The Holiday Season Is Upon Us! Are You Ready to Get Busy Making Holiday Crafts?
Happy November, everyone! Today is November 1, 2024. Halloween is now over and done with, and that means your local retailers are probably putting up their Christmas displays and getting ready for the holiday rush of shoppers.
For those of us planning to make our own Christmas gifts and Christmas decorations, the pressure is on to get it all finished before December 25 rolls around. On the one hand, there’s plenty of time. On the other hand, there’s never enough time — so there’s no time like the present to get moving on your 2024 holiday crafting.
If you need a little inspiration for what to make for the 2024 holiday season, I invite you to check out this list of the best Christmas craft books. These books all have fantastic Christmas project ideas, plus the patterns you can use for making each project.
I’ll highlight a couple of my favorites from the list here in this blog post — but I hope you’ll check out the entire list to find some amazing Christmas knitting books, Christmas crochet books, and other assorted Christmas craft books.
Classic Christmas Crochet Pattern Book: Traditional Danish Holiday Decorations and Gifts, by Heidi B Johannesen and Pia HH Johannesen, Published by Trafalgar Square Books
If I had to choose just one Christmas pattern book to work from, it would be a tough choice — but I think this is the one I’d go for.
Why?
A couple of reasons:
First of all, because I think this book is the prettiest of all my current choices. The Christmas ornaments and projects featured are lovely and useful ones;
and, second, because these projects all work well for either gift-giving or keeping.
If you enjoy knitting and crocheting Christmas gifts, you’ll want to get your hands on a copy of Arne & Carlos Favorites. This lovely book includes a spectacular selection of patterns for knitting Christmas ornaments, toys like the cute mouse pictured here, chic accessories, blankets, slippers and other items that make fantastic Christmas gifts.
This book is another top favorite that I highly recommend. It’s primarily intended for knitters, but it also includes a sprinkling of crochet and embroidery, too.
This isn’t specifically intended to be a Christmas book, but I have no problem including it on my list of best Christmas books because so much of its contents are Christmas friendly.
The book includes a high number of usable patterns. It also has a fantastic variety of different projects, including Christmas ornaments, toys, slippers and many others. Some of these items are specifically Christmas projects; some of which are projects for other holidays; and some of which are everyday projects that would make fantastic Christmas gifts (or not — you don’t have to give them to anybody, and nobody would blame you for keeping them!).
October Craft Ideas: Crochet fingerless gloves + Plan your craft projects using a planner layout that includes a habit tracker
Happy October, creative friends!
Autumn is already well underway; the first day of fall this year was September 23, 2024. I hope your fall season got off to a fantastic start.
What types of craft projects are you interested in working on this fall?
Crochet Coffee Cup Cozy
Whether you’re brand new to crafts or you have your established favorite technique(s), either way, this craft website is a fantastic place to find fall-friendly craft project ideas you might be interested in working on this month. You’re invited to browse through this website’s pages on the topics of needlecrafts,paper crafts, and other crafts to find patterns, tutorials, and project ideas that interest you.
If you aren’t sure what, exactly, you want to work on making right now, please keep reading; below, I’ve rounded up a bunch of project ideas and suggestions for October craft ideas you can use this month. If you have other suggestions to add to this list, I invite you to post a comment at the end letting me and the other readers here know about them.
You Can Crochet Cup Cozies for Making It Easy to Take Your Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate and Pumpkin Spice Lattes Wherever You Go
The Mad Hatter Crochet Book + October Planner Layouts + Coffee Cup Cozy + Susan Bates Silvalume Crochet Hooks
For many people in the western hemisphere, the weather is now chilly; it’s the time of year when many people switch from drinking ice cold beverages to hot ones: think coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and pumpkin spice lattes.
For most students, school is in now in full swing – so if you’re a college student or a parent with school-aged children, you’re probably spending a lot of time on the go.
So, whether you’re drinking hot coffee, iced coffee, or something else all together, now is a fantastic time to whip up some crocheted coffee cup cozies and drink holders that make it easier to take your beverage of choice out the door with you. Cup cozies protect your fingers from accidental burns or chills, and they can also help to absorb any moisture or condensation that finds its way onto the exterior of your cup.
Plus, they’re a fantastic way to differentiate your cup from everyone else’s; you definitely want to have one of these to put your drink in if you and your friends are all headed to the same coffee shop to order the same exact drink served up in the identical, same-sized cup.
My current work in progress is an easy textured crochet coffee cup cozy. Wish me luck with it? And, anyone want to help me test coffee cup cozy patterns?
Update October 11, 2024: I finished one cup cozy and have started on another one! Yay!
Update October 16, 2024: I finished my second coffee cup cozy, too. WooHOO!
