And now I am unofficially done with being moderator.
I actually wrote my position out of the official governance, and when the present moderators got it put into effect, I was finally out of the job. So, some of it was that the Moderator Past (yes, I used to do a lot of Christmas Spirits jokes about the Moderator Elect, Moderator, and Moderator Past) was officially a part of the Cabinet for the years following their time in office. And in rewriting the governance, I wrote that position out.
I was expecting to have to stay on the resulting board for the church for this coming year, as part of the transition, but the moderators made it clear it was actually entirely my choice as to whether or not I stayed on. And the they were very sympathetic to me leaving and getting to rest.
Some of it was that since the end of January, I was embroiled deeply in the reconstruction of our governance structure. There were just parts of it that I'd been so involved with that it made it possible for me to rewrite the documentation. It helped having a technical documentation background, and a good idea as to how to restructure the whole thing once the group had made several major decisions.
I kept a pretty strict policy about not making decisions in the changes without the group's approval. There was a two hour meeting one evening just about all the changes that needed to be made, and I got to ask all those questions and then again at a Cabinet meeting to clarify things and ask everyone's opinion.
It worked. There were two informational meetings about it all, and then the congregational meeting this last Sunday, and the whole kit and kaboodle was approved in about five minutes, with very little discussion and only one question about how the transition was going to go.
So I'm really done.
And I'm actively doing something I've never done before, I am not committing to something or someone for a long-term basis before I've had a chance to recover and rest.
Instead, I've been knitting...
This is based off a counterpane pattern that was done by Allyson Stauffer's great-great grandmother. It was made into a 7x6 square bed cover that was starting to fall apart, after about a hundred years. Allyson brought me three pieces, and from those pieces I did my best to recreate the pattern. I knit enough to prove the concepts and sent her the written pattern.
Allyson lost two members of her family who were very close to her in the last month, and her grandmother, who owned the coverlet, started hinting about the fact that she was going to be dying soon and really wanted to see a square of the old coverlet recreated in red. *laughs*
Poor Allyson didn't think she was up to it, and I understood why, since it took me a month, a lot of swearing, two extra mail orders of various sorts, and working through every stitch of the pattern I'd written a year ago. She was wonderful and actually commissioned the whole thing from me, paying for my expenses and mistakes.
Number five crochet cotton is more difficult to find than I thought it would be, and if I'd known about the cones that yarn.com sells or the DMC Petra cotton that comes in 400 meter balls instead of 150, I probably would have used those instead.
However, the results with the Omega Hilo #5 were absolutely amazing. It felt exactly like the original coverlet in weight and hand, and I could see how it would last a hundred years. One lady, on seeing the cushion and feeling it, asked for the pattern, saying, "There are some patterns that can justify my existence."
With Allyson's blessing and permission, I've published the pattern for sale on Ravelry.
The other thing I did was publish the mirrored (not so lazy) mermaid mitt pattern on Ravelry as well. That one is free, though, since it derives pretty heavily from the Pomatomus sock pattern. So more knitting wins!
The publication of patterns has been something I've been wanting to do for a while, and it's good to get started. This isn't that much of a commitment for the future, as I can just publish things as I feel like it. John and Jet's reversible, double-knit hats are next. *laughs*
I actually wrote my position out of the official governance, and when the present moderators got it put into effect, I was finally out of the job. So, some of it was that the Moderator Past (yes, I used to do a lot of Christmas Spirits jokes about the Moderator Elect, Moderator, and Moderator Past) was officially a part of the Cabinet for the years following their time in office. And in rewriting the governance, I wrote that position out.
I was expecting to have to stay on the resulting board for the church for this coming year, as part of the transition, but the moderators made it clear it was actually entirely my choice as to whether or not I stayed on. And the they were very sympathetic to me leaving and getting to rest.
Some of it was that since the end of January, I was embroiled deeply in the reconstruction of our governance structure. There were just parts of it that I'd been so involved with that it made it possible for me to rewrite the documentation. It helped having a technical documentation background, and a good idea as to how to restructure the whole thing once the group had made several major decisions.
I kept a pretty strict policy about not making decisions in the changes without the group's approval. There was a two hour meeting one evening just about all the changes that needed to be made, and I got to ask all those questions and then again at a Cabinet meeting to clarify things and ask everyone's opinion.
It worked. There were two informational meetings about it all, and then the congregational meeting this last Sunday, and the whole kit and kaboodle was approved in about five minutes, with very little discussion and only one question about how the transition was going to go.
So I'm really done.
And I'm actively doing something I've never done before, I am not committing to something or someone for a long-term basis before I've had a chance to recover and rest.
Instead, I've been knitting...
Allyson lost two members of her family who were very close to her in the last month, and her grandmother, who owned the coverlet, started hinting about the fact that she was going to be dying soon and really wanted to see a square of the old coverlet recreated in red. *laughs*
Poor Allyson didn't think she was up to it, and I understood why, since it took me a month, a lot of swearing, two extra mail orders of various sorts, and working through every stitch of the pattern I'd written a year ago. She was wonderful and actually commissioned the whole thing from me, paying for my expenses and mistakes.
Number five crochet cotton is more difficult to find than I thought it would be, and if I'd known about the cones that yarn.com sells or the DMC Petra cotton that comes in 400 meter balls instead of 150, I probably would have used those instead.
However, the results with the Omega Hilo #5 were absolutely amazing. It felt exactly like the original coverlet in weight and hand, and I could see how it would last a hundred years. One lady, on seeing the cushion and feeling it, asked for the pattern, saying, "There are some patterns that can justify my existence."
With Allyson's blessing and permission, I've published the pattern for sale on Ravelry.
The other thing I did was publish the mirrored (not so lazy) mermaid mitt pattern on Ravelry as well. That one is free, though, since it derives pretty heavily from the Pomatomus sock pattern. So more knitting wins!
The publication of patterns has been something I've been wanting to do for a while, and it's good to get started. This isn't that much of a commitment for the future, as I can just publish things as I feel like it. John and Jet's reversible, double-knit hats are next. *laughs*
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