I love new technology.

I love my smartwatch, that for years I've used to tell the time, and also count my knitting rows. I loved my Pebble watch before that. I love the app on my found that can track 37 different row repeats in my knitting simultaneously, for when I am feeling inadvisably adventurous. I love my old kindle, which I jailbroke so that it would display knitting patterns even when the screensaver turned on automatically. I love Ravelry, on which I can track all my knitting projects and yarn stash and needles, if ever I were actually organised enough to record anything in the first place... I love stitchmastery, in which I can chart my own patterns and generate written instructions or vice versa.

However.

I also love analog systems. I love my abacus row counter, which can only count up to 100 unique rows before it repeats itself. I love working from printed knitting patterns, that I fold and refold so much that the creases soon make part of the page unreadable, while the corners curl up over themselves. I love keeping a paper journal and watching the pages slowly crinkle as I write on them every day. I love writing letters to people using fountain pens, and then sealing them with wax before sending them in the mail with a stamp. I love being able to create things with my own hands, and being able to give something to a friend that I have spent hours creating.

I love knitting, even though it is slow and potentially error-prone, and there are machines now that can create a knitted fabric much faster than I ever could. I love the time and energy it takes to perfectly craft a knitted item just so. I love the feel of yarn running through my fingers as I wind it from a hand-dyed skein into a ball.

Sometimes, new technology just can't match what we already have. Sometimes, I just like to turn off everything, go sit in a park, and knit.