In this edition of The Gift, we’re making the case for just-because handmade gifts. Plus: a kit to help you knit a sweater, how to break up with your phone, and a very adorable penguin.
Last year, a friend (who I am lucky enough to also work with) texted me: “I have something for you, come to the cafeteria.” It wasn’t my birthday or the holidays, just a random dreary spring weekday. One that was immediately brightened by her colorful surprise: a hand-knit case for my Kindle. Given to me for no real reason, as if to say, “I was thinking of you, even when no one—no ad, or Hallmark movie, or holiday window display—was telling me to.”
I’ve always been a big proponent of just-because gifts. Still, I was struck by how moved I felt by my new, imperfectly knit Kindle case. It wasn’t that it fit my e-reader like a glove, or even that my friend had been attentive enough to notice my Kindle precariously floating around in my overflowing work tote—and know (before I did!) that I needed a case. It’s that she made it with her own two hands. For me. Just because.
In our digital world, where being present for our friends often happens instantly and on our screens—sending a check-in text, sharing a funny meme, or gifting delivery-service soup on their sick day—the slow, deliberate, and decidedly offline act of crafting me something stood out. The fact that my friend was regularly putting her phone down in between dashing off texts to the group chat to secretly knit with me in mind felt so much more substantial than any digital touch point.
This year, I’m hoping to follow her example and hand-make a few just-because gifts of my own. Here’s where I’m starting:
- I have a lot of friends who would love this crotchet bag, which looks way more chic and modern than what I thought crotchet could ever be. Our experts say it’s for “ambitious beginner crocheters,” which is precisely how I am feeling on January 2: bushy-eyed and full of the gumption a new year brings.
- For the kids in my life: I’m excited to try my hand at a few more of these “idiot-proof” and incredibly adorable tiny crotchet animals.
- These beautiful paint-by-numbers kits our gifting experts recommend would be a great place to start if you’re looking to try your hand at painting a gift. Or the kit itself would be a great gift for the person in your life looking for a new hobby—it comes with everything they need to create large, modern still-life paintings.
- And as a gift for myself, because that counts, too: I’m going to start working on this simple, soft, and squishy merino knit sweater. I’m leaning toward the Sahara Dust color, a quite lovely neutral I can wear into the spring.
My resolution to craft gifts this year is not an entirely altruistic one. I’m eager to find any way to force myself to spend more time off my phone, for all the reasons we know we should. Last year, I crocheted a very adorable penguin, and I spent the days between Christmas and New Year’s building this perfectly festive Lego poinsettia. Both projects worked muscles in my brain I don’t use nearly enough, and both felt like (relatively) easy wins and gave me a rich sense of accomplishment totally divorced from work or any other role I’m grinding to fill in my daily life.
But these projects were few and far between, and I’m hoping that crafting with a recipient in mind might provide the structure and motivation I need to do it more regularly. I’ll also, I imagine, feel warmed in the same way I did by my knit Kindle case—a deepened connection with my recipient through the intention and presence of making something handmade.
