Saying 'no'

[wood_elf]

Hi all. Knitting etiquette question.

I recently made myself a shawl (see here). It's green and spiky and I love it quite a lot.

Was wearing it today and a person (nice person, want to remain on good terms with this person) also liked it a lot and asked me to knit her one. She was serious about this and offered to buy yarn for it there and then.

I want to say 'no' because I don't want to spend another month knitting the exact same pattern in the same yarn. I don't get as much knitting time as I would like (I mainly knit while commuting), and would rather use the time I have selfishly on projects of my choosing.

This person is very generous and has given me yarngifts in the past (she knits herself, so must understand the time and work involved). I don't want to say 'no' but I really don't want to knit a shawl for her. Any ideas how to proceed while maintaining a good relationship?

There may be an obvious gracious solution I'm overlooking but can be a bit socially clueless at times.

Comments

[minxy]

I would reply (if it's honest, my delivery is pants if it's not real), that I'm usually burnt out on a project right after I finish it, but might be game some time in the future. Then I offer the pattern if it's another knitter, or a ballpark of when they can check with me again if they're still interested. For me, this is very much related to the project, and not what else I have on the needles. FWTW.

Good luck! Mother's-of-SIGs are tricky...

[wood_elf]

That sounds like a good approach and is pretty close to honest about how I feel about it (do not want to pick up 250-odd border stitches again ever for a good while yet).