Well, since there wasn't much knitting this week (I hope to rectify that this weekend), here is some Old Knitted Stuff:

These are a pair of socks I designed in 2000. They were a "gift" to the Knitlist gift-pattern-thing they do (did? I'm not a member any more so I don't know if they still do it). The pattern is here.

I used Wildfoote in a turquoise color:



And a close-up, trying to capture the pattern:



Some other stuff:

The AAUW Christmas party was last night. This is always pretty fun, everyone brings a "finger food" to share, and we collect toys for the local Lion's Club toy drive, and we bring a gift to exchange.

The gifts are exchanged following what is sometimes called the "dirty Santa" game, where people draw numbers and gifts can be "stolen."

The gift I brought was this:

I had been a bit apprehensive whether it was "good enough." I almost, at the last minute, ran out and bought something instead. (But then the "last minute" involved furnace guys). I guess it went over okay as it was "stolen" twice in the course of the game and people commented over it.

It may have been though because it was one of the few "practical" gifts; most of the things given tend to run to elaborate Christmas decorations and I think a lot of people are to the point where they'd rather have something useful.

I wound up with a ceramic cookie jar that looks like a wrapped package. It's nice and all, but I don't exactly have a place to put it. I may use it to store something other than cookies - I may keep it on the kitchen cupboard somewhere (the colors sort of match my kitchen) and use it as a canister for pasta or something.

The person hosting also reminded us that it was Pearl Harbor day and asked people for their memories (most of the women in this group are MUCH older than I am; I guess most are in their 70s or 80s considering that most had some kind of a memory). It was interesting to hear the memories - one woman remarked that she learned to drive because that was one of the things women at her college were encouraged to do after the attacks, another had a boyfriend (later, her husband) who was doing his first solo flight as a pilot that day, another remembered her father sitting on the front porch saying that he was too old to be drafted but he was going to go down to the enlistment office to see if there was anything they could have him do to help the War Effort...things like that.

It was good to get out for the evening and even though there were the memories of Pearl Harbor, it was generally pretty lighthearted which was what I needed. I actually slept soundly last night. (I realize this is tedious to some people, to hear my periodic maunderings about sleeping or not-sleeping, but if anyone else out there is prone to insomnia I think they will understand).

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If you've watched any commercial television this month, you've probably seen the Gift Ads. Advertisements pushing cars, or expensive jewelry, or gourmet kitchen makeovers, or even houses, as Christmas gifts.

And I was thinking about that.

And I was thinking about the implication that the car-Rolex-fancy perfume ads made, that This Is What It Will Take To Make Your Loved One Happy.

And I was thinking about what, as a Christmas gift, makes me happy.

And here's a short list. Just sort of to show that the Madison Avenue folks aren't right all the time.

1. Books. Books make me happy. Especially books given at Christmas: it is the cold dark time of the year, I have a couple weeks off from school, there's time and inclination to read. I have books in my collection that I was given years ago as a Christmas gift and it makes me happy every time I open them up.

2. Silly pajamas or a bathrobe. By "silly" I mean ones made out of flannel and printed with little ducks, or sushi, or cats playing in rock bands, or garden gnomes, or something. I so often have to dress "buttoned up" during the day that it's nice to come home to silly. And again: dark, cold time of year. So flannel pajamas seem like a nice idea. Slippers would be good also.

3. Nice soap. I love soap, I especially love artisanal soap or soap made with botanical stuff in it. I know in some circles you Do Not Give Soap as a gift, because the implication is that it's a subtle hint that the person being given it needs to use it. Fortunately in my family, that implication is not assumed. So I can get soap as a gift and I am happy about it.

4. Good tea. Tea is one of the pleasures of life (even if I have to avoid caffeinated tea one week out of the month). All of the different flavors and origins and traditions! The difference between the Eastern style of tea and the British Isles style. It's one of the simple things that makes life good.

5. Likewise, good chocolate. Even just one nice bar of Green and Black's or something would make a nice gift, I think. (I don't need to be ROLLING in chocolate; a small amount of something nice is sufficient).

6. Stuffed animals. Yes, still. Yes, still at 37. I'm hoping to get (because I asked for it), the little toy version of the Edward Gorey cat wearing a striped sweater. It is nice to have small mascots to sit on bookshelves or sofas. Especially when you live alone. And somehow, getting a toy, even as an adult, makes Christmas seem more like Christmas.

7. Craft supplies. Yes, of course. Craft supplies are one of the things that make me the happiest. (As I said in an e-mail to my dad, when he wrote to ask what I wanted for Christmas, "yarn and quilting fabric are always welcome."). It doesn't have to be cashmere or cloth-of-gold, either: if all a person's budget comfortably allowed were some skeins of embroidery floss tied up with a bow, THAT would make me happy.

So there is my list (at least in part. I suppose there are other things that I am not thinking of right now). Chocolate and tea and books and flannel jammies and a toy cat and yarn and even embroidery floss. Not exactly the stuff of the Madison Avenue copywriters' dreams.

I do not know why this is. I do not think it means that my affection is cheaply bought; for me, I do not see gifts as a way of getting the recipient's affection but rather as a reflection of the giver's affection for the recipient. (I think sometimes that equation is reversed, at least in the commercial world).

I suppose mainly what it means are that my priorities are different. Maybe I'm a little out-of-touch with "how the world really works" (as the cynics would say; but then a cynic is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing). Maybe it means that it's easy to make me happy. Or that I know who I am well enough to know my preferences.

But at any rate: don't get me diamonds for Christmas; I probably won't wear them. But give me a silly costume-jewelry pin that reflects my interests and I'll love it and wear it. Or give me a couple pieces of quilt fabric, tied up with a big bow. Or a new book of knitting patterns. Or a mystery I've not read. And that is what it takes to make me happy. Not a car, or a boat, or any of that stuff.