We had a lovely Christmas – a very rare White
Christmas!  In fact, we had snow on the
ground for two full weeks.  Our family
festivities were merry and bright and we are all pretty well exhausted.  There were full stockings, full bellies, and
full hearts all the way around.

The family was indeed surprised – and pleased! — to receive
the handknit scarves which Sarah and I had been toiling over in secret since
mid-November.  We are, I confess, still
finishing my husband’s scarf (he knew we were knitting them, but did not
suspect that we were making one for him, as well) and Sarah’s husband’s scarf –
such is the fate of husbands, I fear, to be perpetually understanding!  But the other four were completed and wrapped
in good time.

These scarves are the Noro Silk Garden ones that I first saw on the Yarn
Harlot’s blog.  The exquisite tapestries
that I raved about in early November, but could not justify making when I
calculated that I would have to knit a foot of 1×1 ribbing (of 6-inch width)
everyday for the 6 weeks before Christmas in order to make a scarf for each
family member.  Well, I caved in and
called Sarah and she agreed to knit half of each scarf – and since she would
not be receiving a scarf and since George said it was fine if I did not make
one for him, that brought the number of scarves down to five.  With both of us knitting, the amount of scarf
per day came down to a reasonable 4 inches (each). 

So, we bought a whole lot of Noro Silk Garden (mmmmmm…) and knit 1×1 ribbing –
yards of 1×1 ribbing.  Day after day of
1×1 ribbing….

When Sasha came home from college, production slowed as I
could no longer knit scarves openly at home – at least when she was
around.  I was making stuffed animals for
my grandson out of stretchy gloves (very cute! from the book Happy Gloves by Miyako Kanamori) in the
evenings and after a week of being home Sasha commented that it was strange not
to see me knitting.  There were loud
complaints from the family because I was making gifts for Max, but not for the
rest of them.  I pointed out that I had
said I would not be knitting
Christmas gifts and that these stuffed animals were just a fun little
hand-sewing project that I enjoyed doing for goodness’s sake and couldn’t I do
something I enjoyed at Christmastime for goodness’s sake and if I couldn’t make
sweet little stuffed animals for my own grandson at Christmas then well for
goodness’s sake!  Or something like that.

In my heart, I felt a little like a rat.  It had not been my intention to declare that
I was taking a year off from knitting Christmas gifts and then turn around and
do so after all.  But I realized that I
could not let anyone know I was making gifts because I had written about these
particular scarves in my blog and they would probably figure it out –
especially once they realized that I would not divulge details about anyone’s
gift and it became clear that I was undoubtedly making the same thing for
everyone.  So, I was stuck with my
initial declaration and the occasional pained look from one or another of my
children.

So, my experiment with Not Knitting For Christmas was a
failure.  But the Gifts Lovingly Knitted
For Christmas were a success.  And I have
discovered that simple knitting can be soothing – particularly at this festive
and frantic time of year!