Seventy-nine knitting nights until Christmas

I personally love the family aspect of Christmas. We are big cooks and big eaters and sit at the table a long time and talk. I have every one home and I love it.


But every year the whole shopping centre thing depresses me more and more. 


Those December 24th trips to Walmart and all the crazy stuff folks are putting on the charge card - I can't take it. One year I drove a hour to a small town where there were no malls and old stores on a main street and I shopped there, before it all shut down at 5:00 (welcome to rural Nova Scotia). Now of course I love giving gifts, so it's hard to keep me away from the stores, but I really want to give as much as I can that I have made myself this year.


My sewn gifts are OK, my daughter can be counted on to wear any pajamas I make until spring, but to tell you the truth I am getting pretty selfish about my precious sewing time.


It's for me that time in the sewing room is personal and I don't want to give up. That island of time when I finally get to focus on myself, and I know how easy it is for that time alone and for yourself to be completely given away in little pieces. I mean, like any woman, I already say a hundred times a week "no problem, I'll do it" to someone else just when I was going to sit down and take a break.


If you have a family, a significant other, or a job or even a dog you know exactly what I am talking about.


So as much as my life is already all about my family, and my students, I want to keep my sewing time for myself.


I am, on the other hand, a relaxation knitter of moderate skills. Not a performance knitter at all. When my day is done and I have gone through my dishes - bath  routine I like to go to bed and watch TV and knit.


The things I have knit lately have gone over well, the baby sweater and socks for example. Small projects suitable for knitting in bed. I know that whatever I knit will be appreciated and worn and will soften the effect of all those other things I am going to be picking up at Walmart on December 24th.


The thing is, I am a slow knitter.


I am going to have to get serious about late evening TV and pick up the pace, only 79 nights to go. I am already wearing a band-aide on my left index finger from working with those tiny sock needles, but those socks are a hit, I have no choice.


Later, I am going to rush through those dishes.