December doldrums

According to the song, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Anyone agree?

No, I'm not feeling Scrooge-like, but the busy nature of the month is starting to take its toll. The perpetual grayness outside and time under fluorescents inside doesn't help either. I'm not sure why everything caught up with me today but it did. I felt sluggish when I got up and couldn't shake the dead weight even after a potent morning cup of coffee. (Perhaps it was too strong. My nerves were jangling past lunchtime.)

I've been feeling pretty good about the Christmas knitting I've finished. I've made a blanket and five hats. A sixth is on the needles, and only two more are planned. Nevertheless, I feel behind. (Let's not even think about the Pay It Forward exchange. I have eight months to fulfill that obligation.) There are other projects I wanted to get done in time for the holiday. A glance at the calendar is all I need to acknowledge the impossibility of doing so.

Selfish as it sounds, I'm ready to knit something for myself instead of working on another item I'll be giving away. The few things I've knitted for myself bear the scars of learning. Two scarves are absurdly long because I didn't factor in garter stitch stretching. I knitted two hats last winter. One has an ugly seam. The other is kind of tight. The hat I made this fall isn't long enough. I knit two pairs of slippers last winter. The first set was too big, and the second has an expanding hole at the toe where I must have dropped a stitch.

I'm sure that the desire to knit for myself will subside once I get into a mindless knitting zone with the current WIP. I do enjoy making things for others. Just not at the moment. Today I want something for me.