Hello! I hope you are all doing well, or at least as well as any of us can be doing these days. I was in the mood to post today, but didn't have one specific kind of thing to talk about, so you are getting a brain dump. If you are not someone who enjoys brain dump posts, feel free to move along. I certainly understand.
1. I've decided to teach myself how to use Canva. I don't really know why, I just thought it was something I'd try. I made this during the course of the morning, after many many fits and starts. I originally thought it might be a nice header for my blog, but couldn't figure out how to re-size it. I have a Chromebook and photo editing on it is still somewhat beyond my understanding. Which makes me think I should have learned that first. Oh well.
2. In the last month or so, I've seen a lot of knitting podcasts where they are talking about "unpopular hot takes." It's entertaining, but also makes you think about your own opinions and ideas. And I've found my primary hot take for now at least:
I'm tired of people writing patterns that use two yarns together. Usually it's mohair, sometimes suri alpaca, but either way I find it annoying. Yes, sometimes I think the finished object looks lovely. And yes, I've knit something carrying mohair with the main yarn (I made a beret in 2023. I liked it but gave it away, because it just *looked* like something one of my nieces would really enjoy, so she received it as a Christmas gift).
But unless the item is small - a hat, fingerless mitts, etc. - adding another yarn to a pattern makes it even less accessible to most people. For instance, I'm not a huge person, but purchasing a sweater or even a tee's worth of yarn is a lot of money for me. If I have to buy the equivalent amount of another yarn, it's twice as much, and often more. And even if it's something I would absolutely love to have, I'm just not buying the equivalent of two sweaters' worth of yarn, firstly because I can't afford it, and secondly because I think it's stupid.
You do you of course. I'm not buying *your* yarn! 😊
3. I am proud of myself, because I hated the current lump of orange blobbery in the Oval Office, his vice president, and the owner of Tesla long before it was a thing. As in, years ago I learned that all of them were people with no substance, no moral compass, and no empathy. Not that it's helping now, but there you are.
4. Animals rock. Always.
5. A few weeks ago, I have one of my syncope episodes, which means I fell and made a mess of my face and my teeth yet again. And as of right now, there is still no way any of my doctors have been able to figure out what causes it, though they are all still trying. Fortunately, I was stitched up well and it has been long enough now that I don't look as awful or scary. I'm grateful it happened somewhere where people were around to get me some help. And yes, I know that it's another serious fall.
But you know what I also know? I'm really sick of people telling me that I should 1) be more careful, 2) find out why it keeps happening, 3) "walk around in bubble wrap, hahaha," 4) get better nutrition and sleep, and 5) insinuate that somehow I'm doing it on purpose. I would dearly love to say, "Or you could just shut up about it," but I am making an effort to be a kinder person and keep my mouth shut - much as I wish other people would do on occasion!
6. I need to give more thought to things I decide I will "definitely do." You may or may know that I have said in the past, that any time I've signed up for a KAL, no matter how much I think I want to do whatever it is, I immediately become disinterested in knitting anything at all.
Well, I keep doing it all over again with other stuff - small, relatively unimportant stuff, but it is still worth thinking through before I pledge to myself that "Starting on ___, I'm going/not going to do ____ for ___ amount of time." Because it inevitably leads to what I have started to call "The KAL effect."
That's all I have for you right now. I'm washing a few throws, and I just heard the washer signal that cycle is over, so I'm going to put them in the dryer. I've started doing chores/cleaning in small increments, and so far, it's being much more successful than any plan to do major cleanup on any given day. Of course, when we are having company or it's a holiday or something, I can be motivated, but in regular life, the small method is being much more successful.
See you again soon. If you are in the cold weather/winter zones, stay warm!
8 comments:
Oof, I wish I was closer... I'd be the one to say... or you could just stfu in your stead. I have made no such promises to be kind! I am glad you are healing and will send some figure it all out juju to your medical team with the hopes that they will do exactly that!
I'm glad you are healing from the last episode and my goodness that has to be scary! I can't seem to engage with anything these days, and I'm going to start doing 'little bites' of things to see if I can get more engaged (and stop doomscrolling).
I think I've told you this before, but my sister also suffers from syncope-from-indeterminate-cause. And she would be nodding your head to EVERY ONE of those unhelpful comments from others. (You two would get along famously, by the way.) (Once she caused a major scene from a syncope episode while serving on a jury in the middle of a trial. Now that is SOME story . . . ) Anyway. I hope you're feeling better and healing well. And I suppose that's enough of a comment for me today. XO
that fall sounds scary! I get irritated by well meaning people. Of course you are being careful, of course you are figuring it out. I have severe dry mouth and I hear the craziest ideas to 'fix' it.
Oh, I didn't know you have had some falls and I'm sorry to hear about it. Hope you get some answers and stay safe.
I agree with your posts especially post #3. I always knew they were awful people.
I'm sorry I lost your blog for awhile but am glad to find you again.
Congrats to your Eagles!
Brain dumps rock! Along with animals.
Sorry about your episodes. I should send you a Southern Funeral Home Fan for your next episode. It's guaranteed to draw attention away from you and drive people to make you a tall glass of sweet tea.
Glad to hear you are healing. Advice / jokes from others about how to live one’s life is pretty much always useless and irritating.
I totally agree about the two-yarns-held-together thing. Another peeve of mine is designs (usually yarn-intensive cables) where the designer has used yak, cashmere, or some other super-expensive yarn. Sure, it would be nice to buy another 6 balls of mohair to hold with my yarn. It would also be nice to knit with yak and cashmere. But I am just not spending $300 - $500 to make a sweater, nor are many others. I’m not saying designers should make everything from acrylic, but please throw a bone to those of us who are not independently wealthy sometimes.
I agree with the yarn thing. Two strands is a pain as well as an expense. I hope the medical detectives sort out your "episodes". I did a lot of fainting when I first starting going through menopause so I know how scary that is. So many trips to the ER. Orange man and his phony genius overlord are indeed the scum of the earth. We need to invent new words to describe their vileness.
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