Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Weekly Topic #2 for Defeat the Winter Doldrums Dishcloth Swap

There are many people who ADORE receiving hand-knit or crochet items; but there are just as many who have no appreciation whatever of how much love, work, and time goes into a hand-made item. Share a story of a hand-made gift you gave to someone and how it worked out - good, bad, or ugly!

I can't imagine why people join knitting swaps if they don't like handmade items. But that was my experience in one swap a year or 2 ago. What I think is most annoying is that a lot of people are just so...meh...about a handmade gift. It's like they feel cheated out of a "real" gift if you give them something handmade. Forget the time you slaved over it, picked a pattern and colors especially for them, it means nothing if you didn't spend cold cash on it in the store.

One time, my sister and I worked really hard making a sampler (cross-stitch) for her sister-in-law who was getting married. We made our own design, with icons and such that were meaningful to her and her husband-to-be. It was a rather significant undertaking, as we had to design the whole thing ourselves, then stitch it out. You would have thought that we gave her a set of bedsheets or something. The response was: "Oh...it's a...is that supposed to be Big Ben? Ah, I see. Yeah...well...thanks." My sister and I were so crestfallen. Incidentally, we put Big Ben on there because they were going to London for their honeymoon. GRRR....

3 comments:

Katie J said...

Oooh, that was definitely an ugly story. Do you have pictures of it? I'd love to see it! I'm sure I would ooh and ahh over it. I used to cross stitch and understand the time that goes into that.

I gave many members of my family the "Mason Dixon" dishcloth and many were "meh" and someone even asked how long it took. Yes, it's a pretty fast item to knit, but sheesh, I could have been knitting something for me. Maybe this year I will!

Ok, stepping off the soapbox now.

Happy hopyllik to you!

Anonymous said...

I know, can you believe that. I think that there is so much more thought put into a handmade gift than any other. We can appreciate that because we know the time and effort that goes into it. The funny thing is that people always ask me to just whip them up things like it's no big deal!! From your secret swap partner!

Gina said...

Hey Swap Pal!

Thanks for posting!! I know EXACTLY what you mean when people are like "Hey, can you make me a sweater-coat? And I was an intarsia dragon on the back. I need it in 2 weeks. K? Thanks!" ARGH!