February 2018 – Patricia McLellan's Blog

2018-02-28

Variegated sock yarn

When I buy sock yarn in the store, there are many varieties. My last purchase was of some variegated sock yarn, bought in red, green and blue hues. So I was interested in seeing how the socks turned out.

dig

In the past when I have bought variegated yarn, it would usually just change in color scattered through the socks, with no particular pattern. Here are some examples of typical sock yarn in Norway.

dav

A few years ago I bought a pattern and the correct yarn in Canada. It was fun to see how the pattern in the girl’s dress came out, as I knit. I did not have to change colors at all, and the pattern came out as I knit the variegated yarn. I don’t have a picture of the dress itself which was given away, but here’s the picture in the pattern book.

dig

As I knit these last two pairs of socks, lo and behold, stripes came out as I knit, making very interesting socks. I enjoyed the knitting so much, easy to knit, but varying pattern as I went, that I bought more yarn. I will continue knitting socks like these for a while.

dig

2018-02-26

Raising Human Beings

by Ross W. Greene, Scribner, New York, 2016

9781476723761

Whether you are a parent and have a child you are raising or just looking for a way to work with other adults, the ideas in this book will give you a technique for promoting collaboration to find a solution to a problem.

“The most crucial task of your child’s development is to figure out who she is — her skills, preferences, beliefs, values, personality traits, goals and direction — get comfortable with it, and then pursue and live a life that is congruent with it.” (p. 161)

A parent’s job is to help a child grow and develop. We teach our children based on our own set of values, but what do we do when the child has problems with our expectations, or for that matter his/her own expectations of what she/he should be able to do? This is where a parent needs to step in and help the child.

Two of the basic principles, according to Greene, are that “kids do well if they can” and that “doing well is preferable”. So if a child (or perhaps a friend or colleague) is not doing well, don’t blame it on laziness or lack of motivation, but dig deeper to find out which skills are missing for the person to be able to get the job done.

The method that Greene recommends has three steps to helping children grow through managing difficulties:

Showing empathy for the person or child you want to help by listening to what their concerns are and their point of view on the problem
The adult also has to express their concerns and point of view as these must be considered too.
Then the child and the adult need to work together to come up with realistic and mutually satisfactory solutions. This is collaboration.

The author has a lot of good examples, both of good and poor dialogues between adults and children of various ages.

I wish I had had this book when my children were younger. Too often as a parent or a teacher I came up with a “solution” to a “problem” that quite often didn’t work at all. We have to be better at working with the person who has the problem, or the incompatibility to expectations, to find solutions that will work for both parties.

Boka som er omtalt her er ikke oversatt til norsk, men om du kan lese engelsk og du har med oppdragelse av barn, enten som forelder eller lærer, er boka anbefalt. Litt om hva boken handler om.

Det er viktig at når et barn ikke klarer en oppgave, enten hjemme eller på skolen, at voksnen lytter til hva barnas oppfatning av problemet er. Veldig ofte vil barna kunne komme med innspill om hva det trenger for å komme seg videre. Den voksen må også fremme sine bekymringer og sammen skal de finne en måte å gå videre. Om problemet ikke løses med en gang, kan det være behov for flere samtaler og forsøk med å løse problemet.

En forelders arbeid er å hjelpe et barn vokse og utvikle seg. Vi underviser våre barn basert på våre egne holdninger og verdier. Men hva skal vi gjøre når et barn har problemer med våre forventninger, eller sine egne forventninger om hva has/hun burde klare? Her er hvor Greene har en metode for en voksen å hjelpe et barn (eller en annen voksen).

