I've been thinking about my knitting, as I am wont to do.
I realized that once I knew someone else knit, I haven't really given any handmade gifts to them (aside from the handspun to Laura).
I think this is the wrong approach. After all, who better to appreciate a well-made item than someone who actually understands what goes into making it? My reasoning has always been that "they can probably make it themselves, and probably would want to."
Well, everyone is good at different aspects of the craft. Personally, I love cables, socks and two-strand colourwork really seems to blow my skirts up. I can do lace, and can enjoy it, but I'm not totally in love with it, as evidenced by my half-finished shawl that I wandered off from sometime in May. Since that time, I've tended towards comfort-based projects; things I can knit on in the dark, or without being glued to a pattern. I tend to knit as a means to keep my hands busy whilst being social, when I'm on the road, or with my yarn shoved into my bag as I wait for someting. You know, activities that involve being distracted and interrupted a lot, which lace has no patience for.
Maybe this winter I'll have some time at home where I'm sufficiently relaxed to be reabsorbed into fiddly projects.
And in the meantime, maybe I could think about actually making gifts for my crafty friends. Just because you can do it yourself probably doesn't mean you wouldn't enjoy the occasional pressie. Just a thought.
spinning (not just plates)
1 year ago
2 comments:
Good knitting gifts from friends are things that you've made but aren't projects they're likely to do themselves.
For example, I do not like colorwork. So if the CG were to do her awesome colorwork for me, then that'd rock.
So your handspun, at the time, was very appropriate.
But I think that you should knit for you, ultimately, and if something inspires you to knit for another knitter, then go for it. Don't beat yourself up if you aren't inspired, though.
I think it'd be awesome to have a knit gift from a friend, but only if they saw it and said "OMG that just screams Darcy, she MUST have it". I agree you should do some selfish knitting now and again.
BTW, lace is my favorite and most comfortable knitting style. I *can* do cabling, but certainly wouldn't call myself a master. And no way can I crank out socks at the pace you do (except our fav. 2-row 2-color ones). So even though we seem to have near identical taste in knitted items, it's clear we go down different tracks in our actual production choices.
Speaking of, as soon as I finish the Maelstrom socks I just started, I'm finally casting on the Pecan Pie beret.
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