Thoughtfulness doesn’t come easily to me.  It requires a lot of deliberate thinking to come up with ways of being thoughtful and generous.

Easy Ideas To Be Thoughtful and Generous

Thaddeus, on the other hand seems to just burst with thoughtful and generous ideas.

Recently, he was going through one of our junk cabinets (yes, we have multiple junk cabinets).  We had an expensive prescription for Finn (our current cat) which he no longer needed.  We also had an aerosolizer which was unopened.  It was when Nico (our previous cat) was having what we thought was asthma.  Thaddeus bundled this up with some canned cat food and brought it to the local pet rescue place.  A veterinarian came out to check to see if they could used the prescription (the pills were vacuum-sealed) and they were thrilled to take all of it. At no cost to us, we were able to save that place over $100 in items needed regularly to treat and/or feed cats.

Now why didn’t I think of that? Granted, it was more thoughtful than generous on our part, but the generosity was there because of how thoughtful Thaddeus was.

When it comes to giving gifts, Thaddeus is also quite thoughtful.  Me not so much.

Holiday Gifts for Knitters

Here is a list of items I think would be ideal for your knitter friends (or for yourself).  I’ve listed some them before, but sometimes thoughtfulness is just a matter of having a memory of thoughtfulness in the past.

Vacuum sealer/air sucker bags (for storing hand-knits and/or yarn – under $40) – Great for storing knitwear and/or yarn when storage space is limited.

Cat toys and Cat Nip (for the cat-loving knitters amongst us – under $20 or make your own for free) – For your cat-loving friends, it’s a great way to endear yourself and use up yarn leftovers.

Photo Light Box (for the knitters who blog or sell their knitted items on-line – under $70) – For anyone who wants to sell their items on-line, post blog entries and/or post social media photos of their knitted items.  I like this one. It allows for different colored backgrounds and can be folded up to store in a small amount of space.

Luxury needle sets – $125 (and supports a good cause) – ILOVE my Lykke set of interchangeables.  I’ve gushed about them before but this would be an awesome gift to receive as a knitter.  Trust me.

Hand-Cranked Socks or Holiday Ornaments – Celeste makes some of the nicest gift items from her circular sock-knitting machines (CSM).  Knowing what it takes to make a pair of socks on my own CSM, I can tell you her $35 price tag is a bargain.  She sells at a lot of local craft markets during the holidays and there are others who do as well.

Plan early for your yarn-loving loved ones and help make their holidays truly festive.

Current Knitting

Having finished the black and blue garter-mitered striped scarf/wrap/stole, I picked up the tutti-fruity version of it again.

Cold weather has reached us here, so sweatpants and hand-knit (or cranked) socks are a must.

I haven’t made much progress on this one since Monday because I’ve also been working on  a new hat design for sale at the craft show in December.

This is a very standard double-layer, tubular hat.  It basically looks like a flattened bologna with a purl row in the center.

I had the thought that I’d just put in some waste yarn at the end of one and just keep working the next one to get a row of bolognas that would be finished into hats.

Since I’m down to only 8 stitches at the top/bottom of the tube, I found it wasn’t worth the effort of continuous knitting.

The only thing I haven’t decided is if I’ll put pompoms on these hats or not.

Yeah or Nay?

Readers’ Comments/Questions

Thanks to all who wished me a happy anniversary and a congratulations on the blogiversary.  On Friday (my actual Life Partner/Wedding anniversary), I will post the earliest photo of Thaddeus and I that I know of and also the most recent.