I get asked to knit Christmas (and birthday and other) presents for people from time to time, but I generally always turn them down.

This is not because I am a bad person or am callous and unfeeling. I am not selfish with my knitting. In fact, a good portion of my FOs are things I’ve gifted to others (and forgotten to photograph). I like it when somebody is happy because of something I’ve made. However, I am slow. Like the molasses.

I have some pictoral proof of this.

Exhibit A: The first pair of socks I ever learned to knit (aka Socks of Eternity)

These socks are nearly finished, but have been in progress for almost 5 years. At the moment, they are different lengths and I have bound off the top of one much too tightly. They’ve been in the “need to fix” stage for about a year and a half. This is silly. Obviously I should do something to remedy this.

Exhibit B: Garter Rib socks

I didn’t get excited about this pattern, so I put these in hibernation, and then frogged them. It may also be the case that I frogged them because I realized that while the Socks of Eternity might be going on 5 years, the Garter Rib socks might actually take a whole decade. I am looking for a pattern that will trick me into knitting faster.

Exhibit C: Interlocking Leaves socks

These are really fun to knit, really easy, and something I knit pretty quickly, yet they are also still in progress. Every three months or so, I do a little more on them, but get distracted again. I am at the cuff portion of the second sock, but have screwed something up. I plan on fixing it in June. Maybe.

And on and on. My Ravelry is full of these things. On the upside, I have nearly finished projects in the queue, so if somebody asks for a knitted thing, all I really have to do is finish something I’ve already started, and voila! I’m done.

(This does not apply to baby things – those are small and easy to finish quickly, except when I am knitting them from my own pattern, in which case I will knit only a small portion and then decide I have no skills, and give up. Like so

)