Saturday, June 20, 2009

Memory - friend or foe?

Some books I must have choosen because the contrast between me and the subject matter fascinates me. For example, the allure of reading about the Arctic and Antarctic is that it's unconceivable to me that anyone would choose to spend time in absolute cold. "The Woman Who Can't Forget" is a true story about a woman who remembers everything she ever did or read or heard. It boggles the mind! I have a hard time with several hours ago! She even remembers things from others people's lives. As long as she had contact with the person or information, it's filed away in her brain. In a instantaneously retrieved mind file.

I can often remember information. It just takes my file manager several hours to bring it up from cold storage to the front of my mind. Of course, by then the moment may have passed when I needed it. Such is life - I've always had a memory like this, it just gets worse as time passes. This quote sums up my experience with memory: The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Even more than a look into this woman's life story and what having the most remarkable memory known to science means to her, this book gives a great deal of insight into how the mind works and memory in general. An absorbing read. Three stars.

I learned a new knitting technique the other day. The project got frogged and turned into something else (see Aviatrix baby hat), but it was a learning experience in any case. To get a knitting project started, you must first cast on (CO), which is setting up the yarn onto your needles so that you can proceed with the actual knitting. I have always CO in the manner that I learned as a child - a form called the long-tail cast on. I really didn't know there was any other way to do it until I took up knitting again in the last few years. Now I know that there are many, many different ways to cast on. The cable CO is the one that I just learned. It created a nice looking edge, but was more time consuming than I'm used to, so only if the pattern calls for it will I use it. Here's a video that shows how it's done:

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Time to think about summer reading

Good beach reading would be "Bone by Bone" by Carol O'Connell. A murder mystery that kept me turning pages long past the time I should have been in bed. I'll have to check out her other books. I'll give it two stars.

I told a friend recently that since I had so many knitting projects started I wouldn't be casting on anything else till some were finished. Well...a tiny baby hat that matches the baby blanket from the last post doesn't count. After all, it's part of the same project (in a way). It's the same yarn. And it worked up so quickly that someone blinking might not have noticed. It sure was fun to knit, though! Pattern: Aviatrix Yarn: Paton's Decor Needles: 5mm & 3.25 mm

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Giving Koontz another try

Dean Koontz is an author that I can't always be sure of. Some of his books I love and some I have to put down rather quickly. "Odd Hours" was one that kept me reading, even though I contemplated giving up several times. The supernatural nature of the storyline was unsettling to me. But his writing fascinated. The protagonist in this book has psychic powers. He is also a very transparent, funny person. It was his personality that kept me going. And Koontz has a way of turning a phrase that, while not elevating him to the classic book realm, gives real pleasure to a literary mind. Will I be giving myself away as a non-scholar if I rate this book three stars?

I recently finished a baby gift - a cozy blanket knit from a washable acrylic/wool blend. The pattern ended up being adapted from the original it started out as. A math miscalculation made following the pattern impossible. Of course, the baby will never know what the gift was supposed to look like. Pattern: Hap Blanket, adapted Yarn: Paton's Decor Needles: 10.5 mm and large crochet hook

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Photo shoot

Life is constant motion
No time to reflect or pause
Yarn soothes the numb soul