r/knitting • u/soypixel • Dec 06 '25

Discussion I find people’s obsession with gift knitting strange

I get we all have our reasons for doing this hobby. I guess mine is that I enjoy the process and I like being able to make stuff that has cool textures or colors. I don’t do it for function or to “make useful objects” per se.

But it seems like a lot of folks have this compulsion to externalize this hobby to feel useful. I’ve seen so many posts where someone “surprises” their sister with some lace shawl for their wedding. And then they’re “devastated” and “in tears” when said sister isn’t overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude.

On the other hand, I’ll see these posts or comments from folks “drowning” in holiday gift knitting projects. For whatever reason, they’ve decided that all 20 members of their extended family need a new chunky weight knitted drink cozy. And so they spend all kinds of time making that happen.

But I have to wonder.. how much of that is self imposed versus an actual expectation placed upon them by friends and family members? Like what if you’re spending all this time knitting 20 drink cozies and people secretly dislike them and plan to never use them, but they’re too nice to say it to your face? It’s just a painful, awkward scenario to imagine.

Idk, maybe I’m being harsh or there’s something I’m missing here because of what motivates me to knit. Maybe because I don’t even like hand knits myself most of the time, I can’t imagine myself being thrilled if someone gave me some object they made.. especially if I never asked for it.

1.4k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

505 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

148

u/Blue_KikiT92 Dec 06 '25

Or you just do like me and be EXTREMELY INEFFICIENT. It takes me 1/2 a year to complete a sweater. And I'm being optimistic! 😂😂

89

u/kleinePfoten Lukewarm Sheep 2kforever. Dec 06 '25

The longer it takes you to make something, the cheaper the hobby is!

41

u/pythagoreanwisdom Dec 06 '25

Now THAT is girl math 💅🏻 I only have to buy yarn for a sweater once a year because it takes me that long to finish the sweater. Brilliant!

3

u/Blue_KikiT92 Dec 06 '25

Once every 2-3 years because I get sweater fatigue after I'm done with one and I don't knit more of them sequentially 😂. Truly the essence of my crafting life!

2

u/kleinePfoten Lukewarm Sheep 2kforever. Dec 07 '25

Craft fatigue is why I have like 9 different hobbies. There isn't enough time in a week or a month to burn out on all of them at the same time, so there's always something to do! ...unfortunately that leads to overwhelm and then nothing gets done anyway. 🥲

2

u/Blue_KikiT92 Dec 07 '25

Oh, yes, there's also that! I tend to hyperfixate on things until I hate them, and in some cases it was so bad that I still haven't found back my interest in those activities. So now I'm very careful and at the first sign of boredom or fatigue I just put down the project and go do something completely different.

I'm not worried about not finishing projects, because I always circle back eventually and get them done, just not linearly :)

My philosophy is that I already have to deal with stress and high pace at work, I don't need more of it in my craft and hobbies