Holiday Shopping & Crafting

I've been thinking a lot about the upcoming holidays. The state of the economy coupled with the fact that our sole source of income is self-employment income has me thinking a bit more than usual about how and where I want to spend my limited gift budget this year. It is going to be a homemade holiday for sure. I always make a lot of our gifts because I love to make things and give them away. This year our budget is smaller than ever so I plan to make most, if not all, of the gifts we give. Sure I could go spend a little here and there and cover everyone on the list but I don't want to spend money that way. I prefer to give everyone something special, even if it is small. I've been working on my handmade gift spreadsheet (this is how i maintain sanity) and thought I would share some of the small gifts I plan to make this year. Here is a snippet:

• Knit Coffee Cozy - easy, quick knit, lots of coffee drinkers in my family
• Needle Felted Christmas Ornaments - using small cookie cutters in holiday shapes
• Knit Cotton Dish Scrubbies - quick knit, everyone washes dishes right?
• Hats - sort of small, can be fun and quirky
• Funky Fashion Scarves - aka the skinny scarf knit with funky, chunky handspun yarn, super quick knit and fun to boot!

So where do I plan to spend my money on supplies and the few gifts I don't make? Two places:

1) Any locally owned business in the small rural town we live in because they are hurting just like we are and I want to support my town. I've seen so many businesses have to shut down over the past several months and I want to help out in any way I can.

2) Any Etsy shop (Artfire, HyenaCart, etc are also options) because I know a lot of those sellers are stay-at-home-moms trying to make some extra money for their family. Last year Rocket Yarn sales funded our entire Christmas. Without it Santa might have had to skip our house.

For those of you with money shopping for a knitter or spinner I've compiled a list goodies that I would love to see under my own Christmas tree.

• Sit & Spin DVD by Jacey Boggs aka Insubordinknit $43 (includes shipping to the US)

• Goods for Knitters from WineMakersSister on Etsy $13.95 + $4.95 shipping. She has tons of great stuff in her shop but this mug is my favorite because boy oh boy is it ever applicable right now:

• Spinner's Control Card from Mielke's Fiber Arts $12.50 + shipping. I have one of these and I absolutely love it! Very useful little tool.

• Toe-Up! Patterns & Worksheets to Whip Your Whip Your Sock Knitting into Shape by Chrissy Gardiner. I would love to get my hands on this book. Knitting + worksheets makes me all happy. $24.95 + shipping but this is on Amazon so if you spend $25 you get free shipping.

Well that's it for now. Look for more posts coming soon as I find more goodies to share. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment on this post. Thanks & happy knitting!