Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Lesson #4 Less Thinking, More Dancing

Today I learned, thank you Utube, how to do a provisional cast-on. Doesn't that sound important? It's a knitting technique.















I watched several demonstrations before I found one that had no audio. I was able to just watch and learn. Then I started to get it, but my brain box was still overheating from too much thinking. So I watched another video with an instructor who kept repeating the words of the motions: Over under, under under, over under, under...  And I got into the rhythm. I started to think about how knitting is total muscle memory. The minute I start thinking about the technique, I end up in tangles. I realized it's probably a lot like ballroom dancing. I have been known to tune in to Dancing with the Stars (like you haven't), and I always hear the instructors telling the "stars" that they are thinking too much.  Almost instantly my own provisional cast-on words became One-Two-Cha Cha Cha.
No thinking, no tangles, just me and my needles. Dancing.