Oops, wrote the following yesterday and forgot to post it.
I am so not ready for these holidays. I know that sounds like a funny thing to say at the beginning of November, but holidays start early around my family: this year Chanukah begins December 2, my mother’s birthday is on the 6th, and my brother’s is on the 9th. The only gifts I have worked out so far are Ted’s (birthday on the 23rd) and I’m rnuning behind on that. I thought I was on track with his sweater until I was on Ravelry and noticed that I’d begun it at the beginning of August, not of September as I’d thought. That means that in three months I’ve finished one sleeve and the body from armpits down – I still need to complete the other sleeve, assemble sleeves and body and knit the yoke. On the upside, most of the colorwork is done and plain knitting goes a bit faster. Also, I discouraged myself by sketching it out and thinking the yoke was as much knitting as the body, but looking at pictures of actual sweaters on actual people (including that same one, because Ravelry is an excellent resource) I see that it’s actually a lot shorter. Bigger around (sleeves plus body are about 500 stitches) but when you decrease 8 stitches at a time that changes fast. We agred to buy each other something for the new house for Xmas, so I just need little stuff for Chanukah for him and that’s done.
Now I only need ideas for my mother, father, brother, and sister-in-law. Mom suggested some gift cards for her and Dad, but that’s boring unless very targeted, and I did Omaha steaks for his birthday. Kindles are so cheap now that I’d give those all around, but three out of the four of them wouldn’t use one much (Mom and Dad rarely travel and live close to libraries and I don’t think my SIL is an obsessive reader) and I suspect the fourth would scoff (Alex, feel free to tell me if I’m wrong on that – or if you have ideas in general). Maybe I should try to talk my family into creating wishlists as Ted’s does; the nice thing about his family’s is that they include a bunch of stuff at different price ranges, so no one really knows what they’re getting and no one feels pressured to spend too much – or too little.
I shouldn’t complain, though: with as often as I’m moving lately and the international shipping, I might be the hardest one in the famliy to buy for, though I don’t think I’m difficult normally.