For seven days this past February, Google opened up an opportunity to residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia to submit an application to become a Glass Explorer.
The application process included a mandatory essay of 50 words or less along with the option to include one fifteen-second video or up to five photos in support of your application.
The essay had to meet five criteria:
It could not exceed fifty (50) words in length
It had to contain the phrase “#ifIhadglass”
It had to address the statement “What I would do if I had Glass”
It had to be posted publicly on Twitter or Google+
It had to be in English
Summoning everything I had learned in freshman English class I came up with this:
#ifihadglass I could teach the world to #crochet with awesome and exciting #crochet videos.
I had met the first three goals without much trouble but hit a slight hurdle on the fourth criteria.
I had originally intended to submit my application via Twitter (where I am @crochetbug), but I had trouble figuring out how to add five photos I felt were necessary to support the application, so I ended up sending it out from my crochetbug13 Google+ account with these five photos that I felt best exemplified the true nature of crochet.
First was the taco wallet I made for a childhood friend with whom I share an affection for Taco Bell:
My next choice was a six-round rainbow hyperbolic plane crocheted around a point:
My third example was the African flower hexagon soccer ball (my design) paired with an octopus I made using a pattern from the book Tiny Yarn Animals by Tamie Snow (aka Roxycraft).
I decided that in addition to these smaller items, I should include examples of my larger projects, so for the fourth project I chose the Cookieghan:
and for the fifth project, my blue ribbon winning entry for the 2012 North Carolina State Fair:
With my entry successfully submitted, there was only one thing left to do: wait.
First I waited to find out if my project had been selected for an invitation to the Glass Explorers project (it was).
Next, I waited to receive the notice that would schedule an appointment to pick up my GLASS.
Lastly, I traveled from my home in Raleigh, North Carolina, to New York City and waited until it was time to pick up my GLASS, which, as it happens was this past Tau Day (Friday, June 28) at 5:00 pm on the 8th Floor of the Chelsea Market.
When I went to pick up my GLASS, I was allowed to bring along one friend, and Eileen Tepper of Tepper Wear fame was able to join me.
This turned out to be more fortuitous than I could have imagined.
In my rush to get from the hotel where I was staying to the 8th floor of the Chelsea Market where I needed to go to pick up my GLASS, I forgot to grab a skein of yarn and a hook.
As I maneuvered my way through the masses of people out on the street in the run up to rush hour, I was reminded of the lines in Ogden Nash’s poem “When You Say That, Smile” which read:
Only the gamefish swims upstream,
But the sensible fish swims down.
Game fish that I was, I made my way as quickly as I could, and arrived at the front of the Chelsea Market with 8 minutes to spare. After quick hellos and a sweaty hug from me, Eileen and I made our way via elevator to the 8th floor where our IDs were checked and we were issued a guest badge to wear while we were there:
Then we met a young woman who helped me get started with GLASS, and while in my haste I had forgotten to grab anything to crochet with, Eileen came to my rescue and loaned me a hook and a skein of yarn so that I could get some sense of how the video function of GLASS would work.
After I had at least a rudimentary understanding of how the functions I would use most worked, Eileen and I turned in our badges, packed up, and headed out to get dinner and enjoy what was left of a lovely summer evening.
As can be seen in this photo, my outdoor office is the perfect foil for the GLASS bag:
and it coordinates equally well with the GLASS itself:
For the most part, I am very happy with my first video efforts with GLASS, but I am still working out some glitches in making the videos available at Youtube.
I am not the most comfortable early adopter on the planet. I know that much of the technology and features I struggle with are second nature to a younger, more agile brain, but my goal has always been to bring the joy of crochet to as many people as is humanly possibly, and with this new tool added to my arsenal, I am looking to forward to doing exactly that.
