Basking in the Glow!

Through experience, I'm always a little leery of acknowledging accomplishments.  Icarus flew too close to the sun and look what happened to him! Pride goeth before the fall! Nevertheless, I conquered my own fear of failure on a couple of fronts which has recently resulted in this opportunity to 'bask in the glow!'  I also learned a great deal of new information that I would not have acquired any other way than through a huge expenditure of energy, effort and time! 

What were these accomplishments?  First, I volunteered to teach as a sabbatical replacement two courses at the college level that I enjoyed as a student.  This experience, despite the toll it took on my time, energy and nerves, was a resounding success and I and my students learned a great deal. I enjoyed the experience and had wonderful class evaluations as a reward.  I recently have had to reprise this experience, quite unexpectedly, and I am again basking in the glow of the kind and appreciative words the students had for my performance as a teacher - albeit for just the last 2 weeks of the semester for a colleague who became gravely ill.  It is truly wonderful to be acknowledged in such a way.  Since I now need to teach the next class as a replacement for this colleague, I hope to continue to earn such praise!

Second, I plunged into designing my own knitting pattern and offering it for sale, again learning a great deal along the way.  This new pattern has met with great success and I enjoy seeing others creating their own versions of my design.  Recently, I received this note from a satisfied customer:

"Hey there,
Just wanted to say thank you for such a great pattern. I’ve made 3 of these now. A lady wanted the red one off my back in the airport for a breast cancer charity auction, my best friend wanted one and I finally have one for myself. I lined the last two for a little more warmth and flair. I should take more pictures but I never seem to remember.
I wore my navy one to the mall and walked into Brooks Brothers. The clerk swore it looked like one they had for sale. Except theirs are over $300 and machine made. Keep the great patterns coming!"

The design bug has continued and I now have 5 patterns for sale on Ravelry.com!  Yay!

Third, I read an online article concerning a Master Hand Knitter Program and I was intrigued. This sounded like not only a good way to learn a great deal but also a way to stretch and challenge myself.  I signed up for the first of three Levels last March 1 and plunged in.  Whoa!  What a challenge it proved to be!  My biggest and worst obstacle was my fear of being judged a failure.  As I stewed and 'chewed my nails' I worked on a number of other projects, including remodeling a great deal of my house with my handy husband (that was also a huge success which we are now enjoying!).  Finally I decided to just 'get 'er done!'  I mailed my notebook containing all that hard work on Sept. 24, 2013 after putting in a good month and a half of intense effort.  I received my notebook back along with a 5 page letter carefully critiquing every stitch and sentence with suggestions for improvement. I needed to correct a few things. On 1/7/2014 I received word that my resubmissions had passed and that I had officially passed Level One of The Knitting Guild Association's Master Hand Knitting Program!  Wow!  Did I ever stretch and learn through this process.  Now it is time to briefly 'bask in the glow' and plunge into Level II and more college teaching :-)