Mishmash February 26, 2008 ~ 12:07 pm
Posted by Julie in : Uncategorized , trackbackApple announced the update to the MacPro Line that I was waiting for this morning. Go ahead, look at Apple’s website and see it, I’ll wait. As soon as I saw the update on the website, I called all three Apple stores in Manhattan. None of them had it, and while they were confident that they would get it soon, they couldn’t tell me when. So I ordered it off the website. I should have it by midweek next week, fingers crossed that FedEx will be kind to me. I am impatient, what can I say?
Totally unrelated, I did something last night that I’ve never done before. I have been working on a pair of socks since…well, apparently since last March according to Ravelry. And they were in a yarn that I bought before I discovered the joys of Socks That Rock, or Lorna’s Lace’s, or Sea Wool, or Dream in Color Smooshy, and I kinda hated the way it felt. All rough and not nice. And so I had put them aside for a long while because the pattern was one I had to pay attention to and the yarn wasn’t nice, and I only picked them up recently because I felt like I had to finish them. And when I started the second one I realized that I had fucked up the pattern (Cookie A’s excellent Pomatomus) on the first one, but I kept going anyway because I had to finish them. And then yesterday at lunch when I was working on the second sock and the rough yarn was rasping away at my already dry, papercut hands, I realized I hated the socks. I would never wear them because the yarn pissed me off so much. I had an epiphany, and when I got home? I took them off the needles and threw out the socks and the yarn. I put them in the kitchen garbage so they were in with coffee grounds and I wouldn’t be tempted to yank them out again. I then took the garbage to the curb because it was garbage night and went inside and started on a pair of socks that I’d been wanting to do for ages but wouldn’t let myself start because of the Hated Socks. I felt strangely liberated by this whole thing because of my epiphany: life’s too short to knit with yarn you hate because you think you “have to.” You don’t have to do anything but pay taxes and die. If the project is a burden to you and makes you dread knitting? Rip it out. Stop knitting it. Knitting is supposed to be fun, not work.
I was going to go into a Ralph Nader rant, but I think I’ll save that for tomorrow, because the joy of throwing out that horrible knitting is all encompassing right now and I don’t want to spoil it.
Comments
Oh, it IS a good feeling, isn’t it? I’ve done that recently as well.
We must be in about the same knitting place as each other, evolutionarily speaking. (Is that a word? Oh whatever. You know what I mean.)
And SUPER YAY on the new computer!
Congrats on the Mac AND the ephiphany. Life is indeed too short.
In something sort of related, Grasshopper has taken up knitting. He’s having a ball creating a “scarf”. It’s kind of funny because you can see at the one end how he wasn’t very good at what he was doing and it looks much better now on the needles. And he made a new friend at school because they have knitting in common.
Who knew you could pick up girls by learning to knit?
Vince~Grasshopper is a smart, smart boy. Knitting is one of the best ways to meet and pick up girls. When he finishes his scarf, I want to see pictures of it!
Aims~My God, it was the BEST feeling. I knew it was bad to waste yarn, but I couldn’t see myself using it for anything else and I didn’t want to give yarn that I hated and had already been used to someone else. I think wool is biodegradable though, isn’t it? And the excitement over the computer has grown all day.
Tossing bad yarn isn’t a waste, it’s a necessity sometimes. And yes, wool should be biodegradable, so you’re not hurting the environment.
That reminds me, I haven’t been to Ravelry in awhile–I should go update over there once the soap I’m doing now is done.
One better would have been to burn the bad yarn, unless you don’t like the smell of burning wool. But you are so right, life is too short to knit something you hate. Especially if you’re never going to wear it.
How many more days until your Mac arrives?
Grace~I should have the software for it today, but the computer hasn’t shipped yet. If the shipping time on the software is any indicator, though, I should have the computer by the weekend. Woohoo! (And LOL at the burning wool, because last night when I was spinning I couldn’t be bothered to get the scissors to cut the singles off the leader, and I had a lighter handy, and well, you get the picture.)
Pan~It looked like nice enough yarn when I bought it, but I hadn’t seen good yarn back then.
Ah, the follies of youth.
I have a stash full of crap yarn, too. We’re going to purge and toss this weekend.
BTW, I just got my work MacBook Pro today. It’s not the latest and greatest like yours, but cost me a lot less.
I’ll have to get support from you now on Mac stuff as I’m a noobie.
Vince~Work footed the bill for it, huh? I wish my office would do that, but no. Bastards. In the end, the discount I get for working at a college paid the tax and that’s it. But, I will help you anyway. If I can.
Aims~That’s a really good idea. Get rid of the crap yarn! Don’t force yourself to use shite that you didn’t know was shite when you bought it!
Exactly. And some of it wasn’t even purchased by me… or even by my mom! We have inherited a LOT of crap from people. “Oh, you knit? Here, my grandmother died and left me all this crappy yarn. Of course YOU’LL want it!” ((dump))
Feh. The older I get, the better I get at saying “NO thank you!”