Gift Ideas (From the Knitter)

It's no secret that knitting is taking up a fair amount of my time, energy and passion these days. I love seeing what becomes of a skein of yarn when it's paired with two (or four) needles and a pattern. Since I'm in the season of life where everyone's having a baby, I have been trying to come up with a gift I could make that wouldn't require a lot of money and is easy to ship. (Friends, you all should move closer to me.)

Upon seeing this caterpillar at Ravelry, I decided to make one in the style of perhaps my favorite children's book, The Very Hungary Caterpillar. Though not quite done, mine is close and I'll post photos when finished. While working on it, I realized that a copy of the book (preferably the board book, says this new mama) and a very hungry caterpillar of baby's own would make a great gift.

(If you are a beginning knitter, this pattern is actually fairly easy, once you get it started.)

But why stop there? You could also make...

this bear, paired with some Little Bear books

or give this bunny as Little Nutbrownhare from Guess How Much I Love You (or the wee one from The Runaway Bunny).

There are more possibilities to be sure (Frog and Toad? The Very Busy Spider?) but consider yourself warned: you may end up spending way too much time at Ravelry, squealing over cute little animals like these.

(All photos taken from their respective Ravelry patterns. Also, I didn't create any of the patterns, just wanted to share a cute idea.)