I am usually one of those people who buy my Christmas gifts in the last minute. And I am hard pressed to hand make any Christmas gifts. This year is going to be different. I am going to do some christmas gift knits this year. My Christmas gift knitting will begin THIS week. For real ya’ll. And I am determined to be all organized about it. It is also a great way to help along my 50 hats in 2014 challenge that I am falling WOEFULLY behind in. I am going to do this all organized like. I am going to take all my Christmas gift ideas, make a gift list and slug out a realistic time frame. Want to join me?
Step 1: Making a list Checking it twice.
Who are you going to make gifts for? Make a list. Like an ambitious list. Put a star in front of the people who you definitely want to make Christmas knit gifts for. For me that means someone very close to me and who understands the value of the time it takes to make a hand knit gift. Like my Mom and Mother in law. Nothing makes me more resentful than to spend a lot of time on a gift only to find out the recipient donated it to Goodwill a month after you gave it to them.
Follow Stacey Budge-Kamison’s board Merry Knitmas on Pinterest.
Step 2: Gather Christmas gift ideas about possible gifts to make.
I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to Christmas gift knits and crochet ideas. Troll through them. Which ones would you LOVE to make? Which ones seems just perfect for recipients on your list? Because I am a computer geek at heart, I make a notebook in Evernote to clip ideas.
Step 3: Match your projects to your list.
Decide who gets what.
Step 4: Predict the time frame for working each project.
This can get a little tricky. But if you have been knitting for even a little while you can get a gauge for how much time a project will take. You can always refer to your Ravelry projects to see how long stuff took. Be generous with your time. Life happens. You want to leave enough time to not feel pressured.
Step 5: Decide how much knitting time a week you can realistically do.
You do not want to be consumed with your Christmas Gift Knitting, but what feels doable? is is 30 minutes a night while watching the local news? is it 45 minutes 3 times a week on your lunch break? be as real and as gentle as possible.
Step 6: Get your Calendar out and schedule it!!
Make time in your calendar all the way through the week before Christmas. Give yourself time before Christmas to wrap and mail your gifts.
Pro Tip
Schedule some special knitting holidays for yourself, where you prepare to sit and enjoy your time completely, snacks,beverages and movies ready to go. Turn you knitting chore into a delicious retreat for yourself.
Step 7: Edit your list.
Add up the time required to knit your Christmas gift knit list. Add up the time you have scheduled in your calendar. Do you have enough time to make all the gifts you would like to make? Edit your list. Either decide to make a simpler gift, or for go making hand made gifts for some people on your list.
Step 8: Access your yarn to projects.
Look at your stash. Do you have yarn in your stash you can use? Is there any projects you can change to be something that will use yarn you already have? Make a list of yarn you will need to buy.
Step 9: Go knit!
Start with a project you have the materials for and begin today.
Step 10: Reassess you schedule/gift list as you go.
This is super important. Every couple of weeks look and see if you were able to fit in the amount of time you wanted to fit in for knitting. Do you feel like you could make it up without becoming overwhelmed? do you need to cancel a gift porject and opt to purchase a gift instead? Reassessing is so very important to keep from getting overwhelmed.
Easy peasy! All it takes is a little planning and organization. What christmas gift knitting tips do you have? Do you have a favorite pattern to share? leave me a comment below, or on the Facebook page. Or email me a link and I will add it to the Merry Knitmas Pinterest board
Fiber artist Stacey Budge-Kamison AKA UrbanGypZ lives and works in Cary NC. She can also be found knitting in public, hammering out her latest e-course at local cafés and spinning yarns in her booth at her favorite arts festivals. A designer at heart, Stacey has decided that her mission is to help fellow knitters, crocheters, weavers and felters embrace their own style and creativity by exploring fiber art as it is a part of their everyday life and helping them embrace the title of artist no matter where they are in their journey. 
