There is a tree in the house (and cookies in the oven.) This can only mean one thing.

PANIC NOW.

(Well, apparently it also means that now I may pose knitting among shrubbery without venturing outside, but that’s a lesser point. Seen here among the branches is a Christmas sock, not nearly done enough. It’s “Lana Grossa Meilenweit Multiringel” for those of you who are about to ask. Colour # 5040.)

The greater point is that NOW is the time. People just don’t go and put great big honking needle dropping trees in the middle of their living rooms for no reason at all. It means that Christmas is soon and that you need to move. Wrap something. Bake something. Knit something. Move. Go Now.

Still here? Er, me too…but then again, I like to live on the edge. I like to live so much on the edge, that I spent friday doing a dye job on some old Lion Brand Van Gogh yarn that I had.

(What? Isn’t that what you would do if there was only 14 days until Christmas? Waste a knitting day on dyeing some yarn a better colour? You know you would.) This is one 28g bottle of blue food dye on 400g of wool. (It was an impulse. I was on the phone with That Laurie, complaining about my plain wool. She suggested dying and I said that I didn’t have any dye and she said “I bet you do”. She was right. Good thing I found the food dye or I have no idea where she would have gone with that. The woman is a force.)

The yarn is very pretty now, and I was really quite pleased with myself until I found that I had only dyed two of the three skeins.

I was going to be upset (this is a sign of maturity in me. See that? I was *going to be* upset) and now I have become very happy with the idea of stripes.

Loving the stripes. (Flexibility is very important with only 13 knitting days until Christmas. See that? More maturity. Don’t get used to it.)

I’m being brief today (aforementioned cookies in the oven) but wanted to thank a bunch of you. I got this wonderful surprise in the mail.

It’s a beautiful blanket, the brainchild of Kathy B. (Last name withheld to protect her internet privacy) but knit on by too many to list. I’m not usually sappy and certainly not the type to go weeping over my mail but this blanket was made by these wonderful knitters as an expression of sympathy for the loss of Janine, and it did move me. The blanket came with a wonderful letter bearing an explanation (The grey is for walruses and pussywilows) and so much thought went into it that I am amazed. It is a hard thing, getting ready for Christmas without figuring out what to make Neen and knowing that she won’t dance with us this holiday, but this does comfort me. That it is comforting came as the biggest surprise. Grief is so private and intimate that I would have thought that nothing much could help…but it is a warm reassurance in a difficult year to learn that the good wishes and warm thoughts of knitters who are strangers to me could bring a little peace to this Christmas.

Many thanks.