I love buying lots of sparkly ribbons and bows and paper and wrapping Christmas presents. With the music channels on TV showing non-stop Christmas music videos to help with the festive mood, I sat down a wrapped presents for a couple of hours over lunch today and now feel very much better than I did yesterday. Added to which, Mr B’s present has arrived and I’ve got mince pie making day to look forward to tomorrow.

Okay, I know that today isn’t actually the first day of Christmas. But as far as I’m concerned, the countdown definitely starts now! With only 24 knitting days left until The Big Day, I have two presents to finish, and my knitting time in December is considerably reduced as I’m also trying to make enough food to feed an army just in case someone mentions they are a bit peckish, possibly. This week, amongst other things, I’m going to be making four dozen mini mince pies to be stashed away in the freezer, safely away from Mr B.

So although I’m not thinking about knitting anything else right now til my gifts are done, the Garnstudio Christmas Calendar 2008 might give me some ideas for the future. I won’t spoil the surprise behind the first window, but I’m wondering whether there’s enough time to make one each for the entire family. And as I’m clearly heading towards the hysterical phase of festive knitting, I’m off to actually knit and drink a lot of tea.

So far all the mansize socks I have ever knit have been plain stocking stitch, using a varigated or self-striping yarn to make them interesting and stop me going mad with boredom. But I’ve discovered Regia Silk sock yarn (machine washable and can be tumble dried - result!) and it comes in some lovely manly shades just asking to be knitted into textured socks.

The pattern is my own, based on several diamond patterns that you can find in any stitch dictionary. The problem is that it has a repeat of 20 stitches. 60 stitches is too few, so I’m working with 80 stitches, only on 2mm needles so that I don’t end up with something big enough to fill with presents from Santa. It’s going to take slightly longer, but the result so far is completely worthwhile:

Though the yarn is soft, I’m still getting good stitch definition

and though I’m not likely to meet my hoped-for deadline of all festive knits being done by 1st December (this is the current progress on the first sock, and I still have the scarf to finish) hopefully I won’t be far behind.

My house smells of fruit cake. When I was younger, my grandma always used to make her cakes in the Autumn half term to allow them plenty of time to mature and be fed copious amounts of brandy in time for the festive season. Though her reason was practical; school holidays were her holidays and it was the only chance she got. Whereas I’ve picked up her tradition purely because now it isn’t too uncomfortable to be thinking about making food to eat in December. And my huge and fruity cake is cooling in the kitchen and will soon be wrapped up after a good boozy drink, ready to be iced in the easiest way possible a couple of days before eating.

So with the Big Day looming ever closer, I’m cracking on with my gift knitting. The Skull Illusion Scarf is over the half-way mark, so for a change of pace and needle size, I’ve started another pair of socks.

The pattern is Child’s French Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks and I think this is one of the very rare occasions where I am using the yarn specified in the pattern. Better make the most of it, after all, because soon there won’t be any Jaeger Matchmaker Merino to be had anywhere. I also think this is the only time I have ever used the same colour yarn as is used in for the pattern. But I just loved the combination in the book, so why not? Actually, in real life, the red isn’t nearly as rich, but it’s still very pretty and it’s called “Strawberry” which reminds me of squishy softness and that’s what anyone would want from a comfortable pair of handknit socks.

Santa Cat would like to remind you that there are only 75 days left until The Big Day.

But no panic for me this year!

After previously knitting gifts which didn’t really get the reception I had hoped for (Pi Shawl = lead balloon) I have pretty much crossed off most of the people on my knitted gift list, and they can have an M&S voucher instead, which I think would be far better appreciated anyway.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t give ANY knitted gifts. Despite being perfectly able to knit something for themselves, knitters still love receiving knitted gifts. Possibly because knitters appreciate the time spent knitting a hat or pair of socks? Or maybe because they like woolly things. In any case, I have already knit one present, which will remain secret for now because the person may read this blog and it’ll spoil the suprise. And my sister has promised on pain of death* that she will wear a Skull Illusion Scarf if I knit one for her. So I am.

I’m using Rowan Pure Wool Aran because it is soft and - very importantly - machine washable. Though I’m not sure how well the tassels will stand up to being machine washed, I think it’s just better to be safe than sorry. This is my first venture into shadow knitting and it’s really very simple, as long as I remember to purl and knit in the right places. I had to frog one row twice because I had a stupid moment and forgot how to read charts, but other than that it is just a glorified stocking stitch stripe scarf. Sadly, with 200g of yarn attached to it, it’s not the most portable of knitting, but it’s not as if I don’t have something else to keep me occupied while travelling..!

* or possibly just a poke with a very sharp stick