Today there is a general election in the UK, and while anyone sensible will go to bed at the normal time, sleep soundly and wake up to the result in the morning, I am a bit of a stats geek (I have a doctorate in physics, it goes with the territory), so will stay up way too late and watch the results unfold.
Of course my night of election stats will be accompanied by some knitting, and here's how I think my knitting will unfold.
10pm-midnight: Polls close at 10, so the first couple of hours of the results coverage are purely speculative, based on the exit polls, which are notorious for being wrong. Interviews will be with journalists and pollsters. This is the perfect time to get on with some more complex knitting. I shall be casting on a final test knit for my Barley Twist pattern,* and am hoping to get a decent portion of the yoke done by midnight.
 |
| My plan for early on in the election night coverage |
Midnight-2am: By now a few of the results will be in, certainly not enough to give a proper picture of what the result in the morning will be, but the interviews will be slightly more detailed. By now it will be past my usual bedtime, and tiredness will be kicking in. Now is a good time to move on to some simpler knitting - a nice vanilla sock or a garter stitch shawl (ideally in a bright colour so you can see dropped stitches easily). I might have to cast on the second of my pink striped socks during the day today so I have something for this period of the night.
 |
| Bright striped vanilla socks are ideal for knitting on when you're tired |
2am onwards: The results start coming in faster from 2am, and often it becomes more obvious where the election is heading. By now any knitting is a pretence - I'll be too tired to do anything terribly sensible, and I'll be paying more attention to the results. I'll stay awake until some of the seats of personal significance have been declared (repeatedly saying phrases such as 'I'll be up after the next seat has been declared', then staying up for another two hours), crawl to bed, missing the part of the night (3am-6am) when most of the results come in.
Friday morning: When I get up tomorrow the result will probably have been declared, and I'll spend tomorrow morning sleepily looking through the results. I don't imagine a huge amount of knitting will get done (and there may be mistakes form the night before that need fixing) but a lot of coffee will be drunk!
One day I will learn to go for the opposite approach of having a long nap on Thursday evening and getting back up at midnight for the results... As it is, I will be using the baking I did with the kids this morning while it rained as sustenance to keep me awake!
 |
| Chocolate and cheesy bread; perfect late-night snacks |
Are you staying up to watch the results come in? Or being sensible and waiting for the result in the morning?
*The pattern will be available next month. If you want to be notified when it goes on sale, sign up to my newsletter.
