I was talking to Rachel and she mentioned that she (as a quite good knitter) liked being present when people received things she had made because she liked to see their faces. I totally agree. The expression of excitement or gratitude that someone gets when you give them a gift is always really pleasing, and that pleasure is increased tenfold when they are excited or grateful for something that you created especially for them. I suppose it's a bit selfish, but at the same time it's like feeling happy that you made someone else happy, and there's nothing wrong with that.
On the other hand, there are also times when the face a gift recipient makes is not quite what you had expected, and just as a positive reaction to a handmade gift is way more satisfying, a less-than-positive reaction can make a crafter feel pretty terrible. In the short while that I've been good enough at my crafts to give them as gifts, I've already got "Present Face" more than a couple times.
The first crochet project I ever completed was this truly hideous scarf in a mix of fluffy black mohair and squeaky acrylic maroon worsted weight. It curled. It was uneven. It buckled and had holes from skipped stitches. It was ugly. I didn't even bother to weave in the ends and I presented it to Kyle and told him I made it for him. He ohh'd and ahh'd and said "Cool! Thank you! I'll have to wait for a really cold day to wear it!", to which I responded, "Please don't wear that outside. I was kidding". He was quite relieved. And since I had actually never intended for him to treat it as a special gift, this instance of Present Face was amusing.
But I guess getting an unenthusiastic response to an item is just one of the woes of being a crafter, one of the perils of sharing one's hobby with another. The appreciative reactions are totally worth are worth the risk. That's the gift of giving.
ETA: Also, Rachel sent me this totally awesome Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Twilight mash-up, in which Buffy kicks that lame-o Edward's ass. From the video info:
It's an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward's character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy's eyes some of the more patriarchal gender roles and sexist Hollywood tropes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed in hilarious ways.
I don't know about all of that, but I do agree that (what I hear of) Edward's personality is pretty gross. Also, the video is just funny.
As huge BtVS fans, Rachel and I found this quite entertaining and I think we both need to own this shirt:
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