Bad Blogger

Hello and welcome to January 2014 at With Strings Attached. Since you're reading this, may I just say thank you for your persistence. I logged into my blog software and discovered that in all of 2013, while I managed to keep the pages for Patterns, Freebies, and Errata up-to-date, I only gave you three blog posts for the entire year. Obviously, I'm not the most frequent of writers.

When you were in school, were you required to keep a journal for any of your classes? I was, for a couple years at least. We were supposed to write at least 6 times in the space of two weeks. It didn't matter what we wrote. When I couldn't think of anything else, I'd play Word Association against myself. I was very glad when we weren't required to keep a journal anymore.

I still enjoy Word Association, though, but in a form I like to call Song Chain. It's a fun game to play with yourself if you're bored, or with someone else whether you're bored or not. Unless you're Sherrie (who co-invented it with me), you've most likely never heard of it, so here are the rules. If you're playing by yourself, you're both Player 1 and Player 2.

Player 1: Sing a phrase of any song - at least 8 words.

Player 2: Choose one word out of what was just sung. Sing a phrase (at least 8 words) of another song that contains that word.
Player 1: Choose one word out of what was just sung. Sing a phrase (at least 8 words) of another song that contains that word.

See the pattern? Keep it going as long as possible. Make your own additions to the rules: continue the song that was just sung, or sing another by the same performer, allow (or don't) songs with words in other languages or different phrases in songs already used. You'll be amazed at the amount of lyrics you didn't know you knew! (On short notice I can come up with lyrics containing the words residuum, hippopotami, or liverwurst. They're not the same song.) It's also fun to see how widely varying the songs can be. Start with a nursery rhyme, and the sky is the limit as to where you end. Play it with kids on a long car trip - you don't need any extra items, no reading or writing is involved, and you don't have to wait for a license plate with a Q in it.

One of the nicest things about this game is that it's non-competitive. Don't keep score, harmonize when you both know the words, and just have fun!

So what did this post have to do with knitting? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. If you're looking for recent patterns, check out the Patterns Page - the newest ones are listed at the top. And even if you don't find new blog posts here too often, the informational pages are kept up to date. You could also follow me on Pinterest or Twitter, both of which I update more than I write blog posts.

Happy knitting (and singing!)

~Caroline