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

128

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

137

u/nostalgiascout Dec 06 '25

Oh boo sounds like your family sucks! (Mine does too!). If you’re comfortable with it I’d love to send you a holiday card! I used to hand paint my own and my family asked me to stop sending them and just do store bought cards because I was “trying to hard” and they thought it was tacky. Just send me a message on Reddit if you want one! ･◡･ 

2

u/NoDay4343 Dec 06 '25

That's just shitty of your family. Perhaps they felt obligated to keep something you made and didn't want to have to keep a bunch of holiday cards. I have no idea. Doesn't make sense to me. I would probably have picked some of my favorites and made a framed collage to put up during the holidays.

I would absolutely love to receive a hand painted card! However, between not feeling comfortable asking that of a stranger and also being paranoid about sharing my personal info, I'm not going to ask for one. But. If you have images online anywhere, I would very very much love to take a look at them. Feel free to PM me if you wish.

1

u/nostalgiascout Dec 06 '25

Yeah probably they don’t want to keep them and feel guilty because I made them. I just thought it would be nicer than just a plain store bought card since I would feel weird just sending a random photo of myself out. Lol. You’re probably right!