year, which I think I’ll use to soup up my anthropology background, in this direction.

Where this takes me, will be a site of further deliberation in the near future, so expect that. At this point I’d like to present a list of programs that I’ve been thinking of. No real order, but a vague one.

• Joint Ph.D. in Personality Psychology and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
• The Ph.D. program from the Committee on Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago
• The Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at Clark University in Worchester, MA.
• The Personality/Cultural Ph.D. program at the University of Toronto

I’m sure this list will grow and change in the near futre. There are also programs like the Clinical program at Temple University, and maybe even Clinical Psychology or even Sociology/Gender Studies at SUNY Stoney-brook.

Stay Tuned! Cheers, sam

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tagged: academia

Nature Wool, may in fact be my new favorite yarn for the following reasons: it has great yardage, it’s moderately priced, for a “plain old” wool (read: not merino, or other specialty fiber). The dying is superb. The color selection is pretty good. It felts nice, and wears well. Just so you know.

I have a couple of sweaters still in progress. I have some seaming to do on my Starmore Faeroe sweater, but I did some blocking with a steam iron, and it looks better now, which is really cool. It snowed here for the first time, and I think that I want to wear this sweater a lot this week because it’s damn amazing and it’s warm and the wool is really nice to the touch (shame it pills so much). The steaming helped with the pilling though, it looks like. I was talking to my favorite not-so-local-yarn store owner, and she said, that for the best results, one should really wind cone yarn in to skeins, and wash the yarn to set the twist, because makers don’t do that for cone yarn. Something to keep under advisement.

I also have sleeves to finish on my Norge Fantasia sweater, which is nice but I can tell now that there’s no way it’s going to end up like I was hoping, so I think I’m just going to make the sleeves simple and plain because I’m not enjoying the knitting, and I don’t want it to drag on more than it has to, because I’ll enjoy other projects more.

In the mean time, I got sucked into the Hat Vortex. I made 2 berets using that pattern that I posted (sorry for the roughness of the pattern. Felting cures all imperfections, so it doesn’t really matter, but I’ll clean it up at some point.) I also made a stocking cap that’s 1×1 ribbed throughout, and I really like the effect, and it’s certainly something I plan on doing again, because it turned out so well. It also gave me the opportunity to do the decreases freestyle, which turned out pretty well, and made the decreases almost decretive, if you know what to look for.

I have a fairly busy week this week, until wednesday. After that it’s easy as pie. I really want to make progress on the Norge Fantasia sleeves, (I’ve also decided that I need to redo the cast off on the collar, but thats quick and can probably be done during Lost or Veronica Mars on Wednesday.) During the aforeeluded trip to the not-so-local-yarn store, I got yarn for a couple of projects (woot thanksgiving day sales, and amazingly awesome yarn store owners and good friends who enable fiber compulsions.) Anyway… I’ll post more about what’s coming down the pike as I think about it.

Also, in TA: Knitting News, I think we’re going have some pretty intense changes before the end of the year. TA:K might splinter off, or we might get new contributor(s), or we might become a more distinctly separate site (but remain functionally where we are). Stay Tuned.

Cheers, Sam

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tagged: knitting

Ok folks. You want to make a beret? Like to knit. Well I have a pattern worked out that is perhaps the simplest pattern on the face of the earth, that’s very very flexible. It’s so flexible that I don’t even need to give you a number to cast on, and you’ll still get a good hat in the end. I promise.

Cast On an even number of stitches, the precise number of your choosing, onto your smaller circular needle (I cast on using the large needle and then switch to the smaller, but whatever you prefer.) This needs to fit around your head. 90 is a good default, or starting point but alter depending on your needle size, head size, and yarn size.

Knit in K1 P1 ribbing for 5 rounds.

In the next round K4, M1 around.

Knit 4.5-6 inches in st st.

In the next round, K3 K2tog around. Knit 5 rounds even in st st.

In the next round, K2 K2tog around. Knit 5 rounds even in st st.

In the next round, K1 K2tog around. Knit 2 rounds even in st st.

In the next round, K2tog around. Knit 1 rounds even in st st.

In the next round, k2tog around, and draw yarn through remaining stitches.

