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.

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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