The Indie Gift-A-Long has begun! Through 11/30, you can use coupon code giftalong2016 on Ravelry to save 25% on designs from myself and hundreds of other indie designers. Shop indie to support small businesses and kickstart your gift knitting with the events that follow after the sale period! Until the end of the year, there will be prizes, contests, and fun in the Indie GAL Group.
You can see all of my eligible GAL offerings here, but I wanted to showcase a few that I thought were particularly good for gift knitting...and a few that are good for selfish knitting!
CAST ON NOW:
Got time to crank out another gift or two? Aventail is the perfect use for a single skein of fingering weight, and knits up quicker than you'd expect despite the fine yarn. The brioche is addictive and rhythmic, and the eyelet lace edging doesn't require following a complicated chart.
If you want to wow your recipient with a giant wrap, check out the Millers River Shawl. Thanks to bulky weight, this baby is super warm! It's knit from end to end and mostly in garter stitch, so you can zone out while you work on it and you won't be struggling with hundreds of stitches on your needles at once.
11TH HOUR GIFT KNITS:
Oops! So you just found out that Cousin Sally is coming to your holiday event. Or maybe your coworker hinted he's got a gift for you. Either way, if you need to bang out a gift fast you can count on these two projects to fit the bill! Shock Star Slouch uses a skein of DK weight yarn (assuming average yardage), and the mix of textured stitches plays nicely with solids, tweeds, hand-dyeds, speckles, and more. If your giftee isn't a hat wearer, why not whip up a pair of Brooklyn Bridge Mitts? To ensure it knits up even faster, choose the short wrist length and nix the individual fingers in favor of the easy whole-hand opening.
GONNA NEED AN IOU (OR, TREAT YO SELF!):
Look to these showstoppers if: a) your recipient isn't looking to receive their handmade gift until the 2017 holidays, or b) you need to spoil yourself with a fresh new project come January. Stripe Quartet is all stockinette, all stripes, and a whole lot of fun! If your New Year's Resolution is stashbusting, you can use those remainders up in a crazy, stripey cardigan. Sport weight yarn knit up at a slightly loose gauge means you won't go crazy struggling with size 3 needles.
If you're ready to challenge yourself next year, go all-in on a lace pi shawl like Papelillo. The patterns are given in written and charted form, so you can ease yourself into reading charts or attack them from the beginning like the beast that you are.
Happy Gift-A-Long!