Warty Bobbles

My Christmas Scarves Saga

We had a lovely Christmas – a very rare White Christmas!  In fact, we had snow on the ground for two full weeks.  Our family festivities were merry and bright and we are all pretty well exhausted.  There were full stockings, full bellies, and full hearts all the way around.

The family was indeed surprised – and pleased! -- to receive the handknit scarves which Sarah and I had been toiling over in secret since mid-November.  We are, I confess, still finishing my husband’s scarf (he knew we were knitting them, but did not suspect that we were making one for him, as well) and Sarah’s husband’s scarf – such is the fate of husbands, I fear, to be perpetually understanding!  But the other four were completed and wrapped in good time.

These scarves are the Noro Silk Garden ones that I first saw on the Yarn Harlot’s blog.  The exquisite tapestries that I raved about in early November, but could not justify making when I calculated that I would have to knit a foot of 1x1 ribbing (of 6-inch width) everyday for the 6 weeks before Christmas in order to make a scarf for each family member.  Well, I caved in and called Sarah and she agreed to knit half of each scarf – and since she would not be receiving a scarf and since George said it was fine if I did not make one for him, that brought the number of scarves down to five.  With both of us knitting, the amount of scarf per day came down to a reasonable 4 inches (each). 

So, we bought a whole lot of Noro Silk Garden (mmmmmm…) and knit 1x1 ribbing – yards of 1x1 ribbing.  Day after day of 1x1 ribbing….

When Sasha came home from college, production slowed as I could no longer knit scarves openly at home – at least when she was around.  I was making stuffed animals for my grandson out of stretchy gloves (very cute! from the book Happy Gloves by Miyako Kanamori) in the evenings and after a week of being home Sasha commented that it was strange not to see me knitting.  There were loud complaints from the family because I was making gifts for Max, but not for the rest of them.  I pointed out that I had said I would not be knitting Christmas gifts and that these stuffed animals were just a fun little hand-sewing project that I enjoyed doing for goodness’s sake and couldn’t I do something I enjoyed at Christmastime for goodness’s sake and if I couldn’t make sweet little stuffed animals for my own grandson at Christmas then well for goodness’s sake!  Or something like that.

In my heart, I felt a little like a rat.  It had not been my intention to declare that I was taking a year off from knitting Christmas gifts and then turn around and do so after all.  But I realized that I could not let anyone know I was making gifts because I had written about these particular scarves in my blog and they would probably figure it out – especially once they realized that I would not divulge details about anyone’s gift and it became clear that I was undoubtedly making the same thing for everyone.  So, I was stuck with my initial declaration and the occasional pained look from one or another of my children.

So, my experiment with Not Knitting For Christmas was a failure.  But the Gifts Lovingly Knitted For Christmas were a success.  And I have discovered that simple knitting can be soothing – particularly at this festive and frantic time of year!

 

Planet Christmas

I am up to my antlers in Christmas preparations!  This happens every year and I call it living on Planet Christmas.  At present, the preparations (which I am – mercifully – not going to list here) are being squeezed out by events and, so, when someone asks me if I am ready for Christmas and I smile and say I figure we are about where we should be at this point, I am lying my head off.  We are way behind.  But Christmas will come and, somehow, the most important preparations will get done.  So, I am not particularly worried (okay, maybe I am lying my head off again….). 

 

But, at least, I don’t let it interfere with my enjoyment of Christmas Season events – because I love this stuff!  This past weekend:  Lakewood Playhouse’s A Christmas Carol, decorating gingerbread houses, church, the Tacoma Art Museum’s “Snowbound” festival (where I showed a 4-year-old how to knit using chopsticks and cording – I was not a volunteer or anything, I just happened to be playing about at that station), Puget Sound Revels troupe’s Christmas Revels (the theme was 18^th century Scotland and, yes, there were kilts a-plenty). 

 

As a bonus, our weather has suddenly turned bitterly cold and people are out and about in their woolies:  knit sweaters, knit scarves, knit caps, knit mittens.  Fair Isle fancies and intarsia deer and, of course, all those lovely cables and bobbles! 

