It’s that time of year again knitters – the Indie Design Gift-A-Long begins this Friday! I’m very excited to be participating for my third year as a designer and a knitter. The Gift-A-Long is a real highlight for me – building the community between designer and knitter, all culminating in five-and-a-half weeks of knitting, chatting, and games organized by the amazing folks who run this event each year.
What is the Indie Design Gift-A-Long?
From November 23rd – December 31st, thousands of knitters and crocheters will gather on the Indie Design Gift-A-Long forum to get their fingers flying on holiday gift-making. Not only is a great place to create-a-long with your fellow fibre enthusiasts, but there are contests and prizes for everybody that participates – from free patterns, to yarns, to books, to notions (and everything in between).
On top of the chatting and games, from November 23rd (8pm EST) – November 29th (midnight, EST) there will be a sale, where hundreds of participating designers (including myself!) will be offering between 10-20 patterns at 25% off to jump start your holiday knitting. All you have to do is enter the coupon code giftalong2018 and the discount will be applied.
Kelly G. Knits Patterns
I’ll be including a selection of 14 patterns for sale this year in the GAL, which you can see in my Ravelry bundle here. They are:
Cadha
Trochu
Cèilidh Fingerless Gloves
Cèilidh Infinity Scarf
Elke
Clovis Point
Vestiges of Winter
Pillars of Creation
Calabash
Dappled Shade
Heather June
Hilton’s Edge
Crux Cloth
Crux Towel
If you’re looking for gifts to knit for friends and family, I have several patterns that can fit that bill. My Cadha and Trochu toques are available in multiple sizes, and knit up easily in a few days. Cèilidh Fingerless Gloves have proved quite popular in past Indie GAL events, and are also a pretty quick knit. Both Pillars of Creation and Calabash socks are unisex, and if you’re like me, you can bang out a few pairs in just over a month. Elke is a pretty shawl with stockinette, texture, and lace in a modified half-pi shape, and can also be knit up in a few weeks.
But It Doesn’t Stop There…
The previous two years I’ve created a list of designs by other designers that I want to highlight – and I’ll be doing that again this year. It’s one of my favourite things to do during the GAL, because I get to discover new designs and designers myself. I always end up snagging a few (ahem, several…) patterns for myself along the way, and I hope through these blog posts I can help you discover some new favourite designers too.
Once or twice a week I’ll be posting a list in each GAL category, with links to the designers and their highlighted pattern. Each blog post will highlight 5-6 patterns by different designers, in the categories of Hands, Hats, Sweaters, Scarves & Cowls, Shawls, Home, Socks, & Everything Else.
So, I hope you to see you on the GAL forums, and I can’t wait to see all your finished objects – keep an eye out for me on the threads (and don’t be shy to say hello – my Ravelry username is tomatl).