[Nfb-krafters-korner] Yarn Humor: Gift Giving

[Maria and Joe Chapman]

oh love this, really enjoyed the rread.
Cheers 
Maria  

sent from mac mini 
email, & fb bubbygirl1972 at gmail.com
skype bubbygirl1972  twitter same as skype without the numbers. 





On 16/09/2013, at 6:53 AM, Susan Roe <dogwoodfarm at verizon.net> wrote:

> Writer, illustrator, and knitter Franklin Habit joins us for his monthly column featuring humor and insights into a yarncrafter's life.
> 
> To be a needleworker of the gift-giving sort is to live your life with one eye on the calendar. As I write this it's late summer,­ but I'm already thinking
> of December. I have no choice. The holidays inevitably require a bit of gift knitting. If I hope to show up with something other than a ball of yarn and
> a promise, the planning must begin now.
> 
> Let me clarify that I am not a knitter of the everybody-gets-a-matching-hat-and-mittens variety. I admire those folks. They have largesse. They have stamina.
> They have stout, resilient hearts; because to be a needleworker of the gift-giving sort is also to live your life in a perpetual state of heartache. Or
> maybe I mean heartburn. Probably I mean both.
> 
> One of the hard lessons we learn when we fall in love with needlework is that not everyone has fallen in love with needlework.You finish that first really
> successful crochet hat, and it's beautiful and it fits, and it's so much nicer than anything from the store, and you think of all the people you love who
> are walking around in store-bought hats.
> 
> Your heart, it breaks.
> 
> So you stock up on yarn and patterns and start whipping out hats. This one gets a hat, that one gets a hat, hats all around! Wrap 'em up! Pass 'em out!
> And for every hat recipient who screams with joy that she will never wear anything else ever again, ever, not even to the beach or fancy weddings, you
> have five who glance at your visible expression of affection rendered painstakingly in yarn and say, "Oh, thanks," put it back in the box forever, and
> change the subject to whether their goldfish is depressed enough to need talk therapy.
> 
> Your heart, it breaks.
> 
> This is why it's easier to get a kidney from me than a pair of socks. Yarn is precious. So is time. Yarn plus time is a luxury gift. Not everybody is deserving
> of it, not even the people you might think to put at the top of the list.
> 
> I once had a friend-we'll call her Trudy-who was quivering with excitement at knitting a spectacular cabled afghan for her dearest childhood friend's wedding.
> She spent two months swatching and planning an afghan so elaborate and original that it could well stand among the great cultural achievements of our age.
> I'm serious: Warhol's Marilyn, the music of John Cage, and this afghan. She balked when faced with the cost of the yarn (I won't tell you­-I'll just say
> there was yak involved); but this was an heirloom gift for a friend who'd been there for her first scraped knee. They had been allies through braces, breakups,
> college all-nighters, and evil bosses at terrible entry-level jobs. She was the kind of friend you know will run to your house after you die and toss all
> your trashy novels into the fireplace, then tell everybody at the funeral you were deeply into Proust.
> 
> Trudy finished the afghan and left it elegantly wrapped among the wedding presents, feeling smug. She waited for the reaction. The hugs and the happy tears.
> She got a note that said, "Thank you for the cute blanket."
> 
> Visiting the newlyweds a few months later, she spotted it lying in a corner of the guest room being chewed by the cat. "I guess he loves the flavor!" said
> the bride.
> 
> "At least," said Trudy, "the stupid cat appreciated the fiber content."
> 
> When I contemplate giving a piece of handmade anything as a gift, I always pause and consider whether I could handle it being used as a cat toy. If the
> answer is no, I give something store-bought.
> 
> Unless I decided to make a cat toy. Cat toys are fun to make.
> 
> For Kitty, With Love by Franklin Habit | Lion Brand Notebook
> 
> -
> 
> Writer, illustrator, and photographer Franklin Habit is the author of It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons (Interweave Press, 2008-now in its third printing)
> and proprietor of The Panopticon (
> the-panopticon.blogspot.com),
> one of the most popular knitting blogs on Internet. On an average day, upwards of 2,500 readers worldwide drop in for a mix of essays, cartoons, and the
> continuing adventures of Dolores the Sheep.
> 
> Franklin's other publishing experience in the fiber world includes contributions to Vogue Knitting, Yarn Market News, Interweave Knits, Interweave Crochet,
> PieceWork, Cast On: A Podcast for Knitters, Twist Collective, and a regular column on historic knitting patterns for Knitty.com.
> 
> These days, Franklin knits and spins in Chicago, Illinois, sharing a small city apartment with an Ashford spinning wheel and colony of sock yarn that multiplies
> alarmingly whenever his back is turned.
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