My Biggest Smiles

So many things make me happy. Those who know me are no stranger to my smile. Perhaps the one thing that makes me the happiest, though, is when I make a gift for someone and it turns out to be just right. 

On our recent trip to California, I spent a couple of weeks sitting on the bed in our hotel room, following a sweater pattern line by line as I made sweaters for my two granddaughters. When I saw the pattern picture, I knew the girls had to have these sweaters for Easter. They have inset tulips along the bottom, front and back, and the tulip has always been their mother Ruth's favorite flower.

Whenever I make something like that, I realize that several things can go wrong. I've made things that weren't to people's taste. I've even made things that didn't fit. My friend Stacey's baby Hanne got one of the little outfits that Kate outgrew before it was finished. It was an old fashioned jacket with a lace bottom. 

I'd never done lace knit before, and kept having to start over. It was pretty confusing, but both little girls finally ended up with their jackets and hats. I don't have photos of my granddaughter yet, but got a few of Hanne, so I'll include them. 

Of course, the sweaters I started in California weren't finished there. I completed Ashley's, and finally finished Kate's. When I made Kate's, though, I figured out a better way to make the buttonholes, so I took Ashley's apart and re-knitted the front section and sewed it back together. What's another week to a Grandma when you're retired, anyway?

Well, I'm smiling now, because the sweaters arrived at Ben and Ruth's home today, and they not only fit,

but Ruth loved them. 

Ashley wore hers today, and Ruth says it looks like Kate's will fit as well. When she said they were the nicest things I'd ever made for them, my smile was as big as it ever gets. You sure can't buy that! When Ben called later to add his thanks and say how pretty he thought they were, I was practically dancing.

There's little enough a Grandma can do from so far away for family and friends she loves. This makes me happy. I'm so glad it makes others happy, too.