To hovedprinsipper som Greene fremmer:

barn vil gjøre det bra, om de kan
å gjøre ting bra er å foretrekke

Han er opptatt av at barn ofte behandles feil, med løsninger til problemer fra en voksen som ikke ser på problemet fra barnas synsvinkel. Han har mange eksempler på familier og samtaler, både gode og dårlige. Å si at et barn er lat, eller umotivert, hjelper ikke barna kommer seg videre. Greenes metode har tre trinn for å hjelpe et barn utvikle seg gjennom å håndeter vanskeligheter:

Den voksen må vise empati for barnet med å lytte til hva barnets synspunktet er.
Den voksen må også si hva den er bekymret for. Begge sider av saken må tas hensyn til.
Da må den voksen og barnet arbeide sammen for å komme med en endring som er både realistisk og gjensidig tilfredsstillende. Dette er samarbeid.

Jeg ønsker at jeg hadde hatt denne boka når mine barn var yngre. Alt for ofte som en forelder eller en lærer kom jeg på en “løsning” til et “problem” som ikke fungerte. Vi må være flinkere til å arbeide med den som har et problem slik at løsning fungere for begge parter.

2018-02-24

Ayyam-i-Há 174

What is Ayyam-i-Há? Well, in the Bahá’í calendar, the solar year is divided into 19 months of 19 days. The year starts on the spring equinox in Teheran, Iran. This means that the year can start on either the 20th or the 21st of March in the European calendar.

If you are good at math, you will immediately have calculated that 19 times 19 is only 361 days and the solar year has 365 1/4 days. What do we do with the extra four or five days? It is a time of hospitality and gift giving, a time to be with loved ones, both within the family and close friends. Ayyam-i-Há comes just before the last month of the Bahá’í year, ‘Alá’ or Loftiness, which is the month of fasting.

What does the 174 stand for? That is the Bahá’í year we are currently in.

This year we won’t be doing a lot of entertaining. The children have grown up and live far away. We are getting older and not up to the same amount of entertaining.

I also think it is important to use the time to reflect on one’s personal values. Having spent several hours every day for the last three days shoveling snow, I have had plenty of time to think while doing manual labor out in the fresh air. The result of today’s thinking is a renewed resolve to try to put some of my thoughts into this blog so that I can share them with others. I have read about research that says that people with mental issues are helped considerably when writing for 20 minutes a day. Not everything has to be read by others. Some thoughts we keep to ourselves and perhaps throw them away once they have been written. Other thoughts we want to share with others so they can understand what our values are or our standpoint is.

For those of you who read this, I would like to extend my love and greetings to you. Enjoy the five days of Ayyam-i-Há, even if you aren’t a Bahá’í. My resolve is to write more that can be shared with others.

Ice on the cliff, Mosvik, 3 January 2016

Hva er Ayyam-i-Há? Bahá’í Troen har egen kalender, der året er delt i 19 måneder på 19 dager. Året begynner ved vårjevndag i Teheran, Iran. Det betyr at året kan begynne på enten den 20. eller 21. mars i den europeiske kalender.

Hvis du er flink med matte, har du allerede oppdaget at 19 ganger 19 er bare 361 dager og jorden tar 365 1/4 dager å gå rundt solen. Hva skal vi gjøre med disse ekstra fire eller fem dager? Det er tid til hygge og gi gaver, tid til å være sammen med de vi elsker, både familien og nære venner. Ayyam-i-Há kommer like før den siste bahá’í måned som er fastemåneden.

Hva står 174 for? Det er det bahá’í året vi er i nå.

Iår skal vi ikke gjøre så veldig mye. Barna har vokst opp og bor langt unna. Vi har begynte å føle årene vi bære med oss og har ikke det samme energi nivå for mye festing.

Også tenker jeg at det er viktig å bruke tid til å reflektere på sine egne personlige verdier. De siste tre dager har jeg brukte flere timer hver dag for å måke snø og mens jeg gjøre manuelt arbeid ute i frisk luften, tenker jeg på mye. Resultatet av dagens refleksjon er å være flinkere til å dele mine refleksjoner i denne bloggen. Jeg har lest om forskning som har funnet at å skrive i 20 minutter hver dag hjelper de som har problemer med mental helse. Det er ikke alt som skrives som skal deles med andre. Noen tanker holder vi for oss selv, kanskje sletter vi dem når de har blitt nedskrevet. Andre tanker vil vi dele med andre slik at de forstår hva er våre verdier og hva er vårt standpunkt.

