Oh yeah, the knitting stuff

So back at the ranch, while all of this is going on I am sitting smug in the knowledge that at least my Christmas knitting will be done on time this year. How could I have known? Because I was knitting one pair of mittens for my clerk at work and a sweater vest for my sister for her Christmas/birthday. I mean really, how hard could this be. I'd started the vest back in October having purchased the yarn at Seaport Yarns in Portland, Me. The back was finished, the front was darn near close to being done, just had to finish from the v-neck up. And mittens, hell I was gonna knit them flat and then seam them. No struggling with dpn's for me. Just whip those mittens out in a weekend and be done with it.

Ok, so can you see where this is going to go? Smugness just doesn't suit me. I kept thinking, "well I'm almost finished with the vest" so hello pick it up at some point and finish it. And mittens, c'mon. December is now rapidly approaching and I'm still not seeing the urgency of picking up needles to knit for anyone but moi! Poor, poor moi! I had a little case of cancer. Didn't I deserve to knit for myself?

Two weeks before Christmas I dusted off the vest and finished the front. Then I put it down because now all I had to do was the ribbing at the neckline and arm holes ... oh yeah and sew it together but how long could that take? Mittens, smittens.

One week before Christmas and it suddently occurs to me, hmm? Perhaps I should wrap those gifts. Nah, I'll wait because I really hate to wrap. And besides I won't be seeing the grandbabes until after the holidays. I should knit. Out comes the vest. And after one day of sewing it's all but finished! Yeah me. I'll put that aside and start those mittens.

Have you ever knit mittens flat and sewn them together? I have and it usually works well. I picked up needles one weekend knit along, happy as can be, proud of myself for not having to use dpn's and not smart enough to measure them for length. Somehow it was only after finishing the darn things that I noted I had ended up with mittens whose thumb hole was just a tad too close to the tops of the mittens. And when sewn together and after I had knitted the thumbs did I notice that they just were not gonna fit. Unless perhaps you had webbed hands like a duck....or a frog. Ribbit! that's what happened to the mittens. They were frogged and still remain unfinished.

The vest, well...I knit the ribbing on Christmas eve never even thinking that I might want to choose a smaller needle to do same. The ribbing came out wavy, a very feminine wavy, sort of like the edge of a lasagne noodle. Not so great because my sister is not a very feminine wavy kind of woman. On Christmas morning I gave my sister her vest without ribbing and promised to finish it asap. And I did. I still wasn't happy with the ribbing and wanted to frog-it once again. However Mary would hear none of it. She was afraid she'd never get a chance to wear her vest. So she took it home with her one afternoon. And has worn it several times since.

The grandkids gifts did get wrapped, the night before I headed North to see them for the holidays. I recognize that this means I should probably start my holiday knitting in July like Luna and I should wrap gifts as I buy them. But I'm also thinking life might just be too short to plan that far ahead.