If It Ain't Broke. . .

Last night it took me longer than usual to get the children to bed--it seemed like everything was running about an hour behind--but finally at about 10:30pm(too late for little ones to be up, I know) they went to bed. I decided that this would be a good time to get some work done on the second baby blanket in the baby blanket-a-thon. I got out my knitting bag and all the necessary equipment, put one of the "Bonus Materials" DVDs from my extended version of The Two Towers, and got to work. I'd been knitting along happily for about a half an hour when I looked at my ball of yarn---it's from here that things go down hill.

You see a couple of weeks ago I borrowed a ball winder and swift from one of my dear knitting buddies and I had a great time with it, so much so that I got a ball winder for myself(I'm hoping the swift will be a Christmas or Birthday gift--hint, hint). Well, if it can be wound in a ball, then of course I have wound it--as a matter of fact, if you sit still long enough in my house I will probably try to find a way to wind you or something of yours.

SO as I was sitting there last night knitting the baby blanket, I noticed that the ball was kind of deflating(center pull, very large ball of yarn) and I was having to take out some small tangles more often---that's when I got the "brilliant idea"(brought on no doubt by caffeine, a sick obsession with my ball winder, and the time of about 11:15pm--too late in the day for a Mom of small children to get a "brilliant idea") that I could wind the remainder of this ball into one of those cool ball wound "cakes".

I marched excitedly upstairs to retrieve the precious ball winder, brought it downstairs, set it up, and began to wind the ball. Things were going along great until one of the small tangles I had been plagued with while I was knitting turned into a giant mess of tangled yarn. BUT I didn't panic--I slowly tried to untangle the knot confident in my ability to do so. This, in fact, was NOT going to be the case--the more I untangled; the more tangled it got.

Now it's about midnight and of course I'm getting tired and short of patience--a very bad combination for someone trying to untangle a ball of yarn. You are probably saying to yourself, or the computer, "why didn't you just go to bed and leave it until morning?" That, my friends, is an excellent question, but I did not go to bed. I continued to fight with the ball, getting more and more frustrated; I began cursing the knitting goddess and powers that be and I even began to turn on my innocent little ball winder(because obviously it was calling to me from upstairs)---at 1am I did the unthinkable and got the scissors. By 2:30 am I had 4 small balls of yarn and one baggy containing the remaining tangled mass--which I did decide to leave until this morning.

So, boys and girls, what have we learned here?
There are a few ways you could go with this:
--I learned that if I am the slightest bit tired I should not in fact listen to the crazy voice in my head telling me to do anything but knit.
--I learned that I should have left the giant ball alone and dealt with the small tangles because then I would have had only two ends to weave in--my fiasco last night has now given me numerous more.
--I learned that a ball winder should only be used for what nature intended it for and not to fix something that was fine as it was(hence the "if it ain't broke" title)

Laugh at my stupidity if you will but keep it in mind the next time you get a "brilliant idea" in the middle of the night :)

Aloha :)