How many of you love to gift what you make but find yourself always rushed and stressed making everything that you’ve planned for Christmas or other holidays? Wouldn’t it be nice if it were different?!

Crocheting gifts always seems like a good idea before you start, but once you start making them you soon realise that everything needs more time to make than you thought it would. Or you start making them and the list of what you want to make gets longer because there is always at least one person you forgot!

So how can we make it less of a stress? Especially if making the gifts takes away all of the joy and calming benefits that crochet brings.

First step, and I’m sorry to be the one with bad news, if you’re reading this now and it’s November and you have 4 or more gifts to make, then you really should have been making the gifts for the last few months! Especially if you’re making numerous larger size gifts like shawls or blankets or cushions. You want to give yourself time to make them without the stress. If you’re making smaller gifts, then you may still be ok, but I wouldn’t put it off for much longer.

If you’re yet to start, then your first step is to get to proper planning. The more planning you can do before you begin the easier it is going to be to make everything. If you’ve laready started then it doesn’t hurt either to stop either make a plan or double check your current plan and make sure thta it’s still feasible. To start planning means creating a list of who you want to make gifts for and what gifts you want to make. Do you have the yarn already? Or do you need to buy some? Are they quick to make or are they going to take you more time? Start on the ones that will take longest first, but feel free to break it up with some smaller gifts so that you can keep the energy and momentum going.

Plan out when you can spend time on them too. Consider the time you have available to crochet and what it is that you’re making. If you’re making something with granny squares then it is easy to calculate how many squares you need to make each day or each week. If you’re working from a pattern then you can plan our how many rows or which sections you want to complete in a given time frame. Once you have that figured out it is easier to decide if you can chip away at what you’re making over a daily basis or if you have to carve out bigger chunks of time.

Keeping the projects small can make things easier too. Making beanies or cowls or washcloths or other smaller sized gifts are easier to finish and easier to say I’m going to give them one or two instead of three. They’re also the kind of gift that you can just keep making in bulk ove the year and decide on who to gift them to later.

When you get to the making stage, find ways to keep up momentum by breaking each one into mini projects so that you’re feeling progress wins as you go. For bigger projects you can have a win with each new colour or each new ball of yarn. If you need the wins more frequent then set yourself a timeline for getting to each part or a number of rows. Challenge yourself to see how far you can get in the next 30 minutes. Anything that works to motivate you to keep going.

If you’re needing help with planning (and I know many people that do!), then I recommend my WIP planner. It helps you to break down the planning and prioritising of the projects so that you can get through them more easily. Members of my Hooked on Crochet Club have access to the planner under member resources inside the hub. Those of you who are not yet members can purchase a copy by clicking the button below.

Anyway, I hope that this helps and you get through all of your gift making this year!

Seona x