Quite a while ago, I realized that my capacity for learning certain things has decreased significantly as I got older.

Examples of Decreased Capacity For Learning

As early as when I was in my 40’s, I had difficulty with learning that used to come very easily for me. A friend and I decided to take a class in American Sign Language (ASL). I honestly thought it would be a breeze. I loved learning languages in school and picked up French, Italian and Spanish easily.

I’m not sure if it was the physical aspect of ASL, or my aging brain, but I couldn’t retain anything about this new language. I had trouble even remembering simple things like the ASL alphabet.

Fast-forward to this past weekend, when I decided to follow the pattern for the Bindle Hat and use the tubular bind-off that it recommends. I did a quick Very Pink tutorial and started binding off. It was looking like poo…I was thinking this was a really bad choice for binding off a 1×1 ribbing. Until I realized I was forgetting one of the five steps in this sewn bind-off. Trust me when I tell you that undoing any sewn bind-off is such a pain, that you’ll never risk making a mistake like mine a second time.

I’m still not really sure I like the tubular bind-off. But it did remind me that I need to be more attentive when I’m learning something new.

Current Knitting

I was able to finish the two Bindle Hats, including the tubular bind-off on both.

Overall, I am quite pleased with this design. It takes a lot of colors and displays them like confetti rather than making them a muddy mess of colors. I’m also please with the shaping of the hat.

I did do something quite differently than called for in the pattern. I plied 4 strands of fingering/sock weight yarn into two separate cakes of yarn, as shown in my blog post last week. The pattern suggests plying them as you go. There are some issues with my method. If one of the fours strands gets out of synch (longer or shorter) with the other strands, it requires constant re-adjustment to have an even 4-strand yarn to use. Also, if there are undesirable pools or stripings of colors in one of the cakes, you can’t fix it in the middle of the hate. But my method still seems a LOT easier than managing eight balls of yarn, and the color distribution of my yarns looks fantastic (I think).