Did you do the math today too? There are exactly 7 weeks until Christmas.
This year the urge to knit Christmas gifts has struck in November. It's a fickle urge, and some years it doesn't hit me until December. This is suboptimal, because it always sweeps in along with a sense of urgency that leaves me a little delusional. "I can totally knock these out in time for Christmas," I think to myself. And while it is possible to knit a sock in a day, it's not my preferred schedule for sock-knitting. Nor is it the schedule preferred by anyone who depends on me for food or clean clothing.
Anyway: in November it might be a little easier to swat away the delusional. Maybe.
As you may have gathered from my Yarn Along posts, I've been skipping gaily from project to project this fall. This year, really. Here, look:
Orange arrow at the right: I decide in March to knit myself some fingerless mitts. I knit the first one three times because of gauge oversights. Here in November I still can't quite bring myself to weave in all of those stinking ends. The knitting has been done for weeks now.
Royal blue arrow in the bottom center, more or less: I decide in the spring to knit a gray scarf for the boy who loves gray, only I can't quite get it off the ground. I think it will become a brioche knitting project for Christmas, but I'll need to frog and then soak the kinked-up yarn.
Black arrow at the top: I decide in the summer to cast on a beautiful lace sweater. In laceweight yarn. On size 3 needles. Did I mention that it requires that hundreds of stitches be grafted in pattern? Remember when Penelope was unpicking her weaving to keep her suitors waiting? She should have just told them she was knitting a Tortuga. (But isn't that a beautiful design?)
Arrowless project at bottom right: I decide in the summer to knit myself a Fox Paws. It's a fun knit, aside from pushing my Pigment Police buttons, but it requires concentration.
Fuchsia arrow: I decide in the late summer/early fall to knit myself a Metronome and then spend -- I don't even know. 6 weeks, maybe? -- declining to weave in 6 ends. Six! ends! I ask you.
Green arrow in the center: I decide in the fall to knit myself a cabled hat in a particularly beautiful shade of golden-brown yarn. I get confused about the decreases and stuff it in a bag for weeks. (Honestly, Jamie. It's a hat. You can handle it.)
Cyan arrow pointing to that decidedly weird project in the upper right, the one shaped like a robot insect: I decide in the fall to do the Westknits MKAL. As in 2012, it's a very fun knit and a rather odd design.
Yellow arrow at bottom left: Last year I spent many many hours of my life making dragon mittens for a boy who loves dragons. That was no fun, I said in this very space. Never knitting that pattern again. And then-- mere weeks after receiving the mittens, he left one in a rental car. He was so remorseful. I told him I'd make him a replacement with an easier dragon pattern, but I just could not get myself past the cuff. Now I am wondering about re-knitting the mate for the first one. He would be so thrilled, and it wouldn't kill me. Or it would only kill me a little bit.
Red arrow at left: I've already complained about that mitt in this space. Here's a better picture of that stuff on the left:
Not included in this picture: I am still slowly working on a quilt made out of leftover sock yarn. Perhaps it will be a christening gift for a great-great-grandbaby.
I have also included the books, as reading is the other leisure activity in which I am skipping blithely hither and yon. I've also got three separate books going on my Kindle at the moment. And my 17yo keeps asking if I will please please read Crying of Lot 49 so we can talk about it.
The Mason-Dixon ladies are starting a Christmas KAL a week from tomorrow, so this is excellent timing for getting some WIPs whomped. This week I am going to finish the hat, the Metronome, and my mitts, and see what kind of progress I can make on the insectoid shawl. I am going to stash the Tortuga and the quilt-in-progress in plastic bags and come back to them next year. Then I can let the Christmas knitting urge sweep me right along. Sometimes it's fun to be a little delusional in a good cause.
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