Like today. And yesterday. Shits me. Bores me. Annoys me. As I'm doing it and even when it is just lying around. I look at it, my eyes narrow and I feel jumpy.

I used to think that that meant something about the actual knitting. It turns out, not so much. See the wonderful thing about knitting is that while it shits me, it is also often instructive.

I'm a little better in my old age at tuning in. At looking at whether the feelings I'm having might have a reason outside of whatever is in my field of vision. When I'm feeling a little tetchy I try to figure out whether the issue is actually about what it seems to be about - or if maybe I'm projecting some anger or frustration onto something totally unconnected..... like my poor victimised knitting.

Often when my knitting is annoying me it's because I have something else going on. Feeling this prickly about knitting normally means I'm a little overwhelmed and need to simplify, somehow, anyhow.

Like this week. There is a just a little bit going on. It's school holidays, we are renovating, we are trying to organised parts of a wedding, I'm working on a few side projects that have nothing to do with craft, and The Craft Sessions is about to launch. My head feels crowded, my heart feels crotchety and I feel a little strung-out (and excited! always excited). Knitting when I'm this busy simply ends up feeling like something else to be done. Like the knitting itself is a chore. And having more than one or two things on the needles, well that just feels like a chaotic type of pressure. Like the knitting is trying to punish me by existing and not getting itself done.

Crazy town anyone?

The beautiful thing is that without the knitting I wouldn't have been able to see how overwhelmed I was. By annoying the sh*t out of me, the knitting told me something was up. Then the knitting told me what to do. It said "take some time out", "ask for some help" and "focus".

Then my lovely friend Martine sent me a text with a quote from Steve Jobs.