Five years ago, before my nephew was born, I felt like it was time to tackle an insanely complicated and awesome baby gift for him that was not a hat or sweater or normal baby blanket. I ended up going with the Sleepy Monkey Blanket, a reversible stroller blanket full of crazy color work and constructed with steeks. If you’ve never tried steeking, it’s pretty much the organic chemistry of knitting, known to strike fear into even the most experienced knitters, but super exciting and fun if you just go for it. You basically spend weeks knitting the blanket in the round, sew (with a sewing machine) a couple lines from top to bottom with sewing thread and then CUT the blanket in half so it’s flat.
Anyway, it looked like this when I was finished:
And I was super proud of the finished blanket, and even prouder when my SIL held it up for everyone to see at her shower.
The fate of the blanket was not a good one 🙂 After my nephew was born, he got some use out of the blanket, until one day he did his baby business on it. Like any other parent with a poopy blanket, my SIL threw it in the wash. Unfortunately when she pulled it out afterwards it was the size of a washcloth. I didn’t find out about this until my nephew was like 3 years old and I remembered that I hadn’t seen the blanket ever at their house. Even though it was destroyed, and I was pretty sad about the whole thing (knitter’s grief – is there such a thing?) it made me really happy to know they had actually USED and loved it. I wouldn’t have even thought to use it for something other than decoration.
I posted the short version of this story on FB, and I think it’s something every knitter can relate to. What gifts have you made and later learned of their untimely demise?
I totally understand your grief even though I have no comparable story! It certainly was beautiful! 🙁
🙂 It's like one of those coming of age events, but for knitters & crocheters