Friday, July 18, 2008

Adding the CDC Widget to this page

Today, there's a new addition over there in the links side.
It's a CDC Widget that will have new information on health statistics from
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
They have lots of good information.
Especially for some of us that tend to be in denial about our health risks.
Personally, I have been using knitting as a "medication" for about 6 years now.
With my knitting, I'm lowering my blood pressure and stress levels. I hope that I'm also making more brain connections to help reduce the effects of strokes or Alzheimer's (not that I'm experiencing any of that)
My family history runs deep with diabetes, heart disease, obesity, allergies, asthma, arthritis, high blood pressure, strokes, kidney problems, .... Yeah, this is depressing.
So, I'm working on reducing the risk factors that I DO have control over.
Please feel free to join in, and I'll try not to bore you with it too much.
Now you know how this applies to Knitting - which is the most important. Right?


Sunday, July 13, 2008

UFO pledge

Seventh and last in the Why UFOs series:

7) Might it be possible to take a No More UFOs Pledge?
A set of Vows?

Wouldn't that just be more unnecessary pressure?
Setting oneself up for failure?
Unreasonable expectations?
Pipe Dreams?
Pie In the Sky?

I am not seeing this one happen.

'Nuff said.


Saturday, July 12, 2008

UFO amnesia

Sixth in the series

Sometimes a UFO happens because the knitter just forgot.




Friday, July 11, 2008

Why so many knitting UFOs?

Fifth in the series on Knitting UFOs:

5) Why are there so many UFOs in the knitting universe?
a) Conspiracy theory: the yarn manufacturers, publishers, and the LYS are in league to get us to over consume their products.
i) They will stop at nothing until they have the entire world knitting 24/7.
ii) They will change fashion so quickly, no one will be able to keep up and finish a project while it's still fashionable. Therefore, UFOs multiply like tribbles in the bin.
iii) They are secretly blending in a tactile addictive substance to the yarns, the coatings of the needles, the surface of the paper of the patterns.
iv) Secret, Hidden, Subliminal messages are encoded into the patterns, the pixelations of the web pages, the photos in the publications.
v) The Paparazzi have discovered that if a magazine publishes a photo of a celeb knitting, the circulation skyrockets.
vi) The Movie Moguls have discovered that if there's good knitwear design in a movie, knitters will flock to see it and buy the DVD asap to replicate the designs, thereby boosting the boxoffice.

b) Short Attention Span, ADHD, what is the catch phrase of the week?

c) What 'r we talkin' bout? Moving on....

d) It's a nutritional deficiency. Lack of fiber in our diets. But that explains OCD Hoarding issues, not UFOism. That's gotta be a potty training issue.
e) The knitted UFO is indicative of our fear of commitment as a society.
f) Baby Boomers and those who have come after have never been required to finish anything. We've become a nation of quitters or at least changers; Is that a bad thing? or a good thing?
i) It's OK to not clean your plate.
ii) when we couldn't take the pressure, we quit the team, or the class, ....
was that because the pressure was too much? too soon? too intense?
iii) we changed our college majors 5 times, sometimes to get jobs that didn't exist when we were born.
iv) we job hop, often because the job left us.
v) we can't drive one car long enough to not be upside-down in the loan, (see notes on job above)
vi) we can't stay in one place long enough to pay off the mortgage, or say that we have a "Home Town", or give our kids a place to say they're "From" (see notes on job above).
vii) If we don't like the rules, or the laws, we change them
viii) We don't stay married when it isn't working
g) We demand instantaneous gratification. But with perfection and style. We want to finish a sweater in a day, but make it look like it took a lifetime.
h) We've become too busy with all the things that fill up our calendars. We fill every moment with something important, or maybe just urgent.
i) We've forgotten what is really important.
ii) We are flooded and bombarded with information and images.
iii) Even from infancy, we are driven to "live up to our potential".
Even our youngest children are learning more facts than our ancestors ever dreamed of.
There is so much more information in the world, and so much fantasy and imagination.

A distracting thought here: As an example, when she was a child, my grandmother had
8 grades to finish (no kindergarten or pre-school), now there's at least 15 to 20
26 presidents to memorize, soon to be 44
45 states and capitols
When she got a phone, there were only 4 digits in her number
Her house needed no key
Her one car had one key
The only passwords were for fun, or on a show on one of the 3 TV channels in Black and White, not 3 million colors HDTV via satellite.

Gotta go, There's a new Lost Heroes Star Expose' Mystery Reality Show on in a minute. My TV automatically tuned in to it (from among America's Top 200) so I wouldn't miss it again.

Wherefore art thou, dear lost UFO?

