A blind knitter

needs some help - help to join in.
There is a Shetland Lace group I belong to. Some members of it are doing a "KAL" - or "knit-along". It means they are all making the same pattern and supporting each other as they go.
I don't knit other people's patterns but I am happy to help where I can. Yesterday a message came up from someone in the group. She asked to be taken off the list because everyone else was using a chart for this one and she can't see the charts. She relies on written instructions.
And the wonderful thing is that there was an almost instant outcry of "Don't leave!" and "We'll help!"
And there are ways of helping. Years ago now, before there was any such thing as a computer program for knitters, a totally blind woman wanted to knit a pattern I had written. The pattern is for a "peace blanket". It has the word for "peace" in twenty different languages and the Blissymbol for "peace" in rows in between the words. It isn't an easy knit but R.... wanted to make it. 
I have never met R... and I am not likely to but we corresponded and I put out a request for help on an old knitting group. Yes, people would help. We "translated" the pattern into words for her - and she made the blanket. I didn't see it but then someone else contacted me if R... had made did I think P.... could do it too? She needed a bit of help but she finished it. It was a gift to her very young nephew. He's about twenty now and the blanket went with him when he began  university this year even though it is more lap rug size. 
Now there is a computer program, probably more than one, which will automatically produce the written instructions as you make the chart. We should, with the pattern owner's permission, be able to make the charts again and automatically produce the charts for the blind knitter. I have sent messages off and am awaiting the outcome.
Extra work for other people? Yes. "She shouldn't have said anything and just accepted she couldn't do it?" NO! 
I will shortly be writing another pattern. I will be including the written instructions. The blind knitter has as much right as others to try the pattern and every right to join in.
 

Dogs need to be walked

and they need to be walked often.
I was talking to someone on my regular pedalling route yesterday - the one that gets me to the library and the shopping centre.  He is missing having a dog. His last dog died almost two years ago.
   "I'd love another dog but I couldn't walk it any more. That's not fair on a dog."
Yes, he's realistic. He walked his last dog, the one I knew, twice a day. One walk would be short, perhaps just around a couple of suburban blocks. It might be quite brisk too. But the dog knew that the other walk would be much more leisurely. Sometimes the two of them would head off in the car - just to find a new place to explore. His dog was lovely. It was well behaved, friendly without being the sort which is all over you, and alert. 
I really believe a lot of that was down to good training and all the exercise.
Next door we have a chihuahua. The owners tell me it does not need to be walked at all. It is too small for that. I don't agree. It barks a lot. It will attack people entering the property (and, for a small dog, it can do a lot of damage). It isn't trained at all. On the rare occasions it has been taken out for a walk - perhaps once every ten to twelve weeks - it is quieter and calmer.
Can dogs have mental health issues? I think they can. Like humans they need stimulation - the right sort.
Ms W's neighbours were away this last weekend. They could have put their dog in kennels but Ms W and her father cared for it instead. Their own lifestyle precludes a pet of any sort but they could manage the weekend. And off they went. They took the dog exploring on Saturday. The dog knows them well. He was a happy dog after the first hour or so.  Did he understand, "Yes, they will be back on Sunday"? I doubt it but he followed Ms W around the entire weekend. On Sunday they took him to the dog friendly park and played "frisby" and "chase the  ball". He was a very tired dog at the end of it. He slept most of the afternoon, just opened one eye when I took something in to Ms W's father. 
I've been told he was waiting at the gate when he heard his owner's car return. What would he have told his humans if he could speak?
Do people realise how much a dog needs to be walked? Cats can take themselves - even if it annoys some humans - but dogs need help to explore. 