Also, I checked a bunch of books out of the library. Pictured above, you can see one of the books I’m reading right now. It’s called Mad Hatter by Aynesley Grealis. It’s super cute! I’ll let you know if I decide to make any of the projects in it.
October Planner Crafts
October Garden Journal Pages for Discbound Planners Like Happy Planner, Arc or Tul
If you maintain a physical planner, junk journal, scrapbook, or art journal, you might want to decorate your October calendar pages, journal pages or scrapbooking layouts with seasonal stamped images or embellishments. I invite you to check out the following pages for ideas:
Garden Journal Pages: This page has information on how to put together October garden journal pages plus additional pages for the other months besides just October.
Fall Themed 6×8 Pocket Page Scrapbooking Layout With Photo of Utah’s Dixie National Forest
You’ll miss out on seeing some of the world’s most inspiring scenery if you sit at home on your couch during the month of October. This is the time of year when the trees are showing off their most splendid color schemes. If you have a park or a hiking trail nearby, you can feast your eyes as you go for a stroll. You’ll want to grab a friend and your phone or camera and take photos of the all the beauty that you encounter along the way.
Fall Themed Mini Album Titled Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice Featuring Supplies by Simple Stories
If you do that, then you’ll have the most important material you need for making autumn-themed scrapbooking layouts, mini books and art journal pages.
Fall-Themed Digital Scrapbooking Layout: Photographs by Michael and Amy Solovay. Scrapbooking Layout by Amy Solovay. Digital Scrapbooking Supplies by Katie Pertiet Designs.
If any of these fall scrapbooking projects look interesting to you, you can click the photos to find more information about each one. If those ideas aren’t quite what you had in mind, you can check out this page of scrapbooking ideas to find a wider variety of projects.
October Holiday Crafts
”Oktoberfest,” ”Socktober” and “Socktoberfest”
Oktoberfest is an annual event that could be described as “a celebration of beer and beer-drinker’s culture.” This festival started in Germany but is now celebrated in many places around the globe.
For example, a few years ago, I celebrated Oktoberfest at Brian Head Resort in the mountains of Utah. Here’s a digital scrapbooking layout I made about that event:
Oktoberfest 2022 Digital Scrapbooking Layout by Amy Solovay; All Digital Scrapbooking Supplies Are by Katie Pertiet Designs.
If you’re celebrating Oktoberfest this year, I hope you’ll enjoy the festival; please feel free to use our scrapbooking ideas to create your own pages documenting your celebration.
Oktoberfest Spin-Offs
There are also some tongue-in-cheek spinoff events that playfully poke fun at Oktoberfest while also offering an alternative type of celebration.
Colorful Knit Soxx by Kerstin Balke, Published by Stackpole Books — Pictured With Other Craft Supplies Including Muse Sock Yarn by Knit Picks
Did you know that many homeless shelters are in dire need of socks? Many people donate to homeless shelters, but hardly anybody donates socks. So, lately, a lot of charity groups have been doing “Socktoberfest” drives encouraging people to donate socks.
If you’re a crafter who wants to join in the Soctoberfest fun, you could knit or crochet some socks to donate this month.
Where to Donate Handmade Socks or Other Handmade Projects You Knit, Crochet, Sew, Quilt or Make for Charity
I think it’s always prudent to donate your projects locally if that’s possible to do, but many crafters have found that their local organizations don’t want handmade goods. (I just shake my head at that. It’s infuriating to me, but true!)
So in that situation, I think Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation is a fantastic place to consider sending your handmade donations. These folks gratefully accept handmade goods as donations, and they put them to excellent use.
I don’t typically send them socks, but I try to send them donations of all kinds of warm things like hats, scarves and blankets. They are my go-to recommended charity for donating handmade goods to. I chose them for two reasons. First, it breaks my heart knowing that there are people in their community who freeze to death each year because their shelter is insufficient to protect them from the harsh, cold winters in their region. And, second, it is really easy to work with them.
Winter is fast approaching, and any donations you choose to send them will make a real and tangible difference in the lives of your projects’ recipients.
But no judgement from me if you don’t want to donate your handmade socks or other articles of warm clothing. I am well acquainted with that old saying, “Charity begins at home,” and I
totally get that it does have a basis in reality.
Not to mention the fact that Christmas will be here before you know it, and you might need to use your time this month for crafting Christmas gifts to give to your inner circle. So that’s another option we should discuss.
Christmas Crafting in October
If you celebrate Christmas, perhaps you have a mile-long list of people on your gift list who could use new socks, fingerless gloves, hats, scarves, blankets or other handmade goodies. You still have plenty of time to whip up some unique, one-of-a-kind Christmas gifts for your loved ones before the holiday rush starts.
