Do you want to get the best gift for the knitter in your life this holiday? You might think yarn is a safe bet, but I actually really DON’T recommend that. Yarn tastes are so personal that you are likely to get it wrong unless they have told you exactly what they want.
However, you can definitely shower your knitting friends and family with knitting gifts they will love!
In this post, I have rounded up some of the best gifts for knitters, updated for 2020. I would personally be ecstatic to receive any of these gifts. These are some of the most wished-for and talked-about knitting items of 2020.
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Table of Contents
Best Knitting Books to Gift in 2021
This year has seen some fantastic knitting book releases. Here, I’ve hand-picked a few that would make the best knitting gifts this year.
Seasonal Slow Knitting: Thoughtful Projects for a Handmade Year
Seasonal Slow Knitting: Thoughtful Projects for a Handmade Year is Hannah Thiessen’s October 2020 follow-up to Slow Knitting. This book encourages knitters to be thoughtful and intentional about their knitting. Hannah Thiessen shares a series of essays, projects, and patterns in this inspirational knitting book organized like a seasonal planting guide or farmer’s almanac.
Find Seasonal Slow Knitting at your local bookstore, or purchase online through Bookshop.org to benefit the local bookstore of your choice.
Knit Happy with Self-Striping Yarn: Bright, Fun and Colorful Sweaters and Accessories Made Easy
Knit Happy with Self-Striping Yarn is Stephanie Lotven’s debut book of knitting patterns. I have actually test knit a few of Stephanie’s patterns in the past so I can say with confidence that I am sure this book is going to be fantastic.
Knit Happy with Self-Striping Yarn contains 20 patterns designed to make the best use of self-striping yarn. These patterns aren’t limited to socks, either—Stephanie has designed a whole slew of creative and unique uses for self-striping yarn to keep any knitter entertained.
This book is coming out December 22, 2020, so if you want to buy it before then, it will be a preorder. No guarantee it will arrive by Christmas, but I think a card with a note about the book to come would be just as nice. 😊
Pick up Knit Happy with Self-Striping Yarn at your local bookstore, or purchase online through Bookshop.org to benefit the local bookstore of your choice.
Operation Sock Drawer: The Guide to Building Your Stash of Hand-Knit Socks
Do you have a sock knitter in your life? This and the next book would be some of the best gifts for sock knitters this year.
Operation Sock Drawer is a September 2020 release by the Knitmore Girls featuring 20 new sock patterns by a variety of talented knitting pattern designers.
In addition, Operation Sock Drawer includes information on knitting various toe shapes and heel styles, techniques for darning old socks, and bonus info on knitting socks two at a time, choosing yarn, and overcoming second sock syndrome.
Find Operation Sock Drawer at your local bookstore, or pick it up from Bookshop.org to benefit small booksellers with your purchase.
52 Weeks of Socks
52 Weeks of Socks is a stunningly beautiful hardcover book of sock knitting patterns from Laine Publishing. This book is almost worth picking up for the photography alone, but the 46 talented designers who supplied original patterns for this book are what really make it shine.
This book is only available directly from the publisher and from local yarn stores—no Amazon or Bookshop for this one. You can click here to order it!
Best Knitting Supplies to Gift
If your loved one is a newer knitter, they might not have some of these key supplies yet. A knitter usually only needs one of each of these things, so make sure to check with them first on these items.
Swift and Ball Winder
Many beginner knitters find themselves drawn to more luxurious yarns as they grow their skills and become more adventurous. These yarns usually come in what is called a hank, which a twisted up bundle of yarn that looks like this:
To knit from a hank, you have to first carefully wind it into a ball. If you try to knit directly from the hank, you will end up with a tangled, unusable mess.
You CAN wind by hand, but owning a swift and ball winder makes the yarn winding process far faster and easier. Every knitter should own a swift and ball winder.
These are the swift and ball winder I own, which I highly recommend.
Stanwood Needlecraft Tabletop (Amish-style) Swift
A swift holds yarn hanks open so the ball winder can pull from them quickly and easily with no tangles.
I highly recommend the Stanwood Needlecraft tabletop/Amish-style swift pictured here, especially if your loved one doesn’t have a lot of space. This type of swift is perfect for small spaces because it’s easy to pack away when not in use.
For that reason, I prefer this type of swift over the umbrella style swift that you may be used to seeing in yarn stores. In fact, the swift I recommend here is the one I personally have owned and loved for five years.
If you can’t afford to gift your knitter both a swift and a ball winder, the swift is the one to get. Owning a swift makes hand-winding yarn (without a ball winder) infinitely easier.
Click here to check the price for my favorite swift.
Stanwood Needlecraft Ball Winder
This ball winder from Stanwood Needlecraft is one of the best yarn ball winders and it will stand the test of time. I’ve used mine heavily for five years and it still works like new. I have heard many stories of other plastic ball winders falling apart or having other issues, but the Stanwood Needlecraft winder is a fantastic model that won’t disappoint. I think it is the best ball winder on the market today.
Click here to buy the Standwood Needlecraft ball winder for the knitter in your life.
Interchangeable Knitting Needle Set
An interchangeable knitting needle set is one of the most powerful tools a knitter can have in their arsenal. This will allow them to knit a huge variety of projects without having to buy a new needle for each project. They will always be able to assemble exactly the needle they need.
There are many interchangeable knitting needle sets out there and it can be hard to know which to choose! Here, I’m recommending what I personally think is the best interchangeable knitting needle set out there today.
The complete Chiaogoo Twist Red Lace Interchangeable Set is my absolute favorite. This set comes with needle tips in sizes US2 (2.75 mm) to US15 (10 mm) and their unmatched memory-free red lace cables in lengths to make 24″ (60cm), 32″ (80cm), and 40″ (100cm) circular knitting needles. These sizes make it possible to create needles to use for almost any project you can imagine, except socks.
If you bought this in conjunction with the Chiaogoo Mini Twist set for sock knitting, your loved one would have literally every needle size they could EVER possibly need for everything from the finest-gauge socks to the chunkiest sweaters.
Of course, without pairing this with the mini set, the complete Chiaogoo Twist Red Lace Interchangeable Set is still one of the best gifts for knitters! It’s a bit on the spendy side, but you can click here to check the current price.
Best Gifts for Sock Knitters
If your loved one loves to knit socks, these would be some great ideas to make them smile this season.
The Best Interchangeable Needles for Sock Knitters: Chiaogoo Mini Twist Set
If you know a sock knitter who always has more than one pair of socks on the needles at once, an interchangeable sock knitting needle set would be one of the best gifts.
Chiaogoo released this mini set a few years ago, but it is still a crowd favorite. This set includes five tip sizes perfect for socks from US000 (1.5 mm) to US1.5 (2.5 mm). The tips pair with their famous, smooth, kink-free red lace cables (also included) to make 24″ (60cm), 32″ (80cm), and 40″ (100cm) circular knitting needles. These lengths are perfect for magic looping a single sock, or magic looping two at a time!
Not every sock knitter likes to knit with the magic loop method, so I would check with your loved one. However, if they DO like magic loop, I am 100% positive they will LOVE this set. I know I do.
In fact, I used Chiaogoo circle knitting needles almost exclusively when I placed second out of about 1,000 competitors in the 11th edition of the international speed knitting competition known as Sock Madness. I use them for all my sock knitting pattern designs, too.
Click here to order the best sock knitting needles for your loved one this season.
Books for Sock Knitters
Operation Sock Drawer: The Guide to Building Your Stash of Hand-Knit Socks and 52 Weeks of Socks would both make fantastic gifts for the sock knitter in your life. Check out my write-ups above, here and here!
Header image by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash.