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Giveaway: Northern Knits Gifts

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northern knits gifts giveaway

Ruth is the winner.

It’s time to start thinking about — and more than thinking, to actually start knitting — any knit gifts you want to make for the holidays, and this week’s giveaway can help get you started if you need some ideas for people on your list.

Northern Knits Gifts: Thoughtful Projects Inspired by Folk Traditions by Lucinda Guy has gifts for all sorts of occasions and recipients, including a lacy scarf, gorgeous Fair Isle socks, a sweet knit doll, an array of hats and mitts, a snuggly chunky baby blanket, slippers with classic snowflake designs, sweaters, shawls and more. Check out some of the projects here.

The 20 projects included in the book are mostly small and quick knitting but they include a lot of details that make them fun to knit and impressive to give. There are patterns for kids and women, and one project, a hat, for men, so most of your gift-giving bases are covered.

If you’d like a chance to win this book, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, October 11. I’d love to know who you are knitting for this year. I always make a little something small for my daughter’s teachers, but I’m not sure what I will do this year because I usually knit a heart and she had one of her teachers last year so she already has one.

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

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Comments

  1. My own daughter started daycare thus year and she LOVES going there. Her educators are fabulous and so nice. I have been thinking of doing pot holders originally as Christmas presents buy I have recently been in a fair isle kick knitting – wise. I’d love to make them something nice like that!

  2. I have been working on baby blankets and hats for my co worker who is expecting her first child.

  4. I knit socks for my family, and I try to learn a new skill each year. This book would be my challenge for next year!

  10. I knit for my granddaughter. Right now, I’m knitting dresses for her Barbie doll.

  16. This year, there are some people I know that could make use of some of these items. I know they would appreciate something handmade, as opposed to waiting to save up for a store-bought item. There are other items they could use now!! I’d love to surprise them, along with the kids. I also have a couple other people in mind I’d love to surprise.

  17. I’ve just finished a lacy cowl for my mom. Next on the list is a hat for my son, double layered for warmth.

  18. I’m knitting for my grandma, my mom, my step dad, cousins, my grandpa and maybe a little something for myself too. I love giving hand made knitting.

  23. Every year I knit a Christmas stocking for a women’s shelter. I belong to a support group that fills stockings with little gifts. I’m also knitting small gift card holders for members of my neighborhood craft group – for them to use in giving their gifts.

  25. I’m short a family of my own but my one best friend has two small boys that are seriously fun to craft for and my other bestie lives in a very cold climate and appreciates any protection I can come up with.

  27. I am knitting mittens for everyone this Christmas and single colored mittens won’t do-so colorful is the way to go. I love stranded knitting. Ursula

  28. I am a retired teacher and still treasure the handmade gifts and cards I received through the years. I am currently working on small gift items for my grandchildren and friends.

  29. I’ve stopped knitting gifts for people I know, because I don’t think they were really appreciated. Instead, I’m doing more charity knitting. This looks like an amazing book. Thanks for another great giveaway!

  30. I always knit things for family, so that’s who I’ll be doing it for again this year, including my future son-in-law!

  31. I’m not a seasoned knitter. My talents are limited to rectangles, so I knit scarves for all the family. I have graduated lately to knitting in the round. I recently am able to knit infinity scarves. Now I can knit circles and Rectangles!!!:)

  32. I made a few things for my daughter and step mom… That’s all I have planned this year. I’m still churning through my stash making nice things, some of which might find their way to someone else this holiday.

  33. I was hoping to knit socks for some of the women in my family this year, but there has been many pregnancy announcements lately so I will be making baby blankets instead!

  36. I’m knitting a vest for my husband. It was supposed to be a simple stockinette v-neck, but it looks like I won’t have enough yarn for only one color. Time to get creative…

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]