Birthday knitting and a trip down memory lane

Knitting for birthdays and other special occasions is my new favorite thing. But like many knitters, I hate making things that recipients don’t like or appreciate. As a younger knitter, I was much stingier with my knitting time – you pretty much had to live in my house to get handknits. Now my home is overflowing with handknits, and I find myself in a more generous state of mind… yet I still want people to love what I make them. The solution, it seems, is to let them pick it themselves.

I started using this approach last summer, sort of. By “sort of” I mean that when my friend Dave celebrated his big 50th birthday in 2017, I sent him a certificate for a pair of handknit socks. I wasn’t able to celebrate with him in person. But I WAS able to celebrate #51 last summer in Cleveland, and that is when our consultation began. The result is this special pair of sheep socks. Dave is totally worthy of these socks because he and Pam introduced me and S1 to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival back in 2001, which predated my ability to knit. I KNOW IT IS HARD TO REMEMBER A TIME WHEN I DID NOT KNIT. But trust me, knitting lessons came in early 2002, and the rest is history. Here are Dave’s finished socks:

Just for fun… I was able to find some photos of MDSW 2003. Dave and Pam visited us and we all went together (although they had already moved to Cleveland by then), and Boy 1 was nearly 12 months old. Here are S1, Boy 1, and Dave hanging out on the porch:

At the festival, Boy 1 checks out the baby sheep:

He isn’t so sure about the bunny, though:

He’s definitely a fan of the sheepdogs:

And while I’m pretty sure Boy 1 didn’t eat these, I distinctly remember that S1 and Dave did:Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen fried Twinkies at the fair in years.

So a year and a half after he actually turned 50, Dave will be getting these socks in the mail. I really, really hope they fit… but they’ll probably spark joy even if they don’t. Happy Birthday, Dave!

On to simpler projects. Last August, I gave two people hats for their birthdays. Our friend Ed was visiting from Oregon, so we had our pattern consultation and stash shopping experience while he was here. Ed gets double bonus points for choosing handspun yarn from my stash. Boy 1 modelled it before it went out in the mail:

And Ed was kind enough to send a photo of him wearing it later (S1 painted the robot)!

And Emily also got a hat, but we deferred the consultation until cooler weather arrived. We postponed our meeting several times for one reason or another, but finally got together earlier this month. She tried on many of our “house hats” (as the pile of handknits is called) and declared “I want one exactly like this. Is that possible?” This is the hat she tried (made for S1 in 2015):

And this is the hat she got:

I only just now realized that the brim folds to the opposite side on these two. Hmmm. That is probably because I experimented with using German short rows instead of using the wrap-and-turn technique called for in the pattern, and I didn’t end up in exactly the same spot.

I have one more celebratory hat to make and we haven’t yet had the consultation about it, so we’ll wait to see how that turns out.

This is the document I share with hat recipients. Some people dig it, and others just want to come over and look at actual hats.

Do you knit gifts that are planned with the recipient?