and the winner is...

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the giveaway for Modern Top-Down Knitting! It was so hard to choose from all the wonderful stories, but one in particular stood out for me because it speaks to how much a handmade item can mean to the recipient. A knitted gift requires not only skill, but time and patience and love as well, and it's funny how the recipient often feels all of that.

Knit and Curl says:

What a wonderful contest! After racking my brain to remember the best knitted gift I've ever received, I realized that I've never received one! Maybe that's because I'm always the one doing the knitting . . . no hard feelings, though.


The best knitted gift (IMHO) that I ever gave to someone, was the hand-knitted harvest orange sweater that I knit for my father when I was about 14 years old. He asked me to knit it for him and he went to the yarn store with me to pick out the color he wanted. I remember running home from school and hurrying through homework so I could get the sweater finished quickly. 

I don't remember the particulars of the "giving"....but I'm sure I can dig up a photo of him wearing it. We are not a gushy, physically affectionate family, but every time I saw him wearing it, I knew he appreciated it. I felt like it was the warm hug I was never able to give him when I was a self-conscious teenager, too insecure to verbalize my love and affection for him.

Knit and Curl will receive a copy of the beautiful new craft book Modern Top-Down Knitting. Congratulations!

Don't forget, you can also download a free pattern for the cute Mulberry hat pictured if you'd like to try it out the book. Just follow the link above and scroll down to the bottom of the post.

Look for a new book giveaway on the blog in the coming weeks. Thanks again for sharing your wonderful stories!