Christmas is coming

I used to hate the smug people that got all their Christmas shopping done by October, until I moved to the US and had to be one of them.  The last mailing date for parcels to the UK sent by sea used to be some time in October.  Sea mail was discontinued last year but the habit is set and it is less stressful if you spread it out over a few months.  There's also less of a Christmas knitting crunch.

I have three things to knit by Christmas.  Finished one Ocean Rapids sock with not much yarn to spare.  These are going to be a present for a friend with much bigger feet than me.  The other two are smaller things that will take a lot less time, I also wanted Eris done for the NaNoWriMo kick off in late October.

That's the finished sock, and that's how much yarn was left from a US women's size 12 with an 8 inch cuff.  If I'd done it top down, I would have really worried.  Even toe up, I was knitting faster to make sure I finished the sock before the yarn ran out.  There's no logic to that, but it helped me feel better.  It's made from Oceanwind Knits sock yarn, which is lovely to work with and look at.

The skein of yarn is Hazel Knits in Chocolatier, which is a squishy soft, slightly variegated yarn.  Picked it up on sale at Woolgirl,  and it came beautifully wrapped with a sample of Eucalan (in yucky lavender, but a nice thought).  I like this better than the radioactive orange Wollmeise it replaced.  It's soft, thick for fingering weight, and very squishy.