All Wrapped Up

We've been working on gifts and inevitably the puzzle of how to package them must be addressed. Last year, we were completely smitten with our friend Karen's lovely gift boxes. This year, we tripped over a tutorial for Japanese Gift Bags on The Quilt Show. You have to register to see them but it's worth it. They're quick and very cute. And just the right size for a beaded micro macrame bracelet.

And what do we have here? Femmeng Kate sent us a photo of her Papa Bear Sampler Scarf. Very handsome! The yarn is lovely. It's Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering. Thanks for sharing the photo, Femmeng Kate! and thanks, too, for knitting along with us.

We've sent Femmeng Kate a file to print her own gift card to go with her scarf. Don't forget, we'll send you one, too, if you send us a photo of your completed scarf to show here on the blog.

Socks make great gifts

Everyone who ever slips her foot into a handknit sock for the first time is amazed at how comfortable they are. Socks that are made to fit and knit from proper yarn are unbeatable. Of course, wool is the fiber of choice with about 20 - 25% nylon or something similar for durability. They are warm but they breathe and they don't make your feet feel clammy the way synthetic yarns do. And when those socks are knit for you with love....well, Grandma Coco thinks you can feel the love in every stitch.

Our Dad still talks about the socks that our mother made for him years ago. Every so often, when his supply of socks ran low, she would buy some Kroy sock yarn and start knitting. She darned the worn socks, too, which is something that really isn't worth doing for a store bought sock.

On the other side of the needle, socks are a relatively quick knit. A ball or 2 of even the best quality yarn is still pretty inexpensive and there's enough variety in the patterning of socks to keep the most jaded knitter happy.


All in all, socks make great gifts. But what makes a gift a gift? Why a gift card, of course! Grandma Coco's been so busy lately she hasn't had time to offer any goodies. Today, she's got a .PDF file for you that you can download and print at home to make your own gift cards. They wrap around your handknit socks and have a space for laundering instructions.



Copyright © Cheryl Coville 2011



This is a .PDF file. When you print, you have to remember to set Page Scaling to "NONE" and don't tick  "auto rotate and center". Weird things happen when you tick that option. Click HERE to download the file.

Sweater Day

According to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) today is Sweater Day when we’re encouraged to turn down our thermostats by 3 degrees and put on a sweater. Remember what Brenda Dayne says when she ends an episode of her podcast, Cast-on?  “If you’re cold, put on a sweater. That’s what they’re for.” And right she is. It’s so easy to just crank up the thermostat … but so environmentally irresponsible at the same time.

Some of my favourite sweaters can be found in books. Roch Carrier’s  The Hockey Sweater comes to mind. It’s an autobiographical account from his childhood. When he outgrew his old Canadiens hockey sweater his mother ordered him a new one from the Eaton’s catalogue but when it came it was a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater. Horrors! For me, the story always reads in Rock Carrier’s own voice because the first time I heard the story was when he read it on Morningside on the CBC radio. In the good old days. When Peter Gzowski was still alive. And not yet maligned.

The other book I cherish is one I found by chance in a second-hand book shop. It’s  another Canadian book…..Amos’s Sweater by Janet Lunn with illustrations by Kim LaFave.

The first line says it all “Amos was old and Amos was cold and Amos was tired of giving away all his wool.” (Amos is a sheep, of course.) I love, love, love the illustrations with all the sheep and the knitting. And I love the story with its undercurrent of concern for animal welfare AND a happy ending. Written in 1988, it won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award for Illustration, the Canadian Booksellers’ Association’s Ruth Schwartz Award and the Governor General’s Award for Illustration. Amos’s Sweater would make an excellent gift for any child…even 23 years later.

In honour of the day, that persistent sweater drawing has morphed once more. Now it’s a gift tag. It's meant to accompany the gift of a sweater (hand knit, of course) and has a place on the back for laundering instructions.

You can download the .PDF, if you’d like, and print your own.

Happy Sweater Day!