Upcoming holidays = mania

Let me start out by saying that I don't *have* to knit presents for the holidays. It would be nice to have some finished, but it's not like I'm depending on them. But for some reason as soon as the air turns chill (finally happened like last week), and the holiday decorations go up around the neighborhood (don't look at my house, we still haven't cleaned up the leaves from the yard), I get attacked by the knitting bug. No, this isn't just a bug, it's more like a swarm of africanized killer knitting bugs. I NEED to knit, I have tons of things I want to knit, I have new yarn I bought on recent trips I can knit with. I am almost done with my second Koolhaas hat, the first one being way too small for some reason. I'm almost to the heel on the second sock of a pair (actually the third, but we won't go there), and will hopefully get it done next week on my next flight. These are intended as presents. All well and good, with more than enough time to finish them.

But that's not where the mania starts. I want to knit myself a tam. Now that I work from my slightly-too-chilly home I can indulge in oddities like wearing tams during the day. I know which tam I want to knit, and even have the yarn ready.  But I have something I want to knit for D, and I never make him stuff so I'd really like to do it. But Knitpicks is conspiring against me and their website was so bogged down by cyber monday I couldn't order more yarn, and now won't have it in time to get it finished. And I feel the need to knit another pair of socks for our grandad, except I have to knit them in extra-honkin' huge size, so it's more like knitting sweater sleeves. And lets not forget the Clapotis shawl I have almost halfway done. But I also want to knit a warm shawl out of handspun to wear. And and and... So I'm definitely going to finish the hat and socks. And try to make D's item. And not worry about the rest. But I'm in that manic mood right now where I'd be happy sitting with a pile of DVDs knitting all day long. Alas! Hmm...maybe I can squeeze in a few more rows before bedtime.