Thursday 11 February 2010

Educated

Yep. I'm a moderately well educated person. I can't spell worth a darn, but I was taught to read, analyse and commit things to memory. My parents actually paid quite a lot of money to ensure that I went to University and got an education which would allow me to do more than just flip burgers for the rest of my life. I'm even fluent in two languages (and a half since Swiss German really is a bit of a language on it's own) and have a smattering of several others. The point being. I might not be Einstein, but I'm not stupid either.

So can someone tell me why I consistently fail to read knitting patterns correctly? Honestly. You'd think I could read the lines "knit set up row and rows 1 to 4, then repeat rows 1 to 4 six times" and then remember to carry the plan out as noted. You'd think. Apparently not. Instead of just reading and remembering these lines, I have to do things the hard way. Not only have I been having difficulty with the chart, as in when to knit even and when I need to do moss stitch, but I started right in on the full chart. I knew from the pictures this was wrong. I knew there was more ribbing than that before the cable panels started, yet I ignored all the little bells going off in my head and kept knitting. Bejeebus I'm dense. I just ripped out 15 rows (of 138 stiches each) of cable panel because the penny finally dropped and the gum ball went rolling across the floor. I can't even say I was tired, because I wasn't. It's all down to inattention and failure to, well, just failure.

Maybe I should stop knitting and start doing brain training in the evenings.

5 comments:

  1. I can't read patterns either - and I write for a living.. so you think reading would come naturally...

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  2. You regularly complete complicated patterns way more often than most knitters, I've seen. It's got to be the pattern's fault, not your brains:)

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  3. BTDT! I have problems following patterns, which I why I started doing my own. I think there is an internal push to get to the fun part, so we don't see the basics. I do that routinely in cooking. Start a recipe and then see it says, 24 hours in advance, do this....

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  4. For me it's not the reading (glasses helped), it's the remembering.
    Don't give up!

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  5. See this is the kind of problem I have all the time when I try to knit. It's evil I tell you...

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