What are you doing Christmas Eve?

If you are like me, you're starting to think this is another make it yourself Christmas. I don't know anyone who wants to go mall hopping anymore. And as easy as it is to shop the web, there's something not so personal if you don't even get to wrap it. We don't like some of those extra chores, but as I think about it, wrapping the gift gives me a few moments to think about the people close to me who I am gifting. Folding it up, finding just the right box, wrapping paper in her favorite color, and just one more 'zip' with the scissors on the ribbon, to make is curl just right. You remember that too, don't you. Well, I find that making my dad a pair of socks this year (for the man who has everything already), gives me that same warm fuzzy feeling - and it takes a couple weeks to make a pair of socks, especially when your knitting on your lunch hour. Off all the unexpected times to have sweet thoughts of someone I care about - how else would you be able to do that in the middle of the day. Making things is a way of reminding ourselves how much we really do care about our friends and family. It's not just the receiver who is gifted - we too are made conscious of how much we care about the people in our lives.

It's now the second and a half year of the recession, and we here at the store are still feeling it. Betsy is in the foreground holding the ship together, while I'm out working to bolster the foundation. We are managing pretty well, but being a bit more careful as all of you are. What I notice is that even when you are mored careful about your purchases, you still want the softest, the most scrumptios color, the alpaca silk more than something as suitable of rayon and wool.

So we are getting yarn and needles in a bit slower, but it is coming in. I am getting out of some things. Books aren't a good use of space, and in the smaller space, I am cutting back to just Addi and Chaio Goo needles. I spent the first part of fall restocking favorites like Lamb's Prids and Dark Horse, and now am ready to bring in new yarns. If you haven't seen the Poems yet, its going fast. We have Poems sock yarn on the way. I am knitting the Galisteo Wrap with the softest Mohair silk with glitz - called Starlight - it's not quite fingering weight but oh so soft. Christmas sock yarn, and soon more new yarns from Plymouth and Berroco.

So what are you doing about this Christmas eve? I hope that like me, you will be drowning in tape and ribbons and wrapping paper for the oh so perfect gift made just for him or her or them.

Knit Happy Bethe

Back to Article Archive