Projects, Projects!

Today I:

• had cereal and white tea for breakfast with soy milk
• had a banana for Second Breakfast
• am having veggie potstickers for lunch
• am drinking coffee, of course

My digital camera needs its battery recharged, so there will be no original pictures today. Which is no great loss. There are no new F.O.s, and my W.I.P.s pretty much look they way they did before. (Do you really want to see 3/4 of my second Fugly sock, even after seeing the first one completed? Not exactly fascinating material.) Fortunately, I have lot of W.I.I. (Works In Imagination) to discuss.

Knitting for family
In Mandarin, if you want to ask somebody how many immediate family members they have you need to use a measure word. The measure word for this situation is generally for amounts up to ten. After that, you have to use another measure word. I was the only one in my class at the time this idea was introduced that had this dilemma: my immediate family consists of over eighteen people. The sad thing is, I don't even remember if at the time I was counting step-relatives. Either way, that's a lot of people to knit for come the holidays.

I solve this problem by being biased. The first people to be eliminated are those whose current address is unknown to me, for fairly obvious reasons. Sure, I could ask Mom, but considering that 80% of the time I speak to her she almost immediately loses her cell phone connection I think that may be more trouble than it's worth. The second criteria for elimination from my knitting list is whether or not I can think of a project that's interesting to me. There's a real poverty out there for men's knitting, so I don't knit for my brothers. As far as I know, my brothers aren't even aware that I knit, so no harm done anyway.

Who does that leave?

Mom, Dad, five sisters, nieces and nephews, a grandmother and maybe an aunt or two. (Who are all probably reading this right now, thinking, "She didn't make me anything for X-mas!" Well, hold your horses. There are a lot of holidays.) Let's not forget the boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot, either, someone who is going to be assaulted with numerous knitted goods over the next twelve months, whether he likes it or not. I have big plans for his wardrobe, and his squeamishness at asking for things is not going to get in my way!

That said, here are some lists:

Mom: This is what I am going to make her for next X-mas. It's the perfect sweater for her. It's stylish, elegant, and looks like it will forgive a fluxing waistline. And in KnitPicks Merino Style it'll probably not break the bank, or rather, credit union, either. I'm also going to design some wavy socks for her birthday.

Sibling #1: For next X-mas I am making her this bulky weight yarn cardigan, most likely out of cranberry Wool-Ease Thick & Quick, because I am cheap. I also want her to be able to machine wash it.

Dad: I've been having a perverse notion to make him a sweater. "Perverse" because he's an ex-logger who does building maintenance for a living, so even if he likes the sweater, he'd only be able to wear it holidays, when he's clean, and going to stay clean. To get full mileage out of any sweater I knit for him he'd have to wear it about five times a year for the next twenty years. That's why previously I made him a hat.

Boyfriend/ partner/ whatnot: He's got some gray socks coming really soon, in worsted weight. Then a v-neck cardigan, a hoodie, and an argyle cardigan. Then probably some socks. And gloves. And... well, you get the idea.

Last night, I:

• had a bowl of mushroom bisque with croutons for dinner with coffee
• ate leftover rice and veggies for lunch with a bag of Fritos

Edit: I'm revising the look of my blog, so you may notice it being published over and over and... over. Ignore that. Thanks!