4) I don't even know how many UFOs I have, or where they all are.
a) Should I spend some Saturday, or a sleepless night, sorting UFOs to find which ones have all their parts?
b) As I am sorting out and straightening out my Stash, should I come up with a way to store the UFOs? And maybe an easier way to access them in the attic?
c) Ravelry. Could this be my salvation? Or just another obsessive / compulsive distraction?
i) Could I make a fortune by selling the rare vintage yarns I have to Ravelers and eBayers that really need them?
ii) If my stuff was on Ravelry, and accessible from my smart(alec) phone, Would I be inclined to buy less?
d) If I had all my Stash - and all my UFOs in one place at one time, would negative things happen:
i) The world as we know it be at an end?
ii) The attic would explode from the pressure? (Insurance does not cover that)
iii) Would the men in white coats come to take me away because my significant support people decide I was a danger to myself or others?
iv) Would my DH ever understand?
e) If ...., Then ... Would positive things happen?
i) The attic would be fully insulated and we would save a fortune in energy costs.
ii) The rest of the house would seem spacious and airy.
iii) Really never need to buy anything again, retire debt-free to knit full time
iv) Become totally inspired to finish all the UFOs
v) No Christmas shopping required - everyone gets a FO that was a UFO.
vi) All the people I've ever promised anything to see that I am good for my word and love me even more than ever before.
vii) Lucky Seven - That guilty feeling would go away.
viii) Peace Reigns around the Earth!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Knitting UFO excuses

3) What about those projects where I did come across a UFO later, only to cannibalize the needles and stitch markers for another project? Not too long ago, I used to do that.
Why would I do that? What makes one project more worthy of finishing than another?
a) Lost the pattern
b) Lost a needle or other required tool
c) Lost the yarn and might find it again
d) Ran out of yarn and need to buy more
e) Ran out of patience with the pattern because it was:
i) Boring
ii) Too Difficult
iii) Poorly written directions
iv) Not turning out as expected
f) The intended victim outgrew the UFO, or made a disparaging remark about knitting, fiber, color, style........
g) The yarn wasn't right
i) didn't survive the swatch & wash test: faded, bled, shrank, felted or fell apart
ii) didn't survive the knitability test: itched, scratched, or was otherwise not worthy of knitting.
iii) not right for the pattern: couldn't get gauge, didn't showoff stitch properly, too many colors for the stitch.
h) Got side-tracked onto another project
i) a new magazine / book / Knitty / pattern came in the mail / email / bookstore
ii) a new yarn seduced and distracted
iii) a gift giving opportunity was looming, and the victim really "needed" something besides what was on the needles
iv) Oh, let's be honest, I'm just too easily distracted by anything.
g) The project, or it's component parts, got "lost" when:
i) We cleaned house
ii) We moved
iii) We cleaned out the car
iv) We went on a trip
v) Reorganized storage
vi) Someone was sick, hospitalized, Born, in crisis
h) Priorities Change
i) Stuff Happens

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

More UFO theory ....

To continue:
More on theories for UFO Rescue inspired by SnB Pageaday calendar 2008

2) Items like needles, markers and counters are usually assumed to be AWOL when the associated project becomes a UFO. If I didn't plan on loosing it, how could I plan on how to rescue it?

a) As a compulsive shopper and obsessive collector, I tend to buy more than I need of everything. So, I have plenty of duplicates of my favorite tools. I know, I'm working on getting over it.
b) Thinking about it just now, it probably would be a good thing to plan out the rescue of the UFO while I'm planning out the project in the first place. It's not like this is a rare occurrence for me, is it? It isn't an accident when a WIP becomes a UFO in my life. Unfortunately, it is very predictable and happens with great regularity.
i) Besides, the planning is the best part. For me anyway. So, getting the disaster drill ready would be a fun mental exercise while knitting.
ii) Note to self: Try not to scare significant support persons with statements like:
"I'm going to put a marker here just in case something happens to me tonight and I don't see this project again for 5 years."
"I'm putting this pattern in the bag with the yarn, just in case I get hit by a bus on the way to work, so someone else will know how to finish this project some day."
It really creeps them out to think that I think such things that they think are morbid things to think. One in particular tells me that it's very negative thinking.
iii) So, what's the positive way to state it?
"If I can't remember what I was doing next time I work on this, maybe this will jog my memory."
"When I pick this up next time, a little piece of waste yarn will mark where I last decreased." Annunciate very clearly so no one hears "deceased".

See ya later, gator.......

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

UFO Rescue - SnB calendar page for today

I love my SnB page a day calendar. Today's page is on UFO Rescue.
Something about putting in waste yarn as reminders.
Well, that's a great suggestion. Because sometimes from one day to the next I don't know where I left off, when I did the last inc/decrease, especially in something that says to "decrease every third row", or even better "decrease at rows 57, 92, and 111."

As self-declared Regional Queen of the UFOs, I have come up with a few strategies of my own.

1) Always keep a copy of the pattern with the WIP (which may become a UFO at any moment). I don't carry my prized books and magazines with me. I photocopy, or print, the page to carry in my knitting bag. I learned this the hard way; lost the pattern for my DD1's "wedding afghan" and it took me 3 years to get another. I still haven't been brave enough to try to figure out where I was.

a) I never know when a WIP will spontaneously become a UFO. It's not like I see it coming or it's a conscious decision. It's a default setting: I lost the bag, started another project, got sidetracked, ran out of materials, lost a tool, Who Knows?! But I do not ever remember saying "I think I'll pack this away until some later time and finish it then".
b) If I carried the whole book with me for every WIP in my bag today, I would have 2 magazines, 2 full sized books, and a computer in there. The point is, it would weigh a ton and have all my significant support people thinking I'm crazier than I really am.
i) OK, I admit, I do have one of those USB drive things with some of the pattens stored on it. And about 10 sheets of paper in various states of crumple.

More next time.........

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