That is a funnier post title if you are a member of my family. The story goes that my uncle, as a child, discovered the closet where Santa was hiding that year’s Christmas gifts. His mother found him and proceeded to interrogate him to figure out what, if anything, he had been able to piece together about his discovery. To the question, “Well, what have you learned?”, my uncle replied, tears running down his face, “Santa is a very nice man!”

And, indeed, he still is. I received several knitting-related gifts this year. I am very excited about the set of these:

They are even more wonderful in person. I was a little nervous about the crazy colors, but they are more subtle than I thought, and a joy to knit with. I immediately transferred my Clapotis to a circular, as it was becoming a bit unwieldy as the increase rows progressed.

Eventually I’ll make my knitting resolution list for 2008, but here’s a spoiler: I want to become far more comfortable with socks. To aid me in this endeavor, Santa sent some treats: sock yarn from The Plucky Knitter and Madelinetosh, and Ann Budd’s Getting Started Knitting Socks (it is raining and I am lazy. I will add the links to these folks eventually. Promise.)

Clearly, Boh is just as excited about the yarn as I am.

I also received a surprise treat from my grandmother. She taught me to knit more than 20 years ago, and though it needed about that long to hibernate before I returned to it, she is super excited that I have taken it up again with such fervor. She dug through her basement and invited me over to show me this:

Which were inside this:

I started looking through these, but ultimately decided that they deserve a rainy day and a pot of tea — like today. Too bad I have to go to work in about 20  minutes. This bounty was accompanied by a garbage bag full of acrylic blend yarns and a few unfinished projects. I couldn’t say no to the stash, despite the fiber content, and I’m thinking that it would be great to begin work on a log cabin blanket for my grandmother using her yarn. I am also in need of a mindless project…I’ll have to look at the colors and make some decisions before casting on.

Vacation is over — back to the office. The weather seems to agree with me that this is less than ideal.