Friday, December 24, 2010

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.

Monday, December 06, 2010

False Advertising

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"