It is that awkward time of year when I have much going on knit-wise, but cannot write freely because most of that knitting is destined for candy cane wrapping paper — you know what I mean.

But perhaps I can share some of what I am learning without giving the kind of details that would spoil the Christmas surprises.  

Like how if you buy a simple and straightforward pattern in order to knit a lovely gift with efficiency and then decide to switch up the yarns dramatically — say, to something like a silk/alpaca and a mohair/silk instead of Cascade 220 — you will end up with a design project (with graph paper and volumes of Barbara Walker and swatch after swatch after swatch…).  Because when you knit up the yarn you bought according to the pattern you bought you will have made a soft, slithery, ridiculous mess….

Like how if you are commissioned to knit a simple gift scarf and end up using 2 different stitch patterns done in 4 different yarns, it is no longer a simple project….and when you rip it back for the fifth time because (yet again) something is not going right, it is probably best to realize that you are not (yet) knitting a scarf, you are knitting swatches….

Like if you order yarn from a clearly reputable but apparently none-too-tech-savvy shop in Canada, you  will not have — nor are you likely to ever have — any idea when the yarn will arrive….

But, happily, I have now worked through most of the bumps and tangles on these projects and am making good progress on the Christmas Knitting (well, I am not making any progress at all on the project that consists of yarn that may — or may not yet– be en route from Canada…but it is not even Thanksgiving, so I am not panicking yet …tho it is true that we are way past Canadian Thanksgiving, so maybe I should be panicking a little….).