Unraveled

It’s the time of year that many of us begin to think about holiday gift giving. I know there are lots of you who do this year round, but I am a “wait ’till the last minute” kind of girl. That said, there are lots of ways that Ravelry can help you find the perfect pattern for the gifts on your list. Here are a couple of those.

Advanced Search
The advanced search is always handy for finding patterns within our database. There are a lot of different filters you might use for searching the database, but there are a few that might be particularly handy for gifts. If you are in a time crunch, you might want to search only for patterns that are Ravelry downloads so you can download them quickly and get to work or for patterns that are already in your library that you own. You can choose these options under “Availability”

Under “My Notebook” you can also search for patterns that work with yarn in your stash if you use our stash feature. If you don’t use our stash feature, you can find some other reasons why it is handy in this post. Also, if you are in a hurry, you can search for patterns that use 0-150 yards. Since they use a small amount of yarn, you should be able to make these patterns more quickly than those that require more yarn.

Here’s the pattern search that includes all of the options I’ve mentioned above. From there, you can narrow it down even more to find the perfect pattern for the gift you are making. Don’t forget, you can save the search and come back to it later.

Bundles
Bundles are a way you can group your favorites. You can group together anything that you can favorite. I have a bundle that has patterns in it that I think would make great gifts. I could extend this and add yarns that would be great for gift making, as well. Anytime I get ready to make a gift, I go check this bundle.

You may also get inspiration from bundles of your friends. For example, Mary Heather has some really great bundles like the one of teeny tiny things and another of things for the house that might make good gifts depending on the recipient. You can find your friends bundles by going to their profile page and clicking on their favorites. If they have bundles, there is an option to view them there.

Whether you’re making a gift for a friend, trying to knock out a couple of teacher gifts or making something for your entire family, I hope this post helps you to find some great patterns for the perfect gifts!