I’ll be the first to admit that Halloween isn’t really my thing; I’m not into creepy, crawly, scary, horrifying things at ALL. So if you’re hoping to find a huge variety of Halloween crafts, this site probably isn’t going to satisfy your cravings for those. You’ll probably want to seek inspiration elsewhere. But, I do have a few project ideas and suggestions you could take a look at:
Check out the book Beastly Crochet, which isn’t specifically a Halloween pattern book, but it has soooooooooooooooooooooooo many Halloween-friendly projects that you will definitely want to check it out if Halloween crafting is your jam.
Some craft projects that weren’t intended to be Halloween projects could become Halloween projects with a few quick color changes.
For example, check out these holiday scarf patterns. I crocheted multiple samples that are mostly the same except for the colors; there’s a Christmas version, a Fourth of July version, and a Valentine’s Day version. I never made a Halloween sample for this particular design, but I’m sure that you can easily see how you could re-color it for Halloween if you’re so inclined. Just change the red, white and green into black, white and orange, and voila, you’ll have a Halloween scarf.
Holiday Scarf Patterns to Crochet: Crochet lovely scarves for Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Fourth of July with our free crochet scarf patterns
Find More Fall Craft Ideas to Carry You Through the Months of October, November and Beyond
The projects posted above are just a small sampling of the ideas posted on this website. I’ve put together a list of fall crafts that are seasonally appropriate for October and November crafting in many regions of the Western hemisphere.
Of course, if you are in Australia, you’re likelier to need spring project ideas right now, so I offer you this list of spring ideas instead.
For even more ideas, you’re invited to check out our main index of craft project ideas. Happy crafting!!
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Today — Monday, Oct 14, 2024 — is Canadian Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian readers and friends. I hope you are enjoying your holiday!
Hello October! Autumn-Themed Pumpkin Illustration for Canadian Thanksgiving — Photo courtesy of Elena Mozhvilo at Unsplash
Here’s wishing you a delightful, relaxing holiday filled with amazing food, good cheer, gratitude, and fun times with your family and friends.
More Craft Ideas
For those of you who aren’t in Canada or aren’t in the mood to make Thanksgiving crafts right now, the following links will take you to some other pages on our website that might be of interest.
You can use up all your scrap yarn by crocheting coloful granny squares with it. Get an easy, free basic granny square pattern here!
A few days ago, a friend asked if he could have some of my yarn and embroidery floss. He doesn’t crochet,knit,sew or cross stitch, so I was puzzled by the request.
“What are you going to do with the yarn?” I asked him.
He said, “I’m going to use it to tie flies for fly fishing.”
Turns out that he didn’t need big pieces; he was happy to have a bunch of little pieces of my scrap yarn.
I was more than happy to give the scraps to him. I rarely throw any pieces of yarn away, not even the pieces that are too small to do anything with…so they tend to accumulate in my stash. Yay! I made a fisherman happy, and decluttered a bit at the same time.
More Ways to Use Up Scrap Yarn:
Use up your scrap yarn by making cute little loom-crafted flowers! Haafner Linssen’s book, Crochet Loom Blooms, shows you how to do this. Photo courtesy of Interweave.
Brenda K.B. Anderson’s pattern book, Beastly Crochet, wasn’t specifically intended to be a book of Halloween crochet patterns. However, if you celebrate Halloween, October is a great time for crocheting the patterns in the book. That’s because this pattern collection is all Halloween friendly.
Beastly Crochet Book by Brenda K.B. Anderson, Published by Interweave
For example, let’s take the critters on the Beastly Crochet book cover (pictured.) If you look closely at their mouths, you’ll see these little monsters are stuffed with candy. They’re the perfect storage units for all the Halloween candy your little trick-or-treaters or party-goers might collect on Halloween night.
Cute, aren’t they?
You can crochet and felt them using the pattern and instructions given in this book.
If you want to make Halloween costumes for yourself or a child you know, this book has patterns you could use. There’s a super cute pattern for Sasquatch Slippers and Mittens, which I think might also work as bear claws. So you could dress up as a sasquatch or a bear if you make these. There’s also a vampire hat which could be the basis for an interesting Halloween costume.
The sweet skull hairpins are totally Halloween friendly. If those aren’t quite what you had in mind, you can check out bunches more knit and crochet skull patterns here at this website. The link takes you to a list that’s mostly free patterns aside from the ones included in this book and a couple of others that are worth paying for (in my opinion). Beastly Crochet also includes a sugar skull bag pattern, which I think is a little creepy — but I guess that’s the idea, right?
One of the fantastic things about this book is that the patterns are great for Halloween, but you can also use them at other times too. That translates to a great value for the time and money you spend on both the book and the projects. A big thumbs up to that!
Overall I really enjoyed this book, which tells you a lot since I am not someone who ordinarily enjoys crocheting skulls or creepy projects.
