Pre-Hindsight

Or: Why I Will Knit More Sweaters This Year

I read an interesting article the other day which discussed the role of emotion in rational goal-setting, or as we call it on New Year's Day, making resolutions. If you want to pay $4,000 you can take a three-day workshop. If you want to pay $0, you can try this free tip (from the article)and see if it works for you.

• Pre-Hindsight:  Use emotions to evaluate how likely you are to succeed at a goal. Imagine that, six months from now, you have not achieved your goal. The level of surprise you feel at this outcome is a good predictor of whether you will actually succeed.

So, I imagined that six months from now I would have not completed even the one sweater for myself that I started in February, 2013. Did I feel surprised? Hah! I say: Hah!

Since I really would like to complete that sweater, and maybe one or two others, or a few pairs of socks, I had to think about what would be getting in the way. I didn't have to look any farther than  my ravelry projects page. I'm heading in to 2014 with three WIP's:  two half-knit sweaters and about 5% of a pair of socks. That seems like not very much to accomplish in six months, doesn't it? Wrong! I say: Wrong!

Wrong, that is, unless I stop choosing to knit and crochet scarves and their sneaky cousins cowls, infinities, and shawlettes. Wrong, unless I keep the mix of projects in progress from overbalancing toward the cute little quick items that can really pile up and give a not very satisfying sense of accomplishment. 

When I look in my closet do I think: gee, I wish I had another scarf. No! I'm afraid to count the ones I have. What I think is: gee, I wish I had a sweater that wasn't all pilled and good for nothing except slouching around the house or sneaking out to the trash bin with yesterday's papers. I wish I had a sweater in a flattering color. I wish I had a sweater that fit me. 

Then I go back to the knitting chair to work on another cowl. Well, not this week at least. This week it's all red sweater all the time. Check in next Wednesday to see what happens. For other current progress, see Tami's Amis.

In the meantime, best wishes for 2014!

Pantone Pandemonium

Pantone's 2014 color pick is Radiant Orchid.

I keep wanting to hate this color, but the more I look at it the more I like it, especially when I tell myself it is not really the color of candy eggs or the dreadful corsage orchids I remember from way back when. It remains to be seen whether or not the cosmetics mavens at Sephora are right: looks great with all skin tones.

Today I stoppped in at a small exhibition of 20th century art at the Boston Athaneum and was taken by this painting by Polly Thayer, "Shopping for Furs."

Those stripes look a lot like Radiant Orchid, don't they? And I love the jaded and exhausted look on this woman's face. That's how I look after I've been shopping for almost anything.

I predict we'll be seeing a lot of knitting and crocheting using this color as an accent with neutrals, like the palette of this painting.

Autumnal Palette

Hydrangea & Coleus

Late August and the colors of early autumn are taking over in the garden and the marsh.

Not the searing yellows, reds, and oranges of October, but muted shades.

Amazing how these hydrangeas were blue, purple and pink earlier in the season.

Fun to create a palette. This one created from Kuler an Adobe app. A somewhat Cool Tool.

New color scheme for the blog?

Cinderella

Slipper.

Coach.

Two things that caught my eye this week.

Inspiration for color and shape.

Kind of Blue?

Taken

Mood Indigo?
Taken

Hippolyta? 
Hippo Who? 

Moebius Unblocked

Sometimes the names for a design comes first, sometimes it comes later. Sometimes the one I think of first--someone else already used it. 

Want this to be named for a song. Want it to be about midnight. But don't want some of the connotations. Most of them are dire.

Lady Midnight? 
Leonard Cohen = depressing

Midnight from the Inside Out?
Perfect for a moebius, but, dude, The Black Crowes? Psychedelic or just plain psycho?

Burning of the Midnight Lamp?
Love Jimi Hendrix, but no one wants a flammable wrap.

In the Middle of the Night?
Billy Joel. Need I say more?

Couple of other ideas brewing. Need to finish up the pattern, though. Come to think of it, need to go grab it from the soak and block it.

Progress

Not necessarily on knitting and crocheting. That progress is occurring but not of the most exciting. 

But, ah, the progress of spring. 

Maybe a bit too much progress as we move rapidly from winter to summer. A bit early for the summery thunderstorm that blew through this evening.

So happy that these rhododendrons, which I didn't plant, are the palest pink and not Easter egg purple. So happy to see some rain.

Inspiration

If anything can drive me to colorwork (which I have pretty much avoided) it is the designseeds blog.

When I see these images I often feel a kinesthetic impulse to reach for the needles and knit. Sweaters? Socks? Mittens? You name it. Go see for yourself.

As much of a mood-lifter as cute overload (most of the time.)

Carved

Took next to no pictures on vacation. 

A few things caught my eye in the British Museum.

The intricacy of the carved drapery worn by a Nereid. Looked like gauze blowing in wind.

The simplicity of a carving from an Egyptian temple.

If it weren't for imperial pillaging, I'd never have seen any of this.