Block/Felt/Full the hat as you see fit. For me this generally involves rubbing it vigorously in hot soppy water in the kitchen sink for about fifteen minuets, but I have experience with flat felting so it might take people without that experience a bit longer. I don’t generally trust the washing machine for small things like this. Whatever method you use, when it has felted down enough stretch the hat over an appropriately sized dish. Let it dry about half way, then take it off the dish and shape the brim so that the entire hat is round and lays flat. At this point you need to pay attention to the size of the head hole. Don’t use a measuring tape, but the dish tends to malform the shape a little and this needs to be corrected. With a steam iron, steam the hat in this shape, and let it dry the rest of the way.

And there you have it. A beret.

Read on for notes about the needle size Continue reading Simple Beret Pattern (a Free Knitting Pattern)

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I have got to come up with more interesting meta-post post titles.

Sorry for the design yo-yo-ing. I think there needs to be an editorial design summit for the TealArt editorial board. We’re currently looking for corporate sponsors, and accepting t-shirt designs. In the mean time, hope the current status works out for everyone. I suspect our annual winter break redesign festival will happen once again this year.

Representing Identity has already started to start swinging in to gear, I’ve been working on eating through a huge bag of books. I hope everyone is aware that everything posted to that category that category, is work that is in progress and is meant mostly as a record for ourselves first and foremost. Secondly, it’ll be an experiment in academic blogging: you get to see our thought processes, and we get to record them. No final work will be posted, and frankly I doubt most people will find it inthralling. That’s just fine. This is also a good way of keeping records for ourselves. We may be keeping entries private (which you would have no way of knowing,) and there might be password-protected entries, which you will see, but won’t be able to access the content of. While TealArt.com will have all posts as per normal representing identity will only have RepingID posts.

Just so you know.

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I feel bad about not updating the Knitting portion of TealArt. I feel lame. I think it’s because I haven’t been knitting much. I have a few projects in progress this semester, but most of my knitting work has been finishing projects I started at the end of the summer. I made hat over fall break and another last week, and I started a sweater over fall break, which I’m making measured progress on, but I haven’t been producing anywhere near the level that I’ve produced at in the past. I also don’t have the same sort of compulsion to “get things done” that I’ve had in recent memory. On the one hand this is good, because compulsive knitting isn’t the most useful expenditure of time or psychic energy, on the second hand I haven’t really taken up another activity (like, writing, web-design, reading, photography, exersize, television) to replace knitting. I do have school work which does take out some of the knitting, but I think that I’m going to blame this mostly on my involvement in student government, which I’m working on checking out of (I lost a bid to be vice president, I’m still chair of a fairly influential committee so there’s a lot less that I have to do.) note to self, rectify this situation.

Next semester, I’m going to knit two sweaters, for an art special project, which I think will be really fun. This is going to surprise all of you I’m sure, but I have two concerns: the first is that I’ll have a problem getting them done, but when I do the math, it should work out just fine, as long as I commit to it, and am able to get a lot done during break(s), the second, is that I’m going to have to design the sweaters myself. These should both be surprising to you. I’m worried by the first option, because we’re talking about making a sweater that is, at least 300 stitches around, which is a huge amount, and the needles will be small, so it will be slow going, secondly, at least one of the designs, will have horizontal patterns, which are harder to memorize, because they don’t repeat in the same way. It’s just something to think about…

Oh well. Cheers, Sam

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tagged: knitting

After an argument with Heather last night, I find myself asking, where the line is, in regards to essentialism, and essentialist formulations of gender and sex.

I offer you a quote:

“‘man’ and ‘woman’ are fictions, caricatures, cultural constructs” and that “we are . . . a multisexed species.”

I’ll offer reference upon request… but it’s surprising at least to me.

Monique Wittig, also (very much in the tradition of Simone de Beauvior) offers a similar statement that locates the notion of “woman” and “man” (as well as “lesbian”) as being historically and contextually meaningful.

Are these people off the hook? I mean, if you put the post-structrual disclaimer in, does that in some way de-essentialize the argument? Perhaps is there a way to say, this kind of argument may not actually essentialize identity completely, but leads to essentialism?

Can/do post-structuralists essentialize identity still/too? Is that splitting hairs?

If so, and even if not, is identity and collective identity still a meaningful site of analysis? I mean I certainly think that identity groups are meaningful and helpful, but at the same time, it’s a huge can of worms….

Just some thinking Cheers, sam

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