Getting a start now rather than later is my plan for this year. Last year was the first year I knitted any gifts and I was knitting like a crazy person up until and just after Christmas trying to finish everything I started. The scarf I picked took way longer than I expected and that’s mostly my fault. I didn’t follow the pattern and when I realized I wasn’t following the pattern, I ripped out what I had started to follow the pattern only to realize I liked whatever I was doing better (the actual pattern probably would have been faster to knit!). When yarn reminds of someone, I grab it so I have a pretty good stash of gift yarn. I may not have a plan – Ok, I rarely have a plan! – but I can usually find something fun to make with however much yarn I bought so right now I have lots of yarn that needs to be knitted and gifted. I have several patterns for fingerless gloves that I found on Ravelry (most are easy to modify for yarn type/style/pattern) and are a quick knit so I’ll be knitting lots of those (2-3 hours per pair). For my best girlfriend and her daughter, I’m going to also do a shawl collared cowl (described as a cozy, button-up cowl, quick-to-knit by Alana Dakos – I’m a relatively new knitter and was able to figure out the pattern (it looked much harder than it turned out to be)). I started a scarf for my husband months ago to give him this Christmas. It’s an easy knit but I get bored knitting it so I tend to put it down to start new things. If I can ever decide on a pattern, I bought yarn that made me think of my Grandmother and I’d like to knit a shawl of some sort for her. If I haven’t run out of time before I get all of that done, I have yarn for a scarf for one of my Aunts. I’m knitting the scarf for me now to see if I like the end result – same yarn, different color. That gets me to about step 3! I’ll be traveling to a wedding in a few months so I should have lots of time sitting with nothing else to do for hours traveling there and back – anyone know if you can take knitting needles on a plane these days? Thank you for posting this! I’ve been thinking about Christmas knitting and this is a good start. Now I just need to keep myself from being distracted (so many yarns, so many patterns) and get everything done this year…..
Yay! I know you are going to have some good peaceful knitting time and will be able to finish with plenty of time to enjoy the season. Reading your post made me think of how doubling or even tripling up projects on two circs can save some time… I might need to do a post on that. Keep me posted on your progress. So awesome to know someone else is starting their Christmas knits with me!! xo
Christmas knitting update (tickled silly to have an update!) – two projects done (shawl for my grandmother and cowl for best friend) and i’ve started on a cowl for my neice that will match the fingerless gloves I sent last year. I have another short road trip coming up and I should get a few hours of knit time since my husband usually does the driving (and now that I sit and knit, I don’t mind not driving). I’ve been pretty good at staying focused but I’ve wandered a little. I had a friend come to visit that I haven’t seen in years and I knitted her a cowl (Sweet Memories – on Ravely). It was a quick, easy, really cute and easy to adapt to the yarn I wanted to use so I’ll be doing more of that pattern (owe my Mom a birthday gift so going through stash to see what I have that I think she’ll like since I’ll be seeing her in a week or so). I found another shawl pattern that I had the perfect yarn for so I had to start that too. It may be a gift once I’m finished (if it turns out ok – another new pattern and I’m a little unsure of how the fringe is going to turn out (going with my just keep knitting and the pattern will make more sense as I get into it rule)). Since I never got around to it earlier this year, I tried to shrink and block the sweater I finished just as it got to warm for sweaters. It was my first sweater and it’s a little bigger than planned (still learning the guage thing) – but I did finish it and it turned out pretty good for a first effort (that translates to I wouldn’t be embarrased to wear it in public!). Thank you for your inspiration! I look forward to reading the weekly news and seeing/reading about your creations.
Sounds like a great start to the list. I too love car knitting. I get so much cranked out.
The planning of ALL the gifts I’d like to do, causes me analysis paralysis! It goes like this…..Now that I FINALLY have all my yarns inventoried and stored ACCESSIBLY, the pattern selection is making me crazy! I have so many I’ve earmarked on Ravelry and downloaded on my computer, I get LOST for hours! Does anyone else do this too?? Guess I’ll start with the hoodies I started for twin great -nieces last year, but got sidetracked with bilateral knee replacements. One thing I know for SURE, knitting while on pain meds makes for interesting outcomes!
Thanks for your step by step coaching, Stacey! I’m going to give organizing my list another try!
GRRRRL…I am right there with you. Picking even a shawl pattern for myself is just nuts. I think everyone will be getting a hat from me this year…makes it simple. I am planning a post for knitting in bulk… Pain med + knitting = freeform, right?
Starting now on my Christmas knitting would put me behind … I actually started three months ago because I also do charity knitting for Christmas at Sea (Merchant Marines) and besides the hats and scarves I make for them, I’ll be sewing Christmas fabric gift bags to include with them. Also, I make up a lot of various-sized gift bags to use at Christmas just because I truly hate wrapping gifts. Bags are much easier. As for my other projects (besides make a stack of new clothes for myself), I also quilt at least one gift per year (last year was a queen-sized quilt for my oldest daughter), so that also takes time. There are lots of pairs of socks still to knit from my huge stash of sock yarn, and numerous scarves for friends, also mostly from sock yarn, so I think I’m plenty busy. Still, I love the idea of putting these projects on a calendar, if for no other reason than that it feels great when I can cross them off as done1