Handmade gifts come with hours of work, patience, and love – and sometimes, tiny imperfections that make them unique. But what happens when the person receiving the gift focuses only on the flaws? That’s what one woman faced after spending weeks crocheting a blanket for her sister-in-law, Amanda.
She chose the colors Amanda requested, worked on the project in her free time, and felt proud to finally hand it over. But instead of appreciation, she was met with criticism about small errors that most people wouldn’t even notice. Amanda didn’t say “thank you” – she said the blanket wasn’t finished and insisted the creator should restart parts of it.
Now the crocheter is wondering: was she wrong for taking the blanket back instead of doing hours of extra work to make it “perfect”?
Here’s The Original Post:
The woman had taken on the project with excitement. She wasn’t working on anything else at the moment and already owned most of the colors Amanda wanted. The gift felt meaningful, a personal handmade blanket created just for her sister-in-law.
When she visited Amanda last weekend, she happily handed the finished blanket over. At first, Amanda seemed delighted and immediately stretched it out to inspect it. The crocheter assumed she was simply curious about how the pattern worked, especially since Amanda didn’t crochet herself.
But after a minute, Amanda’s expression changed. She said she loved the blanket, but she “couldn’t help noticing some mistakes.” Confused, the woman asked what she meant.
Amanda pointed out tiny details: a striped section with one row instead of three, a place where the color switched differently than she expected, and other minuscule things only someone actively searching would find.
Then came the surprise. Amanda handed the blanket back and said she was excited to see the finished version. The crocheter calmly explained that it was finished. But Amanda shook her head and said it wasn’t done “until it was perfect,” insisting her sister-in-law should go back, fix the errors, and return it when corrected.
The woman was stunned. She had spent countless hours on this blanket, hours of counting stitches, rechecking patterns, and putting love into something she wasn’t charging for. To her, these tiny imperfections were normal for handmade items. They didn’t take away from the beauty of the work.
She told Amanda that the blanket was a gift, made with love, and she wasn’t planning to redo large sections. Amanda responded that she “couldn’t use it” because she would notice the flaws every time she looked at it.
At that point, the crocheter decided she’d had enough. She took the blanket back and told Amanda that if she didn’t want it, she would just keep it. Amanda quickly backtracked, insisting she did want the blanket, just not in its current state. She said she wanted the woman’s “best work,” not something “half-assed.”
That comment hit hard. The woman explained that crocheting an entire blanket with only minimal mistakes was hardly “half-assing” anything. And even worse, fixing mistakes in crochet isn’t simple. You can’t magically adjust row 36 of a 115-row blanket. You either undo everything above that row or start over.
Amanda didn’t understand that. She acted like it was no big deal, insisting it wouldn’t take long to redo the mistakes. But anyone who crochets knows the truth: fixing it would mean losing hours, or days, of work.
Feeling unappreciated and insulted, the woman stood her ground. She kept the blanket. Now Amanda says she overreacted. But the crocheter believes gifts should be accepted with gratitude, not returned with a list of requested changes.
According to a 2023 Craft Industry Alliance survey, over 70% of crafters say people underestimate the time and skill their creations require. Most mistakes in crochet can’t be fixed in minutes, they require hours of unraveling and redoing.
Handmade gifts are not machine-perfect and that’s what makes them special.
Here’s the feedback from the Reddit community:
Many readers couldn’t believe how ungrateful Amanda acted, and they didn’t hold back in saying so.
Crafters, knitters, and crocheters especially felt the frustration, pointing out how much time and effort goes into a handmade blanket.
Others focused on how rude it was to demand “perfection” from a free gift.
In the end, the crocheter didn’t take the blanket back out of anger, she took it back because her work wasn’t respected. Handmade gifts aren’t returnable items with exchange policies.
They’re personal, time-intensive, and filled with effort. Amanda wanted perfection, not appreciation. And expecting someone to redo hours of work for free crosses the line.