When will the "gun lobby" recognise

that guns, if available, do kill people. How did those shooters in yesterday's appalling crimes access those weapons? 
Yesterday a life-long rabid "Labor voter" in this country admitted to me, "I never ever thought I would agree with the Coalition on anything but I will be forever grateful that John Howard brought those gun laws in."
He was of course referring to our much, much stronger legislation about who can own what in the way of guns. Before that happened we had our own tragedy here - the Port Arthur massacre.
People don't need guns here, don't need them unless they live on a farm where there is livestock or work in certain situations. People are nervous around guns, even those who carry them. 
A little while ago I was in the local shopping centre and there were two security guards there. One was filling the teller machine near the coffee shop. The other was watching. His eyes were moving constantly as he watched people going backwards and forwards. His hand was close to the gun in his holster as he watched two men walk towards them. They went on and he visibly relaxed. I would not want his job.  Having a gun does not make it safe.
I have spoken to Americans who carry guns at all times when they are home. They talk about "safety" but it shouldn't be like that. Is it really safer? I doubt it. 
People should be able to do their weekly shop without fear but I wonder if at least some of those involved will ever be able to walk into a Walmart again.  I wonder because I know someone here who worked in a bank. This was before the tougher gun laws came in. The bank was held up. She was one of the tellers on duty at the time. Years later she still cannot walk into a bank. She never worked again. The perpetrators would be long out of prison - if they haven't returned there.
There is still the possibility that guns can fall into the hands of criminals but it is much harder to get a gun legally - and that is the way the vast majority of people want it to be. 
When I came indoors again yesterday I sat here and thought about this. I thought about how very, very fortunate we have been. Yes, there have been some incidents, incidents we find shocking because, since Port Arthur, nobody has walked into a crowded place and started shooting at strangers indiscriminately.  That doesn't mean that it won't happen. It happened all too recently in New Zealand.  But, our laws mean it is less likely to happen.  
I just hope it never happens. 

Severe depression

is physically as well as mentally draining. I really wish people who have never been clinically depressed themselves could understand this.
I am not sure I understand it myself. I don't want to be that depressed myself,  of course I don't. I do want to understand though - at least sufficiently well to know what to do.
A friend of mine, someone of whom I am very fond, is going through a period of severe depression right now. It's hard to watch - but it is much, much harder for her.
I've hugged her and she has responded. She knows I am there for her if she needs me - really knows it. No, it isn't empty words. I would sit there quietly and listen if she wanted to talk - but she can't talk. That's the hard part. She just can't do it. 
She just can't do it. It doesn't matter how much she wants to talk the words won't come. Talking  isn't going to help right now. She knows she is loved and supported but it isn't, for now, making her feel any better. 
And I simply didn't know what to do yesterday. She was coming out of a room full of people yesterday. She had made herself go to a committee meeting. Nobody had said anything wrong or done anything wrong but, she told me, it had all got too much. It was too noisy. She needed quiet. 
Her husband was coming to get her. He's been incredibly supportive but it is hard on him too. 
I had not yet gone into the meeting. I asked her if she wanted me to just stay with her until her husband came. She hesitated and then said, "No. I just want to be quiet."
I hugged her silently and left it at that. But I am still wondering whether perhaps I should not have asked, whether I should just have said, "I'll wait with you. I won't say anything. I'll just be here."
The meeting could have proceeded without me. If the others had not understood then too bad. Some of them would have understood and would have backed me to the hilt if I had not gone in for that reason.
I didn't really want to be there myself but I had to deliver some "housekeeping" sort of messages. It was someone else's birthday. There was cake for afternoon tea. I don't eat cake very often - and never there. People sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday person. I was conscious of my friend, surely by now collected? I couldn't imagine anything worse about that than hearing people inside singing while she was out feeling as if the sun was never going to shine again.
There was something else happening after the cake and cups of tea but I really didn't need to be there. I just couldn't face it. I left. 
No, I am not depressed. Like everyone else there are times when I feel "down". Right now it is hard to watch my beloved Senior Cat struggling but I know that this is not the sort of depression my friend feels.
I just wish I could help.

"Try something different,"

I suggested.
A friend is knitting the same cardigan pattern for the third time. She doesn't like it and she told me, "It's boring but I know how to do that one". 
I know she will finish it but she gets no pleasure from her knitting. It is something she simply believes she should do. She makes socks for her husband. The pattern is always the same. The only thing that varies there is the colour - grey,  black, navy or brown. His  pullovers are the same.
Her work is beautifully crafted. Her knitting is far better than most of us could ever dream of but she still lacks confidence that she can do anything else.
Her husband asked me, "Can you do something about it? I'd love one of those things with the twists in it - you know, like rope. I'm sure she could do it."
I am too.  I left a little pile of Aran patterns for him at his place of work. I put them in one of those big yellow envelopes with nothing more than his name on the outside. He likes all of them and wanted to know which one would be the simplest to make. I showed him.
Yes, that one is particularly nice! 
And where does he buy the wool? I told him that too. He ordered the lovely pale grey. 
When it arrived he had a moment of doubt. He was planning on "just asking her" but was worried she might think he wasn't happy with what she had made.
So, yesterday I dealt with the matter. I arrived. He pulled the pattern and the yarn out of the boot of his car and we went inside.
I told T....how good her knitting was and then I told her how much he wanted an Aran but was worried about asking her in case she thought he didn't appreciate what she had made for him over the years.
She looked at me in absolute silence. I pulled the pattern out nervously and said, "He'd like this one...and here's the wool. If you run into trouble then I'll help."
She went on looking at me for a moment and then she looked at her husband.
I prowled out while they were hugging each other. Somehow I think he might get the Aran he wants - and much more. 

