![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Sep. 1st, 2022 02:45 pmIn December of last year, I decided that I would knit all of my Christmas gifts for 2022. I knit all my gifts in 2021 as well, but they were all hats. For this year, I sent out surveys of what kinds of knitted items everyone wanted and picked some more elaborate things for most folks, and then started knitting in January. And now I'm nearly done - I've got about 30 more rows on a shawl for my sibling-in-law and then a pair of socks for Dad. (Dad doesn't want elaborate knitting but he always wants socks.)
Doing a whole year of gift knitting this far in advance has been a fun experience. It's meant that I had to make schedules and elaborate timetables, which I always enjoy, and I've learned some things about what kinds of stuff I'm willing/happy to knit. Delicate and elaborate table runner for my sister, with beads and multiple lace charts? I love it, I enjoyed the entire three-month+ process of making it. A tea cozy shaped like a snail for my other sister, which was simple and made from bulky-weight yarn and should have taken maybe a week to complete? That took nearly two months and I hated every moment of it. It also looks...not great, which is why she's the only person who's getting a second, consolation gift.
But now I'm nearly done! And, okay, I know that it's only September but now I'm in the habit of having a knitting schedule, rather than working on things willy-nilly when I'm moved to, so I've started planning my knitting for next year. The plan for next year is to Actually Knit All My Sock Yarn.
I am not, in general, the kind of knitter who has a stash. I am a project-motivated knitter and thus only buy yarn when I have a particular project in mind. (I...don't really understand stash knitters, honestly. How do they know how much to buy if you aren't buying for a particular project? Do they just...buy enough yarn to make a sweater or whatever whenever they buy yarn?) The one exception is sock yarn, because that comes with a project plan built in, and I always know how much to buy to make a pair of socks. Sock yarn is also the yarn that people buy me as gifts, because there's an easy amount to buy. So I have something between a dozen and twenty skeins of sock yarn sitting around, waiting.
So today, I have been listing all my sock yarn, putting it in order of what I'm most excited to knit, and assigning patterns to each skein (because there are so many sock patterns in the world and choosing one is much harder than pulling a ball of wool out of my yarn basket and casting on). Am I going to get all of it knit next year? Almost certainly not, but I'm hoping to make a good dent.
And then I'll have room for more yarn.
Doing a whole year of gift knitting this far in advance has been a fun experience. It's meant that I had to make schedules and elaborate timetables, which I always enjoy, and I've learned some things about what kinds of stuff I'm willing/happy to knit. Delicate and elaborate table runner for my sister, with beads and multiple lace charts? I love it, I enjoyed the entire three-month+ process of making it. A tea cozy shaped like a snail for my other sister, which was simple and made from bulky-weight yarn and should have taken maybe a week to complete? That took nearly two months and I hated every moment of it. It also looks...not great, which is why she's the only person who's getting a second, consolation gift.
But now I'm nearly done! And, okay, I know that it's only September but now I'm in the habit of having a knitting schedule, rather than working on things willy-nilly when I'm moved to, so I've started planning my knitting for next year. The plan for next year is to Actually Knit All My Sock Yarn.
I am not, in general, the kind of knitter who has a stash. I am a project-motivated knitter and thus only buy yarn when I have a particular project in mind. (I...don't really understand stash knitters, honestly. How do they know how much to buy if you aren't buying for a particular project? Do they just...buy enough yarn to make a sweater or whatever whenever they buy yarn?) The one exception is sock yarn, because that comes with a project plan built in, and I always know how much to buy to make a pair of socks. Sock yarn is also the yarn that people buy me as gifts, because there's an easy amount to buy. So I have something between a dozen and twenty skeins of sock yarn sitting around, waiting.
So today, I have been listing all my sock yarn, putting it in order of what I'm most excited to knit, and assigning patterns to each skein (because there are so many sock patterns in the world and choosing one is much harder than pulling a ball of wool out of my yarn basket and casting on). Am I going to get all of it knit next year? Almost certainly not, but I'm hoping to make a good dent.
And then I'll have room for more yarn.
