ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

Ages ago I did write a little about my father who suffered with Alzheimers Disease. I did also say that I had knitted some brain cells around the time I wrote about my father.

© 2000 – 2011 American Health Assistance Foundation

The formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are thought to contribute to the degradation of the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain and the subsequent symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

My Dad had Alzheimer’s

Skill + 1UP or I think I want, I think I want to knit socks!!

Have I been upskilling myself in the knitting world in recent times?

I guess so. In the time since I arrived in Europe, specifically in the Netherlands at the end of August 2008 I have tried a number of techniques that I had never looked at previously and I have rekindled an interest in simple lace stitches. It has been easy to work on new techniques when away from all the interruptions that a normal life at home in New Zealand allows. In New Zealand one had friends to see, family to be with, stuff to do other than knitting, like gardening and so on. Here in the Netherlands Best Beloved is at work so I have peaceful time on my side, time to explore and to play with yarns and concepts and colours and obviously to explore and experience the Netherlands and so I have.

My little list of new or rediscovered skills is as follows:

Shadow knitting

Moebius Cast on – Moebius Scarf

Feather and Fan stitch

Hyperbolic Plane playing

Knit Graffiti

Knitted I-cord Brain Cells

and then there is the orange crepe paper crown that I started, required for Queens Day on the 30th of April. I have also used dpn’s for the first time knitting a pair of simple ribbed fingerless gloves.

But my big hairy goal – is sock knitting.

Which sock pattern would you recommend for a new sock knitter, me.

I can knit in the round, I can knit simple lace, I can follow charts, I can follow written instructions, I can knit with dpn’s, I have sock yarn, and I have IOU’s for 2 pairs of red socks.

Help please, advice requested. Which sock pattern do you recommend for plain red socks for the two men in my life, my son and my Best Beloved?

World Wide Words: states that Upskilling is a moderately common technical term and the Second Additions Volume of the Oxford English Dictionary cites a first use as long ago as 1983.

Upskilling refers to increasing the skills of workers, usually through training. Critics say that upskilled workers are not necessarily better paid, nor do they have better promotion prospects, and that upskilling benefits the employer rather than the worker.

I think the critics are nearly right – upskilled knitters are not necessarily better paid – but they have lots of fun, gain pleasure, have more to offer other knitters and are all round contented, well balanced, and interesting people.

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week

You see we are having house guests (son and family), they are arriving from Switzerland on Sunday. Should I be preparing our small Dutch house for the influx, or should I just knit – which is what I feel doing? I am knitting capelets, I have 2 more on the needles right now as well as that shadow knitting bag (still not completed) and the red socks that I owe son and Best Beloved – that old IOU, you remember it, don’t you?

I bought son some New Zealand merino socks whilst in New Zealand recently, as a salve for my conscience – such tardiness I am expressing with regard to the knitting of socks. I didn’t discover the new “Red Socks” campaign that was held in New Zealand on July 2nd (while I was there), until today when researching “Red Socks” yet again.

Darn, I could have bought son and Best Beloved Red Socks and not have to consider knitting those all elusive socks for them myself.

And then there is the cardigan for Angelica, the poncho/capelet for Elaine, pattern for gorgeous waistcoat, and a vest for….. Damm – I would much rather knit.

Today is a cool 21c which is a remarkable temperature to be working on knitting, designing and writing. Crosby Stills & Nash are singing loudly. All is good, I have had a great coffee. I have found the connector plug to attach to my iron’s plug so that it can work here in the Netherlands. The big problem is that it wants me to hold it to do the ironing. Will son and family care if the pillow cases are ironed or not? Probably not.

While in New Zealand, I posted to myself, here in the Netherlands some more of my yarn stash – I need to sort it, work out where to store (hide) it. Well maybe I don’t need to hide it anymore – Best Beloved knows how much yarn I have . Well I think he has a general idea that there is enough yarn to knit for the lifetime of a fanatic – trouble is I have the yarn, but am running out of lifetime, having reached nearly middle age as you can tell having just raced to 63 whilst in New Zealand.

Thing is – house guests for 2 weeks – I have to be able to knit while they are here, or I will forget how, maybe (they say you forget things as you age, so maybe I am forgetting things, I just can’t remember if that is so).

So I think I will sort yarns to knit the wedding gift that I have mentioned in earlier posts. Once the yarns are sorted, it will be a doddle to knit. I don’t have to write anything down for it, I just knit.

That could be a perfect solution, sort yarns today, and then prepare somewhat for the guests.

Too bad about the ironing

An interview in The Boston Globe with Irene Sege.

interview on May 4, 2009. The Boston Globe

There are many reasons people learn to knit. Their mothers or their grandmothers taught them. They wanted to learn something creative. They decided to add one more craft to their repertoire.

Me? I learned to knit for my brain.

**** This is a link to full article Purls of Wisdom on Alzheimer prevention, or on living life well.

My Dad had Alzheimer’s link to a little story from 2003

It has taken me a long time to write “My dad had Alzheimers”.

My dad was amazing, father of 7 children, sailed the world in the boat he outfitted himself, leaving New Zealand for Denmark at age 65, returning at age 67. He was fit, active, strong and he had Alzheimer’s.

He could never understand why I knitted, when I could just buy, and why I made my sauces and gravies from scratch instead of from a packet. Now I would answer – because it keeps my brain cells healthy and functional – I hope. And also as he always knew – because I could never not knit.

Since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s we have all learned a lot about this disease from various sources other than watching his struggles.

One thing I have learned is that knitting may help protect one from Alzheimer’s – so I will keep on knitting because if it will help protect me from what he had to go through, then I shall knit forever. There is no way I want to realise how my life has changed and how little control I have over it – in those early stage Alzheimer’s more lucid moments.

So I keep on knitting – and I have been knitting Alzheimer brain cells – I have created 2 so far, using knitted I-cords. I am not sure I will ever photograph these, but I do look at them and I am reminded that knitting might help protect from Alzheimer’s.

I shall keep on knitting.