Volunteering seems to be

going out of fashion.
I was in the local charity shop yesterday. I was called in to do something for which there is an occasional need. The manager there knows that she can call on me if necessary. She also knows that I can't volunteer on a regular basis.
   "You do enough," she told me. I am not sure I do even though I try. 
I am also conscious that the people who work there are not getting any younger. One of them, P... is 92. She spends a day a week there. It is something she has done since she retired thirty-two years ago.  She is still physically able, alert, capable and an information resource that will be missed when she finally gives up.  
But there are supposed to be younger people there. They are not exactly "volunteers". They are people on "Newstart" - or unemployment benefits. To get "Newstart" you need to be actively looking for work (and be able to show it) and you also need to be doing some "voluntary" work if at all possible. There is, supposedly, a queue of people who "want to volunteer".  They are told it will look good on their job applications. 
It might look good on their job applications if they had been volunteering from their school days.  There was a boy in this district who desperately wanted a job. He knew he would need one the moment he turned sixteen. His family was going to need the little extra he would be able to earn working in perhaps the supermarket or the greengrocer - both of which make a point of employing young students. When he started high school he went to the then manager of the charity shop and told her what he wanted to do and why. She listened, wondered if it would actually work and told him to come and talk to her again at the end of the term if he was really interested.  If he came she would find things for him to do.
He went back. He volunteered until he could get a paid job and help his family out. Now he still does odd jobs for the shop if he gets a chance because the organisation helped him. He will probably volunteer in one way or another all his life. He is all too rare.  
But what of all those other people who "volunteer" only because they must? Almost all of them give up. They "can't be bothered". They don't like the work and more. Some of them have complained to me about all this while we are sitting there filling out forms and I am helping them write applications. Those people almost certainly won't make the best employees.I would not want to employ them.
Why should a 92yr old still feel she "must" be there on a very cold morning when a 19yr old who is unemployed resents being there at all?
Could we start getting much younger people, those just starting high school perhaps, into the volunteering habit? Would that help? We need volunteers.

"How to write instructions"

or perhaps "How to write instructions for dummies" or "Teach yourself how to write instructions."
There is a need for a book like this. 
I do not like writing instructions. I do not like writing patterns. In my real life work I often need to write instructions. I don't like doing it but it has to be done. 
Those instructions are often very simple and I try to keep them in very plain English. There are several reasons for this. Not everyone I work has English as a first language. The  instructions will sometimes be translated into another language using symbols. The instructions might also be directly translated into another language. People have different ways of reading and understanding what they read. 
I don't always succeed - although the humans in my life are kind and tell me that most of the time they do understand.
And then...sometimes I need to write a knitting pattern. Oh. That's another situation altogether. Knitting has a language unique unto itself. Where else do you find things like "k2tog" and then "k2togtbl" or "ssk" or "psso"? And that is just a start.
I have a simple computer programme which will "crunch the numbers" - or tell me how many stitches I might need to cast on. (I say "might" because I will invariably need to do something different and all I can hope for is an approximate guide. If I was not such a lazy sort of cat I could do this for myself I suppose.) It will also give me an approximate idea of how much yarn I might need to use.
Yesterday I contemplated a new ball of yarn. It is a single, lonely and lost ball of yarn. It looked at me hopefully and said, "Hat? If you make me into a hat then I can go and live with someone and be useful."  I told the yarn I would make it into a hat while I contemplate the next and more  complex project. 
Of course the computer programme does not do hats. I had to work it out for myself. I looked at patterns for knitted hats on the internet. There were a lot of them. None of them were any help. The yarn told me, "Start me from the top down then you can stop when you get to the end of me." Right.
I started. The yarn told me, "You are supposed to be writing the pattern so you can do it again."
I told the yarn, "There is just one ball of you."
We are arguing. Does the yarn have any idea how much I hate writing patterns? Where is the book on "how to..." when I need it?