Gifts for knitters + super quick last minute knit gifts!

First, I just want to give a quick update to those of you waiting for my new pattern (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can skip this paragraph) – the mystery knit-a-long ended yesterday (well, it didn’t end exactly, since lots of knitters are still working, but yesterday was one week after the final section was released) so I’d planned to release the final pattern to all yesterday or today.  Holiday stuff and life in general has been preventing me from really focusing on getting it all done, so it’s looking like a Friday release is impossible, and I’m hoping for Saturday, but no guarantees… anyway, you can see tons of photos of my different versions of the design (taken by Pete at Reed college the other day, pretty!) in my flickr stream.

Diane’s CraftyPod series this week on ways to give ebooks as gifts has been awesome, and reminded me of this image I made last year:

This is a super basic way you could gift Game Knitting – burn it onto a disc, print this out (download the original size from flickr) and slip it in the CD case as the cover.  I love Diane’s felt CD envelope, making the digital gift into a much more tangible and personal present!  Diane’s how-to for making a thumb drive box for holding an ebook on the drive would also work well for something like Game Knitting (65 pages) – the tutorials for printing out the whole book (with perfect binding, or stitch binding, or ring binding) would be a bit more time consuming and pricey with an ebook of that length.

The book-making ideas would be a good fit for my quick knits ebooks, though!  These ebooks (vol 1, vol 2, vol 3) range around  20-25 pages each, and would make fun little books for knitter giftees (pictured below).  (Of course, you can also send any ebooks or patterns as gifts to ravelers directly through ravelry, digitally, if you want to skip the tangible element.  Or, you can give tangible patterns of my designs printed by MagCloud as gifts for knitters.)

And this transitions us into the main point of this post…. super duper quick last minute knit gifts!

My quick knits patterns are great for ultra last minute gift crafting – all using under 20 yards of yarn, most using around 10-15 yards!  (See them all on ravelry here.)  A couple free options are my penta-coasters and buttony chevron cuff (below).  There are also all the patterns I gathered on my quick knits links page by other designers, most free, all using under 20 yards.

Within those mini-ebooks above you’ll find lots of potential gift items, like these stiffened chevron bookmarks, winter leaves which can be turned into a necklace, and several different pouch/case things – the luggage tag pouches below (which can be used for other things besides luggage tags!), the fitted pocket case, robot monster pouch, laced-up pencil case, strappy pouch and mini-wallet…

And then there’s the wee gift bag, which can be used to package a special tiny gift!  Some others that would make good gifts are the cabled frame…

…pinwheel earmuffs, and blooming flowers (made into earrings here):

And then there are the newer club patterns like the drink sweaters, and the new cabled keepers:

As for bigger (but still fast!) items that can easily be finished within a couple days, starting with free – the buttonhead hat can be made with any weight yarn, so a bulky one will knit up in no time!  And the big bulky bucket hat is great for showing off some nice bulky yarn, like handspun or something hand-dyed…

Gradient mitts and the simple mary-jane slippers are both made with bulky yarn and work up crazy fast!

And the haka hat, also for bulky yarn, and also great for showing off handspun, is super cheap and probably the fastest earflapped hat you’ll ever make:

Lastly, custom tritops are for any gauge, and a bulky version is a super fast project if you’re not intimidated by the sideways brim (it’s easy, really)!

Hopefully I gave you some ideas for any gifts that you were stuck on – I know I always have gifts I’m still figuring out in this last week before xmas!  Happy knitting, and happy holidays!