Wishful Thinking and I.O.U.s

Well, speaking as someone whose summer tank tops are finished not a minute later than mid-winter, I could hardly have expected my Christmas preparations to be done in December, could I? Or January either, I'll warrant. There was a fair amount of knitting-good-wishes-exceeding-grasp in this household this year. But when the knitting needles won't fly any faster, I can still lob a well-placed I.O.U.

There's the yarn-destined-to-be-a-sock I.O.U., for my brother. This is Trekking XXL, in a nice varied brown, though it looks mysteriously orange in this photo. This I.O.U. was boxed and wrapped like a regular gift, instead of a gift-to-be. Though I'd still rather have had the socks made in time for Christmas, at least this way, I can ask him if he'd prefer them to be plainer or fancier.

There's the dolled-up-in-a-pretty-gift-bag I.O.U. Here it's gaping open so you can see inside, but by Christmas morning it looked prettier, all tucked in and dressed up with tissue paper. The yarn is another big skein of Kid Hollow brushed kid mohair, in silvery gray, due to metamorphose before long into a sweater for my tall-elegant-mom.

Then there's the present-that-weighs-so-much-nobody-could-ever-guess-it-was-yarn-related I.O.U. This one is a sort of pick-your-own exercise for my Dad. For him, I wrapped up a few knitting pattern books. Not that he would want knitting books, of course! No, they were for browsing, so he could show me what sort of a sweater he'd like me to knit for him.

In fact, I feel I've been sadly remiss over the years in knitting sweaters for others. I did once knit a sweater for my Mom. It was an argyle -- a monumental undertaking for me back then. But it's been a very long time. And I've never knit one for my Dad at all. So it's about time! This will be the Christmas of hand-knit his-and-hers sweaters. I expect they'll be ready by about the 4th of July.

So those are the I.O.U.s. And the wishful thinking? That would be this tidy little pile of skeins. It's the Dorset wool that I dyed with Kool-Aid last summer and just finished spinning on December 21. At that point, I had to face facts. I hadn't even figured out exactly what I wanted to make with it, and it surely wasn't going to magically transform itself into who-knows-what lovingly knitted gift in the four days remaining before Christmas. Especially with everything else that needed to be done in every waking minute. So, for the time being, it's still sitting here cute as a button, waiting its turn.

So, here's the view these days looking down from my forehead -- where the camera was steadied -- into my lap. As soon as I finished the Kid Hollow mock-neck sweater for myself, I started on a gray one for my Mom. Incidentally, also as soon as I finished it, I wore it to work. The next day, my friend bought a knitting book of patterns for mohair sweaters. Coincidence? Sure. :)

And now, I'd better get back to knitting!