Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Why do I torture myself?

OK, I admit it. I can get a wee bit obsessed.

I know I should be making dinner….I have to tutor tonight so we have to eat at 6, no later. And I know, it’s been like 4 days since I have folded laundry. Even the two year old has learned to pick out matching outfits from the basket. If I had to give a “State of the House” address to anyone right now it would be pitiful, and I don’t even have an opposing party to blame it on.

So why have I been knitting instead? Because I need something for my brain to do. My poor brain. It once taught recursive algorithms, and explained integral calculus. When I was working I even had a three week system of meal rotation…each week had a daily menu and an attached shopping list. Sad, really.

Now, I actually find myself doing factor trees in my head while I match up pairs of socks. (I have a thing for prime numbers.)

(And for perfection.)

Which is why I just unraveled the sides of the Elephant Anouk. I am not really working from a pattern, just inserting a motif where it seems to need one. I’ve been making really good progress too.

But then I noticed:

The sides are buckling! At first I tried to convince myself I could just “block it out”, as it were, but nope, my underused brain said “nope! No dice! Fix it fool!”

So I played with my next row of decreases and it turns out I did my decreases the wrong way! You wouldn’t think it made a huge difference, but it does. So I unraveled:

Already the fix is looking better. My poor brain can rest.


Oh, and on a side note, I have decided what the husband is getting me for my birthday (nice, huh?). I want to get some software so I have something besides Paint to doctor up these photos.

What do you all use?









6 comments:

Laura said...

Your post cracked me up! A "State of the House" address -- I know what you mean. If I had to give one right now, it would be sad, sad, sad. I think we'll be in very good company for the next few weeks, though, what with the Knitting Olympics. (I didn't join, but I'll be knitting an Olympic-type project anyway.)

Your Anouk is looking so pretty. My son's autism-therapy consultant is expecting a girl and I can't decide what sort of thing to knit her. I abhor baby blankets as a project, so I was thinking a sweater or similar. But it might be nice to make an Anouk that she can keep for when the baby gets older. Hmmm... The yarn that you're using, is it machine washable? Sorry for the world's longest comment!

Anonymous said...

It's amazing that the more unstructured time (I was going to say "free time," but that's a laugh) we have, the less we accomplish. I got the best grades in college when I was working 15 or 20 hours a week on top of it.

Now I'm a SAHM, for the most part, and since I know I can just about everything later, later never seems to get here.

As for photos, I rarely touch up mine. Not because they're wonderful but just getting them on the blog is enough of a challenge. My Canon camera came with something called "Digital Photo Professional," a Photoshop wannabe. It's fine with me and better than Paint!

Stacie said...

My UFO basket is full of items that I can't figure out how to fix, and give up on. I have the math brain of a untrained monkey, and knitting ADD. Your project is beautiful! I am inspired to do better! :-) I also used to be smart before my kids ate my brain!

PuNk rAwK pUrL said...

we are a mac household. I mostly use iphoto. we have photoshop on the main computer, which I rarely use becasue there is a gulf of law books between one side of the desk & the other. given a choice.... photoshop for sure.

Laura said...

Ooo, fixing a multi-colored garment? It's cool and you're brave!

Don't you love it when all the drawers are empty because the clothes remain unfolded? (intended sarcasm) I had to attack my own Mount Laundry yesterday. Only the socks remain!

JASC's Paint Shop Pro is a favorite amoung professionals. They're rather pricey, but a free evaluation download is availible. Just google JASC Paint Shop Pro and you'll find them.

knittinmom said...

I just got Photoshop Elements, which is the cheap version of Photoshop. I really like all the stuff you can do with it. I also have photo editing software that came with my camera which is what I use for red-eye and fixing exposures, etc.

That colorwork stuff is a pain in the ***, but the results sure are nice!