Arghh, the perils of technology. I’ve spent the past two days trying to upload this episode. Clearly the internet pixies are having a good old laugh at my expense. Th irony being, of course, that this week’s show is all about failure.
Along with the Fail Whale are creatures of a different ilk – the Craft Guerrillas and their happenings around town. Plus Failure Magazine, some crochet with a worthy cause and a journalist who may have to go into hiding from a band of angry knitters…
This week’s links:
Hey, great podcast and thanks for all the nice things you said about Craft Guerrilla! Our next Clothes Swap at 93 Feet East, Brick Lane is on Tuesday 5th June (and we agree about the light, I’ll see if we can get it a bit brighter). The next Crafternoon at The Old Queens Head, Islington on Saturday 13th June. One teeny tiny thing though – Craft Guerrilla has two R’s in it so the link to our website is http://www.craftguerrilla.com!
On the subject of failure as in your podcast, I’ve been knitting the Miss Marple Rowan Cardigan for nearly two years! It’s coming up to its THIRD frog just when I thought I’d reached the end ribbing on the back – it was a mistake too big to leave and *sob* I’ve had to rip back nearly to the top. Gutted. I’ve blogged about it on lisamargreet.blogspot.com and asked the advice of Raveler’s several times. My sister says the cardigan is cursed!
Still, the one thing I always say when teaching people how to knit is that it teaches you patience and how to be zen. Sometimes you’ve just got to rip it up and start again! Top tip: Do it quickly – like ripping a plaster off or waxing a bikini line. Or if you’re too attached to your project you could always ask a friend to do it!
Mistakes are how you learn.
x
Thanks Lisa – Oops! Will correct my typo, apologies! Thanks for listening and looking forward to the next Guerrilla event.
But, he’s Samuel Beckett! Easy for him to talk about failure like that…
Still, I like your silver-lining approach to failure
Thank you so much for your delightful podcast. I especially appreciated your essay regarding failure…I am the librarian in a very small public school here in Connecticut. Our students do very well (we must endure state mastery tests every spring) academically, but recently we’ve been trying to focus more on the “affect” dimension of personhood, rather than constantly chasing test scores. Your words helped bring home the importance of caring about the whole child, not just her/his potential for academic success.
Thanks very much, what a lovely comment! Reminded me of a short video Stephen Fry posted on Twitter of Alan Watts with a similar sentiment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGoTmNU_5A0 I think school can be brilliant, but as the video says (and here I’m paraphrasing poorly), life’s not a journey with an end goal, it’s a piece of music and you’re supposed to dance. Am sure you and your colleagues are doing a brilliant job and everyone remembers good teachers for the rest of their lives.
Have just listened to the failure podcast and thank you so much. I can perhaps start to stop beating myself up over the fact that I get frustrated with/find problems with/pull down patterns for reasons known only to myself. I laughed through the broadcast with the guilty pleasure of recognition.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one who does it! I think we could all go a little easier on ourselves sometimes…