Socks, memories, etc.
Just a quick update on the socks: now in the home stretch. The all over lace cuff will take the longest, but I am going away for the weekend to hang out with some old friends I haven’t seen in a while at their place in the Jersey suburbs. Much of it expected to be spent lazing around, watching a movie and chatting and arguing about politics, so I am hoping to have these done by Sunday.
Actually these socks will have good memories associated with them. The first one was knit last week mostly chatting and wandering around the city (including during a jazz concert at the Lenox Lounge!) with an old friend of mine who was visiting from India for a conference, and who I hadn’t met for over six years. Isn’t it lovely that projects have memories associated with them? Some bad, true, but it’s wonderful when they’re good.
Sort of unrelated: a friend and I were talking the other day about how we forget the plots of mystery novels and this allows us to reread old mysteries without losing the suspense value. She quoted parts of a poem by Billy Collins:
Memory
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never
even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
My research explores the making of historical memories (and much of it I would like to forget!), but this take on memory, of the joy of rediscovering well-loved books anew, is delightful, no?
ah, but, the memories we trade in aren’t ever forgotten, just remembered…differently, each instance.
Also, have you seen this: http://knittaplease.com
I love re-reading favorite novels and series. There is a great mystery series set in Ancient Rome that I just finished re-reading (all 17 novels, there’s a new one out next month!). Even if I remember the basic plot, a good book always has tons of stuff that I’ve forgotten. (I won’t say how many times I’ve read the Harry Potter novels.) The socks are wonderful!
Thanks, Alison! Aside from the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, I have reread all the Agatha Christies several times; somehow my mind neatly forgets the plot. Unfortunately this happens with more serious books, too, with elaborate arguments I’m not supposed to forget.
Hey Sepoy, thanks for the link! That is totally cool and I’m going to do a detailed post after looking at the site in detail. I also want a name like that: 50Yards, or something. Accha, how are you finding these sites?
Re. the memories we trade in, true. never forgotten, just differently remembered. i was simply wishing that i could forget my research, not the memories themselves!
Man, I’m rereading something now, and have only the very vaguest memories of the plot. I kind of think I know the context of the big denoument, and I sort of remember a couple of details, but that’s it.
Man.
Also, nice socks!
The socks are looking great! As far as memory – I’m horrible at remembering punchlines, etc – so I love that I can re-read or re-watch something and it’s all new!