Knit for Yourself Shrug Pattern

I feel like we’re far enough into December as I write this that all thought of knitting for gifts for other people should be over. Unless you’re knitting, like, a super bulky hat or something, there’s probably not time to make anything else for anyone else.

And that’s actually a great thing, because that means it’s time to knit for you.

There are people who would call this “selfish knitting,” but I don’t think it’s selfish to want to make something nice for yourself with the skills that you have. I know lots of people like to knit for others most of the time, and that’s great, but I love making myself stuff and I think you should, too.

This knit shrug pattern from Petite.Donut for We Are Knitters is presented as a video on Instagram, but it’s a pretty simple process to make these knit sleeves for yourself.

I say it’s for yourself because you really need you to be there so you can try it on as you knit to make sure all the pieces are the right length for you. It’s worked from one side to the other, knitting one sleeve in the round, then splitting the stitches to make a tiny front and back that go across your body, then joining up again to knit the second sleeve.

The project is worked in bulky yarn and if you know how to knit in the round this should be no problem for you.

Of course you could make it for someone else if you knew how long their arms are and their shoulder to shoulder measurement, but wouldn’t you rather have this sweet little shrug for yourself? I think this would be super cute over a sun dress or a tank top, or I would totally wear it under a sweater for extra warmth.

Check out the pattern on Instagram.

[Photo via We Are Knitters]

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For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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