My Looking Glass

The Knitted Christmas Gift

The holidays are often hard on knitters, especially those of us who like to share our handmade goodies with our loved ones. Some of my knitty friends no longer make gifts of their hard work, having had their feelings hurt in the past by ungrateful recipients. The gift pictured here may become my downfall, and I'll explain why.

A couple months ago, my mom sent me a photo of a knitted purse she liked and basically asked me point blank to make it for her. So I did, and what you see is the result. It's pretty damned cute, if you ask me. I'd happily use it as my own handbag, and I guarantee I could sell it to a boutique. But it's a gift for mom. And sometimes my mother is hard to please. So what's the problem? Well, I exercised some creative license in my end result to make it a little more stylish and interesting. I deviated in the color and handle (the original had a strap). But I didn't change the general shade nor did I change the functional carriage (it's still a shoulder bag, these are large loop handles instead of a single knitted strap). Otherwise, this is the photograph she sent me. My sister's coming by tomorrow to give an educated opinion on how it will be received. As usual, it could be a very interesting Christmas.

UPDATE (12/12/05): Well, my sister thinks my mom is going to like it! Wow! I thought for sure she'd say, "you're dead meat."

posted by LA @ 10:37 PM