Cavewomen, Computers, Knitting and Chocolate Toffee Pecan Pie

When I was practicing law, I blamed technology for my muti-tasking mania. Technology, I'd tell people, was why I was so darn frazzled all the time. Technology (I kinda snarled the word when I was on the rant) made it socially unacceptable to just do one thing at a time. If you were "just" driving, when you could be driving and returning business calls and dictating your notes, and receiving faxes in your car, meant you were a Class "A" Slacker! I thought I was leaving that behind for a kinder, gentler pace surrounded by yarn and chatting with knitters, rather than going to battle with lawyers and judges.

I'm not really sure I can blame technology anymore. Sure technology makes it possible for me to have pretty much any yarn available delivered to my door overnight. But only if I get on the computer and order it. And technology makes all the cool stuff at Planet Purl possible, but my office set up only lets me have two screens running at once.

So maybe it's genetic, right? At the risk of seeming sexist, I do think there's vast difference in men's and women's relative skill at multi-tasking. My husband can't seem to do even 2 things at once while my idea of relaxation is only having to keep track of 2! And for women, it's thousands of years in the making. After all, our cave-woman ancestors planted, harvested, cooked, kept the cave clean, raised the little ones, made the clothes, kept the man "happy," and did it all with one eye watching for dinosaurs and other scary human-eating creatures. Men just went hunting. So it's not my fault I have 30 things in the works, right?

So when I was in Target this week buying even more bins to hold my Deep South Knitting designs in progress, I started wondering if the whole multi-tasking thing might be self-imposed. This has been a busy month at Planet Purl, what with coming down to the wire on the release of our amazing new pattern search program, our work to get our video live chat running, preparing for the arrival at Planet Purl of the knitting Godess Nicky Epstein who will be doing 3 live chats in August/September, and work on our our new Purl Girls shirts, bags, coffee mugs, etc. Not to mention work on this book.

I keep telling myself to stop casting on projects for the book and just to keep my design notebooks handy for when I get an idea. The problem is, as soon a s I work something out in my head, I want to see if it works in real life. So I cast it on to get it started, work enough to see if I'm going to like it, if the size is what I think it is, if I like the yarn, and then as soon as I feel I'm on the right path, I get another idea and I'm off again. Sometimes the idea is related and the project I thought I was working on for the book becomes a much bigger project. Like the Charleston Gate Pillow which became a Charleston Gate Pillow Trio. Or the Honeysuckle Lace Bridal bag that turned into a set with gloves, garter, and hair ornaments. And this week the Smoky Mountain Afghan turned into two different designs -- a hexagonal lap throw and a paneled version!

Oh, crap..... it is me. It's not my computer's fault, or the cavewoman's, or even my husband's fault -- and it's almost always his fault. But maybe "fault" is the wrong word. Maybe I should call it my "gift." It sounds better, at least. My "gift" is what's creating the huge piles of bins that have taken over my bedroom and are now making their way into my newly remodeled laundry room. And my master closet. And my office. And my family room. And soon my "gift" will make it into Deep South Knitting where I can share my love of knitting, traveling and Chocolate Toffee Pecan Pie with other knitters. I'm feeling better about those stacks of bins already. In fact, I think I need to go pour myself a glass of wine to toast my "gift." And now that this post has me thinking about that pie, I need to run to the grocery store....