after close on 30 years, I found that it only took a little while, and a few mistakes to get back my rhythm. The only thing that foxed me was the ball of wool. I remember Mom making us hold our arms out and sling the long loosely wound coils of wool on our arms while she rolled them into a tight ball. Since I couldn't do that, I decided to start knitting anyway...and of course, got all entangled...not once but quite a few times. So, a couple of times, I snipped the wool, undid the knot, and joined in the ends; sometimes I had to unravel a few lines of what I'd done, and re-knit; and on a couple of occasions, I had to undo the whole and start all over again. right from casting on....
Till...
I realized that I needn't go through this unhappy, tedious process at all - all I had to do was to loosen the tangled part by gently pulling the wool in different directions, so that there was enough place for the wool to move. Resume knitting, and as I got close to the messy part, again loosen the wool and leave enough place all around. To my happiness, I saw that gradually the wool got untangled and straightened out on its own.... .This was important, as I am knitting a prayer shawl, and I'm supposed to be praying and filling the shawl with warm comforting energy (and not fractured unhappy energy)...
Learnt a lesson - when knots happen in our daily lives - as they often do and as they must - best is to leave them alone and carry on the daily round. The more we stress on them, spend time on solving them, start all over hoping to find what went wrong, the more knotted we get, and worse, the more distressed we feel. Looking at the tangle, loosening the strands, not stressing on it or even thinking about it, leaving it alone, and carrying on, seems to be the best way...the strands straighten out on their own...and fill our day with every moment full of comfort and warmth and breathed prayers...
Try it....it worked for me...