I have to admit that I was a bit alarmed that Hallowe’en wasn’t even over yet when the stores started to put out their Christmas displays.  I guess it just goes to show how the commercial world moves.  I thought it was gauche to put up such store displays before American Thanksgiving, but I guess I’m wrong on that one.  Since I really wasn’t feeling in a Hallowe’en mood this year, Robin has decided that he is going to help me get in the mood for Yule.  I’m usually the one who marks the holidays and forces him to  participate helps him get into the holiday spirit.  He has offered to bring the Christmas Tree out of hibernation as soon as we get the living room ready.  Colour me surprised!

I started a stocking.  I actually started a stocking last year, but lost interest in it partway through and didn’t come back to it until this year, when I looked at it and told myself that it sucked.  So I cast back on with the same yarn in a different pattern.  The pattern, by the way, would be Falling Snow by Jennifer Hoel.  From the Ravelry page, it looks like quite a few folks have customized it with names and such.  I was going to try that…then I realized that I really didn’t want to.  If I just go with the pattern as written, then it doesn’t matter who uses which stocking, and if one goes missing, I can make another without lamenting that the highly personalized stocking is gone.  I’m knitting this out of acrylic, after all…I know how these sorts of things go.  While I can’t guarantee that it will ever be used by a child, I was a child once myself, so I realize that at some point a hard candy may be immovably stuck in the toe of the stocking.  Or it will need to be tossed into the wash.  Whatever.  Aside from cramping my fingers from the fair-isle, it’s helping me feel a little more…spirited.  Though that could just be the booze (kidding!)

Robin’s  socks are coming along well.  I meant to keep them as purse-knitting, which meant that they only would be worked on during my lunch breaks at work or while out in the wild, but they were far too tempting.  I love me the Zauberball gradiated goodness.  Sure, the yarn is a little bit splitty, but as it’s spun as a single ply, that’s to be expected.  Sock #1 is done, and we’re now on to sock #2.  Strangely enough, the socks look like they will only be slightly out of whack to be considered matching.  I didn’t even think of that.  My concern is that I will wind up with the colour changing partway through the heel.  I find it very jarring when that happens.  I think that next time I knit a sock with stripes or a long colour gradient, I’ll try an afterthought heel and see how that goes.