For de som leser dette, vil jeg gjerne sende dere min kjærlighet og hilsninger. Ha glede av disse fem dager av Ayyam-i-Há, selv om du ikke er bahá’í.

2018-02-17

Sweater design

Most of the time when I make knitted garments, I start with a pattern, change the colors a bit, choose the right size and away I get started knitting. But every now and then I decide to make my own pattern.

In Norway, because of the cold winters, there are still many people who use wool sweaters, often made by a loved one. My husband made a request for a cardigan, so that he didn’t have to pull it over his head and could just slip his arms into it.

I started by looking through my patterns. I also borrowed books from the library. I went to one of the yarn stores and found a nice green on sale and bought all they had of a color that was being discontinued, plus a bright yellow. I went to another yarn store just a few blocks away and found more of the same green yarn, same color number, but different lot number. I bought what they had plus a different duller yellow. Now I had some colors to work with. The two different dye lots of green did not seem to be different at all.

As I worked with the colors and patterns I had, my husband said that it needed another color, perhaps red. So I went back to the store, and found a purple on sale. Now I had bought sufficient yarn to make a cardigan, I had four colors, and just needed to decide what I wanted to do with it. I had mostly green, two different yellows and a dark purple. The pattern I decided on had to suit the amount of yarn I had in each color.

One of the books from the library showed lots of two color patterns for knitting. I have always liked the star pattern that is very common here in Norway. I found a flower pattern that was on 19 stitches, a number that as Bahá’ís we both like. I started knitting some of the patterns I liked, trying to see what worked, how the colors fit together and how much I might use. Some patterns I liked, and some just didn’t work at all.

Then I knit a sampler to try out the colors and the patterns.

dav

I decided on the following motifs, each row being separated by a single bright yellow row.

the main background color was to be green, which was the color I had the most of
a row of purple hearts around the bottom of the sleeve and the body of the cardigan
alternating rows of yellow stars and purple flowers
a single row of bright yellow was used to separate each row of pattern and also used to separate the front band from the rest of the garment

As it was a cardigan that was wanted, I decided to knit back and forth, and included the front bands as I knit up the garment. The sleeves had a cap and were sewn in afterwards. I worked out ahead of time how many rows would be worked so that the patterns matched up between the sleeves and the body, and that I ended with a full pattern at the shoulder. The sleeves and the body of the cardigan were made the same length as this made working the pattern much easier.

I was very happy with the finished result and I had fun making the garment. The cardigan is used a lot so the wearer seems to be happy too.

dav

2018-02-12

Quiet

Susan Cain has written an interesting book (“Quiet, the Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking”, Crown Publishing, 2012) which gave me an awakening to something I hadn’t really considered before and made me feel like I wasn’t the only one in the world who didn’t fit in. We live in a world where being an extrovert is considered the ideal, and yet it is not the extroverts who are the most innovative or creative. I’ve noticed this as a teacher – the pupil who talks all the time, is not the one who is the smartest in the class or the most knowledgeable. In fact, the pupil who talks a lot may have problems listening and learning new things, and unfortunately may distract other pupils in the class who would actually like to learn new things.

“Our lives are shaped as profoundly by personality as by gender or race. And the single most important aspect of personality — the ‘north and south of temperament’ as one scientist puts it — is where we fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum. Our place on this continuum influences our choice of friends and mates, and how we make conversation, resolve differences, and show love. It affects the careers we choose and whether or not we succeed at them. It governs how likely we are to exercise, commit adultery, function well without sleep, learn from our mistakes, place big bets in the stock market, delay gratification, be a good leader, and ask ‘what if.’ ” (page 17)

The author continues to explain how especially the American world puts such an emphasis on being extrovert, that introverts will try to hide their own reality to feel part of the extrovert world.

