a different kind of knitted gift

I organised a little dinner at my place this past weekend. It was meant as an early holiday get-together before everyone disperses to their home countries for the festivities, but as several of the guests had been unavailable on my brithday, the dinner somehow turned into a belated birthday celebration as well. A very dear friend of mine showed up with a cutely packaged parcel which I received happily. (After all, gifts are always fun.) But what was inside nearly brought me to tears.

A pair of home-made slippers. Hand-knitted. Specifically for me.

They are beautiful, and comfortable, and warm, and squishy, and just PERFECT.

My friend worried about handing them over, she was afraid I would notice the mistakes she had made, she went on about how she has been knitting for a far shorter time than me… I did not hear or see any of it. They were perfect. But it was more than that. What she gave me was not just a pair of perfect slippers. She gave me the experience of feeling what it’s like to be on the other side of the act that I rejoice in so much – knitting, in secret, a special something which is made just right for a specific person, with them in mind the whole time, through the planning, the choosing, the matching, and the making.

It was a magical feeling. Thank you, Mirna, for the best gift ever.

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do you wear your knits?

Last weekend, during our standard Saturday-morning coffee date, my best friend was playing with her nice new camera. I was chewing on a large sandwich and I hadn’t washed my hair or put on any make-up, but I had no choice than to play model for her. Or rather, as she put it, “just ignore her and act natural”. Umm, yeah. :D

Contrary to my expectations, though, I ended up with some nice photos of me, and one very nice photo of my Scroll Lace Scarf. This hadn’t been planned, I had just thrown it on that morning, as on many other mornings. It reflected the fact that, while I keep very few of my knits to myself, I really do wear those that I keep.

So I thought we could have a little challenge! In the next week, post a photo of yourself wearing something you knit. The only rule is that the photo must not have been taken with the aim of showing off your knitted item, it should be a sort of everyday photo, or a photo from a special event, in which the knitted item just happened to find itself.

Put the link to your photo in the comments below, and let us know when the photo was taken and what you were doing. You have until the end of Friday, January 28! On Saturday, I’ll let the random number generator do its magic and put together a nice little prize for one lucky person!

You can post the photo on your blog, on Flickr (or similar sites), on your Ravelry project page. If none of those are available to you, Imageshack offers a nifty service which allows you to upload a single photo and get the link to it without having to register or anything.

All clear? Let’s play! :)