Christmas Crafting

With last week's book contribution deadline behind me and the dining room project squared away, I have jumped head first into my Christmas crafting. For the past few years now, I have made an effort to hand make something special for each member of my family. The is Ron, Jacob, Andrew, Lauren, Mom, Dad, and Sister. I never officially take "The Handmade Pledge" that everyone talks about in the crafty community because there will be plenty of trips to Target in my near future, but still everyone gets *something* made by me.

Since learning to knit two Christmases ago, the ideas for things to make have really expanded. I mean seriously, how many pairs of homemade pajama pants does one kid really need? It is wonderful to have other options! Like sweaters, and hats, and mittens, and cowls, and now... SOCKS!!

I attempted to knit a pair of socks once. It was about 2 months into my knitting career, lol, and I totally sucked at it. When I would knit on double pointed needles, I would get ladders in the spaces between the two needles. My alter ego, Carrie, that likes things to be perfect couldn't stand those tiny little gaps. So, my one sock was ripped out and the yarn given to my knitting guru, Lindsey, and she knit my socks for me.

Fast forward two years, picture me and Lindsey and some other ladies sitting in the Barnes and Noble cafe after yoga last week. Lindsey pulls out a ball of yarn and in about an hour she has whipped up about 4inches of an ankle of a sock to be knit for her Dad for Christmas. The yarn was a heavier weight, not sock yarn, so it was a quicker knit. And the pattern was simple and quick to memorize. Although my alter ego was telling me "no, Kerry, don't even think about it... you get ladders when you knit socks, and besides you'll never finish them in time, and you have too many other things to do..." I told her to shut it and I popped into the yarn store on Tuesday and grabbed what I needed to knit up a pair.

I started it Tuesday afternoon, turned the heel by that night, finished the foot and toe yesterday morning, started the second sock in the afternoon, and hot diggity dog is was done by bed time!! Seriously, I just knit two socks in about 36 hours, a good chunk of which I was sleeping during, lol. So more like 24 hours. The best part... NO LADDERS!! See, I learned to twirl my needles moving a few stitches each time so that the seem is never in the same place. *sigh* Now I want to make some for myself.

I won't say who these are for... just someone on my list stated earlier. LOL... I have too many snoopers in my family that are no doubt dropping into the blog to see what is going to be under the tree in a few weeks. I will tell you some of the other projects though and who they are for...

Ron - a hat and hmmm... maybe some quick socks
Jacob - a quilt! (more on this next week)
Andrew - yet to be determined, he is tough this year
Lauren - a sweater and maybe some leg warmers or a cowl
Mom - she snoops so I am not saying
Dad - a hat
Sister - she snoops too and I am not telling

So... what does your Christmas crafting list look like?