Where I live the holiday season is cold, and it gets dark very, very early. It’s during this time of year that I like to tuck in with my coziest blanket and focus on creative rest. I do most of my crafting over the winter months.
This giveaway features items to help you pass those (possibly) long, dark hours as well.
First up is this cat embroidery kit by Hawthorn Handmade. If you’ve never done embroidery before, this kit is a good place to start.
Also from Hawthorn Handmade is this snowman needle felting kit. Needle felting involves stabbing felt repeatedly with a big needle so I find it’s a good project for when I’m feeling frustrated.
I’m also including these Minnie & Purl stitch stoppers because they are so cute.
You put them on the end of your knitting needles to keep your stitches from slipping off when you aren’t working on your project.
Finally, I’m including some flair from The Clever Cove. I love their stuff so much!
We have a pin featuring a kitty enjoying some streaming while knitting with their books and tea nearby.
I’m also including the following three stickers:
Ed note: this is so adorable – thank you, Elyse!
To enter, please comment and tell us what craft or hobby is your favorite way to spend time, in addition to reading? Or, what craft or hobby would you most like to learn?
Standard disclaimers apply: We are not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and ready to get cozy and crafty, all at the same time. Hot beverages and snuggly blankets optional but highly recommended.
Comments will close 24 December 2022 at or near 11:59pm ET, and winner will be announced shortly afterward.
Good luck, Happy Hanukkah, and thank you for being part of Smart Bitches!
Winner update: Congratulations to Kim!
Cross stitch and pencil drawing are my preferred creative pursuits, but I’m always up for trying something new.
For the last six years or so, I’ve been into pottery at my local studio. Unfortunately one person can only have so many cake stands, so I’ve taken to foisting my work off onto unsuspecting relatives.
Favorites have included crochet and calligraphy, and am tentatively expanding into knitting…. Have also done just the most preliminary of other crafts, like embroidery, macrame, latch hook, beading…
I like journaling and writing in general. I don’t get to do it for pleasure very often these days, but hoping to get back to it at some point soon!
Knitting for me, used to crochet, occasionally cross-stitch, sometimes draw, sewing. I’ve been given a needlefelt kit but am a bit scared to try it. Oh – I was also given a Dorset button kit which I enjoyed.
I love crewel embroidery. I have a closet full of embroidered tea cloths, napkins, etc that I inherited from my aunt who taught me fifty years ago. She had inherited a lot of them from her aunt who taught her.
Knitting. (I know; shocking, right?)
I’m interested in learning needlepoint. I’ve been given a couple of kits and inherited an unfinished project, so I think it’s time to pick up the needle and begin.
I love doing cross stitch! Right now I’m in the middle of completing a project my grandmother was working on before she died.
I really want to learn how to play the banjo (I live in Appalachia) but am not sure how to start/where it’s taught. It doesn’t seem like the sort of thing I can learn online (but maybe it is!)
I’m a poet; and I wrote haikus, because I can write them quickly. I also wrote short stories, and I journal. Writing helps me rest, to sort through issues, and to vent. It gives me a place to be authentic in a World that doesn’t value my introversion.
Knitting, especially lace when I need to practice focus/be present. Spinning when I just need to find some zen. And embroidery when I want to be curled up under a blanket on the couch but still want my hands to be busy.
Knitting! I’m working up the courage to try some color work.
In theory, I crochet, but I barely even added to my yarn stash this year, much less picked up a hook.
I’d really love to learn to knit, but for some reason it never seems to quite make sense to me the way crochet does, so maybe I should just learn Tunisian crochet instead.
I’m loving this giveaway: I have one daughter who knits and one who embroiders, so if I win, I know where the gifts are going, lol. As for me, reading truly is my default hobby, but I used to do a lot of beading & jewelry-making. I still have a big bin full of beads, tools, and findings, so perhaps I’ll go back to making necklaces & earrings in the New Year.
I’ve commented on knitting several times during the giveaway, and knitting and reading are my two favorite hobbies. I’m so impressed by the number of people who say they both knit and crochet! I can’t wrap my head around crochet, and I rarely use hooks except to pick up dropped stitches (one of the best knitting hacks I’ve seen).
That snowman is so cute, so felting sounds to me like a good one to pick up!
My favorite is crochet but I also like cross stitch
Cooking and baking! Not to feed the family but just for the joy of working with my hands and seeing people smile when they take a bite!
My current crafting hobby is repairing my child’s clothing all the time (have gotten into visible mending and do a lot of darning with embroidery thread on knees which turns out pretty cool if I do say so myself). I am definitely a dabbler- I sew when I need to make a Halloween costume, I embroider when repairing clothes, I crochet occasionally, do some woodworking when I’ve got a fun idea, etc. My true skill is making things out of cardboard, I like to joke that’s what my architecture degree really taught me.
Knitting! with a side of knitting. And maybe some embroidery in my free time 🙂
I’ve been a knitter for years but really slowed down a few years a go because I needed to figure out how to manage tendonitis. I did start bead/wirework though, which can be very therapeutic as every once in a while you get to hammer something flat!
I’m a knitter! I also dabble in sewing and spinning
I’ve taken up jigsaw puzzles again. I can work on one while watching TV. My friends and I share them around and when we’ve done them, off they go to public library which keeps a puzzle table going year round!
Crochet!
One of the things I miss about being in the craft industry full time is Learning All The Things. Every time a new crafting trend came out, I had to learn how to do it so I could edit the instructions. Mainly I do cross stitch, embroidery and crochet, but also hardanger, needlepoint, punchneedle, sewing, quilting, some beading, and also watercolor, pen-and-ink and calligraphy. Didn’t get the chance to try needle felting so I’d love to try that. The only thing I can’t do is knitting, because I get too stressed out by not having anything to keep the yarn from falling off the needles and I panic about it.
Crochet!
life long knitter!
I started knitting socks this year. They’re a good one-skein project and knit up fast. I ordered 2 sweater knit kits that I’m hoping will boost my confidence to try bigger projects.
I took up blackwork embroidery during the pandemic, but since starting my new job (much less time in Zoom meetings where I can embroider) I’ve gone back to knitting. Stripey socks are my happy craft.
Lately I’ve gotten in to fabric/embroidery collage and “slow stitching”. (I’m old…slow stitching is just what we used to call “sewing”, with a few creative touches.)
Also, @Priya – check out Swallow Hill Music in Denver. They do online banjo classes!
I’m all about knitting but did dabble in some more complicated crochet this year
I am learning how to crochet. I don’t know if I’ll ever make anything fancy, but just doing the basics is rather soothing.
Crochet and knitting for me. I’d love to take up pottery making.
Cross stitch, but I aspire to be a knitter some day.
I love to knit, especially decorative miniature things on tiny needles, and I’d love to learn felting.
One of my 2023 goals is to learn embroidery so I can put cute weird stuff on my cardigan collars. Like a kraken. 🙂
That is brilliant! I cross stitch but I’d love to try embroidery and other crafts.
Crochet and counted cross stitch are some of my favorite hobbies and ways to unwind. This Chanukah giveaway is right up my alley!
Cross stitch, but I want to try embroidery!