I Go Fast In A Slow Kind Of Way

I'm a continental knitter, one of those wacky types who look like we are knitting backwards. I taught myself how to knit this way a number of years back after doing it the other way for forever and a day. Now I can't knit that other way any more.

That's OK. I knit really fast continentally-ish. I'm like a blur. It's amazing and I should probably teach a class or something except I can't explain anything while I am doing it and when I'm not doing it I can't remember how to do it enough to explain it. I can just knit (and make mistakes) at an impressive clip.

The problem is my ability to sustain. I don't exactly persevere. I normally crank out a round or two and then get distracted by something. Usually it's television related, but sometimes it's a kitchen thing. As in "Oh my God, there is a cat crawling into the toaster oven!!!" or "Wait...was I cooking something?"

I'm good if I'm in a group and everyone else is knitting. Then I've got the whole peer pressure thing going for me. I'm also pretty motivated if the alternative to knitting is something very boring. Waiting rooms or teacher workshops are usually pretty good for that kind of knitting. Progress is amazing under those circumstances.

Unfortunately, those sorts of situations do not always present and I mostly knit at home where there is a television, a couple of cats and a kitchen with a working (if not always well-tended) stove. This makes keeping the blog audiences entertained somewhat challenging. There just isn't much to look at sometimes.

It is probably a good thing I don't knit sweaters. Those take a really long time and never work out for me anyway. I do, however, sometimes knit "dishcloths." The kind with sleeves and which do not attract the attention of the vengeful knitting demons who don't like it when I knit sweaters. This brings us right back to the original problem:

Speed without pacing. I'm like the hare napping blissfully away while the tortoise plods steadily towards the finish line without me...

The best I can hope for is that distractions will present themselves while I knit fast and progress slowly. It is a desperate kind of feeling...

You can only imagine how giddy I became after watching 30 Rock this week. This was just what I was looking for! It was like a little gift from heaven!

I came of age during The Time Of The Benefit. Suddenly, we were the world, we weren't sure who knew it was Christmas and farms were being aided all over the place. It got to the point where if you had six even minimally musically inclined celebrities in one place at a time you didn't ask any questions. You just scraped the coke residue from around their nostrils, planted a mike in front of them and told them to sing from the heart. It didn't even matter if you had a cause in mind at the moment. That was for the Detail People. You cut the album before someone lured your musicians away with a movie deal.

It was good times, people. Good times. It's nice to see that someone remembers them.

ETA: As of this morning (5/17) it appears that the video has been removed due to a copyright claim by NBC. The song is available for purchase on Itunes and, before you get all up in arms about The Man and His Never Ending Greed, just take a breath. All proceeds will go to a most worthy cause. FMI, do the linky-thing over here. I am dropping the bucks to have this one in my own digital library, rest assured on that score. I'll probably hold on to my kidneys for the moment because I am still using them. Maybe later, I'll reconsider. You can't help but be inspired by a gathering of celebrities singing about kidney donation...

And Alan Alda played Milton Green, aka He Who Needs A Kidney. Life made sense again for a brief moment. This didn't help me to knit any faster, mind you. Nor did watching the clip on YouTube for days on end.

But you have to admit it is a nice distraction...

SA