Such a loaded term, "success".

Over at bluechromis's watching gymnastics last night, I found out that (for med school applications) she has to write a 1-page essay on "How will you evaluate your success as a doctor?"

I think it would be a really fascinating exercise to do the same for other careers that might happen to apply. For example, how will I evaluate my success as a software engineer? How do you evaluate yours? (At least 4 people on my friendslist are also software engineers.) How do you evaluate your success as a teacher? How do you evaluate your success as an admin? How do you evaluate your success as a copy editor?

Obviously these questions beg a lot of other questions, but that's part of why it would be interesting. I don't know if I could even DO it without going all meta. I think the word "success" is intrinsically linked to my favorite word in the English language, "enough". I also wonder if success as a whatever is worth anything at all, beyond the meaning we give it.

FO #6: Chinese lace pullover

I have show-and-tell today: I finished knitting another sweater. This one took only half the time my last one took, going from yarn to done in a speedy 3.5 months. :) It's made of 100% bamboo, which is heavy, shiny and drapey... I love how it feels when it's on.





All pictures of the project
Detailed FO post in my knitting blog

I like my general policy of only posting finished objects to LJ, but, obviously, sweaters do not just spring full-formed from my forehead every few months. I spend a fair bit of time on this, not just knitting but also reading stitch dictionaries, design books, Ravelry, and, lately, a lot of graph paper.

My next project is special, a self-designed Aran sweater... which, not incidentally, is what I started knitting for. I just didn't know when I started that it would take me a year and a half to work up to making such a thing, much less that tons of people knit for many years without ever feeling up for it.

Fools and engineers rush in where angels fear to tread, right? Swatching has begun. FO post in, oh, probably a year.