Christmas Will Be Here Before You Know It

This year I have resolved to start my Christmas knitting earlier than last year. Last year I waited until the end of November, and I had enough time, but I only made simple things for each person. This year I wanted to be slightly more elaborate.

I've already made a colorful scarf for Emilee of my own design. So at least I've started.

I had my trip down to my grandparents' house in Arkansas last week, and for the plane ride and down time while I was down there I brought lace snowflakes to work on. My knitting group is making a hand-crafted tree for a Christmas tree auction for charity, and I volunteered to make snowflake ornaments. They're quick and easy and not bulky, so they were perfect for the plane and to keep in my purse for wherever we ended up on our little vacation.

Also on the list of things to do is a crochet commission. A woman Mim knows saw a picture of a crocheted shawl with skulls on it, and wanted it for Halloween. Unfortunately, she only sent me a picture, not a pattern, and also wanted it converted to a table runner instead of a shawl, so I had to troll the internet to find the pattern (fortunately, it was on Ravelry and relatively easy to find) and then do all the magic maths to re-write the pattern to be for a table runner instead. I have until Halloween to get it finished. I worked on it before my trip and a little bit yesterday, and I'm like 3/4 of the way done with it. She's paying me $100 to do it. I'm not really in it for the money, because if you do the math, that comes out to something like $5-10 an hour, and my time is worth much, much more than that to me. No, I did it as a favor for Mim. The $100 is just a bonus. It's funny, some people say knitting for other people is like sex. If I like you enough, it's free, but if I don't like you, you can't pay me enough. Knitting for friends of friends as a favor to the friend falls under the first category, if I'm in the mood.

After that is all done and I make a few more Christmas ornaments, I need to get going on the rest of the Christmas presents. For Scott, I've already started a pair of double-layer socks for his freezing cold feet (which he puts on my skin while we're lying in bed, sometimes when I'm not expecting it). I already have one of those done, so I just need to make one sock (although it's double-layered, so it's going to actually be two socks, so four socks total).

For Mim, I'm having my indie-dyer dye me up some sock yarn to look like watermelon stripes for a pair of socks that she requested. She asked for pink and green striped socks, so this will be perfect, and even a little more fun.

For Kwiddens, I'm having my dyer friend dye me some heathered gray yarn to make some mittens.

I don't have any idea what to make for Jorgen or Nyah. Isaac might get a scarf, but I made him one last year and he probably doesn't need another one, and I know he's way too picky about hats, so I suppose I'm stuck on what to make for him, as well.

Any suggestions on what to make for people (Cough Kwiddens Cough)?