Knitting progress

I’d like to share a few pictures of my knitting projects. Lately I got up to speed to a point that I have three or four open projects, and I can resume each of them without having forgotten too much, or the stitches got the mark from staying on the needles:

Rye socks – my second pair, got a bit faster, and more regular in the double-pointed needles knitting

My second Flax pullover made with sock wool, it’s really comfy and easy to wash

My first cable project: a baby blanket, the pattern is Bairn from Julie Hoover

I like the combination of repetition and change that is in varying proportion in each knitting project. The Flax pullover had large parts of uniform stitches, while the Bairn blanket requires a lot of attention the whole time. I am not yet that good in picturing the result of a written set of instructions, so I am more or less surprised by what takes shape while knitting, and I hope that this sensation will stay. The silence and concentration are comfortable to me, and the presence of other knitters when we gather at our meetup is a mix of talking/sharing and of staying in our own bubble, busy with our current work. I find this less stressful than a social meeting based on chatting, because I like to listen and to observe, which is very interesting when each participant of the meetup brings a new technique, a gadget, or a story.

Today I bought some more kilometers of yarn at the yearly sock wool sale of my favourite shop… stay tuned for more colourful pictures! Too bad that the Internet doesn’t allow to share the texture of the wool, but maybe that will be implemented soon? 🙂

Advertisement

On different ways to scan the environment

In these past days I have been noticing two extremes of a range, in the way people scan the outside world. These will be my thoughts and observations, even if I can easily guess that this has been analysed before by other people and quite likely by domain experts. If you have sources related to this topic, please leave a comment!

I first thought that the extremes of this range could be similar to the prey and predator schemas of scanning the world, but I realised I know way too little about it, so I will not use those labels. I will use instead the terms “constant scanner” and “optional scanner”.

The constant scanners tend to check the environment (which can be the landscape, the email inbox, the task list, the servers in the network, the news…) quite often, with both the fear of having missed out an incoming problem, and of not being sure to look for the right signals for the problem. The constant scanners tend to be suspicious and look at things under multiple angles, and are reluctant to classify a signal without cross-checking multiple signals/information sources. They tend to be alarmed by small deviations from the usual data flow, as they are afraid it is a sign of a problem that can grow large if not addressed in time. They tend to assume they missed a sign, and try to get better at observing.

On the other end of the range, the optional scanners tend to classify signals and issues once and for ever, check the environment when they decide it is time for it, and address problems when they grow beyond a certain size. They tend to expect the environment to send signals in their own language, i.e. that they don’t have to interpret or fill up with further information. They are often complaining that the signals from the environment are not clear enough for them to act, and tend to hold the environment responsible.

There is of course the whole set of nuances between those two, and the same person can fluctuate along the range, depending on time or on the activity.

I find myself very often near the constant scanner extreme, and I realise I spend a lot of time trying to notice incoming issues even outside my own area of responsibility, mostly because I wish to spare other people the burden of a problem grown too big, and therefore I lend them with pride and even joy my sharpened attention to details. But sometimes I feel like the dog that barks to warn about the incoming storm, and is asked to stop: I know I am not 100% sure it will be a life-threatening storm, but I would never forgive myself for not barking for a really serious event. I wish this could be seen as a positive skill, that allows others to focus on their activities, knowing that I’m keeping a vigilant eye on the surroundings, and would warn them in time.

That’s it for now. I look forward for your comments and for links for further reading!