Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Gifts: how to get what you want

Yeah, I know that title sounds really selfish. But, let's face it, knitters are super generous this time of year. We love knitting for the people we love. We spend more money on yarn to make gifts than we would spend on just purchasing a gift at a store.  On top of that, we spend tons of time and energy making the gift. Every knitting thing we give away takes a little piece of our heart with it.

So, here's how you help those who love you to get you something you love.

My kids and hubby know I really like yarn, but they really don't know anything about yarn. Fortunately, River Knits allows people to put together a wish list on a little note card.

This is great! However, it still requires my socially anxious husband (bless his heart) to interact with people. So, I decided to make it really easy for him this year.

One day, I went into River Knits and just started snapping pictures of the stuff I like. Then, I took those pictures and used Insta Picframes to create collages and add text. Yeah, I even played around with the colors and fonts and stuff. Like this:



I even did this:

See the "NO" on top of the one little cubbie there in the bottom left corner. There's nothing wrong with that yarn, I just don't enjoy it as much as the others.

If I had taken more time, I would have put together a little map of the shop to show exactly where everything could be found. But, I didn't have time, so he still had to experience a little human interaction.

I know this looks really...um.....presumptuous? Entitled? Demanding?  But, hubby said he actually really appreciated it. His reasoning: "If my wish list involved a vacuum tube store, you'd be just as clueless as I am walking into the yarn shop." Truth. Although, honestly, I don't think pictures would even help me in a vacuum tube store. They all look like weird lightbulbs to me.

Please also note that I have absolutely no expectation to receive all of these things. I just like to give him a lot of variety to choose from.

On that note, Happy Holidays to all of you wonderful fibery folks out there! May your stockings be filled with everything you need to knit your next fabulous project!