Knit Some Simple Holiday Gift Card Holders

Over at Craftown they’re already thinking about Christmas (and I heard yesterday some stores are already selling Christmas stuff), so if you’re ready to start your holiday crafting you might want to take a look at these knit gift card holders from Melanie Smith, which are so cute you could hang them on the tree until it’s time to open them.

Of course, if you’re thinking this far ahead you probably aren’t buying anyone gift cards, but file this one away for your last-minute shopping. Or knit the holders now knowing your gift will look cuter than just a gift card when the time comes.

You could also use the basic envelope or tube shape to jazz up a gift card any time of year, just knit in different colors.

Are you thinking about Christmas already?

[Photo via Craftown.]

I am a big fan of gift cards, I know lots of people find them impersonal but being able to purchase what YOU need or what YOU want is far more logical than receiving random gifts and stocking fillers that you may not use. Especially with all these Netflix programs telling us to downsize, declutter and or course Konmarie everything.

The only disappointing thing with gift cards is not being able to shop for items, if you are like me and enjoying shopping for special gifts then maybe consider shopping for smaller stocking fillers or fun ways to wrap or gift the gift cards. You can present or gift a gift card in a fun and special way too.

One year I added the gift cards to some pretty wide mouthed water bottles that have been filled with little trinkets. We also featured this Giftcard Christmas tree idea on the blog here.

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

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