Memory Lapse

Since I made my 'pickup' at Lilly's house I hadn't found the time to sit and work on my sock, until last night. I turned the heel and was getting ready to pick up the stitches on the sides when, lo and behold, I had an "amnesic" moment. I drew a complete blank. I held up my sock, turned it this way and that, re-read the pattern, even taking my extra needle in hand hoping it would naturally assume the correct position, all to no avail. I finally did what I do when these frequent episodes strike. I picked up the phone and dialed Jo, speed dialed, that is. I often call Lilly when I'm in a bind but I knew she had worked all day and, besides, I had already called her to tell her about our trip to the yarn shop and the delicious lunch and Mojito we had at Cactus. Jo finally picked up and patiently tried to describe to me in detail how to go about picking up the stitches. I often hold my knitting backwards or upside down especially when knitting a sock so the first priority was to go over the proper positioning of sock and thread. This took several minutes to decipher which position I had it in and which position it should be in and after repeated instructions a deeply buried and dim light came on and I sort of remembered what to do. I quickly said, "oh yeah, I remember now". I hung up the phone and started working on those stitches and realized I was having difficulty seeing the stitches. I'm using a varigated yarn that is on the dark side and that alone is reason to have sufficient lighting. I didn't want to bring down my super duper light that I just had to have because Lilly uses one and she is, after all, a professional knitter. So I turned my attention to American Idol and gave up on my knitting for the night. This morning I decided to get up early and get those darn stitches picked up while I was 'fresh' and capable of focusing. I immediately went to work and picked up both sides, feeling rather proud, I might add. Now I'm ready to do some serious knitting in the round and I can't find my 5th needle! So, I push my dog off my lap, climb out of my chair and start digging in the cushion for my needle. I found candy wrappers, a Dove Dark Chocolate, more candy wrappers, a few coins but NO size 5 dpn. Hmmmm. Now I'm really getting rattled and when I get rattled I tend to break out in a hot flash so I had to go outside and stand on the back porch to cool off so I could come in and re-group. My husband came in from warming up his car, since it is sooo cold these past few mornings and the windows are iced up and all, and there I am standing on the back porch in bare feet staring off into space. He didn't bat an eye or ask me what I was doing. That's a scary thing. My hot flash episodes have become the norm. Everybody goes about their business while mom is standing on the back porch when it is 30 degrees, bare feet, pants pulled up to air off the calves, my face beet red. My knitting project is on the floor, the chair and its surroundings are in disarray from all my digging and searching for the missing needle. Or is there a needle missing? Hmmm, maybe I'm supposed to only use 4 needles since I will be combining stitches from two of the needles? Another amnesic moment. Better call Jo.