Holiday Knitting

Can two other words inspire panic, anxiety, loathing, and procrastination in a knitter so much as the two that title today's post? I think not. I took full advantage of the hella phat yarn sale at Michael's a few weeks back to stock up on cotton yarn ($1 per ball!) for those Bandwagon -er- Ballband Dishcloths. Many thanks to TurtleGirl for pointing me in the direction of this pattern in an online form rather than in a $30 book (that I now covet). The whole point of this insanity is to bring the cost of Christmas to a minimum this year instead of being broke until the end of February as in years past. Whoever is on my list as a "must" is getting a pair of matcing dishcloths. My cost $2 and, of course, time. I'll make up some little goofy limerick about how simplicity and effort are what the holidays are about so as to shame the recipiants into not making a face at the gifts and voila, my wallet is saved. I'm not just being cheap mind you, this is really all we can afford, it's just that I'm facing up to that this year instead of buying stuff I can't afford anyway. As you can see from my picture there, I've completed four of the ten planned dishcloths and have started a fifth. Also you may notice that I appear to knit in a lightless cave. I assure you this last bit is untrue, it's just a trick of the flash, or lack thereof, so that I didn't end up with another washed out photo. I couldn't show the items in natural light today as there was very little of it, overcast as the day was here by the shore. You probably will not notice that I did a crochet edging around these things and added a little loop so they can be hung up to dry. That's right, I did a crochet edging. Me. And it only took me HOURS to do that first one. The second one took fewer hours. The last two I managed to do today (the edgings, not the entire dishcloths plus edgings, I'm not The Flash or anything) and it's only 5:42pm as I write this. Crochet still confounds me and I'm certain I'm doing it wrong but it did neaten up the edges a bit and if it looks bad, well, they're only going to be scrubbing the meatloaf out of the pan anyway, right? I've mentally commited myself (and not to the asylum, hee-hee) to doing a few more of these if time allows, as well as some sort of gloves for my SIL. I was going to knit socks for my MIL but have decided to do these for her birthday since she's requested a new photo album for her pictures of the kids. I have a super secret project lined up for Red Todd Kidd but since he claims to read this drivvel, I can't tell you about it. I also don't know that I'll have time to do it since making anything for him is rather arduous since I lag on it. I just never think he'll like what I'm making (and have little evidence to the contrary).