When Multi-Tasking Goes Wrong

I'm knitting a pair of socks for Darling Mollie. Alright, alright - I know others of you are patiently waiting for socks from me but I really want to knit this particular pattern and this pattern is just so....so....so....Darling Mollie.

All day I've been chomping at the bit to get to the main part of the pattern. Knitting the cuff of a sock is like being in an airplane just after they've closed the door. You're about to take off but the taxiing to the runway seems to take forever and all you can think is "C'mon! Let's get in the air! I want my plastic cup of tomato juice and my little bag of snack crackers!". I'm knitting a two color pattern for the first time and I've been anxious to see what it's like to have two balls of yarn going at the same time.

Unable to leave the sock knitting alone while I'm online, I've been knitting as I read email and while I've been chatting with Darling Mollie online. I've also been looking at bulletin boards of which I'm a member and at one point I set my knitting aside while I wrote a reply on a thread.

After I was finished writing I picked the sock back up to finish the round I was working on and couldn't find the free needle. I'm knitting with a set of five double pointed needles - four in the sock and one free one to knit onto. I looked around on the sofa where I'm sitting and couldn't see it. I got up to see if I was sitting on it and no needle. Looked under and around the pattern book I'm using. Looked under and around the sofa pillow I'm using to keep the pattern book open (Note to knitting pattern book publishers: use ring binding so the book will lay open flat on its own) and couldn't find it. Looked on the coffee table, looked around the computer, looked on the floor. No needle.

And I was pissed. Furious. How in the world did I lose that needle? How was I so irresponsible as to misplace that needle? I'm normally so careful. I am anal about keeping up with my sock knitting needles and not getting different sizes mixed together and not breaking up a set of five. I looked over and over and over in the same places and the whole time I was cussing up a storm. I haven't been quite this pissed in a long time. "Muthafucker! Where in the fuck did I put that needle? I hate breaking up a set! Dammit to fucking hell, where is that needle?!!".

Meantime B's patiently ignoring me and was fully engaged in playing his computer game. I suppose he's become accustomed to my profanity laden rants.

Another five minutes of frantic searching and foul language passed I finally went to fetch another needle from another sock project that's being knit with needles of the same size. And it's bugging the hell out of me to have to get a needle out of a different set of needles because that's mixing them up! It's inter-needle marriage and I am pro needle-purity. There's something wrong about mixing needles together from different sets even though they're needles of the same size, of the same length, made from the same material and are from the same manufacturer. It's just wrong. It's not...symmetrical or lucky or some such nonsense that in reality has no effect on anything.

Yes, you've just discovered another embarrassing quirk of mine.

I came back into the living room still in full rant:

"Fuck! Dammit to holy hell, I am so pissed! Where in the fuck is that needle? I still can't see where I dropped that fucking needle and now I'm going to have a set that's broken up! Shiiiiiit!! And why do they have to make these sons of bitches so fucking hard to see? Why do they have to paint them that dull ass gray? You can't see them when they're that dull ass gray! They need to paint these fuckers orange or something so you can see the pieces of shit!"

"It wouldn't have done you any good if they were orange."

"Why not? If they were orange they'd stand out better!"

"Because your knitting needle is tucked behind your left ear."

He enjoyed that entirely too much.