Tip #4; Caffeine is a Godsend
Caffeine. A holiday knitter’s best friend. It doesn’t matter if you prefer coffee or tea or cola, just make sure you know how to balance your intake to help promote maximum knitting performance and time. Too little caffeine and you’re sleepy and dopey long before you should be. Too much and you’re jittery, scattered, and unable to focus. What you need is the prefect midpoint between the two, to help pinpoint your focus while increasing the length of time that you can knit for.
To have optimal performance it is important to learn how our bodies use and store caffeine. Men (mostly) receive a sudden and short pick-me-up from a cup of caffeinated goodness. It explains why my husband can have a cup ‘o Joe at 9 pm and have no problems sleeping at 11. Women, on the other hand, (generally) have a far more subtle response to caffeine. It works more like fuel that’s released slowly over time, lasting longer and providing a lower but more sustained pick-me-up. I drink coffee after 6 pm, and I won’t sleep until at least 2 am. And that’s important to know when trying to achieve as much knitting time as possible.
And be sure to drink lots of water too. The body needs water to process caffeine. You’ll get more if a boost from a cup of coffee, (or tea, or soda), if you drink a glass of water with it.
Another important element to this tip is the ability to train someone in your house to make and preferably bring your caffeine to you. It doesn’t matter if it’s your spouse, parent, child, or a technologically savvy plant. But someone MUST be able to make you coffee or tea. It helps to promote happiness and harmony in your knitting life. You don’t have to give up precious knitting time and your caffeine fetcher gets to feel like they are supporting a good cause. Also (at least in my house) this serves the purpose of saving those around me from my under-caffeinated moods. (It’s also one of the secrets to a long and happy marriage. My husband is wise beyond his years.)
So go forth into the world perfectly caffeinated and highly functional.
October 6th, 2011 at 9:15 am
Speaking of which, I’m going to go brew my first cup of the morning…
October 6th, 2011 at 9:36 am
Great post!! Not sure how to get anyone to bring me my coffee since we are a two person household. Tee hee. But I am in agreement with the after six pm coffee. There’s no sleepy then. 🙂
October 6th, 2011 at 9:36 am
Thanks for the water tip. Luckily I still have a half full bottle on my desk so my lazy arse doesn’t need to go get that to wash down my morning Joe. Cuz clearly the caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet.
October 6th, 2011 at 11:24 am
By asserting (then proving, and then *maintaining*) that I am completely unable to make an even halfway decent cup of coffee, I’ve solidified my husband’s place as chief coffee-maker in my household.
I couldn’t agree with this post more! Now, having had my cup this morning, I’m grabbing a glass of water and heading to school. :p
October 6th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Coffee is my beverage of choice and I am quite the dedicated drinker. But, yes, I always make sure I drink plenty of water … and I have had a wonderful morning cuppa deliverer in the form of my husband for the past 19 years!
October 6th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
LOL at “technologically savvy plant”!!! Let me know if I can have a cutting if you find one!
October 6th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
I try to have an IV infusion of coffee going at all times while I’m awake. If for some reason I can’t sleep by 3 am, I get up and have a fresh hot cup of coffee and I fall right to sleep.
October 6th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
very funny! i always wondered why the mr. could drink caffeine and then go right to bed when i’d be up for hours 😉
October 6th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Funnily enough my Mum can have a coffee at 9 o clock and be asleep by 10.
Meanwhile I prefer to knit with a pot of tea by my side. That way I don’t have to get up to refill. Though how my teapot is still cosy-less is beyond me.
Love these tips!
October 8th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Here’s one of my favorite traits my husband possesses (aside from the big-deal serious stuff, like treating me right and making me laugh): I work and he does not, and he’s usually up so late that he’s just coming to bed when I’m ready to get up for work. It’s not unusual for him to put my coffee on before he comes to bed so it is just waiting, still warm in the pot, when I get up. Such a lovely thing to wake up to.