Christmas Knitting Already?

Clearly the country I come from goes way off the Christmas deep end far too early in the year. My only consolation is that most of the countries I have expatriated to are guilty of the same heinous crime.

I am nowhere near putting on my Christmas music (an act strictly reserved for the month of December) nor can I bare the thought of all the red and silver foil packages and tinsel lining store shelves. I was just starting to ease into autumn mode and deciding where to plant my cabbage and Santa is already taunting me at every shop.

Yesterday, the web was a whirl with posts regarding the frenzy of holiday knitting which has begun. It got me to thinking and I realized something: I knit for Christmas nearly all year round. I usually start brainstorming early in the year about whom I've recently gifted and with what. I also take into consideration those folks who are not glad recepients of knitwear (ie my husband) and what I have got in the ol' stash that I can bare parting with.

Last year was not a year of knitted gifting. I got the hairbrained idea to start sewing reusable shopping bags out of calico about ten days before we found out that we would be moving internationally within six weeks. That was at the beginning of December and we still had to survive the holidays which included a visit from the German in-laws for their first American Christmas with my family (that was interesting), a last-minute New Year's trip to San Fran, and getting life in order to leave the grand country of Canada. My head spins just recalling it. Through our best efforts (Matthias is actually more skilled with the sewing machine than I), the bags were sewn, but unfortunately not embellished or gifted. They still await their fate, which is still a mystery to me, lying in a cupboard in the craft room. 

This year I was lucky and clever enough to pick up a bunch of really nice Sublime wools at a warehouse clearance sale in early Spring for half price. I had a few simple patterns andtheir respective recepients already in mind. So actually, I had started plotting out my gifting a little late this year. The good news is I am only doing small things for five or six people. The bad news is that I still have four babies to knit for and there still is all that regular gifting to be done. Time to stop blogging and start knitting I guess.

Knit well and knit often.

Sock Monkey Girlfriend Pic Courtesy of The Rainy Sisters