About 15 years ago I played ‘chicken' with Christmas.
It wasn’t pretty.
I vowed to never do it again!
How does one play ‘chicken’ with Christmas? Well, for me it involves setting unrealistic deadlines for getting things done before the hard deadline of Christmas Day!
During my last “chicken” event Christmas 15+ years ago, I decided in October to knit 8 projects as gifts. Yes, you read that right. October and 8 projects, entirely crazy. The projects were smaller but still, 85 days divided by 8 projects equals approximately 10 days per project from start to finish. Calculate in time for other activities like eating, sleeping, household tasks, typical Christmas craziness, and a full time job (yes, I was working) and you get way less than 10 days per project.
The experience was intense (actually ridiculous!) So ridiculous, that if I hadn’t had a gallbladder surgery on December 5 of that year (followed by a period of short term disability from my job to heal - 'knitting time' by any other description) I would never have reached my goal of eight finished Christmas gifts by December 25th. Since I have limitations on just how many bodily organs I can offer up to the knitting gods for a Christmas deadline, I vowed never to knit for Christmas again. Although it looks like I am breaking that vow this year, I am not.
I am crocheting. Ha! (this little loop hole will probably bite me in my butt at some point.)
So, with a flush of enthusiasm, on November 13, ( 42 days prior to the deadline) I started a sizable Christmas project - a kid’s blanket! Another blanket! (I should be committed!) I have 2 others still 'on the hook' and somehow I talked myself into another one - with a deadline, no less.
But I have important reasons why I am doing this project ...
#1 - It is for my granddaughter (No other reasons “need apply,” but I will add them anyway.)
#2 - It is crochet and it goes faster than knitting many times over. (True)
#3 - It is a simple pattern. (Also true)
#4 - It is a stash buster project (normally, yes, except for the 8 additional skeins I purchased to use up the 5 others I had - I think that is a gain of 3! ). Math was not a strong subject for me in school.
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| The colors are all wrong. Left to right: true purple, light purple and lavender. Light blue, pink and white come later. |
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| A finished project of someone on Ravelry. |
The pattern is called With Love, Granny Afghan Pattern by Crystal White-VanCleemput of JolieKnots.com. It uses the granny stitch to make the hearts. My colors match the colors in Frozen - the Disney cartoon that is so popular with children now. It is a corner to corner pattern - so at this point I am increasing and each row takes longer to complete.
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| Even under an Ott light, the colors are off. |
I’ll post a few progress pictures between now and December 25th - just to help keep me honest and focused on getting this done.
And just to make things really interesting, I added another Christmas deadline project. This puzzle which I am working to complete, glue together and frame. This Disney mermaid is called Ariel and Eskarina dressed up as Ariel for Halloween.
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| She really loved that long red hair. |
Must stop now - I have deadlines to meet!!
6 comments:
That was quite a feat, 8 knitting projects in such a short time. This year sounds more doable. You’ll be busy though. Hope the offering up of body parts isn’t necessary this year. Lol.
She is so cute :-)
And you are brave to knit with a deadline. I proved to myself one New Year's Day that I could knit one plain vanilla sock in one day if I did nothing else. I never did that again :-D
I thought I would be doing more puzzles during my recovery, but sitting for long periods of time on hard chairs is not the most comfortable. Now that I've graduated to my own chair with pillow assist, I'm hoping to get some knitting done. I think puzzles will have to wait for a few more weeks. :-)
Oh my; what an adorable costume on your adorable granddaughter!!!
Good luck with completing your Christmas project. :)
Your granddaughter looks adorable in that costume.
I'm waiting till after Thanksgiving to start another puzzle. Need the table!!
You do love to live dangerously, don't you? ;) But, I'm thinking that such a delightful Ariel makes for a the perfect motivation!
Why is it that we do that kind of thing to ourselves!
Wishing you the best . . .
I would visit more but I too have deadlines!
Plus a book to read for Book Club.
Happy Thanksgiving and crocheting!
(Love your red headed granddaughter!)
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