Monday 12 April 2010

Stuck (In More ways Than One)

(I wrote the 'knitting' part of this post several days ago but didn't publish it as I wanted to add a photo. Things have moved on a bit since then but I thought I'd leave the original post intact so to speak).

For the last few weeks I've been knitting a slightly adapted Saroyan.

I love the pattern but wanted it to be slightly more of a wrap than a scarf so I carried on with the leaf increases till I had the depth that I wanted. This hasn't entirely worked out as I had to stop increasing before I really wanted to or I would have run out of yarn. So it's not quite a wrap, and it's getting incredibly long. By the time I'm finished it'll look like I've got a Boa Constrictor around my neck!

So, what to do??
I could carry on till I've used all the yarn then block it and see how it turns out? I could pull it back and re-knit it exactly as per the pattern - though it would definitely be a scarf then and I really want more of a wrap? I could pull it back completely and start again putting in extra increases so it gets more wrap-like without getting too long?

Ho hum!

Well, while I ponder on what to do I'm going to do what most crafty folks do - start another project! I have some Bamboolo and I'm going to have a go at knitting Liesl. I've read that the pattern is more like a recipe than a standard pattern so wish me luck! (And please leave suggestions for what to do with Saroyan).

So, since I wrote this post I've had a knittery conversation with Miss Muffett along the lines of 'how dare you start another project for yourself when you are supposed to be knitting my poncho', followed by 'just finished the darn scarf and see how it turns out - isn't that the point of knitting?' Well, maybe it is the point sometimes, especially for me, though if I was knitting a serious item I'd for sure want to know that it was going to come out ok! So, I am knitting the scarf/wrap as initially intended and we'll see how it turns out.

On another note, we have recently been going through the 'trying to get your kid into a decent state school' rigmarole. We failed! We had applied for Nipper to go to a good school which isn't too far from us though we aren't in the 'designated area' as they call it. In theory your child can go to any school you like but of course in practice this is complete hogwash. Nipper is now on the waiting list along with 38 other little nippers. It's quite interesting looking at the list of oversubscribed schools, and checking out which are the perceived (usually correctly!) worst schools by their omission from the list. None of the schools nearest to us made the list. The 'best' school on our side of town only takes 30 children each year and has nearly 100 kiddies on the waiting list! In several cases kids who live in a school's designated area didn't get places. You pay a premium for a house in a good school catchment area - my goodness, you're going to be gutted if your kid can't get in your designated school! The school we've been allocated to hasn't been doing too well ove the last few years and was recently served with a 'Notice to Improve' in Maths and Science. Fantastic - the school is cr@p at 2 out of the 3 key subjects - marvellous! And so I'm stuck again. Do I send Nipper to the allocated school or do I sell everything that isn't nailed down to send him to a private one??

And here's someone else who's stuck.


Tiddler, bless him, is at the almost crawling phase and spends a lot of his time getting rather cross because he can't quite get where he wants to. I'm going to have to start some serious child-proofing soon - though it might not matter since if Nipper goes to a private school I won't have anything that needs 'proofing' as I'll have sold it all - lol!

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4 comments:

  1. You are right of course! The system tells us we all have the choice, but in reality we have no real choice at all! Hope it works out ok one way or another! Love your knitting. suzie xx

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  2. Oh my. The school thing sounds frustrating. I don't really know how the school systems works in the UK. Here most public schools are ok, and it is where the majority of children go, but those who can afford it seem to go the private route (a very expensive way to go). I hope you can work things out. As for knitting...well, I just usually persevere, see what turns out, and if it's no good the project gets shoved somewhere deep where I can't see it :)

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  3. Hi there - thanks so much for dropping by my blog! Good luck with the new project. Tiddler is wearing very cute PJs(?).

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  4. We're going through much the same thing here: as they're cutting back on teachers / increasing class sizes, my daughter might not get into the same school as her brother. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm wondering why they can't cut back on the number of classes in the crap schools and keep them in the good schools that people want their kids to go to.

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