This year I took on the project of helping with the Mitten Fairy. You see, here at Windsong there is a longstanding tradition wherein some unknown person knits mittens for all of the children under the age of eight. They then distribute them in the middle of the night while the kids are sleeping, sometime around the first frost. Or something. This tradition was started by a retiree and until this year, has been continued by a retiree. Because I am one of the few knitters here anymore - the retiree who was doing it most recently has also recently moved away to another province - I was asked to help out in taking it over.

Of course I said yes, because I love to knit, and I love the kids, and it really is a FUN tradition. I did have help, too. Another woman who is a friend of a neighbour knit 5 pairs and I knit three. She knit those five pairs in the time it took me to complete three mittens, because she is a retiree and doesn’t have a billion other things happening in her life. But I finally managed my three pairs.

Than I collected all of the mittens, put tags and felting instructions with them, and finally, FINALLY I distributed them. Just now. I went around to all of the kids’ houses and quietly left them hanging on the doorknobs for them to find when they come outside in the morning. Huzzah! A finished project! I finished it! Woot!

Oh, damn - I just realized I forgot to photograph the mittens. Ah well, I’ll just have to do it while the kids are wearing them or something.

Now I am knitting Kiernen a hat to match his mittens (I chose the colours for all of the mittens AND I got to keep the leftover yarn). Because he knows about the hat, he has had some input into it. It has his name written across the front. And it will have snowflakes on it. And it will be pointy like Noddy’s* hat and have a jingling bell at the tip.

* - He knows Noddy from the story books. You see, Noddy is very popular in England. And when I was little, my grandmother brought me some Noddy books from England. I still have two of the three, and these are what I’ve been reading to Kiernen. He LOVES these books as much as I did when I was little. So for Solstice, he is getting many more of them, and also a stuffed Noddy and Big Ears the Brownie. I’m pretty sure he will love this gift, because he asks me to read the Noddy books every night and every naptime.

So I’m off to knit the hat. And then I”ll work on finishing the advent calendar I’m making for us (starting?), and the matching tree skirt. Oh, and the holiday curtains for the windows. Yeah.

Did I mention we’ve already got out lights up outside our house? We’re all in the spirit here. Because in Canada we don’t have Thanksgiving in November, we have it in October (thanks, Janaya. I really did know that.). So there is no demarcation between Halloween and Christmas except that the month might start with D. So we can get holiday crazy anytime we like.