Santa's Secret Madhouse

Did I procrastinate? I mean, really, beginning in August, then taking a brief vacation from September to October in way of beginning the Christmas-Workshop does NOT seem like procrastination to me at all. AT ALL. Apparently so. I am not the only one. On Ravelry there are groups dedicated to the Christmas Madhouse Workshop.  Really, I didn't realize how much holiday guilt would be involved: see, there are some things only knitters get.

For instance, what if someone were to make a pair of socks with some really nice hand-dyed sock yarn for cousin/sister (insert relation here) A... and then Relation B in the opposing corner gets a pretty sweater out of a decent (but not hand-dyed) wool-blend. A knitter would understand the effort and craftsmanship that applies to each. The hand-dyed quality of the yarn would be a huge plus--but a non-knitter might think, "I got dinky socks? and Relation B got a whole Sweater??" That's my issue...how do I make gifts for people that are equal in all eyes-- to the knitter, the non-knitter and the ever-so-rare breed of a non-knitting fiber fanatic (my mother enjoys playing with yarn--balling yarn for me, fondling it, looking at patterns...but I can't convince her to pick up the needles). My mother says that people mostly just appreciate a handknit gift. I agree with her. But I still have this nagging feeling that people will not understand that socks are as cool if not cooler than a sweater. In the case of knitting, bigger isn't necessarily better.