I quite often have people asking me to knit for them.
There are some āinterestingā ways my skills are requested ā ranging from the polite and flattering,
āI know youāre really busy but youāre such a wonderful knitter could you please make me a Ā āKnitted thing of immense size and complexity in ugly yarn?ā
To the rather irritating,
āOh! ThatĀ doesn’tĀ even look home-made ! It could come from a shop ā you even could sell those! You can make ME one of thoseā¦.Iād pay youā¦..ā <Big Grrrr>
That one irritates me of too many levels to explain here….
Generally speaking, unless people are crafters themselves, they donātĀ realizeĀ how expensive the materials to make a āKnitted thing of immense size and complexity in ugly yarnā are or how much of my valuable spare time it would take to make their heartās desire for them.
Also, I donāt like knitting for other people because I find that as soon as external pressure is put on my knitting, all the pleasure is sucked out of it and I find myself slogging through a chore. This is not what a hobby is for.
Therefore, I am usually very firm and tell people I only knit for myself and my family. I do quite often offer to teach people to knit so they could make the thing themselves. Suddenly, most of the requestors loose interest. A couple of requestors have learnt to knit -I have all the time in the world to help them š
So why readers, did I allow myself to be persuaded to make a scarf for Lawrence, one of the chaps I work with?
He said the right thingsā¦ He flattered my knitterly skillsā¦ He said heād love to have a quality, handmade item that was uniqueā¦in a fabulous yarn. He constantly was impressed with my latest creations and seemed genuinely interested.
I caved.
I said he could have a scarf but nothing bigger ā but I thought I had a fool proof plan to wriggle out of itā¦.There were two conditions. He had to pay me for my time with a bacon sandwich (my usual fee forĀ favorsĀ at work!) and I said he had to come to the wool shop to choose the yarn and pattern.
Ha! That would put any man off!!
To my great surprise, I found myself in John Lewisā yarn department with Lawrence who was happily looking at menās knitting patterns and squishing balls of yarn and āoohingā over colours like a knitting veteran!
The man has good taste. We decided on the Salford Scarf from Rowan Magazine 46.
This scarf (Rowan picture – this isn’t Lawrence!)ā¦he’s wearing the Salford jumper in the same yarn and pattern too.
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| From Salford |
From this Rowan mag – No.46ā¦
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| From Salford |
Itās knit in Rowan Cocoon ā a lovely snuggly thick yarn ā I made myself a scarf a few years ago in Cocoon ā remember Haven?
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| From Haven |
Lawrence chose this colour ā Quarry Tileā¦
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| From Salford |
So how is it knitting up?
Itās actually a lovely pattern and easier than it look (I always say that though donāt I?) Salford is a combination of moss stitch and stocking stitch with an 8 stitch cable on every eighth row.
After 5 days Iām half way already and this is actually turning out to be an enjoyable knit!
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| From Salford |
All other knitting projects are on hold while I get this out of the way – and look forward to that bacon sandwich!
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| From Salford |
It’s beautiful…and he is definitely knit-worthy…I have a couple skeins of that…
Great post – I read it aloud to my honey. When I read the part about you knitting only for family, he grinned and said, “Now who does that sound like.” (Me!) His comment when I showed him the picture of the scarf after 5 days: “She did all that for a bacon sandwich?” Seriously – charge more! š
I used to get people (usually workmates) asking me to sew things for them – all the same irritations apply! I did make an outfit once for one colleague who paid me and had always been very appreciative of the time and effort involved. Also she wore it often and loved it – happy ending! Lovely scarf, bet he wears it loads:)
Beautiful pattern and colour yarn. I am coming back to knitting again after 15 years of only quilting, amazing how many people ask me to make them a quilt! I always politely offer to teach them to make their own, to which the reply is normally ‘Oh I don’t have the time…’
I hate it when people say I should knit things to sell or for them. I always say, of course I’ll knit for you. Now let me think, if you want a hat, that’s about 10 hours of knitting at Ā£7.50 and hour + Ā£12 for the yarn and Ā£5 for the pattern. So that’s Ā£93 for the hat. They go very very white at that point and shuffle away mumbling!
However, I have a male friend who is the same as Lawrence. He loves talking about what I’m knitting and he always want to squish the yarn. I LOVE knitting for him because he raves about the stuff I give him. He and is wife are two of my best friends and do so much for me. They deserve beautiful knitted things, even if they never ask.
You do need to charge more than a bacon sandwich for your time, even if he is lovely – I would have asked for lunch for every day I am knitting – that’s probably about equal in time and expense to your knitting, don’t you think?
I love the scarf. I am still plodding along with the scarf I started before Christmas. I only knit at the weekend and have to concentrate. If I watch TV I go wrong, if I participate in conversation I go wrong. Hopefully I will finish it soon, but it doesn’t look anywhere near as lovely as your scarf. He is a lucky man. Wish I’d thought of offering to buy you a bacon sandwich, rather than a cup of coffee, but I never asked you to knit anything for me. Damn it, missed my chance there.
You have summed up this irritiation so well!! What i find even more annoying is when people ask if you would knit them something and then add “I will pay for the wool” as if they are doing me a huge favour- wrong on all counts!!!
It should really be a bacon sandwich for each day of knitting. ESPECIALLY knitting a cabled scarf.
I’m the opposite. Almost all my knitting is requests/ presents for others. I can never decide what to make for myself (and I have enough hats, scarfs, gloves to last years). I get excited when someone requests things. I do usually give them as birthday/ Christmas presents instead of buying something though (as obviously wool costs).
Determined to knit myself two Christmas jumpers this year though. Must make time inbetween things I am making for others.
It looks great, know what you mean about other people’s ideas of how long it takes. As you know I’ve been caught twice!!
Will he let you take a photo of him wearing it??? It’s definitely getting cold enough for it!
I have been asked a knitting question by a friend who seems to think I’m a knitting expert, I’m not (I once sewed one raglan sleeve on a babies cardy upside down so it looked like it had a hand in the air). As you clearly do knit more than me I’m hoping that being asked random questions by strangers is less annoying than being asked to knit things of immense size and complexity in ugly yarn.
So, do you know if it is possible to knit something using one colour of yarn and incorporate letters, through use of plain and pearl, or lacy holes or some other cunning technique? This seems plausible but I’ve never seen it and can’t manage the right search terms to yield positive evidence.
Thanks
Hiya
Not annoying at all!! Happy to help. You can certainly represent text. The first thing that popped into my mind was the Debbie Bliss Alphabet blanket
Debbie Bliss Blanket
It’s a really good example of using eyelets to make the letters.
Purl and knit stitches would work too but be more subtle.
Have you thought about using beads? A quick google will show you the basics, it really is very easy and effective.
I also tried googling for “Charted Alphabet for Knitting” which threw up a huge number of charts, patterns etc. (You need a chart for knitting as the stitches are not square like cross stitch).
Did that help?
Susan
PS – Loved the bacon roses!!
Ps
Can’t give you a bacon sandwich, but maybe as it’s valentines day this link would do instead http://m.instructables.com/id/Bacon-Roses/ ?
Looks fab to me, thanks. I’ve just sent her the link to your comment to see what she says, not entirely sure what she’s trying to knit, something for a baby. Glad you like the bacon roses.