As my third decade kicks up into full swing, I am reminded that time is ever more precious, and that I can’t possibly knit all of the patterns I have favourited on Ravelry. And so, the culling of my knitting pattern favourites list has begun. To do this, I am combining the following elements:
- the harsh judgements of both my own current skill level and desired skill level to be achieved;
- an extremely critical eye on the finished objects of everyone who knit the patterns I’ve favourited, to discern which are more difficult than they look, which are frumpier than they look, etc;
- and a very realistic evaluation of whether or not I would wear the favourited item (so far, both my tank tops have been a failure – the Coachella is too loose on top, making it sag in a very ugly way in front, and the Gretel, while fitted beautifully to my form, is just *this* much too tight around the armholes, resulting in what feels like the yarn cutting into the skin around my “pectoralis major”, which I find painful – ie: I need to lose some weight).
I’m also taking stock of the patterns I would knit that I already own, vs. those I have yet to obtain, and furthermore, how difficult the latter will be to procure.
So far, I don’t think I’ve been too successful in cutting down the number of favourites I have on Ravelry. In fact, I may have gained as many as I cut, if not more. It’s also best to approach the culling fresh – I find the later it is at night, after the longer I’ve been going at it already, the less critical I become, and I start thinking things like “Well, I might like that… what if i did it this way? I could see wanting to wear it… hmmm.” – and then I leave it for later to decide. Which isn’t very helpful, because I end up just drooling over patterns and the work others have done, instead of spending my time usefully deleting favourites!
This is clearly a result of executive function taxation (or, “decision fatigue”), which, frankly, my job requires a ton of, as a web developer constantly problem-solving and making decisions (my elementary teachers would be proud – my report card feedback always came back “needs to develop problem-solving skills” LOL). I have some belief that it’s possible to train up executive function, as I’m handling more and more both at work and in my personal life, with wedding planning, and whatnot. Hmm, perhaps it’s because I recently began biking to work.