Chickenlips Knitting

...almost.

Before I turbo-cleaned and organized all afternoon, my hutch was so sloppy and bulging with yarn that it was downright shameful. It depressed me every time I looked at it. So, what with staring down the barrels of Christmas and cash flow tighter than Scrooge's *ahem*, I decided today was the day to start making this domicile look like it's been pristine all year long, just waiting to move a futon here and bookshelf there and voila, it's ready to have the tree and decorations placed in it!

What you're looking at is my crafting center/home office. Ignore the debris on the floor, as that's all going to be moved. Where to, I have no clue as yet, but I've done all the thinking I can do for one day. Because I have such a rich fantasy life, I still imagine that one day, Christmas will not be something I stare down the barrels of and feel pressure about, but rather something I look forward to, welcome and enjoy. That will happen, I imagine, right about the time monkeys come flying out of my butt.

Hey, where'd my yarn go?

I went to Office Max today and bought some boxes and storage containers. This is about 92% of the total yarn I own, the rest is in various and sundry project bags. Now that doesn't look like "too much yarn," does it? Shoot, no! And the larger USPS Priority box on the left has all my undyed yarn in it, which continues to sell pretty well.

Blogging about housecleaning? Well, it is a rarity around here. At least I gave you something besides my handpainted yarn to look at!

I recently learned from Yarnhog's blog about the no-handknit-gift movement this holiday season. I like the idea, but I don't think this is the year I will do that. For me, this is the nearly all-handknit-gift holiday season! I'm working on a shawl-collar sweater for Jason that's knit completely in the round, so no stress there. Some Fetchings for my sis-in-law. And a beeg surprise for Michelle, who gave me her 20-plus-item Christmas list a couple of days ago. In a flight of silliness, she wrote down "a penguin," so she's getting this.

I firmly believe that one can find quite a bit of what's wrong with America at the local shopping mall. Case in point: Jason and I were shopping for Michelle at the Mac cosmetic counter in Nordstrom the other night, and we saw two little girls who looked to be about eight or so, having makeovers! The mom came to pick them up just as we were paying for some (overpriced) lipstick. Should I not have been disturbed by this? Have I crossed that invisible line and turned into an old fusspot? It's just that I see an alarming trend of encouraging young girls to look older than they are, and it kind of gets too close to that dangerous territory of sexualizing children. I mean, it's one thing for that mom to let those little girls try on some lipstick, but quite another to turn them into little Jon-Benet's. OK, I'm getting off the soapbox now.

Another thing I saw at the mall which made me crotchety (truthfully, it doesn't take much) was cheesy, tacky decorations! In not one but two store windows, I saw Christmas trees decked out with--hang onto your merino--fake yarn balls. Yup, they looked like exactly what they were: icky styrofoam balls wrapped with ackrylic, then probably sprayed with Aquanet or something so they "glistened". Even though I know I've just outed myself as a yarn snob, I just saw that and went "bleah".

Yes, from here until Christmas, if the gifts I give don't come from my needles, they'll be bought online, as I don't think I can hack another trip to the mall!