What are some of the characteristics of an extrovert? “The archetypal extrovert prefers action to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. He favors quick decisions, even at the risk of being wrong. She works well in teams and socializes in groups.” (page 19)

The ideal of the extrovert is seen in offices without walls, project work for everyone, high levels of stimulation and little time for introspection.

Susan Cain has many examples of introverts who have given us scientific theories, art work, literature and businesses. I enjoyed her storytelling and learning how introverts have contributed to our knowledge of how the world works.

If you are an introvert, which I definitely am, here are some of the characteristics according to Susan Cain:

want less stimulation
like time to themselves
work slowly and deliberately
like to focus on one task at a time
can have mighty powers of concentration
relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame
prefer to devote their social energies to close friends, colleagues and family
listen more than they talk
think before they speak
express themselves better in writing than in conversation
dislike conflict
have a horror of small talk, but enjoy deep discussions

Does all of this sound like you? If it does, I recommend you read the book.

Quiet Susan Cain 2012

For those of you who like to watch videos, she gave a TedTalk in 2012: https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts

Boken har blitt oversatt til norsk, og heter “Stille – introvert styrke i en verden som aldri slutter å snakke”, utgitt av Pax forlag i 2013. Når vi lever i en verden der idealet er å snakke mye og være veldig utadvendt, det var veldig godt for meg å lese boken og få bekreftet at den typen jeg er, en “introvert”, er veldig utbredt. Forfatteren sier at en tredjedel til en halvparten av folket er introvert. Men det er mange som finner seg mellom ytre punktene og alle er litt annerledes.

Boken anbefales, særlig hvis du er en introvert.

Stille av Susan Cain

2018-02-09

Autumn place mats

For a long time I have bought place mats that are a standard size, standard weave. I have purchased several different colors over the years so that I could have a bit of variety. Suddenly they were getting old, stains that wouldn’t come out, colors that were unappealing, or I was just tired of them after 10 to 20 years of use. When traveling in October we were eating at a private home and there was a different type of place mat put out on the dinner table. I began thinking out of the box and a new sewing project was born.

It was fall/autumn and the leaves were on the ground. I was out raking them. We have a lot trees on the lot, some are native trees, some we have planted ourselves and watched them grow. I think well when doing routine jobs like ironing and raking. Why not make a series of place mats, one for each season of the year? We are usually only two at the table, but with two children or guests, I decided I should have four place mats for each season.

But the next design question was what should the picture be? As I was raking, I gathered some of the leaves and took them inside. Most leaves turn a dull yellow or turn brown very quickly. I wanted ones that had a nice shape. In the end I chose the maple leaf (dear to my heart as a Canadian), the red brown of the beech leaves (which are mostly on the tree all winter) and the yellow of the birch leaves. I decided on two each of the maple leaves, six each of the beech leaves and many of the birch leaves. I made cardboard outlines of the tree leaves I had chosen. Most leaves have rough edges, but mine became relatively smooth as there would be many to cut out and sew on.

Which colors? Which materials? What would be the background? How realistic should it be? So I went into my boxes of scrap materials which are mostly sorted by color. The standard colors of fall are red, orange and yellow. I found some orange that could be the background. I found many different yellows and it took awhile to find which ones would work. I don’t have much brown, so the beech leaves ended up being a dark red. The maple leaves are usually yellow once they have fallen off the tree. A bit of hunting came up with something that worked well. The birch leaves are small in comparison to the other two and I had decided to have a lot of them, in three different materials. I always find this the fun part of designing, but it isn’t always easy to make the decisions. Then there was to find something for the filling and the backing. But eventually the decisions were made.

Each placemat had the same number of leaves, but they were placed differently, so that each place mat is unique. The maple leaves were placed first, then the beech leaves and finally the birch leaves were scattered to fill up the spaces. There was no extra quilting, except the sewing on of the leaves.

I have done quite a few applique pictures in the last year or so, and as usual, the sewing of the pictures always takes a lot longer than anticipated. Though I was able to use only scrap materials for the place mats, I had to buy more thread of the right colors. But in the process I also used up several old spools of thread. I think I ended up with about eight empty spools by the end of the project.

