The Gift

Some of you might already be aware that I gifted a handknit wrap to my friend and fellow blogger Luanne Castle. You can see her post by clicking HERE.

The design is the Floating Waves Wrap by Amy Christoffers. I love this designer’s work! I can’t best the photo of Luanne modeling the wrap, but here’s a couple of more photos that I had intended to publish.

I should have added something to the above photo to give it scale … like me lying alongside it. The wrap is longer than my height.

I enjoy taking close-ups of my knitting. Even while I was knitting, I often stopped to admire the seemingly intricate mosaic design. I say seemingly because, gosh, it was a simple design to knit.

The yarn–Rowan Kidsilk Haze–is a mohair and silk blend, incredibly soft and light.

Why Gift?

I love to knit but I can’t/won’t keep everything I knit. I knit for my mental health, my desire to create, my desire to learn. What might attract me to a particular design is not always my desire to wear the design; sometimes I just want a challenge. I want to learn a new technique or try a new yarn. Then what?

It wasn’t a problem when I was employed. I often wore sweaters, shawls and/or scarves to work … sometimes even indoors given how cold our offices often were. But I’m no longer employed. In fact, I’ve been whittling down my wardrobe because my “need” for variety has severely decreased since retiring.

So gifting seems like a good way for me to enjoy knitting without worrying about the item eventually languishing in a chest. This is not a new thing. I’ve been gifting since I was a teenager. Sometimes the recipient knows they are getting a gift; most often they don’t.

How Do I Decide to Gift?

I don’t have a good answer for this. Sometimes I’ll see a design and immediately think of who I’d like to give the completed garment to. That has happened several times, mainly with my sister Shirley for whom I managed to knit four shawls before she died.

Once I knitted a very colorful bolero-style sweater with three-quarter length sleeves. It was supposed to be for me. I had every intention of keeping the sweater for me. But when I finished it and tried it on, I immediately thought of a friend who works as an artist in a cold, damp warehouse. The sweater with its three-quarter length sleeves would serve her well.

With the Floating Waves Wrap, I thought of Luanne after I had started knitting. Something just clicked in my head, and I saw see her wearing the wrap at one of those writing conferences where the rooms are always ice-cold. It wasn’t anything she said or did. Well, as she notes in her post, we have been friends for a long time, on and off the blogosphere, so there’s that.

The decision to send the wrap to her was spontaneous. The knitting took a lot longer … lol.

Do I “Gift” On Demand?

It wouldn’t be a gift then. Let me tell you a story: Once I had a boss who didn’t know how not to be bossy. It was her nature. So when she got pregnant, she decided that I would knit a bear hat for her newborn. Yeah, she didn’t ask if I would do it. Just came in and said what she wanted. She had already found a pattern (thank goodness). I made her buy the yarn because she wanted it to be orange (her favorite color). My “gift” was my labor.

This boss was smart but immature, a loud talker and prone to outbursts. At the same time, she couldn’t handle confrontations. Eventually, I learned if I stood my ground, she’d back down. But I didn’t know that then; otherwise, I might have found the courage to say, “no, I don’t knit on demand.”

The story has a happy ending. I knitted the hat and, yeah, it was cute and she was pleased (but, really, she had to be since it was her idea) and that was the end of that. Eventually she went on maternity leave (yay!) and then quit (yay! yay!).

Will I Gift Again?

Of course! What, when and to whom are to be determined. I have lots of knitting projects waiting to be started. I’ve toyed with the thought of doing giveaways, maybe hats, scarves, and other small items. We’ll see. In the meantime …

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Thank you for reading!

Here’s Wendy waiting for the automatic feeder to dispense her lunch. Two minutes to go and she’s not taking any chances of missing her meal. She’s also hoping that Raji sleeps through lunch so she can double-dip. And, yup, that’s my spinning wheel in the corner.