It’s Furious Balancing

I have far too many things I want to knit.

I’ll say right upfront that it has nothing to do with knitting 23 holiday gifts for my family, friends, co-workers, UPS delivery person, Xerox repair guy, or mailman.  I hear about a lot of knitters freaking out when the colder weather hits and the Christmas tree displays and muzak appear in the stores on the day after Halloween. ¹

I also hear about a lot of knitters who are stunned when their knitted gifts aren’t received with enthusiasm — or even politeness.  I read some time ago that the only people you should give knitted gifts to are other knitters (because they know how much time and energy you’ve put into a scarf or a pair of socks).

I knit for myself, for the most part.  The current exceptions to this rule are:

• A pair of socks for The Husband, which will take forever and a day since he has humungous Man Feet.  Really now, who has an 11 1/2 inch foot?  I knit for him because, well, because he’s my husband and I love him (humungous Man Feet and all).
• A Baby Surprise Jacket for a service knitting project.
• A pair of Eden fingerless gloves for HunterXan.²  They’ve been hibernating a long time. I put them on the list, though, because they’ve been haunting me.  I do have the leaf edging parts done, so they count as a WIP for another person.

Only a highly select and vetted group of people receive  handknits from me, so this overwhelming urge to cast on half a dozen new projects has nothing to do with a pre-holiday knitted-gift anxiety attack.  It has more to do with my idée fixe that I need enough winter accessories to outfit the Scott expedition.

Here’s what I’m working on for myself at the moment:

• The fuchsia Catriona cabled vest.  I’m about 8 rows before the point where I divide for the V-neck, but it’s slow going.
• A cabled beret that’s absolutely perfect for the mink/cashmere yarn I bought not too long ago.³  Yes, mink.  And before anyone pulls a PETA blood-throwing stunt, the minks aren’t killed for their fur.  They’re shaved, or shorn rather, like sheep.  There’s a whole ‘nuther blog post in here so I will just leave it at that for now.

And here’s the list of what I want to cast on RIGHT NOW DAMMIT:⁴

• Ysolda’s Snapdragon Tam.  I love just about everything Ysolda designs, and when I discovered a new hat, it went to the top of my To Knit list immediately.
• The Hanami Stole.  It’s been on my Ravelry queue for almost two years, and I think I finally have the skill — or the chutzpah — to try it.  I even have the yarn at the ready:

• Thrummed Mittens.  I live in Michigan.  These will be unquestionable necessities in about 3 months.
• A pair of fingerless gloves in a fine enough gauge to wear at the office.  I need to start wearing something to keep my fingernails from turning purple.  The pattern is not yet determined, but the need and motivation is there.
• Elizabeth Zimmerman’s mitered mittens, maybe done in this shade of Noro Kureyon:

I think if I give up sleeping, I can get all of these projects — and some more service knitting — done before the end of the year.

That’s a joke, by the way.

* * * * *

1. Seriously.  This happened last year.  Considering I think people are jumping the gun when they put up their Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving, this was beyond the pale. [↩]
2. Who is a knitter, by the way [↩]
3. I call it a cabled beret even though that motif is comprised solely of knits, purls, and yarn overs.  I love how they look — almost like leaves. [↩]
4. I easily could write a long-winded paragraph for each of these projects, but I’m going to try to be focused and brief. [↩]

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 at 8:14 pm and is filed under Knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.