Today I learned to knit.
For my birthday this year, my boss gave me knitting needles, yarn, a bag to keep them in, and instructions. I thought that was terrifically cool because I’ve wanted to learn to knit for a while — mainly because apparently it’s cool. Yes, I just admitted that I decided to do something because other people say it’s cool. And also because I like the idea of making stuff on my own, and having something to do on long journeys that isn’t reading or sudoku.
However, although I tried to follow the printed written instructions that she very kindly included, I failed. All my attempts were an utter mess of confusion, misunderstanding, and tangled yarn. I tried several times and gave up several times, so that eventually it became six months later and I still couldn’t knit.
Finally, I decided that I needed a video demonstration, because the static photos just weren’t clear enough, so I searched the web and found this simple and lovely little video. I like the way she explains the motions in a way that would make sense to someone who has never knit before. She does things carefully and multiple times, with narration and helpful tips.
The instructions I had didn’t tell me important things like where to put the yarn (on the right, in front of you, but “in back” of the knitting) and what “the front” of the stitch is. I sort of suspect them of giving them to people who know how to knit and saying “Does this describe knitting?” instead of giving them to people who don’t and saying “Can you learn to knit from this?” I couldn’t, so I turned to the video. And now I’ve knitted five or so rows of fairly nice-looking stitches. (I haven’t yet learned how to purl — that will have to come later.)
It’s very exciting when you find out that you can make things. I’m looking forward to adding yet another scarf to my collection, and eventually learning to knit complicated and nifty things. Time to stop writing and start knitting and watching The West Wing!
One of the books I got for Christmas is The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. It’s an interesting book, which helped illuminate for me some of the struggles I’ve had, mostly since returning from Scotland, when I left school and entered the “real world”. One of the problems I had when I got back is that I was afraid of grocery shopping. I knew that at the grocery store I would find not only a lot more different kinds of things than I had in the small Tesco in Scotland, but also totally different things. I’d have to start over from scratch figuring out what I wanted to buy and it would be a pain. Little did I know I was having my first problems with the paradox of choice.
As great as it may be that when I went to Target to buy a mop, I was able to choose from half an aisle’s worth of mops and got a nice wet/dry one with a washable microfiber pile, I did wonder — do we really need so many different kinds of mops in this world? Why did I spend several hours browsing the web to figure out which small form-factor digital camera I wanted, and come away feeling like I needed to be an expert critical reader to successfully navigate the world of Amazon reviews? And why on earth has it been so hard for me to find my place in the world? I don’t know that I have found it now, but having been settled in the same apartment and job for more than 18 months now, and involved in several activities, I feel a lot less lost than I did when I first came back. It’s nice to learn from the book that given the multiplicity of options it’s not surprising that I felt overwhelmed.
But it’s also important to find out how not to be, because choice isn’t going away. Each of us cares about some things, so the choices multiply. Some people care a lot about mops. I don’t, so it’s probably more important that I grab a mop that looks okay to me and not worry about it. Some people don’t care a lot about cameras so maybe they should just buy the one that their friend bought that they like the look of, but it probably is worth it for me to invest some time into that decision — albeit perhaps not as much as I eventually did, although I am quite happy with my new Fuji Finepix F50fd. It’s nice that the book provides practical and well-described ways of dealing with the onslaught.
I’m mainly just testing my ability to post content, so here’s a thought I’ve had on backlog for a while:
The thing that I don’t understand in almost all the coverage of the resignation of the TEA science director is this simple fact:
Forwarding an email does not, and cannot, imply endorsement of its contents.
This is not dissimilar to an issue I addressed back during the last LiveJournal bullshit: having something labeled as an interest does not mean that you are in favor of that thing.
Likewise, indicating to people that you want them to know about a lecture does not mean that you endorse the lecture. Perhaps you want people to attend the lecture so that they can throw tomatoes (or more appropriately, hard questions) at the lecturer. Perhaps you just think they should be well-acquainted with the arguments on each side of an issue. But there is NO way it is reasonable to assume that you endorse the lecture. End of story.