swap

On Ravelry I’m in a group called Susan Knits for all of us named Susan. Some of got together to do a swap. The swap consisted of 200 gms of yarn and a local item. My partner and I decided to do one edible local item and one non-edible local item. She sent a bottle of Raspberry Shrub, which is apparently from colonial times and local to her area - which of course I had never heard of before, and a ceramic cup made from a local artist. I love my package, and the yarn is fabulous.

I hope she enjoys my package to her as much as I enjoyed receiving mine! I sent her a box of different recipes from well known San Francisco Bay Area restaurants from a company called 86 Recipes. For the edible item I sent her Scharffen Berger chocolate, which is a local chocolatier that specializes in dark chocolate.

The first thing I thought of for a local edible item for San Francisco was obviously sourdough bread. I was not going to ship sourdough bread to Pennsylvania. The second thing I thought of was wine from Napa. Though she did indicate that she loves wine, it’s way too difficult to ship it. The third thing I thought of for a local item was Chocolate. There are so many chocolatiers in the bay area. My only concern was that nowhere did she indicate that she likes chocolate. I’ve found that most people who enjoy wine, also enjoy dark chocolate so I took a risk and sent her some Scharffen Berger. I hope she likes it, or has someone she can give it to who will enjoy it.

best friend bear

The bear is done! It’s so satisfying having a finished object. The baby shower probably won’t be until the end of June, but it was nice getting in a smaller project before proceeding with the afghan.

The pattern for the bear was interesting. It’s knit flat pretty much in one piece using short row and increasing/decreasing through out to shape it. The arms were the only pieces you had to attach. The two other stuffed animals I’ve made were knit in separate pieces and then all seamed together. I’m not sure which method I prefer.

The sweater for the bear was made using left over Dalegarn Free Style Yarn in colors burgandy, blue, orange and green. In retrospect I would have put the stitches on for the sleeves much earlier since the arms are pretty skinny. I ribbed the bottom of the sweater instead of using the rolled edging, and I didn’t stitch on the white part of the eye.

gifting

nataliedee.com

Lately I’ve had gifts on my mind. Currently I’m knitting a teddy bear for a baby shower gift and an afghan for a wedding gift - both of which are surprises. When I’m knitting a gift I usually think about the person who it’s intended for, and I wonder if they’ll love it and what their experiences with my handmade gifts will be.

I’d like to think that the people I give my gifts to love and appreciate them. I know they appreciate the effort, but I wonder how many of them truly love the actual gift itself. In my years of knitting the majority of the projects I’ve made have been made for others. I want to say that I’ve been able to tell when people have truly loved the gift, but in reality who knows?

Personally I’ve only ever received 2 hand-knit gifts made just for me, mostly due to the fact that most of my friends don’t knit. My friends who do knit are fairly new to knitting and/or are not crazed about it as I am. I truly appreciate the thought that went into the gifts, and I always try my best to be as enthusiastic and receptive when receiving a gift even if I don’t particularly love it. I certainly know what it feels like to be the one giving the gift and want to make sure the giver feels validated.

When I’m trying to pick out yarn/project for a gift I try my best to pick out what I hope is the perfect project for that person. While the thought put into a gift is always appreciated, I really feel like a hand knit gift should ultimately be meaningful to the person you’re making it for.

I am no guru on gift giving, and by no means do I claim to know all, but when I’m asked advice on choosing a knitted project, these are general guidelines I suggest:

1. What is the person’s general sense of style? Do they like clean streamlined things? Do they like more fun fuzzy things? Do they like to wear what’s trendy? Do they prefer the simple basic style?

2. If you have a particular item you want to make in mind, think about if you’ve ever seen them wearing/using the item. If you have, what is the general style, length, width, etc.? If you haven’t, perhaps you shouldn’t make them that item unless they’ve specifically expressed a desire for it.

3. What colors does this person wear the most? What colors have they expressed they love? What colors have you never seen them wear/use? Never ever gift someone a color you’ve never seen them wear unless they’ve specifically expressed a desire for it.

4. What sort of fibers have you seen the person wear? Are they allergic to anything? What weather/climate does the person receiving the gift live in?

I think the most important thing is to try and match the recipient’s preferences. Now this all seems like common sense, but I think for those of us who love giving gifts, we get caught up in giving what we would love to give them, and what we have always wanted to see them wear/use. I struggle with this all the time as the one gifting, but ultimately I would hate for someone to receive a gift they have to pretend to love and then feel pressured to wear it/have it around when the one who made it is around.

The flip side to all this is of course is that as the one gifting, you do the best that you can and there is no way to guarantee that the person will love the gift save for having them pick it out themselves, which of course ruins all the fun of a surprise present.

If someone has a polite, non-offensive, no hurt feelings way to say to someone, ‘thanks for thinking of me, but I really don’t like that, could you make it this way?’ I would love to hear it. I would also love to hear stories about what you did as a recipient of a knit gift that you didn’t care for. I think we would all like to believe that our closest friends and family would be able to be honest and tell us so, but in reality I doubt it happens much.

Hmm, so I guess I had more to say about this than I had originally anticipated. If you’ve been on the receiving end of my knit gifts and didn’t particularly care for the gift let me know… I take that back, now that I think about it I’m not sure I really want to know… does that statement completely discount everything I’ve just written? LOL