I have a plan

It's Christmas Eve and once again I am wrapping a gift with the knitting needles still in the stitches. My son will understand that he isn't getting one lonely sock. He will be happy to get the second sock.... eventually.

I thought things were under control and all gifts would be complete. Perhaps I should have started my Christmas knitting before December 1st.

I have a better plan for next year. Before January 1st I will go through my stash and put kits together for gifts. There will be sock kits and scarf kits all packaged together in zip-lock bags with sticky notes attached. It will be my personal gift club.

Another key element of "the Plan" is the calendar that has all the knit-worthy Birthdays and Christmas gifts listed. If I complete one gift each month, I should have all my gifts wrapped long before Christmas.

I realize that there are difficulties with my plan. New babies will not be on the calendar. Any new arrivals might possibly mess up the whole system.
A second more worrisome possible occurrence is that I will find the perfect shawl pattern that I must knit. I might decide that I need to knit myself an extra pair of socks, or I might find another sweater that will not let me rest until I knit it.

It is much easier to get organized than it is to stay organized.

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It was December 1st. The Christmas knitting rush had started. I needed to knit another pair of socks and while the logical part of my brain told me that I should knit Roundy-rounds, the insane half said to pick a pattern. After all, I had many simple patterns in my stash and I would be much happier knitting a pattern that had a bit of challenge to it.

I grabbed the pattern and the yarn and I cast on. I ripped it out and cast on again. I ripped it out again. Finally, after the third try, I was happy with the toe. Yes, I was attempting to knit another pair of toe-up socks. I was not happy with the result in the past but this time it would be different.

I continued up the foot. I ripped it back again. I knit some more.

I was at the heel without further incident. Cautiously I started on the heel. The directions seemed to make sense. I knit on. I made stupid mistakes and ripped back. I found the section of the heel where the directions were not so clear and ripped back...again.

I was past the heel and starting on the leg...the home stretch. And I ripped back again. This time I ripped it out because I didn't like the design.

My stitches are all picked up again and I am hoping that I remember all the changes I made so I can duplicate them for the second sock.

And what was this simple pattern? Brainless.

I think the next pattern I knit will be "If I only had a Brain"