The Thrifty Knitter

Man. Well, today’s grant panel was a completely different experience than yesterday’s. The response was yikes-level negative. I’m the writer in the family, so I feel the failure was on me. Actually, I’d say it’s about half a failure in the application, about a quarter a disconnect between the application instructions and the way the panelists scored (so, really, we can call that three quarters application overall), and about a quarter just the personal tastes and dynamic of the panel.

My panel yesterday was a much more pleasant introduction to the process. The panelists were no less thorough and considered, but they were so much more positive, open, diverse in opinion, and certainly were much more humble. The sense was more that the were selecting versus dismissing. They also kept to the clock, which impressed me, both because I’ve got a crap sense of time, and because it just seemed so fair. I don’t know if that matters in the big picture, but I think I would have had a much more positive experience today if all the candidates had gotten equal time. When there are rules, I like them to be followed (hence my love of board games). I have a Liz Lemon-y devotion to rules, especially in a forein situation. I like strong perception of fairness. Otherwise, I feel fatalistic. And I’m just not a fatalist, so that makes me peevish. I’m much more comfortable in a situation that forces me enthusiastically to blame myself. Me fucking up, that I can work with. That I can fix–or abandon, if that’s the better option. Everything else, all those little quibbling elements you can’t control, well… what the hell are you supposed to do with that?

But don’t worry, I can still totally blame myself here. Ultimately, my writing wasn’t up to snuff–too many of their questions, I thought we’d covered in the narrative, but obviously I did a shit job editing it.

And maybe my grousing really just boils down to  a matter of the types of personality I find attractive or disagreeable, And it’s impossible to know whether what I initially found off-putting would have been magically transformed to charming if they had liked the project. Ultimately, who cares?

Meh. I’m going to go dye some fiber. I need to sweep out my brain.

I’m loving this Lorna’s Laces yarn. It’s so softy softy, but it’s not making up for the fact that I’m well behind schedule, which means I’ve got a couple full days of knitting before my V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

Today I got to observe the review panel for a Kansas Arts Commission. It was very interesting and not a little harrowing. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see any of the proposals for the first half of the day, which included the grant’s top marks. But I did get an overall very positive response, and some feedback which should help me refine my narative and proposal if I don’t make it through this round. Sadly, he legislature pretty much obliterated the KAC’s budget for the year, and although I got pretty good marks, I’m not nearly high enough in the scoring to have much confidence. At the end of the day, they tally up all the scores and give you your ranking. Awards are based entirely on points and applicants aren’t participating in the review process in any way, but it’s still gratifying to hear the discussions. The panelists were really dedicated and articulate, so I loved hearing their views/criticisms of projects.

The experience kind of transported me back to high school speech tournaments. All of the panelists/judges get score sheets with several different scoring sections and points values assigned to each. The judges give you points, some with comments, some without, and you try to suss out where you went wrong. Of course, there’s always one that thinks you’re brilliant and one that thinks you’re meh, so you have to kind of read between the lines. I glanced over the notes I got, but I knew I had to rush back for the Earth Scouts visit, so I didn’t fully absorb them. We can request a copy to review later, which I will definitely do so I can work on my weak spots.

Part of me lives for this shit–being graded, revising, tracking my improvement. But the other part of me, the bigger part, the part that’s always broke and short on time–that part just really wants the grant so I can get to work.

I know grant writing needs to be a solid part of my future, so I’m going to plan to attend these reviews whenever I can, even if they’re not grants I’m trying for. I need to learn how all of this business works so we can afford to keep making work and continue with cool collaborative & community projects. Go art!

Here’s a mom forward worth watching:

Still lots o’ yarn in the destash department. Here are the first 15 on the list:

Aside from keeping out the dirt, burrs and hay, the jackets also help preserve the color of the fleeces.

Here you can see the edge of Hokey Pokey’s reverse bikini line.

And this picture just kills me. It makes me think of two hopeless old biddies in some Merchant Ivory film being simultaneously dreadfully mean and dreadfully polite as they sip their tea. The should both be wearing high, lacy collars and peering through lorgnettes.

My felt caddy tutorial is up on craftzine today!

I put these kittens with their mittens on the back. The caddy’s to keep my hats, scarves & gloves straight this winter. I think I’m going to make one for each door. I might make some of these for my etsy shop. I think they’re peachy.

Speaking of  my etsy shop, I culled over 40# of yarn from my stash and threw  it up on etsy! 

The sad part? You can’t really even tell anything’s missing.

It’s fun when you accept that there are 40 pounds of projects you’ll never get around to. If I wanted to be honest with myself, I could probably cull another 40 pounds. But I’m not quite ready for that level of honesty.

 

I just watched the Hoarding: Buried Alive where the lady throws out all her Addi turbos. Gasp!

I’ll bet they got a ton of hate mail for that episode!

Okay, I can’t even express how pleased I am with this upcoming Craftzine project. I’m about to choke on my own adorableness. I actually ended up pulling a double because I enjoyed this project so much. This one’s from the main project:

And this is the secret back side of the secondary project. I’ll save what’s on the front side for the tutorial (hint: they rhyme with funny and turdy!), but here are the kittens who found their mittens! I think I’m going to make some of these (what are they? find out soon!) with crying, mittenless kittens on the front and these bemittened kittens on the back. I should probably add wee kitten grins to express their mitten-based relief/joy. They look somewhat ominous without mouths or at least whiskers.

Despite the buoying effect of glassy-eyed cartoon animals, I’m feeling a little under the weather tonight. I hope I’m not coming down with something. I can’t tell if I’m actually ill or just having a psychosomatic response to seeing a little white stuff on my tonsils and having a little swelling. I’m going to dose myself with vitamin C and see if I can talk Ron into getting up and letting the animals out for me tomorrow morning so I can sleep off any creeping infection.

Today I was naughty and did a little shopping at the Leavenworth Fiber Festival. It was the first year, so it was on the small and quiet side, but the vendors had stunning fiber and the venue was perfect, so I think with a little ravelry buzz, it could grow quickly and be a great annual event. I hope they do it again next year, because the timing’s perfect, just when you’re fracking sick of summer and ready to think about cold weather and spinning again.

But more importantly, here’s what I got!

Red Head Designs merino, Castle Argghhh mohair locks, and Woolie Bullies dyed top and locks.

This was outside the venue. Knitters’ GPS: “You have arrived at your destination.”