Cognitive Load

I've been (ironically) thinking a lot about cognitive load the last couple of days - mostly because I have, more frequently lately, these ideas blasting through my head that won't go away; nothing dramatic, just things like tasks to do around the house, notes to send, knitting ideas, etc.  I've taken to carrying around a to-do list, as well as my "ideas and projects" notebook, so that I can jot these things down and not continue to obsess about them (or, worse, forget them!), thereby decreasing cognitive load and allowing room for other thoughts or learning.

Some of these ideas are pretty good, or at least fairly helpful - and, to be honest, a lot of them tend to happen when I'm mindlessly knitting and not doing much of anything else (this includes watching a movie, listening to a podcast, or reading).  Which I've actually been doing a lot more lately.  This makes me wonder how many good ideas I've displaced while engaging in these other activities!  I definitely need to explore this further!

Neuro has some interesting things to say about this default mode network in her pattern notes for Switching Modes.  It's also a great pattern!!

Speaking of patterns - the green mitts are washed and drying:

I've started another BadAss Scrappy Cowl:

And, just in case you were feeling bereft, here is CWA with 5/11 of Phase III complete (wrong side showing):

I have to be honest - by chunking this work up into these smaller, discrete amounts, I'm almost not hating working in these ends.  Here's looking forward to crossing the Phase III halfway point some time today!

In wildlife news - there are a couple of deer grazing around in the woods outside my window this morning; Oogyhubby spied a bunch of them hanging out in the middle of our driveway yesterday as he was closing up for the night; but by the time he'd turned on the lights and opened the doors to shoo them away, they'd disappeared.  I also saw two of the goaties wandering around in their pasture yesterday; not sure where the third one has been lately.  And - I saw and heard geese - twice!