Thursday, March 31, 2011

Letting Go

Day Four: 31st March. Where are they now?

Today's Topic:  Whatever happened to your __________?  Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity.

I will admit, I'm a bit of a control freak.  For example, I used to not be able to have my mom or my mother-in-law help me out in the kitchen. (i.e. when they stayed with me after my children were born).  I hated to walk in and find something where it didn't belong. I  never said anything; they were so nice to come down and help, but ohhhh those types of things bugged me.  I guess having children helped me in that department.  Kids definitely have a mind of their own.  And, now, I welcome the help when the moms visit and wait until they've gone home to return things to their proper place.

How does this relate to knitting, you wonder.  Well, it's taken me a while to get to the point where I'd not worry about what would happen to a gift that I knitted for someone....would they lose the socks?  Well, let me tell you...they lose the socks...both of my kiddos have lost socks that I knitted for them. It's just the way it goes.  They don't love me any less.  They don't love those socks any less (maybe they didn't completely love them to begin with...some were too small or too large or really, I'll admit, not very attractive).  Kids lose stuff.  Husbands lose stuff too,  Especially husbands who travel for business.  I can't even tell you how many  of my husbands (store-bought) socks have made it to the Land of Lost Socks.

They lose hats too...my husband left one somewhere.  hmmmm...not quite sure where.  My niece left a hat here at Christmas.  (At least I know where it is).

And, they try to take care of hand-made knits but don't always know how.  For example this sweater hung on a hanger for a while.  The straps have stretched out so much that the sweater is un-wearable.  I intend to fix it.  But I haven't quite figured out what to do...take the original straps off and start again....wash and re-block and hope the straps shrink back to their original size?  Any suggestion about what to do would be greatly appreciated.

So I don't worry about the gifts anymore.  They get lost, they get stretched out, they shrink.  Oh well.  I can always knit more.

2 comments:

Deborah said...

Pretty! how about taking off straps and reknitting them in something other than garter stitch - same width but less vertical stretch?

iknit2purl2 said...

Great idea! Thanks!