One more day between now and Christmas might have allowed me to finish everything that I wanted to, or I might just have added more items to my “to-do before/by Christmas” list, leaving me exactly where I am now: ready to go-to-sleep despite not having everything done, and if I have learned nothing else, I have learned this: time waits for no woman. Not even me.

But while my mother, my son, and my husband are each short one gift that I intended to get done before Christmas, I did make some progress today that I think is worth noting.

This past Thanksgiving we went to Washington, D.C. The trip was mostly a resounding success, but in our packing and unpacking, a winter hat that I had made for my husband got lost. This was a particular disappointment to him as I had made it in the same yarn that I had used to make a scarf.

Then, this past Wednesday when I skipped dinner to hang out the LYS near my home, I saw this yarn:

A wool and rayon blend, it was a shade of blue that I thought would be perfect for a new scarf to go with the new hat that I would be making for my husband, and in my search for the perfect scarf pattern, I came across free crochet and knitting patterns at The Seamen’s Church Institute, and ecumenical agency to promote “the safety, dignity and improved working environment for the men and women serving in North American and international maritime workplace.”

Among the patterns was one that made use of a series of double crochet stitches alternately worked in the front of the back loop. Here is the result:

and here is a detail of the stitch pattern:

My efforts to complete a seafarer’s hat using a pattern from the same website was not as straight forward.

Because I am using a yarn that is not the suggested or recommended yarn, I had more trouble matching the gauge. However, after several hours of missteps and frogging, I finally hit on a solution that will (I hope) work. This, however, is all I have to show for my efforts:

Clearly, there is a bit more work to be done, but be that as it may, Christmas has arrived despite the fact that I have not finished all that I had wanted to.

Hopefully my family will not mind, and at least after tomorrow morning I will no longer have to hide away their presents in my race to get them done.