Ticking Away

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Pink Floyd

It's only taken fifty two years, but I've come to embrace the fact that I love deadlines and the ensuing pressure to get a job done. Take those afghan squares I knit for my sister as an example. She sent me the yarn back in April or May, but I waited until right before they were due in August to finish them up completely. I didn't even start them until mid July. How's that for dawdling and denial? I couldn't knit them until the fire was nice and hot to urge me forward.

Today I looked at the calendar and realized it's September 4th. It doesn't seem like it should be, and I believe that's because Labor Day is late this year. I've been ignoring the calendar, but while looking for when the full moon falls (today), I realized that once again, I've been procrastinating. I have a deadline for a few items that are due on the 19th, and here I've been dawdling and whining saying that I just can't knit...I've lost my muse...I'm all used up after knitting Ruby.

Nonsense.

All I've needed is a deadline and now that I've let one get uncomfortably close, my needles are flying again. You see, one of my colleague's grandchildren is sick. Really sick. I'm knitting some items to raffle off at a benefit for him on the 19th of September.

First up, is a hat for him for when he loses his hair. This is his second dance with chemo, so he knows it's coming and just in time for the cold weather. Well not to worry, he'll have the hat I started last night and I've mostly completed. Forty more rows and it's a done deal. Next up will be a pattern out of Nicky Epstein's book, Knitting Never Felt Better. It's a stockinette scarf that will be felted using nuts (still in the shells) as molds to create a bubble effect. It's two thirds done. I bought enough yarn to make a pair of fingerless mitts that will be raffled, too. I'm thinking that for the heck of it, I'll throw in some felted bars of soap, a skein of handspun wool and a pattern for a scarf or neck warmer to top it off.

See? That's all I needed: a purpose and not a lot of time.