Wendy Bernard - Knitted Gifts for All Seasons: Easy Projects to Make and Share

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Table of Contents

Guide

Knitted Gifts for All Seasons

ABRAMS, NEW YORK

Knitted Gifts

for

All Seasons

EASY PROJECTS TO MAKE AND SHARE

WENDY BERNARD

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

In my family, we had two knitting grandmas, and that meant we

got to reap the rewards of both sets of hands and hearts. When

I was really little and living in my hometown of Minneapolis,

Minnesota, I remember placing wet hand-knit mittens on my

paternal grandma Ivas radiator to dry after playing outside in

the snow. Those were perfunctory mittens; I dont remember

them being ornate in any way, I just saw them as something I

wore when it snowed, but they were made just for me. I dont

remember receiving them as a gift, but now I look at them in my

minds eye with a full heart.

My moms mom would make us things, too. Compared to

my dads mom, grandma Helen was a slow knitter, so we would

have to wait for the things she made for us, and there were times

when wed wait a year or more for a pair of her special slippers

and later in life, if you were getting married, youd hit the mother

lode and score an afghan. Every afghan she made was exactly the

same, except for possibly a slight variation in the ivory color or

brand of big-box store yarn (they were sturdy!), and I can say with

authority that they last, as mine sits in the cabinet that holds all

my linens. My sister still has hers, and Im pretty sure my brother

has his, too, and hes been married since the 1980s.

Giving and receiving isnt limited to knit items. Early on

when I was sweet on a boy, I would make a tin of chocolate

chip cookies and give it to my special someone. The empty tin

Knitted Gifts for All Seasons

would come back to me, and that meant I could look forward

to filling it once again. For me, and I am sure for others, the act

of baking is a time to ponder a friendship or feelings of love we

have for someone. Or sometimes it is the gift of time we give to

a loved one. It could be a few hours of sharing a skill, reading to

someone who is ill, or even raising donations for the American

Cancer Society when your best friends mom is stricken with

the disease.

My theory is this: We make and give gifts to others because

we know how good it feels to receive a gift that was made

specifically for you. It is like a giant daisy chain of giving and

receiving that links us all together. Your mom/sister/grandma/

friend/uncle/insert-someone-here gave something to you that

they made with their hands. Their energy and care delighted you,

and that energy continues on and compels us to share in turn. We

make stuff. We give stuff. We make and we give and sometimes

we get, and when the gifts are made by hand, everythings

sweeter. And there is something meditative when it comes to

making for others. It may be the repetition of the movements as

with knitting, the memorized stitches repeated over and over,

that lulls us into this place of thoughfulness. And in return, we

receive as our own gift time to think of the person for whom we

are knitting and how much we love them.

Introduction

Introduction

KNITTING FROM THIS BOOK

FIRST THINGS FIRST: SWATCHING?

YES, PLEASE.

When you choose to knit a gift for someone else, youll want to

be extra careful to be sure it will fit and that the yarn you choose

will produce an item that looks exactly the way you want it to. The

two factors that will help you to achieve this are gauge and drape.

Most knitters, with some experience following a pattern,

will understand what gauge isthe number of stitches and

rows or rounds you get for each inch or centimeter. If your

gauge matches the gauge specified in the pattern, it means the

finished product will be the same size as the one in the knitting

pattern. If your gauge differs by a stitch or two, and you knit a

sweater, it could end up being inches larger or smaller than

you intended.

Many knitters will also understand what drape is, which is

how the knitted fabric behaves, bends, or lies. As far as drape is

concerned, if you substitute a yarn for one that is specified in

the patternespecially if it is a different fiberyou could end

up with an item that is as stiff as a board even if you started the

project aiming for a nice lacy, delicate scarf. A good example is

the Trellis Scarf. The pattern calls for a light, fuzzy mohair yarn. If

you were to use a thin nylon yarn in its place, you would still have

a beautiful scarf, but it would look entirely differentit would

Knitted Gifts for All Seasons

very likely stretch to a long and skinny pieceand the lofty lace

pattern would be lost.

This is why swatching is kind of a big deal. For many

knitters, swatching isnt much fun, because we may be eager to

cast on and get going. If youre one of those and are willing to

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