It's that time of year that if you're thinking about knitting holiday gifts, you should be doing more than thinking. This year I'm planning a couple of knit gifts, though I don't usually knit more than one or two things for family or friends this time of year.

It's probably folly to be trying to make gifts with a new baby in the house taking up most of my time, but I guess I'm feeling more of a desire for gifts to be personal now that there's someone around I'd rather not expose to a bunch of ugly commercialism.

Whatever your motivation, this week I'd like to know if you knit holiday gifts, and how you feel about that. I know some people feel guilty that they don't knit much for others (though I see nothing wrong with knitting for yourself!) while others really love knitting gifts. If you fall squarely on one side or the other of this continuum, I'd love to hear from you. And I'd also like to know what everyone's knitting for gifts this year -- I promise I won't tell!

My husband and I aren't big on decorating for Christmas, and we don't really have room for a Christmas tree, but for a couple of years when we moved into our house we did have a tree, which was decorate mostly with ornaments I scored half price when I worked at Hallmark and some of those cheap glass ball ornaments that everyone seems to have.

I don't know why we do that to ourselves. These ornaments are so plain, so lacking in personality. A Christmas tree should show your creative side, not be a yawn.

Should we ever put up a tree again, I'll be ready with projects to dress up plain glass ball ornaments, like this Fair Isle Christmas Ball Band. It's a super-simple 4-row repeat worked on 9 stitches for as long as you need to fit around whatever sort of ball you're trying to cover. You can knit up a couple in an evening in different colors, using bits of stash and letting your personality run wild. Have fun and have a more exciting tree to show for it.

There are tons and tons of different wool yarns on the market, and sadly it would be impossible to keep up with them all. But I have reviewed a good number of different wool yarns to help give you an idea of what yarns work for what projects and some brands you might want to look for when you're shopping for your next wooly project.

On these and other yarn reviews, note that some of them are set up so that you can add your own review just by clicking on the link that says "write a review." If you have thoughts to share about a yarn that doesn't have that link, send me an e-mail and I'll add your comments directly to the review.

And if you've got a favorite wool yarn that's not yet on my list, let me know about it and I'll see if I can review it and spread the word.

All this talk about wool has me thinking of another great quality of this fiber (and other fibers that come from animals): the ability to felt. Felting is an easy way to give your knit articles a different look, and there are lots of different ways to do it depending on the equipment you have at your disposal:

• Felting by Hand
• Felting with a Top-Loading Washing Machine
• Felting with a Front-Loading Washing Machine

Also check out some felting tips and information on how to make a felted swatch to make your design of felted articles a little easier and more precise.