 

And it is a good thing I can get a little second-hand knitting excitement because my own knitting time is severely limited this month.  I am doing pretty simple stuff, too, because by the end of the day doing a little ribbing in front of a Christmas movie (preferably one I could recite by heart) is about all my brain can handle.

 

IF I were knitting Christmas gifts, I would be playing the frenzied “knit in secret” game now.  I would be knitting with one eye glued to the front door, in case “intended recipient” came home earlier than expected.  I would be knitting in bed at night and in the morning before “intended recipient” was up and about.   I would, perhaps, be lying my head off to “intended recipient,”  telling him/her that the piece I was knitting right in front of him/her was a hat for someone else (while, all the time it is a sleeve for his/her sweater).  It is a dangerous and exhausting game. 

 

BUT  I have declared that I am taking this year off from knitting Christmas gifts.  The idea was to have a calmer December.  Well, maybe things are not exactly calm, but they are manageable – at least, I am managing to get behind on my Christmas preparations and I am managing to get around to some community festivities.  And I am managing a little bit of knitting in between.

Foregoing And Foregone

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with our family at the Oregon Coast – in spite of foregoing the opportunity to visit two very fine yarn shops (A Yarn For All Seasons in Newport and Nestucca Bay Yarns in Lincoln City).

Sarah and I had had our hopes, of course – in spite of being unable to conjure any real need for new yarn (aside from some eggshell Hempathy the like of which we had purchased at A Yarn For All Seasons about a year-and-a-half ago). 

 

In truth, I consider visiting yarn shops a courtesy – something on the level of a diplomatic courtesy, actually.  So, if I am in the area, I feel it would be rude not to stop in.  And, if I am going to fondle their mohair and thumb through their pattern books and analyze their selection of needles with squinty eyes and pursed lips for, say, an hour or so, I figure I had better buy something.  It works out very well for all parties involved. 

 

But as it turned out, we were not able to get to the shops during their business hours without seriously disrupting family plans and so we decided that, in the spirit of the holiday and our deep love of family, we could forego the yarn shops – all the time reasoning we could hit Nestucca Bay Yarns on our way home Monday anyhow (when Sarah and I would be traveling by car with only Max – who, at not quite 2 yrs. old, has limited input).

 

Well, come Monday we got a later start than anticipated and had to make couple of other stops and reluctantly decided that we had better forego Nestucca altogether after all.   Big sigh.  Well, we had no conceivable need of yarn – or knitting books, needles, bags, notions.  Nothing.   No reason at all.  So, sensibly – and without speaking about it further – we drove past Nestucca and headed inland.

 

We drove on toward Portland – Sarah drove and I knit and Max eventually fell asleep.  But, although we have traveled that same road dozens of times, we missed the usual veering that would have had us bypass McMinnville and, instead, found ourselves trundling right through downtown McMinnville.

 

We were stopped at a traffic light when I happened to see Boersma’s Knitting Basket.  Right there on the corner:  broad windows, cheery lights, lots and lots of yarn.  I said, Look, Sarah, a yarn shop!  The light turned green, we pulled forward, turned into the next street and before conscious thought had even hit, we were waking the baby and trotting toward the shop.

 

And it was a lovely shop.  They had a great little play corner with toys, too.  So after we had made intense reconnaissance, we took turns watching Max in the play corner while the other one stroked and prodded and pondered the yarn.

 

Note:  It takes great love and patience to discuss Mr. Potato Head with a toddler when there are fifty kinds of alpaca yarn is clear sight.

 

Well, it all ended as one would expect – a classic “foregone conclusion” to our attempts at foregoing yarn shopping!  Sarah and I each walked away with a small bag of yarn (mine held a little latte-and-cream colored luxury...mmmm) and punch cards of the complete-and-receive-$25-in-yarn variety. 

 

And Max appreciated stretching his legs, I’m sure.