Christmas Lists are Rubbish

Well, not ALL Christmas Lists  are rubbish. Just the ones I make on the little memo pad app on my phone. I mean, is that realistic, OR practical? No. How do I check things off? More work than it was worth, so I finally broke out the pen and paper. 


Now I'm worried. Mostly because I was too dumb to set my list up BEFORE November (am I right?) and I realised that if I make something for some people, I have to make something for other people. Fortunately, most people are getting one particular, simple gift (that is just LOVELY, by the way) so I don't have to actually knit much. I think I also have a backlog of hats for ladies (once I get circumferences!)


If you're like me, and a Procrastinator Extraordinaire, I wanted to point out this amasingly quick and simple knitted gift. I finished it in just over 3 hours - and I'm not a fast knitter, might I add. It's a great design using short rows and cables and you can find it here. Some ladies made it in under 2. Bully for them. If you can knit and purl, you can make this. 


My sister knows she's getting this for Christmas, mostly because she was supposed to get one last Christmas and I'm going to call that one a loss. So here's a pic from the website and NOT of the one I made for her (because some things should remain a surprise!):

 I did a few things differently, but not much. Instead of wool I used a nice, squishy heavy worsted weight of unknown fiber and origin. Probably an acrylic blend, but if it wasn't, it was the nicest acrylic I have ever used. I'm hoping that it will keep L'il Bit warm in Ohio's winter! I also used the sewn bind off. That's because binding off in pattern is crap and who should have to do that? Since I used a long-tail cast on and the sewn bind off looks, oh, basically identical to that it worked out perfectly. 


Then I was on the phone with my mother. I told her that I was getting off the phone to start knitting HER Christmas present, but now she'll see what a liar I was. Mostly because my computer was being beastly and it's taken a million years to get this post together and print out the pattern for her gift. If it's as easy as 462 other people say it is, then expect another post about those. I'm not exaggerating. There have been 462 other sets of slippers (she already knows - she helped pick them out) on ravelry.com made from this pattern. They have to be doing something right! 


Lastly, I'm thinking of having a small knitting class/group when Daniel's out of school for December break. Probably Monday nights and probably somewhere not my house. Might not be enough time to knit Christmas gifts this year if you're just starting, but frankly, what you make when you start are not things you want to gift to people anyway. In fact, when I went to look for pictures of things I made in the past two years, there's almost NOTHING from when I started that cold February, long ago. So if you want to join me, let me know!