I had to do quite a bit of thinking before I could answer this question. And while it may not be the best, I’m not sure, the gift was certainly something useful…but much more than that.
About six or seven years ago I began crocheting hats for the newborn babies at a local hospital. The project grew into making other hats.
Every time there was a sale on yarn, I would go pick out some that I though would make nice hats for a baby.
One day someone gave me some yarn that I used to crochet larger hats; those suitable for children and adults. But then I wasn’t sure what to do with them…that is the ones that friends didn’t take. The answer came in the form of a request from someone who was looking to make donations to children at a school. While many of the hundreds of hats needed were purchased and donated, I gave a couple of bags (around 100) of hats. They were a big hit. So every time this friend needed hats for some charity project, I would get a call (or a message). He comes and picks up the hats and frequently comes with a bag filled with yarn so I don’t have to buy it. Once he came with two boxes full of yarn. Needless to say, it was put to good use.
Receiving the yarn, at least to me, was a great gift. As it turned out, a gift that was passed on to others.
I have tried to keep track of just how many hats I have made but the numbers get lost in the shuffle. The best I can gather, it has been around 1,000 hats – about six or seven hundred of them were newborn hats!
Never one to just sit and do nothing, I can (and frequently do) work on a hat while I am watching television. I have been crocheting long enough to know that I can make a hat without looking.