Tuesday 23 August 2016

Brains...

...or lack of them!

I rather think I did put a note about my knitting on a post a few days ago - so I may be repeating myself, but I have a new great grandchild due in December and am busy knitting cardigans.   I really enjoyed knitting the first one - mainly because they grow so fast and are soon finished.

One afternoon last week I decided to sew it together, but after an afternoon of careful sewing I realised I had left out the raglan sleeves.    The next day I spent almost ten hours unpicking one seam but when I started on the other I just could not find an end and finally gave up in despair.

Friend C told me to give it to her (she is an expert knitter) and she would unpick it.   I gave it to her on Sunday when we were out for lunch and she had only been home a short while before she sent an e mail to say she had done it.   I was so grateful.

So after lunch today I decided I would spend the afternoon sewing it together again - the only trouble was that although I remember putting all the separate pieces in a bag I couldn't remember where I had put the bag!!

After ten minutes mild panic I made myself relax in the armchair and forget all about it - and after a few minutes I remembered where I had put it.   And sure enough it was there.

Is it old age?   To some extent I suppose as our brains get so full of rubbish as we age, but I also know that in my case, although my mobility has slowed down and I cannot do as many things as I used to do, I also try to work at the same speed as ever - and it doesn't always work.

Is it just me or does everyone have these problems as they begin to age?   Sewing together of the garment will now begin later on today.   I will post a photograph if it is worth taking one of the finished product.

20 comments:

Fairtrader said...

Brains? My experience is that brains comes and goes, sometimes mostly goes, actually. Brains has no ages , I have lost and forgotten things as long as I can remember. It all comes down to that simple fact of how much strain we can cope with, and from time to time the strain gets to rough and we forget where we live and what we did a minute ago. I for one look forward to see the result of all your and your friends efforts!! Grandchildren are still far away on my horizon!! Don't lose faith Weaver, it will get back to you!! You just have to lower the fence...

Derek Faulkner said...

Oh dear Pat, hope we're not going to see you going out soon with a name tag on, like the evacuee children used to have. To be honest, we're all suffering just the same, or at least I am, the amount of times I have to ring my mobile phone using the land line, in order to locate where I've left it.
It's sweltering here, just been out for a walk along the seafront quite near me and the heat coming up off the pavements is so intense. Nice to see a lot people in swimming though.

Derek Faulkner said...

By the way Pat, I did exchange some comments with the "Solitary Walker" - we have very similar tastes in music and he sounds like a very interesting guy, as your nephew would be.

Frances said...

Dear Weaver, I think it is so interesting how we do form memories. Every now and then I hear a radio program or see a news article about this process and perhaps learn a bit more about my own mental filing cabinet.

I am so glad that you found where those sleeves were. Your technique of just having a quiet time to relax your mind seems a wise method. (I've used a similar one myself.)

My visual memory has always been a strength, and sometimes I make use of it to remember information that might not be obviously visual by setting up some connection that makes sense to me. Don't know if this makes sense to you? For example, I have had trouble remembering a certain person's name. I've known her for years, but don't see her very often. I realized that her first name is the same as another friend whom I've known even longer. I've just created a sort of "false" visual memory of the two of them together, and now Bingo, I always remember those names easily. Instead of "remembering that I couldn't remember" Stephanie's name, I have created a new memory that I practice...now it's the alpha memory.

I learned that technique from reading an article in The New Yorker Magazine...and I remember it! xo

Rachel Phillips said...

I have a good memory. There is nothing more I can add to this really.

Joanne Noragon said...

I used to try to mentally retrace my steps to recover a misplaced article. Now I just wait to find it. Five years ago, when my grandchildren arrived, my favorite nail clippers disappeared. I quizzed everyone and looked every where. I finally concluded they had been knocked in the waste basket and gave it up. I bought at least three nail clippers in the last five years, but was not pleased with any of them. When me moved, I emptied my pencil cup to pack it, and there were the nail clippers!
Of course, in five years your grandbaby would need a much larger jumper!

Librarian said...

You did indeed write about your knitting before, and about the efforts of kind people who helped you unpicking the "wrong" sewing together. But I certainly don't mind reading about something more than once on a blog - as long as it is not an endless row of product placement, as one of the blogs I used to follow started a while ago.
I keep repeating myself, too, and I am "only" 48!

donna baker said...

My near photographic memory has begun to fail me. It was my most prized asset and it really bothers me. I hope they come up with a pill soon. It started out with searching for words and it was maddening. I have just about given up worrying about it now as more and more things have become lost in that neural jello jumble up there.

Dawn said...

I am pleased a friend came to your rescue, dont worry about forgeting things we all do it, I can go for ages and have great memory then some days I get a blip and forget lots of things :-)

Heather said...

I understand totally Pat. I recently spent three days looking for two books - with time off for meals and a few chores! I knew where they should be and searched the bookshelf and other shelves, under the bed and anywhere else I could think of. I kept finding myself standing in front of the shelf where I had last put them. On the third day I had one final look, and there they were!! I did feel foolish.

Rachel Phillips said...

For lost things a few words to St Anthony have never let me down.

John Going Gently said...

Im like that now , and i am thirty years your junior x

Mac n' Janet said...

I tell my daughter that I have the information, it's just that it's filed on a Rolodex instead of a memory chip and it takes much longer to find things. My short term memory is just awful. My husband and I seem to share one brain, one memory, what one doesn't remember hopefully the other does.

The Furry Gnome said...

Well, I certainly have those sorts of memory problems! And I think I'm quite a bit younger than you.

Midmarsh John said...

There seem to be many times when I spend hours searching for things I put away safely for future use. Then there are the times I think it is time to make a cup of tea only to find a stone cold one I had forgotten about waiting in the kitchen.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Well, I suppose there is some kind of safety in numbers. Thanks for the moral support and Rachel - I shall try St Anthony - it can't do any harm.

Derek Faulkner said...

Who is St. Anthony?

thelma said...

Think we all, as we get older, start to lose memory, I know I have. It is strange how something from years back will suddenly surface and float across. If I lose something I just journey back over my route in my mind and normally find the 'lost item'

The Weaver of Grass said...

Derek - regarding St Anthony - you need to ask Rachel.

Gwil W said...

I've forgotten what I was going to say. Oh yes, we should all eat more fish. Brain food it's supposed to be. I wonder why.