The holidays are coming too fast...

This is usually about the time I start thinking about my holiday gift-knitting. I've had my list ready for months now and I know what I'm making for each person on it, I'm just not sure how I'm going to fit it all in. Do you get that feeling? Right around the end of September? When you see the leaves changing you know its time to switch over to your cooler weather knitting and before you know it, the holiday season has crept up on you?

Now that I am gearing up for the holiday crafts shows and events, my personal gift-knitting seems to get pushed further and further down the "to-do list".  I could remember a time before this became a business for me that I enjoyed knitting to make handmade clothing and accessories for my family and friends, now I hardly ever get the chance to knit something that I want to give as a gift. I've found over the last two years that the business side of my knitting has increased astronomically and the fun side has declined terribly. Does anyone else feel like this during this time of the year?

I like to spend time picking out the perfect pattern and the perfect yarn for each person on my list and every year, I say to myself, I will start earlier with my gift-knitting so that I'm not scrambling at the last minute trying to get them done. But for the last two years business-knitting usually picks up considerably during the months of October, November and early December and I'm cranking out other people's holiday gifts that they'll be giving away instead of working on my own personal gift-knits.

The holidays in general can be a stressful time for everyone, what with the holiday decorations already out on display in many department stores as early as October! Then there is the the cooking and baking, holiday card sending, the list goes on and on. For some people this can a miserable time of year and it can put the perkiest, most upbeat person on the verge of depression.  So in light of this fact, I scoured the web to see what others had to say about the ways they deal with the holiday stress:

Nancy at A Rurual Journal writes about how she deals with stress this time of year in a post from last December, and I found after reading it, she had some really good ideas on how to de-stress and not let the holiday season become too overwhelming. One such solution she had was: "Knit. For the sake of knitting, with no objective in mind. Just knit."

Ah, what a novel concept, I haven't knit, just for the sake of it in over two years and during this season, I'm going to make a point to do just what she suggested. Something else, I like to do other than knit/crochet for relaxation is read and this holiday season, that will be on the top of my list of must do's. My son bought me a Nook Color last year for Christmas and I'm going to put it to good use!

Denise Dador on KABC-TV Los Angeles, CA wrote: Tips on how to de-stress during the holidays, December 2010. She gave tips on de-stress on the go by using accupressure: Dr. Lawrence Taw, an assistant professor of medicine at the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine showed us three accupressure points that reduce anxiety and promote calmness. The first is a well-known one found on your hand: the pressure point between your thumb and your index finger.

"The most effective way of finding it is putting your thumb and index finger together," said Dr. Taw.

Apply pressure for 15 to 20 seconds.

"You press until you feel a sensation, that's how you know you're stimulating the point. For some people, it's very minimal stimulation, for other people you have to go much deeper," said Dr. Taw.

Jennifer Walters at Shape Magazine wrote: 3 Ways to de-stress over the holidays, November 2011. My favorite tip she gave was number 3: Say "no." Most of us get stressed during the holidays because we're overscheduled and feel obligated to do things when we really don't feel like it (or have the time). So this year, make a commitment to do less and prioritize your time for only the events that are the most important to you. Do this, and you'll kick holiday stress to the curb.

Saying, "No", yeah I have an issue saying that word, too often I find myself overwhelmed because I commited myself to doing too many things at the same time, because I just couldn't say "no". Well that will be my buzz word this year, well at least to a certain extent it will...

Above are only three of probably hundreds of great articles on tips and solutions to deal with stress during the holdiays, I know if you type in your search engine "de-stress during the holidays" you will get hundreds more, but I would like to hear from you, what do you to de-stress, or not get too overwhelmed, or deal with the anxiety of the holiday season, leave me a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy knitting!!!

Knitter Mama's upcoming events

I am signed up to have a booth at the Renton Harvest Festival on October 13th at the Piazza in Renton, WA, I'm signed up once again for the Pre-Black Friday Holiday Bazaar taking place on November 17th at Kent Meridian High School in Kent, WA, and I'm also signed up for the Kent Winter Craft Bazaar on November 30th & December 1st at the Kent Commons in Kent, WA. So I'm going to be pretty busy for the next two months!

I hope all of you are enjoying the fall season so far, with the leaves changing to the lovely colors of the season - orange, red, and yellow and all the variations of these colors. Now is the time to start pulling out those fall knit projects that you put away during the summer.

Now is the time to start thinking about your holiday knitting as well. Do you have your gift-knitting list ready? Do you have patterns picked out? How 'bout the right yarn for each of those patterns? I'm sure your LYS is starting to get in the great colors and fibers (wool, alpaca, cashmere, silk, etc) of the season, so go check them out!

Happy Knitting!!!

Time for another drawing

October's drawing winner could win one of the new crochet hats that I've completed over this weekend. The pattern designs come from Diane McGettigan, who if you remember my post from January 14, 2011 - Crochet Cloche Progress, I talked about a cloche I crocheted from one of Diane's patterns, that was a big hit for my friend's mother and one of my friends asked for one as well.  I really do love Diane's designs, so much that I bought two more of her patterns last week and now I'm offering one of them to one lucky winner of the this month's drawing.  All of Diane's designs are lovely and I will probably buy more because they are so quick and easy to make.

So here are the choices for this month's drawing:

Uptown Fedora

Gold Winged-Brim Beanie Cap

Tangerine Winged-Brim Beanie Cap

These are just samples of the designs, they can be made in different colors and the winner will have their choice of the following colors, Pumpkin/Tangerine (above), Butterscotch/Gold (above), Cranberry, Green, Grey, or Black.

To be entered in the drawing you have to go to my Knitter Mama Facebook page and post the final score of the Seahawks v. Green Bay game that aired on Monday night football (September 24). For everyone who posts to my page, your name will be entered into the drawing! Good luck!!!