Author: AMH

Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Ten

By AMH

Getting back into lace knitting is going slowly, but I liked this pattern a lot. It had a simple 12 row repeat over 11 stitches and straight forward stitch-work. The large diamonds look great and the tiny little diamonds in the middle of the open work area will probably stand out more after blocking. Attractive and easy to follow – a good combination! I meant to stop at ten patterns and take a photo of the whole sampler unrolled for perspective, but I forgot so I’m now thinking of doing this after pattern twelve. Pattern eleven is turning out a … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Ten

Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Nine

By AMH

With the cold weather arriving, I got back into knitting my sampler last week. This time, we have a nice solid diamond pattern with small eyelets in the middle. Working this pattern, it didn’t look at all like it was coming together as I knit it. I expected I wouldn’t like it very much. But the end product is very nice. I feel like my center eyelets are a bit lower than they should be, and I’m thinking about why that might be. Perhaps I am doing my yarn-overs wrong? I’ll have to review what the book suggests is the … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Nine

Getting back into the flow of the school year

By AMH

Tomorrow is the start of our Fall 2020 schedule, pushed back a week from our original plan and now fully online for the first two weeks before transitioning to in-person instruction for those students who have returned to campus (or, from an instructor perspective, hybrid instruction as essentially all of us have some number of students studying remotely). I am, on paper, prepared. My CMS is loaded up with day-by-day details about what we’ll be doing so everyone can follow along. I’ve met individually with each student in my intermediate-level course to make sure they have the needed software installed … Continue reading Getting back into the flow of the school year

Wrapping up 19-20, launching into 20-21

By AMH

As of today, we are one day out from Virtual Commencement 2020, 14 days out from our annual faculty retreat (format TBA!), 16 days out from Matriculation, and 17 days out from the first day of the Fall semester. My to-do list is getting increasingly specific “Revise HW1”, “Add video sharing policy to syllabus”, though with some terrifyingly broad items still remaining like “Determine tutoring format” and “Create lab access policy”. But I did my last trip to campus today to make sure all of the seating and tables in our open social/study spaces are appropriately distanced and hung some … Continue reading Wrapping up 19-20, launching into 20-21

Planning for HyFlex – Initial Thoughts

By AMH

The announcement was made a couple of days ago that we’ll be back “in person” in the fall, for a revised definition of “in person” that includes knowing some students will still be remote and off campus entirely and some may need to be remote at times, either because they are exposed to the virus or because our classrooms simply cannot accommodate a full class all at once. While this isn’t surprising – it’s the sort of HyFlex model many schools are pursuing right now – now that it is known, we can start digging into the details and making … Continue reading Planning for HyFlex – Initial Thoughts

Knit Lace Sampler: Patterns Seven and Eight

By AMH

Knitting has slowed down as the days are my recreation time turns more into sitting outside reading in the evening than knitting while watching TV. But since my last update I have two more patterns completed in my sampler. Pattern seven has a subtle diamond shape formed by four small clusters in the middle of a diamond of eyelets. This didn’t turn out very distinct for me. The end fabric has a nice balance of openness and bulk though. I could imagine this pattern even scaling up to a fingering or sport weight yarn nicely. Pattern eight is a very … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Patterns Seven and Eight

Spring 2020 Goals, Revisited

By AMH

Back in January I posted some goals for the Spring semester here, with the intention of revisiting them at the end of the term to see how I did. I was tempted to let myself off the hook, but I did have half a term during which things were relatively normal, and reflection is good, so let’s see how I did. Goal 1: Provide feedback as guidance more than correction in my object-oriented programming course. I think I did pretty well here. I definitely kept this in mind all semester; as I graded I tried to focus on whether there … Continue reading Spring 2020 Goals, Revisited

Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Six

By AMH

I’m not thrilled with out pattern six turned out. Perhaps blocking with help, but my sinuous lines of eyelets seem uneven to me and overall the piece looks a bit messy. I’d suspect my tension needed to be tighter, but that would make the eyelets even less visible. But there is supposed to be a subtle shading difference in the way the stitches lay in the lower and upper portion of each curve, and that just isn’t coming through in my work. I am curious how this might look with a ribbon yarn. It might emphasize the lay of each … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Six

Adding Check-in Meetings to Projects

By AMH

One of the things I tried this semester for the first time was adding a mandatory one on one meeting with me for every student where I would review their progress on the final project. Having completed those meetings, I am very glad I chose to do them and think they were a huge contribution to the remote learning versions of my courses. I have mixed thoughts about whether I will continue them for in-person instruction. For my OO programming course, this was a major addition to the course and a big win. I’ve always counted on students dropping by … Continue reading Adding Check-in Meetings to Projects

Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Five

By AMH

Pattern five involves only a single repeat to highlight the single row of diamonds across the sampler with flat knit stitching all around. Of the patterns so far, this one turned out the most like the image in the book. If you look closely you can see the more prominent diagonals running left to right downwards across the diamonds, which matches what I see in the source sampler. The pattern was a bit involved to keep track of because the start and end of many rows were different, and with only three repeats across that resulted in a lot of … Continue reading Knit Lace Sampler: Pattern Five