Gift Guide

Gifts for Crafty People

Craftlit is one of my favorite podcasts! It is hosted by Heather Ordover who began the podcast back in 2007. Anyone can listen to the regular feed for free by going to https://craftlit.com/library/ or YouTube. Each episode begins with “crafty chat” on a variety of topics including knitting, weaving, sewing, crocheting, and quilting. Then Ordover gives some literary and historic background to the chapter(s) that follow. As a literature history nerd, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Craftlit! There is also a premium feed for paid subscribers which you can access in a few ways including at Supercast which gives you the option to gift a subscription.

Knitting

What Would Madam Defarge Knit and the subsequent books in the series have clever, literature inspired patterns. The series is an offshoot of Craftlit.

Pacific Knit Co is one of my favorite knitting companies, although I do not agree with the company’s anti-pro life stance on political issues. I love PKC patterns because the colorwork charts are meant to be interchangeable so that you can use practically any charts with any base pattern. The chart patterns come in both digital and physical format. I like the cards because they are small and can be tucked into my knitting bag.

Some of my favorite PCK items are

  • Doodle Knit Directory: this is a book that includes the base patterns and 200 doodles.

  • Rhinebeck Doodle: this one has yarn themed doodles.

  • Sports Doodle: I used the basketball chart to make an RCA basketball hat. I learned I need to space the letters out more so that there is no question as to if it is supposed to say RCA, CAR, or ARC.

Crochet

Chiagoo Shorties are great for sock knitters. I did not buy them for a while because they are so costly and was afraid they would not be worth it, but now that I have bought them and used them, they are the best set of interchangeable knitting needles! The cable and needle join seamlessly so that there is no snagging!

They can be found in several locations:

Susan Bates Crochet Hooks are my favorite because I like the way the hook is shaped and I find it easier to push through stitches and pull the yarn through than other more rounded hooks. Then can be found at Michaels and Amazon, and possible at your local yarn store.