Come and gone

Well Christmas is over and a new year is upon us. I think my one and only resolution for next year will be to NOT attempt to make all of my Christmas presents. I always think it sounds like such a good idea and then the reality of it kicks me in the face. Too much stress, I'm just going to make things for people and give them to them whenever I feel like it, they'll get UnChristmas presents, that sounds like much more fun doesn't it?

Saving Money

Ever since the stock markets went into free-fall and the economy went sour I have noticed an abundance of money saving tips in pretty much every publication and internet post in existence. Most of these tips are benign and maybe slightly useful, but there is one that keeps surfacing that irks me: Save money by knitting.

To paraphrase Mr. T, I pity the fool who takes up knitting to save money.

Here's a rundown of what things cost me; I'll use the raspberry hat from a couple of posts ago for an example: One skein of the chunky Brown Sheep yarn costs $15.00. The hat took me at least 3 hours to make and at my current labor rate (from my employer) that would be about $60.00. $75.00 for a hat. That's not including the needles used to make it which I already owned and would cost about $8.00. Plus the design work which probably adds up to another hour. Hmmm...doesn't look like we're saving a lot of dough.

Yes, you can buy cheap 3dollar yarn from Wal-Mart and make something that's lumpy and ugly but you can also buy a warm and decent hat for 3dollars from Ragstock, and if you're really interested in saving money I'd suggest the Ragstock option.

Learning to knit with cheap acrylic yarn is asking for failure, frustration and disappointment. It's hard to work with, hard to fix errors and never looks good in the end. You'll end up spending twice as much time making something that looks half as good. That's not saving anything, especially sanity. If you want to learn to knit do it because you want to make something and learn a new skill, not because you want to save money. There are no shortcuts. The personal reward for producing something that is lasting, functional, and beautiful is immense. When you try to pinch pennies on materials or time, you are only shortchanging yourself.

Busy Time

It's now the crazy time of year when there is a social event almost every evening until Christmas. I kind of like seeing people and having fun things to look forward to all the time, but it is pretty exhausting. Late night piled upon late night makes for sleepy days. I am a big fan of napping but napping can only do so much to alleviate exhaustion. Small price to pay for good times.

My Christmas presents are coming along nicely. I do think I should have started much earlier than I actually did. Some people might get gifts with needles still attached, but what do you do? I only have so much time and I do the best I can.

Note Taking

Note taking is critical if you're going to work without a pattern. Unfortunately I am always over-confident about what I'll remember and lazy when it comes to writing what I'm doing down. This really becomes a problem when you are trying to make two identical objects (like mittens) the first of which you didn't think through thoroughly and had to redo, thereby confusing the first and second knittings of it in your head.

Thankfully when you are working with ridiculously big yarn you can easily see your increases and decreases. Big yarn is my savior. I can count my stitches and figure out exactly what I did. This helps, but does not ensure an exact replica of my first mitten. Luckily, close enough is good enough for me.

Mittens!

I made some sweet mittens today...well, a mitten, but it's an awesome mitten, and I'm going to make the other one. I made it with the same big yarn I made the razzledazzleberry hat with and it turned out great...um...the second time around. I almost gave up and started something else but I forced myself to continue and work out my problems, and I did, my feeling of satisfaction is immense. Like the billboard says: Failed Failed Failed and then...Persistence.

Confessions About Knitting for Babies

All of my friends are having babies right now...ok maybe not all but a lot, and my problem is that I'm having a hard time getting up the courage and fortitude to knit baby things (the pressure of Christmas doesn't help either). I want to do good things for these struggling new parents but I have qualms about making precious woolly goods for the crinkly infants. The infants aren't really going to appreciate the goodness that they have and the parents might worry that the wool will disturb the soft skin of their sweet munchkins, or worse, cause an allergic reaction. Plus, they'll grow out of it in about two weeks and all my hard work will be for nothing.

Am I selfish? Probably. Maybe I just have a healthy sense of the worth of my time; I don't want to waste it on those who don't know what they've got. Sometimes I feel like I'm being ungenerous by not making cutesy baby things for my favorite moms and pops to wiggle onto their adorable progeny but then I think about the pile of unwashed laundry and my sweet husband who keeps asking me for a simple hat to keep his noggin warm in the cold weather and I say too bad. Another crafty auntie or gramma will easily take my place and those gifts will mean even more because they're from family.

Maybe after Christmas I'll make some awesome babywear, because after all it is really fast and easy and there are some really cute patterns out there. Hmmm...