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Dear Kay,

Yes, Virginia, there is a Giftalong.

We’re declaring it, right now.

Giftalong 2017. A quick ’n’ sassy last-minute knitportunity for everybody looking to get it done.

To Recap: Holiday Knitter Types

At holiday time there are several types of knitters.

  1. Some are knitting furiously, in a grim effort to complete a list of gifts in time to get them wrapped and given by The Holidays, even if they still have the needles in them.
  2. Others refuse to knit gifts at all; they are resting comfortably with a glass of mulled cider while knitting something nice for themselves, or at least something that doesn’t have a deadline.
  3. A third group—and this is the group most in need of our compassionate heart-blessing—doesn’t yet know that when their holiday of observance is two weeks away, they suddenly will hear the call to knit gifts, at which point they will sit down and knit 22 hours a day.

This is a knitalong for all these people. There is no pattern specified. It’s a giftalong.

If you’re in the first group, you’ve got problems. You’ve got challenges. You need the company of your kind.

If you’re in the second group, you need a place to go and rubberneck without mercy, hopped up on snickerdoodles and smug as hell.

And if you’re in the third group, come sit by us. We have a jillion unfinished objects and a couple of weeks max to get any of it done.

certain to finish: Parallelogram Scarf.

The Rules

Begin, continue, or finish a thing. Really, the goal here is mutual support and momentum sharing. We knit more when we see other people knitting. It is so contagious.

We have a fresh, new topic over in The Lounge, “Giftalong 2017: The Reckoning.” Share your strategies, lists, accomplishments, and photos. We will Like every single one of them!

Urgent situation: sister has seen and requested a Sommerfeld Shawl.

The Gift Tags

Whatever you do, please be sure to download our free gift tags. This free downloadable PDF means you can use the paper or card stock you like. The four sheets include three tag sizes plus a band to wrap around mitts or socks.

Potential restart so as to improve eyelet quality: Antirrhinum Socks.

The Hashtag

#MDKgiftalong on Instagram.

The Up-all-Night Project: Backyard Fiberworks yarn, Birkin pullover.

The Door Prizes

We’ll be lobbing out random surprises to folks who post their progress on Instagram using the hashtag #MDKgiftalong.

DEFCON 1: BABY ALREADY BORN FOR THIS LITTLE TERN BLANKET.

The Deadline

Midnight, December 24. At which point we all declare ENUF!

We’re really looking forward to this. Come on in! The water’s freezing!

Love,

Ann

44 Comments

  • Um, you ladies know there’s already a huge event called the Giftalong on Ravelry (with about 10K group members), right?

    • ooooo!! (This) is my first year hearing about this trend — this “seasonal”– and I say…….” There’s room for both!!!”. Different (key-)strokes for different folks…I mean, for me, it was just a matter of timing and (“gee!”) support is support!…wherever it comes from : )
      Best wishes to everybody — the “no. 1’s”, “no.2’s”, and “no.3’s”! I hope o leave room for the ‘happy’ in ” Happy Holidays “…….Blessings, all!

    • Ravelry? What’s that? ; )

      We like intimate, tiny giftalongs, where the sharing and caring can flow like the mighty Nile.

      • Fair enough, but you might get some confusion using the same name.

        • That’s what the “MDK” is for so hopefully we are good.

  • Y’all always crack me up…

  • Hooray for all of the encouragement, loving group support and also, prizes. xo

  • I cannot find the giftalong 2017 thread in the MDK forums! help?

  • Group 2 here! I am bringing the mulled cider for everyone.

    • May I have mine spiked? I’m starting a pair of sasquatch-sized socks on US1 dpns…

    • Joining you in group 2! I went on a vacation to a place with lovely gift shopping back at spring break and am smugly ahead of the game. Giving myself the gift of good night’s sleep until I join group 3 for winter round of family birthdays.

  • The beauty of gift knitting is that it does not involve the mall. I would much rather do the world’s most boring knitting project in a color I do not like with acrylic yarn for a rather unpleasant giftee than go to the mall in December. Happily, any gifts I make are usually things I enjoy knitting or sewing (with occasional exceptions for really spectacular people – I am looking at you, black cowl that I could not see what I was knitting) and are always for people I genuinely like. I tend to fall in category 2 until right before Christmas when I morph into a category 3 crazy person. This happens at about the same time as my annual “I am not Martha Stewart and am a worthless human being” preholiday meltdown.

    • I am with you on avoiding the mall. I really don’t enjoy shopping and crowds, so my family knows the rules. You speak up in September to tell me what you want or you get a gift card.

  • Yes, Virginia, there is a giftalong and it’s been going for 5 years strong now: https://www.ravelry.com/groups/indie-design-gift-a-long

  • So much beautiful yarn. My daughter will inherit a fortune.

    • I actually have named someone in my will to be my yarn executor. She knows me well, and is (of course) a knitter herself. I couldn’t bear the thought of my stash going to the Goodwill or (shudder…) being thrown out.

      • Oooh good idea. I keep telling my husband, but he swears he’s not reliable.

  • This is so great! I prefer to not join in the megalopolis of knitting too often… I enjoy your posts so much! I think I’m group 3…with a smidge of group 2, as my 2 biggies are done…just additional fingerless gloves for one of them, which is the group 3 part for me☺️

    • Thanks, Malinda! I’m kind of a hybrid group 2/group 3. Definitely not group 1! Way too disorganized for that.

  • I think this is very sweet. Unfortunately, I am not a fast knitter and as much as I’d love to gift something I made,I know better than to put myself under that kind of pressure. Happily I fall under group 2 and just keep working on whatever is on my needles and they’ll get done when they get done! Merry Christmas everyone..

