Hand made Christmas gifts, or not

Our condo building has two entrances, a laneway, and a contract with some landscapers, so for the last few days I've been looking at a giant lit-up tree and huge festive planters every time I go in or out of the place.  Time to think about Christmas knits!

sock leg!

Or not.  I may have mentioned that I was going to give up on knitting for this Christmas - apart from the socks I knit for my husband's cousin and still have not blocked, let alone mailed, and he's in England so it's soon or it's a winter gift - and settled on sewing, which is technically faster, since you don't have to make the actual fabric.

Well, best-laid plans, amiright?  The project I had in mind was supposed to use luxurious silk blend velvet, but when I went to the fabric store, the silk blend velvet cost a ton of money and came in boring colours, whereas the stretch polyester was affordable, fabulously colourful, and felt pretty much identical to the silk.  Plus: machine washable! So I didn't even worry about choosing between favourite colours, I just handed over my credit card and bought some of all of them.

Hours of knitting, right there - time converted into a tube.

Then I got them home to see whether I have any ball-point sewing machine needles or need to buy some, and that's when things got dicey.  I mean, I still had a box from Halloween on my sewing chair, and to get at the sewing machine supplies I have to move the chair and pull back the makeshift curtain on an improvised storage zone.  And I couldn't do it. I just couldn't!

I stood up and looked around and ugh.  The whole place here is just - well, I mean, the furniture is all in practical places and I've unpacked what I can and tucked the boxes I can't out of the way, but it doesn't look like an actual home or anything.  It looks like a very messy but functional space.  A space that is not even remotely festive. 

If I could just live in this sock, I'd have 'festive' covered.

Wisely I think, I put the fabric aside after a few days of feeling scared and guilty, even though it was really, really heavy carrying it all the way back from the fabric district which is almost a 30 minute walk from my door.  I decided to be kind to myself and do the sewing project next year, when I should be less frantically busy and my machine will be in a mostly dedicated room.  Then I went to the Christmas Market and bought many pairs of alpaca-blend mitten gloves with very colourful stitch combinations.

And now I am looking at the condo again, wondering how on earth I can make the living room look cheery, or at least unearth space for a tree.  Maybe the answer is just to keep knitting these socks for Wayson, even though they're not Christmas presents?


Hope your weekend is marvelous - I am thinking there's about a 90% chance you're recovering from turkey, which has to be a good start - and I'll see you next week!