A Special Christmas Knitting Project

Where last year I hand-made many of the gifts for our family and friends, this year was quite different. It was probably mostly due to a lack of time on my part, but we also tried to scale back Christmas this year. Instead of exchanging gifts with friends, we enjoyed a good meal and good laughs together. We’re all at a point in our lives were we really just don’t need any more “stuff," and getting together for a potluck dinner is almost preferred.

But there was one gift that I did knit, and it was at the request of one of Matt’s uncles. His daughter has posted a couple times on her own blog (http://littleloghousechronicles.blogspot.com/) of a knitted shawl that she really quite admired, and Ken, knowing that I was a knitter, had asked if I would like to make it for her. Of course I was delighted and said yes immediately. I know Melissa reads my blog, so I was sworn to secrecy until after Christmas.

But this project wasn’t without a few hiccups, let me say. I had to track down the yarn, of which no suppliers in Canada had any in store. So off to search the web I went, and even when I found a place in the US that carried it, she, too, was out of stock. She ordered some in for me and then sent it along, but the ironic thing is that the yarn is actually hand-dyed here in Canada! It took a bit longer than I had anticipated, and with my mailing deadline looming (it had to go all the way to BC), I was really quite anxious for it to arrive so I could get started. Thankfully it arrived about two weeks before I needed to put the parcel in the mail, and my full attention was turned to knitting this shawl up.



I was trying to be creative with my photo...

The project went rather quickly, and I had almost completed the body of the shawl in about two days…until I realized I had made a small error and would need to rip the whole thing out. Sure, the error wasn’t that noticeable, but I couldn’t very well send it out knowing that it was not perfect. So, take two. I completed it correctly this time in the next two days, and now it was on to the leaf detail. This wasn’t all that difficult, but it sure did take some time. At last, it was completed, and after blocking it to make sure the leaves were flat, I was so happy with the finished shawl. I wrapped and shipped it off to BC, and I heard that she was really happy with the gift (Melissa, I’m sure you’ll comment yourself…).

It was a really neat thing to do for both Ken and Melissa, and as this was my first commissioned project, I guess BusyBeeBets is officially in business! This might be a venture I pursue more in the future, but I couldn't resist doing up some labels to attach with the gift. At least she knows where it came from...