  • Unfortunately I can’t post anything on Instagram because the recipients also are on Instagram. I don’t want to give up the surprise! I started my multitude of projects in September and I have to admit I’m getting quite nervous because the end is not as close to being insight as I would like.

    This year’s gifts include knitting, crocheting, sewing, and cross stitch. It’s the cross stitch that’s painful. I haven’t done it since I was a teenager and I had forgotten how incredibly slow it is and the gift requested is large. There’s an imbalance in there somewhere! Good luck everyone and know that I’m here with you in spirit!

    • I’ve the same issue re Instagram, my gift recipient follows me there. So I’m also here in spirit!

      • If you want to be in for prize drawings, feel free to use ultra closeup or black & white images.

    • Cross stitch was my first craft–my mom gave me a kit with a little sampler, and I loved that thing so much. Good luck with your gift!

  • I was in Group 2, and then my smugness made me decide to fit in another couple of projects, and now I am squarely in Group 1. (Although I am reserving one slot of time every day for NOT gift knitting. I don’t want to break my knitting mojo, as I have in previous years where I got too ambitious. I can always buy a nice gift. I can!)

  • This is great! I have knit several hats and a couple of dog accessories recently, acknowledging the change of season and temperature already in place. I tend to knit in the style of Lord Peter Wimsey’s motto, “As My Whimsy Takes Me,” so I think that makes me an odd hybrid of groups 1, 2, and 3. But not grim. Never grim!

    • Never grim! That’s going to be a needlepoint pillow for me someday.

  • I really want to know the name of the pattern for those fingerless mitts!

    • Monica, I’m with you; I’d love to get the pattern and start yet another project that has to be done in 2 weeks.

      • Hi Monica and Lisa—Those are Ann Weaver’s Squad Mitts, which appear in MDK Field Guide No. 1: Stripes.

        The yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock—we have a few kits left in this juicy stuff:
        https://www.moderndailyknitting.com/shop/squad-mitts-kit/

        It’s enough yarn for at least 5 pairs of mitts–I even made a Carpino sweater with my kit lol.

        Tons of people stash-bust for this pattern. Anyway, have fun!

        • Thank you very much! On my way to buy Field Guide #1.

  • I’m firmly in group 1! I have to knit up a Happiness Runs hat for my dad and I have to knit up a Santa Pillow for my mom. Of course I haven’t started either of them. I’ll start knitting on the hat tomorrow!!

  • Can you point me to the pattern and yarns used in the gloves pictured? Love them”

    • Hi Cheryl see the link above in the response to Monica and Lisa! These are the Squad Mitts by Ann Weaver, pattern in Field Guide No. 1. Addictive little devils….

      • They really are addictive, have just finished my 6th pair (Xmas gift). Also economical, as I am still using the same two ‘base’ skeins I started with, with enough left for at least another pair

  • Finally, a KaL I can get down with. And the “Defcon 1” comment made me lol. I have a quilt at that very stage!

  • I’m a definite 2.50, aspiring to two-dom. I’m waffling on who will get what, if I finish whatever, and as always assuming I knit three time faster than I actually do. I have an excellent back-up purchased gift idea for when reality comes crashing down.

  • I’m in group 2, so I’ll bring bubbly and chocolate torte. I knit all year, and then shop my stash of FO’s if I want to gift them. Some I keep for myself. I’m that way. I don’t like deadlines!

  • My family and i must be in Group 4. My daughter knits and sews, my son paints, I knit. We enjoy making gifts for each other, but are not good with deadlines. So every year at least one person wraps up an unfinished project, or at least the raw materials, and gives it to the giftee with a note saying “This will be yours in the near (or distant”) future!”. The gift is then put back in the box and returned to the giver. And in the near (or distant) future the finished object finds it’s rightful home. Many years all the of us exchange gifts and then taking them back in order to finish at a more convenient time. We are all good with this and get as much enjoyment out of the anticipation as we do from the finished object. It’s a lot less stressful.

  • I don’t know what group I am in. I completed an Afghan, good. I bought Field Guide 2 because I want to try color work. I bought yarn for a Hadley, but I am afraid it is somewhere between worsted and bulky. I am frozen in place by fear of beginning!

  • I long to be in the “snickerdoodle and smug” group but am actually knitting a scarf for my husband this year. From a free pattern. That had the colors misidentified. Do I press on and say it’s a design element? YES! The moral of the story is I should be knitting from the Sequences MDK Field Guide. Those freak flags are calling me.

  • Ok, the gift I am making is crocheted pasta…anyone else have a sister who says her nine month old baby needs play pasta for her pretend kitchen??? Santa’s bringing the pots and pans hopefully….

  • I’m in Group 2 this year, but not smug about it.

    Any random thoughts of gift knitting went off the rails with our out-of-state move at the beginning of November. I’ve spent the last five weeks unpacking boxes, hanging pictures, making curtains, getting used to a new kitchen, and reassuring two very confused dogs (one elderly). Not to mention you can’t get a drivers license anymore without 80 pieces of ID (I had to present proof of marriage, but hubs did not?! What?!)

    We had a modest Thanksgiving for six here and I’ve managed to crank out a few batches of cookies and a holiday lunch for six today. I’m committed to contributing to at least three other meals (my stepson and I are the best cooks in the extended family, no contest).

    I’ve got two easy, quick hats going for me (one Christmas themed) and a lace scarf started (Driftless by Amanda Ochocki).

    Cheering on everyone as the finish line approaches!!

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