Everyone knows the holidays this year are different. More so than any other year before. The holidays are usually a weird time for me every year anyways.
Thanksgiving this year was cancelled with my family. We were originally going to have around 26 people for dinner, lots of family I only get to see once a year and some I’d never met before. David’s family was supposed to be meeting my family this year for the first time as well which was super exciting. However with the virus becoming much worse in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, we decided to cancel and keep it very small: my mom, my dad, me, and David. The smallest Thanksgiving we’ve ever had.
It was hard having to cancel, and as it turns out most of them ended up going to a different relative’s house for Thanksgiving anyways. It was too much of a risk for my family though, and I know we made the right choice. My dad turned 70 less thank a week before Thanksgiving and has enough medical conditions to make any exposure quite scary. My niece tested positive for the virus as well, although as far as I know she did (does) not have any symptoms from it which is lucky.
My brother (DJ/Doug), his wife (MM), and other-brother Bobby all flew up to Alaska to visit my sister (Morgan) for Thanksgiving. DJ managed to get a frozen turkey through security to bring with them which was a riot to my family. We Facetimed while my dad cooked and showed them how to prepare the turkey for the oven.
To keep busy I’ve been knitting up a storm of slipper socks for everyone in my family. I managed to finish a pair for my mom, my dad, and myself while I still work on pairs for everyone else plus two more pairs that my mom commissioned for her friends as gifts. I also made a plain black scarf for my brother that he can wear with his uniform and have one more to make for my sister.
I think I ended up agreeing to more than I can handle. We plan on celebrating our Christmas early, on December 14th when DJ and MM come to visit. That gives me two weeks to make 4 more pairs of slippers and a scarf. The scarf takes two days and each pair of slippers takes a day if I don’t have too many distractions. Theoretically that should be totally fine, but when are there not too many distractions?
I realize I get quite anxious about handmade gifts. Last year and in most previous years I was too broke to even consider getting anyone gifts. I’ve never done a Christmas like this before where I’ve handmade everything I was giving to my family. I worry a lot about if they will like them or not, if they will actually wear or use them, if the colors will be right, if they will fit right. There are a lot of things to worry about it turns out. I know that these are fairly small things to be plagued with or they’re nonissues altogether but it still sits in the back of my mind while I knit.
I have plenty of anxiety in any case, but I think the added stresses of handmade items may be too much for me to want to continue every year. Plus who needs handknit slippers every Christmas? And no one needs more than one black scarf lol. I think instead I’ll do small paintings for everyone next year. Instead of asking what each person wants and taking on all of their individual desires and potential disappointments (yikes, that makes me nervous) I’ll just paint whatever I want that reminds me of them. Or who knows, maybe I’ll be less broke enough to buy something small for everyone instead! I’m not sure that Bobby would appreciate a small painting lol.
The lack of sun this year is killing me. I always seem too distracted to get up and get outside while it’s light out. I don’t even want to get into how much of a scam I think daylight savings time is. The world is catered to morning people and it’s a crime. (Kind of joking but also not really). I’m still working out new and better ways of coping with the feelings that come with wintertime and the holiday seasons.
Lately I’ve been relying heavily on ASMR videos on YouTube. My favorite voices belong to Ting Ting, Ardra, JB, and of course Maria from Gentle Whispering. It’s kind of unbelievable how much of an impact ASMR has had on my life (in a really good way). I’ll have to make a post sometime in the future about ASMR. Knitting has become kind of a neutral outlet for now. It’s feeling like a switch in hobbies is coming. I’ve been thinking a lot about embroidery so I may jump to that and test my hand at needle work that isn’t cross stitch. I fell in love with Stitching Sabbatical on Instagram and her pet portrait needle painting. I’m also following along with The Barmy Fox‘s stitch along even though I’m not actually stitching along with them. It’s been really relaxing to wake up and watch the new videos every morning and learn new stitches that I could practice at some point. I do feel like I need to find another outlet. I used to wake up and check on my baby apple sprouts every morning to boost my spirits and get me outside even for a few minutes but it’s past the season to watch them grow. I need a new plant to obsess over outdoors every morning, or maybe just a really cool bird lol.
Since this post turned into more of a downer than I planned, let’s end on a high note. David and I did a couple’s sweater shoot in which we modeled the sweaters I knit for both of us (the cover image is our “serious” picture lol). It was such a fun time and I think we’ll be doing more goofy shoots like it. I’m also slowly learning more and more about Adobe Sketchbook and all of the brushes and techniques to do digital drawings. I’ve had a little sketch of a frog hydra that I’ve been experimenting with for a couple months now and I think I’m starting to get the hang of this digital art thing 🙂 Once I do get it down, I’ll be uploading the drawings to Society6 for things like stickers or prints or other small items. I have a couple up there already but I want to do more in my own style of dragon hybrids and mythical creatures. I also dug up my big set of Prismacolor colored pencils so I think I’ll get back to traditional art as well. It’s been years since I’ve done a traditional drawing.
My next post will most likely include all of the finished knitted pieces I’ll be gifting for Christmas (even though my parents are already wearing theirs!). It should be a busy couple weeks coming up.
What hobbies are you getting into right now? Do you cycle through different hobbies throughout the year?
