Christmas Comes But Once A Year

I hate Christmas socks. I hate Christmas socks, especially when they’re plain.

All apologies to Monty Python.

Or if you prefer German hymns….

Oh, Christmas socks, Oh, Christmas socks, it’s like a knitting prison.
Oh, Christmas socks, Oh, Christmas socks, it’s like a knitting prison.
There is a cashmere shawl I’d like to knit but people’s feet might get frostbit.
Oh, Christmas socks, Oh, Christmas socks, it’s like a knitting prison.

I am now on pair five of Christmas socks. Pair five out of 100. Well, it isn’t quite that bad. I probably have 10 more to do. Yeah. It isn’t so much that knitting Christmas socks scores a five out of five on the Hoover suckability scale, but that knitting Christmas socks greatly impairs one’s ability to knit on anything else that would be more fun.

There are some advantages to knitting Christmas socks. If you are knitting a pair in a self patterning yarn, you can study for your psychopathology course, while at the same time understanding what drives people round the bend. Christmas socks keep hubby from complaining about the cost of grad school, the books, supplies, gas money, and time away from home. More importantly, Christmas socks keep the cost of the gift giving season down when your budget is a bit reduced due to part time job and grad school.

What I dislike most about Christmas socks is that I could use all that time and energy knitting myself that fab shawl out of the killer Schaefer colorway (in Jane Addams, of course) to wear when I graduate from grad school. And the fact that they are addictive.

On the up side, Christmas socks eat up what I consider to be so-so yarn stash and get me enough brownie points with hubby to allow me to get the tools I “need” to knit them.

Yet, if I am completely honest, the big problem with Christmas socks this year is the knowledge that grad school majorly constrains my knitting time. Between reading three to five hundred pages a week, the paper writing, having a job, the commute, maintaining a marriage, and scheduling enough time to shower and pee twice a day there isn’t a lot of time left over for myself or my friends.

So for now, I will allow myself frequent fiber fantasies while counting down to the BIG DAY. Perhaps the Schaefer can come out to play December 26th.