Rejection

When knitting for kids, my greatest concern is always the potential mess that could be made of a hand-knit item. The food, the dirt, the falling and sliding and somersaulting, the inevitable destruction of anything in the hands of a three-year-old spells certain disaster for garments. While I don't enjoy this on my son's lovely Hannas, I really fear it with his hand knits. So imagine my surprise when little Marty decided he wouldn't wear a sweater that I had made him. What do you mean you won't wear it?!

I recently saw someone on eBay selling an adorable eggplant hat. The seller clearly stated that the hat had been hand knit for their baby, but they had never used it. As someone who often knits for others' babies, I was appalled. First of all, how do you justify not putting a cute hat like that on your baby? At least do it once for five minutes, snap a photo and include it with the thank you to the knitter. It seems like such a small 'inconvenience' considering the amount of time even a baby hat takes to knit. Second of all, how do you justify putting a hand-knit gift on eBay!!! Shouldn't it be passed on to the next baby, or a cousin, or in the baby's hope chest or in some way treasured?
P.S. The hat is currently at $.99 here.

Maybe I am being too sensitive. Marty's rejection of my sweater stung for a good while, which was okay because I had a new baby to knit for who hadn't yet learned to assert himself. A few months later, Marty's opposition to the manos sweater (from the Yarn Girls' Guide to Kid Knits) ended, and he gladly wore it.


And a closeup:

Peace, Fleece

I finally finished one of the sweater kits I ordered from Peace Fleece, for baby Jackson. I wanted a project where I didn't have to think about anything - the kit was great because it had the pattern, all the yarn - including little balls for the colorwork in the collar, and even the buttons. There may be enough yarn leftover for a matching hat. I have another Peace Fleece kit, the everyday cardigan, but I have another project for myself in mind before I get to that. I'm so happy to have finished a handknit for my wee one:



I have a few other things on the needles, and some FO's that were out the door before I got pics, but I am happy to be finally knitting on a regular basis again!

Doell Family Happenings

Photo mishap

My apologies for the lack of recent posting... knitting is actually happening, but photos are not. Will post again, soon, when the issue of image storing is resolved. Thanks!

Sorry Charley!

3 months after Christmas, and Rob's Charley sweater is half-way done. I love working on it - the cable pattern is simple but interesting, and the Rowan all-seasons cotton is great to work with. But the sweater is for a large guy and my knitting time has been crippled by this guy:


But, I have got half a sweater, with the 2nd raglan sleeve cast on, so we are making progress. I haven't abandoned it, after all. Here's a close-up of the front:

Mom's gift

For Mom, the fog chaser jacket from Knitter's Stash. (I can't believe how many projects I have made, and want to make, from this book!) The jacket still needs to be blocked to Mom's measurements, and hopefully once that's done I'll have a shot of it on her. The yarn is from Mountain Colors and uses 4 strands of mohair, wool, silk, and ribbon, in the ruby river colorway. I loved the seed stitch pattern and really enjoyed making this. Hopefully Mom will like it as well.

Confession

Today, January 6, 2006, marks the day I sent out my holiday cards. Knowing they would be late, I did have the good sense to order Happy New Year cards, but that is not much of an excuse.

How odd that the holiday knitting was finished before the holiday cards? (Not counting Rob's sweater of course, but that's what he gets for being 6'4" - he'll never get a sweater on time!)