Monday, March 2, 2009

Christmas Comes Late Now

Ever since I got pregnant my knitting mojo has been MIA. While not knitting socks for myself is really no great tragedy there was one casualty that I feel terrible about. I'm not sure, but I suspect it was some time in November I started a pair of socks for my dad. He is in love with the hand knit socks I've given him so far, and anytime I ask him what he wants for his birthday or Christmas now the answer is socks. Under normal circumstances these socks do not take me massive amounts of time. I tend to use a slightly thicker yarn, since he mostly just wants to wear them wandering around the house, and that means fewer stitches and that means faster completion. Last November and December it was a different story. I was so sleepy all the time I just couldn't stay awake long enough to knit his socks. When Christmas morning came I showed him the one lone sock that I had completed, and that I had started the next one, but it was no where near wearable.

Since Christmas I've wanted to finish the socks. I mean, I wanted to give my dad his Christmas present, and I did care very much that they were getting increasingly further away from their intended gifting date. On the other hand I haven't wanted to knit the socks. Once in a while I would think about it, but they would be in another room too far away from me to be bothered with. I've had more energy these last couple months, and even though I might occasionally over do it, or sleep poorly, at least for the most part I can be awake for a normal number of hours each day. I think partly I avoided picking up the socks because knitting on them again might just put me back to sleep. I remember so many times trying to knit that damn sock and after maybe one row my eyelids would be drooping.

Well, no more worries there. Finally this weekend I almost finished the socks. It's sad really how close they are to being done without actually being done. I need to sew the toe shut and then they will be complete. However, I didn't want to mess it up while doing it tired on Friday so I put off the finishing until Saturday. Yeah, they still aren't done, but they are on the agenda for this evening. The home time plan is to put bedding in the wash, and then finish the sock before anything else.

Almost finishing the Christmas socks has given me a renewed interesting in knitting. It's amazing how even being almost done with a project can be just as liberating as actually being done with it entirely. I started my first baby knitting for our little guy. I'm making a Baby Surprise Jacket with Noro Silk Garden in a rainbow looking colorway, and I'm totally in love with it. I can't wait to finish it and see what I get. I volunteered to do a test knit for a sock pattern, but no word on that yet. And then because I apparently just boarded the crazy train I emailed to join up for Sock Madness round 3, you remember that thing where I knit till my eyes bleed yarn trying to crank out a pair of socks as fast as possible.

I'm being a little realistic though. I'm pretty sure I'll finish the baby jacket before the test knit supplies reach me (if I'm picked to do that). Also, the test knitting would have a deadline so once it arrives that will be priority and could very easily knock me out of the Sock Madness competition early on. We'll have to see how it goes, but hopefully I'll at least have fun along the way.

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