KaliMama asked for a picture of me reading and knitting at the same time, and I happen to have one. I am wearing Siv and knitting Hopkins, so this is in the nature of a historical picture, but this is how I do it. Nowadays, when I am reading a thin book, I use a kitchen clip to hold the book open, but essentially you have to read part of the page, then shift the elbow. Not terribly convenient, I suppose, but I do it all the time. So did my grandmother, for that matter.
In this picture, I am working with two colors and therefore holding yarn in each hand. I add this note for knitters who like to check out people’s knitting technique. If you can’t tell whether I use the left hand or the right to hold my yarn, it’s because I do both at once for colorwork.
Yesterday I skipped cardiopump class and instead came home after my treadmill stint and did some sawing. I have completed step one of the chaise longue.
An article in Knitty introduced me to the useful concept of Epic and 
Zombie knitting. Epic is stuff like Hopkins, above, and Zombie is stuff like the prayer shawl at right. Ideally, you would have one of each going at all times, so that you can choose something simple or something complex, depending on your mood and the gripping-ness of your current book.
During my sawing, I had much leisure to contemplate another distinction among craft projects.
There are Normal projects, like baking muffins or knitting hats, which most people do. I know there are people who buy muffins, but there is certainly nothing eccentric or daring about deciding to bake muffins.
(I had a sudden recollection of X-Entertainment’s attempts to bake cookies, but surely he is an exception.)
Then there are Loony projects, like deciding, in the absence of any experience or skill, and even without the ability to distinguish between a bow saw and a crosscut saw, to build a chaise longue out of pallets. Or to make an origami wallet out of cloth, again in the absence of any skill, knowledge, or experience.
(And, by the way, if you like to see people at your site meter from Estonia, Italy, Singapore, and other exotic climes, then you should put the word “origami” into your posts.)
However, there are a number of things that began as loony projects on my part — canning, making soap, felting — which have become enjoyable skills, contributions to the household economy, and even ordinary parts of my household routine. If you are willing to do something badly while you learn, you can eventually gain all kinds of handy skills.
Therefore, I am making a plea on behalf of loony projects. Go ahead! Build a spaceship in your basement!
Great job on the origami purse. That was fun reading about that. I’m really looking forward to seeing the chase lounge. One time in my early days and my first apt. I was dirt poor and wanted a sofa.. Some one had thrown out a box spring and that was my wood supply. So I cut it up and reasembled it to make a funky sofa. The only paint I had was this lemon/orange yellow colour. It was very bright. Then I just took old blankets and clothes from the thrift store and made pillows for the bottom and back and to throw around on it. Then there was the large round electrical cable spool I rolled home for a dining table. It was huge and my friends used to joke about how big it was. It looked nice with a very large bowl of oranges sitting in the middle of it. It was all very casual pick up what you can find kinda syle but very useful.
Don’t build a spaceship in your basement! Think of the cost of fuel. Unless your dog happens to produce large amounts of rocket fuel, it’s not economical.
If this is the case you should also have your dog checked out.
ooo! reading and knitting is a heavenly idea. I have been knitting while reading my rss feeds, but a book would be easier.
Wow, I didn’t know it was possible to read and knit at the same time. I’ll have to try that sometime…. I’ve watched TV and knitted at the same time, but that requires a lot less concentration. And I never knit anything as complex as the pattern you’ve got going in that picture (mainly on account of the fact that I have never been able to get the knack of reading knitting patterns.)
Oh well – back to work on my crocheted throw!
I’m impressed. I never would have thought to use my elbow to hold the book open. I use a jar of peanut butter.
RYC: The sheet she’s on was mine when I was a child in the early 1980s.I think I’m about ten years or so older than your oldest child and we had them at the same time.
yay for loony projects…
There’s a special garment for praying? O_o Keep it copasetic.
Well to clarify, I guess the purpose of the paper is to determine exactly WHEN an instance of something, whether it be an activity, reaction, emotion, or whatever the case may be, is sexual. Now if that guy is dancing and experiences no arousal or psychological satisfaction of desire, then it is not a sexual situation for him. Furthermore, with those instances of spontaneous arousal that have no psychological basis, I’d say its purely a matter of biology. The body is doing something and we have no idea why. In such a case, it is clearly not sexual. In fact, I have read that for adolescent boys going through puberty, it does not have to be sexual at all, it could merely be reflexive, almost (I suppose because the body is at that time going through a physiological change preparing the individual for sexual maturity and thus the physiological processes involved with the biological function of sex are kind of “testing” themselves). The condition for any instance of something to be sexual, as I elaborate on in my paper, is that there is BOTH a physiological arousal AND the psychological satisfaction of desire for pleasurable physical contact. If both are not present, in at least one member of any particular activity or instance of something, then it is not sexual. Hope that clears it up.
Don’t build a spaceship in your basement unless you have a door big enough to get it out!
Besides, I just bought a spaceship, I don’t need to make one, which is lucky, because I haven’t got a basement.
More about that tomorrow, on my blog.
The repair guy came in at work one day to do something to the computer I was working on. He told me to take a ten minute break.
So, I got my knitting bag out of his way, pulled out my book and plopped it in my lap and started knitting.
Then I became aware that the guy was just staring at me with his mouth hanging open. I asked if something was wrong, and he said “What, you can’t juggle while you’re doing all that?”
Clearly, I need more persistence when it comes to my reading while knitting venture. I even have a cookbook stand, but the book is so far away propped on a table, I can’t read it. So I was thinking something more like this, or even — if I were wealthy — like this. And here you and feebee are roughing it with elbows and jars of peanut butter. I am ashamed.
Oooh, those bookstands are most cool. However, if we were really wealthy, we could have someone hold the book for us, also popping grapes into our mouths. But if you read this after me, click on those links.