There is a reason people gasp with joy when they get a handmade gift. Knitting, crochet, and craft are not just hobbies. They are the language some people use to say the things kindness makes hard to put into words. The empathy behind every handmade stitch is worth more than words can ever describe.
Made for a friend of a friend’s daughter to look like her father who passed away. First amigurumi I designed myself and I feel honored to make it!
- Growing up I loved my late mom’s wedding dress and dreamed of wearing it. My sister never cared but when she got engaged she asked for it. She cut it short.
Before the ceremony I snuck into the bridal suite and heard her talking to herself: “Mom, she still doesn’t know that I cut the dress, but I kept everything I removed.” I stood in the doorway of that bridal suite and my heart was racing.
She had a box on the vanity I hadn’t noticed, holding something small and white, set it down carefully like it might break. I stepped back into the hallway before she turned around. Later at the reception she found me and pressed something into my hand — a small fabric sachet made from the lace trim off mom’s dress.
She said she knew I’d always wanted the dress, said she’d wanted it too but couldn’t wear it full length, couldn’t bring herself to just alter it without saving something for me. Said she’d been working on it for weeks, wasn’t sure if it was enough, hoped one day I’d understand she wasn’t trying to take anything from me.
I kept the sachet, and it was on my bouquet at my own wedding 3 years later, right next to a photo of my mom. My sister tied it there herself while I wasn’t looking.
Finished just in time for my grandson’s first birthday!
Has someone ever shown you kindness through a knitting or crochet project that you still think about today?
A surprise for a friend who’s going to be a grandma for the first time :)
I’m really hoping my daughter’s classmates want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Cause they’re getting one!
Not perfect but the sentiment and love behind it is! Finished just in time for my daughter’s 18th birthday and hopeful use away in college!
If craft is your way of showing empathy and love, what is the most meaningful thing you have ever made for someone?
I made this for my best friend’s daughter, she’s turning 3.
Finished this birthday present for my grandma, who loves to knit.
- My MIL never approved of me. For 2 years, she made sure I knew it.
When she passed, my husband asked me to clear her sewing room. She had never let anyone in there. In her last drawer I found a photo. It was my mother. On the back it said, “Before you hate me read the rest.”
She’d known my mother, they were close for years. Note was four pages long, handwriting shaky by the end. My mom and her met in a sewing class in their twenties, inseparable for almost a decade, until something happened that she never named, just that they stopped speaking and never came back from it.
My mother passed before I knew any of this. I showed my husband, he said he had no idea, his mom never once said my mom’s name, never explained the coldness, said it finally made sense why that room stayed locked.
She wrote that the first time my husband brought me home she almost asked me to leave and it was very difficult for her. She’d been making me something, hoping I’d find it before the letter.
I found a dress tucked in the back of her closet, one she’d spent 2 years secretly stitching for our third anniversary. “Sorry” and “I love you,” were both stitched into the hem.
After two weeks and lots of hours, I finally finished! I made it for my daughter’s best friend as a graduation present. She’s very artistic and I think the pattern and colors fit her personality perfectly.
Have you ever started a knitting, crochet, or any other craft project and realized halfway through that it was really just your way of showing someone how much you care? We would love to hear your story in the comments.