When I started knitting I made lots and lots of dish clothes, wash clothes, and hand towels. About half way through making the 80+ squares for a mitered afghan out of dish cloth yarn I realized I was watching tv and not the knitting. For me the muscle memory in my fingers is a big piece and also, if not more so, learning how to fix mistakes without 'frogging' the entire piece, (rip it, rip, it, rip it made knitting pleasurable. Before that it was an exercise in focus but not necessarily relaxing. Youtube has loads of knitting videos. Ravelry has tons of info also. As for the yarn gods, hmmm, what would be an appropriate peace offering? Lavender and cedar incense?