Gift Knitting - Our Favorite Patterns for Quick & Easy Knits!

Hi lovelies! It's that time of the year - the holidays are fast approaching, and the gift knitting has begun!

I really love gifting hand-knits, preferrably ones that are quick to knit up and make for a really enjoyable project - after all, I want to have fun while knitting them, and feel good about the finished object.

We've put together a whole Pinterest board with our favorite gift knitting patterns for you that we hope helps with inspiring and planning what you'll be making for your loved ones this year.

We've selected mostly designs that you can whip up in a weekend (hello worsted weight hats and DK weight socks!), and that also work if you're unsure which size would fit the recipient best.

Hats, fingerless mittens, and scarves are great options there - hats and mittens will look good even if the finished object is a little more snug or loose-fitting than you intended, and scarves are great if you don't want to bother with sizing at all.

We've also included a few bigger items (a wonderful cozy shrug!) and kids' knits for the little ones you might want to knit something for this holiday season.

You can find the whole Pinterest board here:

I couldn't resist, though, to pair a few of these patterns with yarn colors that I'm particularly in love with this year.

Take a look:

Agata Mackiewicz' Acorn Mittens were one of your favorite patterns from Issue 8 (so many FOs already!) and knit up in Hudson & West's Weld (shown here in colorway Red Feather), they'd be perfect for anyone who spends a lot of their time either outdoors - think of bike rides or playground dates! - or at the computer. Cold hands while typing are not pleasant at all, let me tell you!

I love a cozy pair of DK-weight socks, both to wear and to knit. I wear my own Near & Far socks as bed socks these days (always cold feet here!), and when I knit them up, I was astonished at how quickly they were done. Go for a size 2 or 3 if you're not sure which size would fit best - they're really forgiving. Our LITLG Highland DK (here in Oast) is a sturdy yarn that would show off those cables really well AND make a long-lasting pair of socks.

Looking for something a bit bigger? Thien-Kieu Lam - the queen of cabled scarves - was back in our Issue 8 with Sojourn, a beautiful worsted-weight scarf that looks complicated, but really isn't! Plus: You only need three balls of De Rerum Natura's Gilliatt for it. I fell in love with this stunning blue called Nuit the moment I unpacked our latest shipment!

When I went through our patterns to look for ones that would work well with one of our newest yarns, Hudson + West's Forge, I stumbled over my own Multitudes Hat from Issue 4, also available as a single PDF. It's the perfect fit - crisp cables on a reverse stockinette background, and a pompom on top! Forge has wonderful stitch definition and a lovely color palette to choose from - I've paired Multitudes with Mustard here, but you could choose any of the 16 colors and they would all look good.

Ending as we were beginning: With a sweet pair of fingerless mittens. Madeleine Renarde's Cellular Mittens from Issue 5 are perfect to use up any fingering- or sport-weight scraps you have - or for two colors of De Rerum Natura's Ulysse, the yarn we originally used for the design. The sample is knit up in Argile and Quartz, and I'd love to make a pair for myself in exactly the same colors!

Tell me - are you planning to knit any gifts this year? If so, which ones? I'm so curious!