WIPW - The Christmas edition

This is the Christmas edition of my work in progress Wednesday as I've put down the selfish socks and am focussing no getting my Christmas gifts finished. Like the Christmas editions of magazines it's out in November giving time to get ready for the big day. There may be 32 days until Christmas day but that's not 32 knitting days, I'm not doing a great amount of Christmas knitting this year but what I am doing is lace which needs blocking so will have to be finished in enough time before Christmas to be blocked. Considering how long things take to dry in our house sometimes I'd say I only really have about 25 knitting days left giving me time for finishing and wrapping. A scary thought!

Fortunately for me I am now making real progress and honestly believe my Christmas knits will be done in time. I'm glad I didn't overwhelm myself with too many projects but a little cross with myself for giving in to my selfish knitter impulses and starting new projects for myself when I should have been focussing on my gift knits.

First up we have my MiL's scarf. I'd say it's about a third of the way done now if not a bit more. It doesn't take much time to knit a repeat on this but it's becoming incredibly dull as whilst it's only a ten row repeat I've not memorised it exactly and have to keep referring to the chart to double check. I am liking how it looks though and will admit now that I don't really want to give this away as I think it's rather lovely. Still pink isn't really my colour and I did promise the MiL a lace scarf!

For my mummy dearest I'm knitting an Ishbel in her favourite colour and mine, green! I flew through the stockinette section and have knit the first two rows (and purled back of course) of the first lace chart. This is an enjoyable knit and I don't see any issues in getting it finished but like the scarf it does require careful attention and I'd say it requires it moreso than the scarf. I knit the smaller stockinette but intend to do the large lace. There appears to be some issue with the yarn, it's beautiful and soft but every so often there are tiny little sections that are flourescent yellow! It looks like I've taken a highlighter pen to my knitting. I have shown it to my mum as she knows what she's getting and helped me wind the yarn and she's fine with the odd flourescent yellow stitch and loves the yarn generally (of course, she'll always love green yarn!) so I'm ploughing on.

I can't show you the other Christmas gift I've been working on as it's for an on-line Secret Santa swap and whilst I don't believe my swapee reads my blog I don't want to risk giving the game away just in case! This is a nice break from my other two projects as it's knit in aran weight so seems to be growing much more quickly! This will be coming with me at the weekend when we visit the in-laws so my MiL doesn't see her present.

You may notice that the pink vanilla socks which were a recurring part of WIPW and are a Christmassy gift are absent from this blog entry, that's because they're FINISHED! That's for another day though.

I must say my actual Christmas shopping is not progressing so well, so far I've only bought two presents for my husband (both of the silly stocking filler variety) and have asked my uncle to pick up my mum's second present and I'll give him the money. I should probably get a move on before the real Christmas mania sets in!