What Was I Thinking?
It’s happening to me more and more often.
I find myself standing in the middle of a room, knowing I came in there for a reason, but utterly unable to remember what that reason might be.
Sometimes I’m in the grocery store aisle, on a spontaneous mission to get what’s needed for a dish I’ve made a bazillion times, and I cannot for the life of me remember the ingredients.
Then there are the times when I’m talking to someone, get off on a tangent (or, as someone delightfully put it this week, “go off into the broccoli”), and by the time I circle back, have completely lost track of the original thread of the conversation.
Do you do this, too?
One of my coping mechanisms is to write myself notes. I scribble all the time. I have Official Lists of many things: grocery lists, task lists, brainstorming lists, packing lists, and the increasingly pervasive Don’t Forget This lists. I’ve always been a list maker, but I’m honing my skills at writing notes to myself in the last few years out of necessity. I simply don’t trust my memory anymore.
One reason is because as I’ve packed and moved and unpacked several times recently, I keep discovering partially knit and crocheted works in progress. At one time, these pieces were my entire creative focus. I was dialed in! I thoughtfully chose yarn, pattern, size, and recipient. I joyfully cast on and was excited as I looked forward to the completed project.
Now, I look at the piece and wonder, “what was I thinking?” I don’t (usually) mean I was exercising questionable judgment when I chose to begin the project. Most often I just cannot remember any of the important project details.
- Is this yarn washable? Do I have more of it anywhere?
- What size am I making? Did I modify this?!
- Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln, is that a lace chart? Where in the world did I stop on that monster?
I used to be meticulous about recording everything on Ravelry, which has lovely functions for just this purpose. But I am such a pen and paper girl, and I like having access to notes even when I don’t have access to the internet.
And so, I have notebooks full of odd notes here and there about this and that pattern or project. It’s terribly unorganized and difficult to navigate.
But I saw an article the other day about a knitter who jotted a few notes on a 3×5″ index card and stuffed them in the knitting bag along with the project. It got me thinking how a pen and paper girl who needs a little memory help could make use of a couple handy tools like these:
These two (above and below) could be useful in a project bag. I know they’d have saved me hours of trying to deduce my intent as I unpacked projects from deep hibernation.
The one below will help when I know the pattern I want to make, but I don’t yet have the yarn for it. (I know, family. Try and suspend disbelief for a moment.)
How often have you walked into a yarn shop and been almost but not quite sure of how much yarn you needed for that pattern you can’t exactly remember the name of? Fill this out, stick it in your wallet, and the next time you just happen to find yourself in a yarn shop and the perfect yarn appears before your grateful eyes, you’ll have the information you need at hand.
You can get all three of these 3×5″ images in a free PDF by clicking here.
Do you have a great “what was I thinking?” story? (About an unfinished knitting project or something else?) I’d love to hear it!
Happy knitting!
Kiersten J
