I need a swift...

... or a lot more patience.

Little Whirlwind was being put to bed, so I had a child-free and husband-free half hour. And decided it was time to get ready to knit the lovely Lava Flow (it's meant to be a Ravelympics project, but I'm not sure I'll hold out that long). I'd decided on a lovely skein of Manos silk blend which has been languishing in my stash for about two years now.

All of which meant I had the time and need to finally use my ball winder.

It was working so well for a while. And then, suddenly, it all just started to go wrong.

And I was left with this:

and this:

2 hours later, having cut the yarn twice (thank goodness for spit splicing), I finally got to this:

I would have been quicker winding it into a ball by hand. Oh well.

Under Pressure

I like deadlines. And not even in the Douglas Adams way of appreciating the whooshing noise as they go by. I work well to deadlines. This has been useful in previous jobs where deadlines were set completely in stone - well, if you are organising something for someone coming into town, it kind of does need to be organised before they arrive. I write well to deadlines. I even prefer to clean my house to deadline, which is why my parents get invited to dinner every month or so.

But...

I don't knit to deadline. I don't even knit well under pressure. My stitches get tighter, my knitting gets slower and I make more mistakes.

Which is why the end of the Ravelympics are approaching and I have yet to complete a single event.

It seems that, having taken up knitting for relaxation purposes, I can't quite convince either my brain or my body to do it at anything other than a gentle ramble.

Do you think I should start on my holiday knitting now...?