The place mats were ready by Christmas Day, a little out of season as the first snow had already come. But we are enjoying the bright colors during the winter months.

Over mange år har jeg kjøpt spisebrikker i mange forskjellige farger, men etterhvert ble de utslitt. Jeg hadde lyst til å lage noe selv.

Mens jeg var ute å rake løve om høsten, kom jeg på idéen til å lage en serie av brikker, fire for hver sesong. Jeg begynte med høsten. Jeg tok inn flere blad fra hagen og til slutt valgte blad fra lønn, bøk og bjørk.

Jeg har mange esker med stoff rester så da var det bare å finne frem, gul, oransje og rød. De fire brikkene ble litt forskjellige. Ingen to er like, men de er komponert av de samme mengde blad. Det er godt med fargerike brikker på vinterstid.

2018-02-05

Social media in 2018

It’s a long time since I have written a blog, but now that I’m retired I would like to share some of my thoughts (often sparked by books I have read) and projects. I will primarily write in English, but those who read only Norwegian can skip to the end of most posts and find something in Norwegian. (Leser du bare norsk gå til slutten av teksten til å finne noe å lese på norsk.)

I have just finished reading “Writing on the Wall – the first 2,000 years” by Tom Standage (2013). Social media is not new and has been around since the Roman times, for 2,000 years, but the technology behind social media has changed over the centuries. The author uses many examples to illustrate his point. Most of his examples explain how the social media of the day helped to spread ideas to at least some of the population. He also includes a chapter on the twentieth century where there was the opposite of social media – media was one-way and broadcast.

Writing on the Wall Standage 2013

In the past, writing letters or pamphlets was often the way of sending information to other people. Letters and information were passed on to other friends, creating a type of circulation of information, often about politics or other current ideas. The printing press just made everything go a bit quicker and allowed a pamphlet to reach more people as it could be reproduced faster. One interesting example was from Pompeii where they discovered that people had actually written on the walls of the buildings. Today we can use the internet to exchange information either through emails, blog posts, and comments on things that we have read. No longer is information only one way, but by sharing we can enrich other people’s lives. So I have been inspired to write blogs more regularly.

It is interesting to see that though many things are different, we humans still have the same needs as people did 2,000 years ago, including the need to share our ideas using the technology of the day.

Nå at jeg er pensjonist, har jeg bedre tid til nye ting. Jeg skal skrive litt om bøker som jeg har lest og de tankene som jeg får fra dem, og i tillegg vil jeg skrive litt om prosjektene jeg holder på med.

Jeg har nettopp leste en bok, “Writing on the Wall – the first 2,000 years” av Tom Standage som kom ut i 2013. Boken handler om sosiale medier og forfatteren går tilbake til gamle Roma for sine første eksemplene om hvordan folk kommuniserte med hverandre før. For eksempel, i Pompeii, skrev folk på veggene i bygningene for å gi beskjeder eller komme med kommentarer om andre.

Teknologien om hvordan vi kommunisere med hverandre har endret, men behovet for å ha skriftlige kommunikasjon med andre er ikke ny. Før skrev folk mye brev eller småhefter, som ble sendt til venner og sendt videre til andre. Når ting kunne trykkes og papiret ble rimeligere i pris, ble enda mer skrevet og delt med andre mennesker. Idag kan vi dele opplysninger og idéer gjennom email, blogs og kommentarene til hva andre har skrevet. For femti år siden var det meste av opplysningene bare en-veis, gjennom radio, fjernsyn og aviser. Nå tillater de nye sosiale medier mer to-veis kommunikasjon.

Det er interessant å se at tross mye er annerledes, menneskene fremdeles har noe av de samme behovene som for to tusen år siden, blant annet behovet for å dele sine idéer med andre gjennom bruk av dagens teknologi. Så nå at jeg har vært inspirert, har jeg lyst å dele med andre gjennom denne bloggen.