What is Santa knitting this year?

Good morning and happy a Saturday! This is my last weekend this year as Santa for our annual Pet Pictures With Santa fundraiser for Italian Greyhound Rescue. It takes place at Pet Supplies Plus on Western Ave (near the SUNY entrance) from 11am to 3pm each day, just in case you’re interested in bringing your pet down for a photo. We are pretty sure I have been doing this for 17 years because it was not long after adopting our first Italian greyhounds (that was in 1999 and 2000) that I got roped into this.

At first I shared the duties with someone else so that no one was Santa both days both weekends. I do not remember when or how it turned into being just me for the last decade of that or so. Not that I am complaining either. I love doing it despite how physically taxing it is. The Santa suit, or the personal polyester sauna as I call it, is exactly what that term implies. Add in the physical exertion required to hold even the smallest of dogs still for a photo and the temperature rises quickly in that thing. There have been weekends some years where I physically hurt the next day because it was really busy and with a lot of difficult to hold dogs.

Still, I do it every year, and at this point I don’t think there are many (any?) pet store Santas with more years on the job as me. I love doing it despite the near torture of it as it must sound from my point of view. The benefits of the job make the working conditions worth it. I am so happy to be able to give my time to help raise money for my favorite rescue group, I get to have dogs and cats and sometimes rabbits or rodents come and sit on my lap all day.

In between photos, if there is time, I knit. Which brings us to the subject of this morning’s blog title. As I sat in the chair knitting a sock last weekend, Santa’s photographer (our area rescue rep) asked me if that was the same sock I was knitting last year. It couldn’t have been, but after thinking about it for a bit, it isn’t the same sock but it is that sock’s mate. Yep, I have had the same pair of socks on the needles for at least a year.

I went to look back on the pictures I posted to Facebook last year to try and prove this, but that showed me with a different sock. Just to be sure, I looked at 2015 and that was the same picture I posted in 2016. So we didn’t get a photo of Santa working on his sock last year. Still, I’m certain it is the mate. I have not been a productive knitter in the last year. I have spun a lot. I have woven more than I have in previous years too. That all cuts into knitting time. So does an energetic 3 year old pharaoh hound, and no matter what else I may want to do, I will always set it aside to play with her or just snuggle on the couch.

This morning I am planning a weaving project while I work on another. On my rigid heddle loom is a scarf that I started last weekend, and in the other corner of the room I have set up my rectangular continuous thread loom on its stand, ready to go as soon as I decide what is going on it. In a couple of hours it will be time for me to go sit on Santa’s throne for the day. Have a great weekend!