Knitting for friends?

The other day, I talked about knitting for friends with my friend Cynthia, who's also an avid knitter/crocheter.

Cynth told me that sometimes she got a bit pissed when her friends didn't even bother to drop a line to let her know the gift has safely arrived. She only found out it arrived and stop worrying after weeks.

Yes. I think if I was her, I would be really pissed. Honestly if someone doesn't bother to say Thank You within a reasonable time frame, obviously he or she doesn't really care enough about the gift. In other word, they just don't give a damm shit to it, however much effort or time you spent on it.

In fact I think I'd be more than being pissed. If a good friend did that to me, I guess I could never treat her the same again.

Then I remember Lindsay, from whom I got my spinning wheel. She told me that she once hand dyed and spun two skeins of lovely rainbow yarn for a friend. One day she saw them in a charity shop. The other time she handspun for another friend some gorgeous yarn from a baby alpaca having the same name as her friend's. Unfortunately that friend didn't show much appreciation neither.

I am quite a selfish knitter. I have so far only knit for my parents, in-laws and one good friend who lives next door. Oh and I once knit a scarf for my knitting friend Kylie in a swap. But that's all. It's partly because I am not confident about my knitting. But more importantly, we have to admit that some people just can't see the value of handknit items.

One time an ex workmate of mine saw the photos of my handknit shawls and socks on Facebook, she left me a message: Hey, why are you knitting so much? You are not making enough money to buy new clothes?

Doh. I so wanted to tell her that the yarn used to make that pair of socks cost more than her socks from Polo Ralph Lauren.

But I didn't say anything. I sort of lost interest to enlighten her.

In the last few weeks, I have been thinking about this again. Since I was thinking about my crafty New Year Resolutions, this question comes to my mind:

Should I or should I not knit for others more this year?

The thing is, one of my very good friends has her birthday coming in early February. She doesn't knit but she's crafty too. She draws and she arranges flower and bouquet. I think she should be the type who appreciates a handknit present.

But what if she doesn't?

It's gonna hurt if she doesn't. It'll hurt my feeling and consequently hurt our friendship.

But if she's not the one I can knit for, I can't think of any friend who may take my handknits better.

Hum... it's a very difficult decision.