Multi-Tasking

On NPR I heard some talk about multi-tasking. Apparently we THINK we can multi-task, but we are actually trying to trick our brains which aren't that trickable. We can do two or more things at once, but not without a payment. Really the brain likes focusing on one thing at a time.

I had a few minutes to knit Dexter's name into his Christmas stocking (Dylan's will be in the opposite colors) and I wanted to get it right. I did NOT want to do it three times. So I decided against listening to the radio, against calling a friend on my wireless headset while knitting. I sat very quietly and worked out an intarsia problem of knitting in two colors (but only in one section) of the project on circular needles. The issue was NOT carrying the yarn all the way across the row, limiting the second color to just one section, then picking it up on the next row when the yarn was at the end of the lettering rather than at the beginning.

Yippee! I worked it out (I can't bear to explain how) and was successful the first time. I think I'll try more mono-tasking.