I know the holiday season can be challenging for some people, but it’s not for me.

Family, Friends and Gifts

I love spending time with my family.  They’re loud and overwhelming for some people less used to being around a big family, but I always love being with them.

Every year, we also have an extended Christmas celebration with our friend Charles on December 31st.  The gifts in the video above were the result of my wrapping efforts this year…I loved the impression of walking through Princeton with an opaque bag filled with flashing wrapped gifts.

Gifts from Charles are always fun and I look forward to them each year.  One in particular was great this year.

Yes, the shirt is beautiful and it’s warm and I love it…but Charles also bought me two pairs of knitting needles.

You might think…isn’t that like bringing coals to New Castle?  But looking closer, you can see that Charles knows me extremely well!

Yes…the needles were personalized for QueerJoe.  I loved that he thought to do this and I also love the thought of him ordering these from some call center in Roanoke, Virginia spelling “QueerJoe” for them.

I know it’s just a glimpse of all that made this holiday wonderful…but hopefully enough to give you a sense about how much I truly love this time of year.

Current Knitting

I’ve been sharing my knitting time between hand-knit projects and increasing my skills on the Gearhart Circular Sock Machine.

On the sock machine, I have gotten pretty good at casting on, creating tubular fabric and hanging stitches to create a hemmed sock cuff.

I can consistently now turn a nice looking heel and toe on the machine, picking up a single dropped stitch and fixing minor mistakes before they turn into major mistakes.

I have been trying to get my ribber to work and I have finally gotten to the point where I can make purl stitches using the ribber.  It’s not easy and effortless to get the ribber to work, but I’m acquiring the skill slowly and steadily.  I’m hopeful that my next pair of socks on the machine will be a standard pair of ribbed-cuff socks.  Wish me luck.

On the hand-knitting front, I persevered and finished the Linen Stitch Scarf.

Overall, I am pleased with how this scarf turned out, but not pleased enough to make me want to start another linen stitch garment anytime soon.