Step 2 for Coping with 116 Days Left

Having scared you all yesterday with the Christmas count down I would like to show you what I do when I realize how close it is.

I make a shopping list. This list will include everyone, wool people and unworthy ones, and I will pick one non knit item for everyone and one knitted item for those I deem worthy.

I also budget out how much each person gets out of the budget. It’s normally around $30 per person and this is to include yarn and non knitted item, or just something nice for the unworthy ones.

Then I rank the worthy people for how much they deserve knitted items and why (the why is where I guilt trip myself into knitting them something really nice).

Here is my ranking this year:

Mom – 2 Christmases ago she only got one silk glove and I’ve yet to finish the other. She’ll be getting the other glove and something else

Grandma Jane – Grandma Sue and Grandma P have both gotten challenging blankets in the past year. Her turn

Grandma Sue – She’s an artist and I have a soft spot for her for this reason, she’ll get something with nice fiber and in a challenging pattern, like a cowl with alpaca and silk yarn

Grandma P – Last year I killed myself over her Giant’s blanket, this year she gets either a scarf or socks

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This is the line where the knit gifts can either be skipped, replaced with something nice, or they would understand if it is late. I will not kill myself for these people (usually because I did it last year for them)

Ben’s Folks – Last year I set a standard by giving them a lace throw, but this year I might opt for getting them each something small but nice.

Ben – He’s my honey (therefore his gift can also be late if need be) so he gets socks and something cool (like last years meat smoker/bbq)

Dad – Last year he got a sweater vest and he has a 52” chest, I feel that should count for 2 Christmases but he still might get socks in Slytherin colors

Anna, Courtney and Stina – Though I love them, they’d feel bad if I killed myself over something for them, I’m thinking something small for this reason or I’ll take them out to sushi and we’ll enjoy each other's company as we did last year.

Aunt Bobby – Though she is cool, I rarely see her


As you can see I have the worthy people listed and ranked. Now I will go in search of patterns for them and make a table that looks like this:

I used my store's pricing, my favorite patterns, and listed the people to the right. Feel free to list people twice so you have options!