I know you don't want to think about it, I know you don't want to hear about it, and I know that it is far too early to even start talking about Christmas, but knitters everywhere have to remember that Christmas is only ninety days away. This is the first year that I am really counting down the days until the big gift giving holiday of the year because it is the first time that I am only going to give handmade themed presents to my family this year. Of course, I am one of the lucky ones that my family doesn't read my blog so I can talk about my holiday knitting!
This year I am making my entire family (that is immediate family and my fiance) Christmas socks. No, they are not going to be all of the same pattern. That would just be too insane even for me and I would get really bored and stop knitting them. Instead, they are all going to have the same color palette but have different sock patterns. This way my family can't get them mixed up in the wash either.
Earlier in the year when Knit Picks announced that they were going to discontinue the Felici yarn line, I had a massive order that included ten skeins of Felici Jingle. I didn't think that I would like the color when I ordered it, but I did anyway because they were Christmas colors and perfect for gifts. It was a happy surprise when the yarn came in and the normal fire red, holly green, and snow white were instead replaced with a toned down rust red, forest green, and soft almost off white. This way they are nice winter themed socks at first glance instead of the obnoxious ugly Christmas holidays sweater tones that aren't really suitable for wear outside of the holidays.
The hardest part was actually planning the patterns that I wanted to use. Since Felici is a self-striping yarn it does play well with texure, but I also wanted to play with the stripe movement in some socks while still keeping the patterns simple and (hopefully) quick to make. Best of all, every single pattern I picked out are socks that I haven't made before, so there is no chance of me getting bored!
The line up is:
- Jaywalkers for Dad.
- Yarn Over Cable Socks for Mom.
- Circle Socks for my brother Hunter.
- Vanilla Latte for Will (the fiance for any newer readers out there).
- And Hedera Socks for me.
Since my parents will be out of the house for a full week while they take their annual time-away-from-kids-empty-nesting trip, that means that I will have time to knit on their socks while they are away without them peeking. Between my work and looking after my brother to make sure he survives a week without the parents, I should have time to get at least one pair of socks done before they get back which will leave me just enough time to cast Will's socks on for my lounge around the family knitting project.
Are you doing any Christmas knitting this year?
I learned how to knit over Christmas about 5 years ago and was immediately thrilled at the possibility of making everyone something for Christmas the following year. Over the course of that year I finished lots of projects, but not nearly what I had planned to knit for Christmas and was completely stressed about it. Since then I have vowed not to knit people things for Christmas and instead will do occasional (belated) birthday gifts or "yay! You're having a baby" gifts. Best of luck with your socks!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I know the feeling of late gifts and I decided to make the socks and not stress out over them. Mostly because I would rather give my family a useful gift than something that will just sit around the house and not be useful.
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