On Crack

Yup, that’s me. On crack. I decided on Sunday that I am going to do some Christmas knitting after all. After experiencing first hand what the Harlot calls “IT” last year – umm, I think slippers, scarves and wash cloths for most of my family and friends after I had learned to knit 6 months earlier counts as IT don’t you? Especially when the hat for my sister-in-law was literally finished as we where leaving to go to my parents’ house to exchange gifts – I had decided no Christmas knitting this year. Not that I don’t love to make things for people, but I get a little crazy. I was really looking after my own sanity – besides I had hardly made myself anything when I first started knitting, it was also a little ‘me’ time.

But then I found myself stumped. My inspiration just didn’t surface for a couple people and I am someone who really needs to be inspired. I’ve always detested buying (or making) a gift for the sake of having something random to give to someone else. I much rather give them something I think they will really like or means something to me or them. So when inspiration is on a vacation, it freaks me out a bit. The biggest road block this year was my grandma. She turned 90 this year – go grandma! – and the woman literally has everything she wants. She is to the point in her life where she is trying to reduce her ‘stuff’ not accumulate more. She buys the few things she needs and other than wishing her hands still worked liked they used to, she doesn’t need anything else. Plus, I already made her last spring what she wanted – a hat to fit her small head. So, what am I going to do? I’ve bought her music before (Amazon now thinks that I have a serious thing for Lawrence Welk) and was thinking about maybe getting her a DVD, but again, I am very much against the buying for the sake of buying. But, it finally hit me – something I could make her that I think she will really like. I have a pattern for a little koigu neck cozy that my Secret Pal from the SP5 exchange sent me with a great ball of green koigu is a beautiful colorway. It is something that I’ve wanted to make, but kept getting put to the side. I think she would really like it (I mean, it’s koigu!) and I can totally picture her wearing it.

So, that is now on the list as well as a couple other things that I can’t mention yet but will promptly post pictures of after they have been given as gifts. Fortunately, I think these gifts are fairly quick knits, but I can’t let myself get cocky or otherwise distracted. Focus, focus, focus…