August 25, 2017
Dear Everyone:
It’s Halloween!
I know what you’re thinking.
Heck, it’s not even
Labor Day yet. Halloween
is two whole months away. Or
so you would think.
Last week, when I stopped in a craft store, there were Halloween
decorations all around. But
hey, it’s a craft store. If
you’re going to make a Halloween costume, you need to get started early,
right? Don’t wait until the
last minute.
But when I stopped in a regular grocery store this week, one I don’t
usually patronize, they had whole displays of plastic cat and dog
skeletons, decorated pumpkins, the whole shebang.
What’s going on?
Christmas, of course.
The retailers are pushing Halloween now so they can start pushing the
Really Important Holiday as early as possible.
That would be the Christmas Shopping Season.
Time was when the Christmas Shopping Season began the day after
Thanksgiving. Anything
earlier than that was considered inappropriate.
In fact,
FDR
moved Thanksgiving a week earlier in 1939 in hopes of bringing the
country out of the
Great
Depression. (Spoiler
Alert! It didn’t work.)
Now
Back-To-School and Halloween are back-to-back so retailers can begin
advertising Christmas shopping in October.
By the time Christmas actually rolls along, you’re actually
almost sick of hearing about it.
Unless you’re under 12, of course.
On the other hand, it pays to get ready early.
Last year, I had my idea for the Christmas Project, but had to
wait until someone came out with a “traditional”
Christmas
stocking that I could use as a pattern before I could get started.
Then, when everything was ready, the office store that I used for
shipping scrambled half the packages and wasn’t that a mess?
Between that and the Great Christmas Shipping Disaster of 2013, I am
resolved to have as much preparation done as early as possible.
Nevertheless, starting on a Christmas Project before
Summer is even over
seems a tad bit excessive.
Let’s at least wait until the predicted high temperatures drop down into
the 70’s, shall we?
In other news…
My “prototype” sweater is approaching completion.
After working with leftover yarn, I picked up some of those
Really Big One Pound Skeins of acrylic yarn, on sale of course, in a
rather lovely shade of
royal blue.
That way, when one attempt didn’t quite work out, I could just
cut the yarn and start over with another.
Not an approach I would recommend with everything; but it works
with cheap yarn.
Of course, it would be so much easier to follow a pattern written by
someone else. But that’s
rather like
Paint-By-Numbers. You
end up with something attractive, but it’s not really your own.
Back when I made all my own clothes, including custom-tailored
business suits, I frequently mixed different patterns to get what I
really wanted for myself.
Once I get this sweater “exactly right”, I’ll consider doing it again in
a much more expensive yarn.
There’s a specialty store in
Walnut
Creek that dies their own yarn.
The only question is whether they can do a batch large enough.
We’ll see. After
Christmas, of course.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |