Thursday, January 19, 2012

Reading and Knitting the winter away

Knitting and reading. I knitted over 20 hats and at least a dozen pair of fingerless gloves and Mittens in the past couple months. I suppose I should be more focused on getting my house cleaned and stash in order but I just cannot get motivated. I am escaping my world and knitting my way into another.

WHY?? That is the question. Am I depressed? Am I Lazy? Am I avoiding reality? Time just seems to fly by and here I sit. KNITTING! and if I am not knitting I am reading. At least I stopped watching CSPAN; and watching the news and politics; it was way too depressing. Spring will come soon and I can get outside in my garden again.
I just finished reading The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak I enjoyed it so much I wanted to know more about Catherine so as soon as I was finished I looked up other books about Catherine the Great. It is so easy to do on the iPad. I just researched and read the reviews on Amazon and with in a few minutes I was reading my next book. I am reading Catherine the Great by Virginia Rounding, this book is not as good as the other one. Too much detail and moves way too slow. I may not finish it since it puts me to sleep.

Reading on the iPad is way better than reading real books. I like being able to research while reading and look up words and events while reading makes the story more interesting. It is way too easy to buy books. The reviews are helpful in making decisions about what book to buy. Just click and the book is there. No more waiting till your next trip to the library or trying to find a book in a book store. It is way too easy to spend money this way.

I have been saving PDF patterns on my iBooks document shelf. Using patterns in this way has caused my knitting to become more complex; trying new patterns in multi color designs.

I got a new app for creating and recording changes to published patterns but have not been willing to take the necessary time to learn to use the app. It is more fun to just knit rather than fiddle with the pattern on the computer. I no longer feel the need to share my patterns and pass them on. When I had my shop I always thought about keeping my patterns simple and recording my pattern as I knit just in case a customer asked me for the pattern. I do not need to think this way anymore, however, old habits are hard to break and people still ask for the patterns. Keeping track of my knitting as I knit is easier with the iPad but it does mean stopping and taking pictures and writing down the details and some days I just do not care to stop and make notes.

Winter will pass quickly at this rate and I still will not have my studio organized and cleaned out. OH! well there is always tomorrow. I suppose you now understand why it has been two months since my last post to this blog.

Tom and I are snug and warm in our little brick house watching the snow pile up outside.
Tom has Parkinson's Disease and has been on medication for it since Sept. 2010.
He is taking Isradipine and it is working. He is better now than he was two years ago. The results of the clinical trials at Northwestern University have been very good. Here is a link: http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004310.html