Knitting Gifts

I knit and crochet; mostly knit. I do this sporadically, increasing my knitting frequency in winter. Knitting lore says to never knit a sweater for your boyfriend or girlfriend because it will cause a breakup (much like the taboo against tattooing oneself with a lover's name). I've made a few knitted and crocheted gifts for friends; I don't do it often, because it's a lot of work and you're never really sure if that person's going to like and use the thing you made. If you buy someone something they don't use, does it really matter? Sure, you may have spent your hard-earned money on the gift, but did you have a hand in the creation of the gift? No!

Now a knitted gift - on the other hand - is intense. Every inch of that yarn has passed through the knitter's hands.

Which is why I thought it was so very, very strange that I saw my EX-very close friend on a street corner in Downtown San Francisco yesterday... with a big mauve ombre scarf I crocheted for her a few years ago (when we were still friends) wrapped around her neck! What a freak! I threw away every single thing she'd ever given me long ago, except for a Junko Mizuno book she gave me, which I couldn't bear to throw away, so instead I put it in a box and stacked it with her other unpacked moving boxes in her garage, where her grandchildren will probably find it in fifty years when she dies.