Fearful Knitting

Not to start a riot or freak you out at all, but there are currently only 23 days until Christmas.  Every year I declare I will not, absolutely not, do any Christmas knitting.  No matter how appreciative the family might be.  I claim that I don't want them to have any expectations, but really I just don't want to face such a hard and scary deadline.  I'll knit for birthdays, for anniversaries, for just because.  But knitting for Christmas?  I just don't do it.  Or so I say.  But it never fails that as Christmas approaches I suddenly feel like I should be knitting.  Like it says something about me as a knitter if I don't knit for anyone.  And so as I build my gift list I slip in little items.  Oh, it's just a hat, it's just a shawl, I can totally whip that up in time.  

Which is why today I ordered yarn from The Loopy Ewe for a pair of mitts (hey, they are having a Cyber Monday sale and it's not like I went shopping for myself) and why I am stalking the mail carrier waiting for Knit Picks to send me the yarn for the last of the family stockings.  Why I am trying to decide if certain stash combinations are masculine enough and why I am knitting away furiously on a pair of mittens, convinced I can finish them today even though it looks as if I don't have enough yarn.

And of course, this is why I am procrastinating like you would not believe.  I spent two hours this morning working on our attic, unpacking and organizing with the excuse that this will make getting the Christmas decorations out easier, when really I'm just trying to shake the specter of a shawl I am dying to make for myself.

But hey -- all of my books are out of boxes now.  Maybe I should go read something . . .