Hey there knitters and crafters!
If you browsed my patterns in the store or on Ravelry, you might have wondered who is Sebastien, and how he got to have a knitting pattern named after him. So, who is Sebastien?
Well, first of all, you must know that I do NOT knit for friends or extended family. I do not give handmade knits as gifts. I am just selfish like that (yep.) My husband of many years only got a hat and a pair of mittens since I started knitting again as an adult - that was over 8 years ago - and I don't foresee knitting him a sweater any time soon (sorry not sorry. At least I don't have to worry about the sweater curse).
I often feel like when I give knitted items to other people, they just don't get the amount of work and effort required to produce the finished object. It's like they compare it to something I would've gotten on Amazon with 2-day free shipping. Haha...
I love knitting with high quality yarns, and I am lucky to be able to afford hand-dyed yarns, so what others believe to be a $20-$40 item likely cost 3-5 times that, without accounting for the hours spent working on it. It is expensive, and time consuming. And usually comes with little appreciation that makes it not worthy for me. So that's why I don't gift knits. At all.
But, going back to Sebastien.
One of my closest friend at the time had trouble getting pregnant, and after a few years of trying, she finally shared the good news! We're pretty close, as our older kids are best friends, so we used to see each other almost every day. I was so happy for her, and hoped everything would be alright with the child. She's had many health issues and this was considered a geriatric pregnancy, so she was pretty stressed about having a miscarriage again.
Then, March 2020, the pandemic happened and shut everything down. We became pretty isolated and didn't see each other for fear of spreading the virus.
It was tough. You see, this friend is one of a handful of people who always supported my knitting, and encouraged me, and seemed to understand the amount of work required for the craft, even though she's never knit.
So, I decided that I would surprise her with a blanket for her child to be. When she told me she was expecting a boy, I started browsing patterns online and on Ravelry. Do you know how many baby blanket patterns are available on Ravelry? There are over 13,000 baby blanket patterns on Ravelry. No kidding.
I spent hours upon hours browsing the search results, only to come up empty. I wanted something simple but elegant, with textured stitches but no lace, without a complicated pattern but a pattern that still gave this stylish vibe. We see many blankets with ruffles and such, and I know that her husband would never let her give their son this type of blanket. He's pretty traditional, so of course the blanket had to look "manly". (Hey, to each their own. I knit my daughter a turquoise blanket when I was pregnant with her because i didn't want to perpetuate gendered colors. But guess what her favorite color is today. Hint: it's not turquoise. Another one bites the dust.)
Back to Sebastien.
After spending so many hours browsing the web that many people would qualify this as a part-time job and not finding what I was looking for, I decided to browse my stitch pattern books. And, lo and behold, it was like abracadabra. I got THE idea.
I made a sketch, then knit a smaller version in the same yarn but in a different colorway to see if that would make sense.
Here it is:
I was delighted with how it looked! Straight away, I casted on the final version of the pattern, and knit it in less than 2 weeks. It was addicting, and while getting the hang of the pattern repeat was challenging at first because I had to wrap my brain around the sequence of the textured-stitch repeat, I quickly got enthralled with the project. This blanket was so beautiful, elegant and drapey, just like I wanted it to be.
I was playing yarn chicken with it, because I only had 4 skeins of the Anzula For Better or For Worsted yarn, and I knew if I bought more it wouldn't be the exact same hue since this is hand dyed, and I didn't want to alternate skeins. So I had to make it work. Which is why in the pattern you can find instruction to make sure you use most of the yarn you have. My yarn-chicken stress, your win.
But back to my friend.
One beautiful spring day in 2020, we met after school at our usual park. Outside, with masks and social distancing and plenty of wipes and hand sanitizer (hey, we still didn't have vaccines at that time). The kids played for a couple of hours, having fun like the before times. At the end of the playdate, I surprised her with the gift.
She was overwhelmed with emotions, because she knew my stance on knitting for others. To say she loved the blanket is an understatement. She was so eager for her son to be wrapped in it, and for her to know that this blanket he would use was handmade by a dear friend was more than she could have hoped for. It helped her ease her stress of having to give birth at the height of the pandemic, with little help and no visitors allowed, in spite her health issues and the geriatric pregnancy label.
Her son was born later that summer and is a healthy little boy who likes running and exploring. He now attends preschool and can understand and speak 3 languages: Farsi, English and French.
As I like to say, we can't stop progress, life goes on.
The main picture on the pattern is one she sent me, of her son using it. <3 A crafter can't ask for anything more than that.
I hope you'll find this special being, like Sebastien and my friend, who will be worthy of receiving your knitting projects.
Onwards.
