Like the Wind

Status update? Not too shabby.  Last night, I knit like the wind and Sam, clever girl that she is, baked the first batch of Gingerbread.  The price exacted for doing this chore was that Sam got to do it her way, and so this year we’ll have our traditional trees and snowflakes and stars and moose, with the addition of foxes, hedgehogs, snails, pterodactyls and T-rexes. (The extensive cookie cutter collection is in full use.)

While she created a plethora of festive cookies (it turns out the hedgehogs are pretty festive) I knit and knit.  So, yesterday I was here:

and today I am here:

A few changes.  The scarf is gone, because it’s blocking – which is a tiny step forward, but is still forward indeed.  One of the pairs of socks is gone, because they’re in my purse to be travel knitting.  I only got an inch done on them yesterday, but still, that’s not too bad, considering that this time of year it’s too cold to knit while you’re walking. The buttons for the little sweater aren’t on, but they are in my pocket. (I know that’s a seems like a small step forward, but it took me 20 minutes to choose them.) No progress on the red sweater or the nearly finished men’s socks, and that baby hat haunts me in my sleep, but see the pile of knitted kindling in the back?

Whammo! All the pieces for two pairs of French Press Slippers. I forgot how truly quick they are, and I don’t just mean quick for me – quick for anybody.  I started when we got back from an errand downtown in the early evening, and by bedtime I was all done both pairs, except for the seaming, and that won’t take more than an hour.  (They don’t have to be sewn up nicely. They’re going to be felted.)  One evening, two presents. It was like watching a knitting hurricane happen.  They went so fast that I while I was knitting them I was thinking crazy things like "I should make more pairs, everyone could have slippers. How much more time could it take?"   Then I realized I was having the some kind of  quick present induced knitting stroke and put down the needles.  Near miss, that one.  It’s intoxicating to have it go so fast. 
Today I seam (and put icing on hedgehogs) tomorrow, I felt!

Gifts for Knitters:

If your knitter is forever spreading out wet knitting on the carpet or your bed, and you’ve got a million pin holes in your mattress, this idea might work for you.  For the precise knitter, who likes to have all the right things, a blocking mat with a grid on it might be just the ticket. If your knitter is a little more guerilla, or if they like to make big things, then you might want to stop by a store that sells flooring, and pick up a couple of packages of those foam tiles that are for kids to play on. They’re easy to stick pins in, easy to clean, don’t get soggy wet and can be interlocked into whatever shape your knitter’s knitted thing is.  Long scarf? Sweater? Triangular shawl? They can be rearranged to suit whatever, and when you’re not using them, they stack and store easily.  Get a couple of packs and while you’re at it, buy some pins for their stocking. Knitters who block things always need more pins.  (Get rustproof ones, and they should have the little balls on the top.  Makes it easier for us to find them before you step on them.)