Making Our List, Checking It Twice — Gifts for your most beloved crafters

Making Our List, Checking It Twice — Gifts for your most beloved crafters

The festive season is upon us, and like so many of you we are looking forward to reconnecting with loved ones near and far. It’s our care for one another that brings us together at this time of year and tradition that makes the season special. The gifts we exchange are just the cherry on top.

If you’ve got a crafter on your list — whether they’re an old hand or just getting started, whether they knit, crochet, or stitch — we’ve compiled some lovely gift ideas to make the season bright.

For Knitters

The Siren Song Shawl Kit is just the thing to warm the winter nights and bring some colour to chilly, grey winter days. This lovely piece is simpler to knit than it looks and perfect for experienced knitters and ambitious beginners alike. Our kit contains two beautiful skeins of La Bien Aimée Merino Singles in a Loop cotton bag. The pattern is sold separately, with a printed version available at Loop and a PDF download available through Ravelry.

Bryson Stainless Steel Sock Blockers take all the pain out of giving socks a beautiful finish, plus they’ll fit right in with the stockings you’ve hung by the chimney with care. The design is really very clever, allowing brand new socks and just-washed old favourites to air dry in shape while hung up out of the way.

There’s a reason the ChiaoGoo TWIST Red Lace Complete Circular Interchangeable Set makes knitters’ Christmas lists every year. With its elegant book-style storage system, 13 needle sizes and three cables of different lengths, this set can tackle just about any pattern (and if you do manage to stump it, we also sell small and large cables and additional needle tips separately).

Another elegant tool to simplify a knitter’s life comes in the shape of the Beechwood Umbrella Swift. Designed for use with a ball winder, this swift turns any hank or skein into a freshly wound ball to avoid mid-project tangles. 

For Crocheters

We’re eagerly awaiting Crochet Crush, a new release from Laine Publishing launching 3 December. Finnish designer Molla Mills shares her thoroughly modern take on crochet, with patterns inspired by the colours of flowers, the moods of past summers, and Brooklyn’s neighbourhoods. We can’t wait to get our hands on this one!

The LYKKE Driftwood Crochet Hook Set is the most beautiful set of crochet hooks we have ever seen. Made of strong birch wood, these hooks have a warmth about them and are lovely to work with. More of these are arriving at the shop soon, so check back for additional stock.

The Hoooked Ziggy Giraffe Kit is an adorable, eco-friendly project that’s appropriate for all levels from novice to fanatic. This kit includes enough recycled-fibre yarn to complete the project along with a pattern and even a crochet hook. The only thing you need to supply is the stuffing!

For a more advanced crocheter, you can’t go wrong with the Loop Flower Power Crochet Scarf Kit. Made with lovely wool hand dyed with natural dyes by Mette Mehlsen, the granny squares that make up this scarf are a lovely meditative crochet and the end result is absolutely stunning. More of these will be in the shop soon!

For Embroiderers and Stitchers

The building block of all embroidery and stitching projects is, of course, the thread, and my oh my do we have some beautiful thread. The experts at Au Ver a Soie have been making gorgeous thread in Paris since 1820. Their Silk Thread Packs combine five weights and finishes across a single colour story to bring texture and lustre to any project. NONA’s Naturally Dyed Fine Cotton Thread Sets bring the colours of nature to the craft room in bundles designed especially for Loop. For the sparkle of the season you can’t go wrong with the golds and silvers of Ito San Thread. Each metallic is combined with a white base thread and a black base thread, creating four different tones.

For the crafter looking to explore, why not extend the holiday season by a couple months and gift a place in the Folk Art Sampler Workshop with Anne Kelly on 26 February. The workshop will introduce participants to textile traditions from around the world before inviting them to design their own pieces.

For those who prefer to explore from the comfort of home, Sashiko: 20 Projects Using Traditional Japanese Stitching is sure to inspire. The book contains 20 sashiko projects, from small items like brooches to large-scale projects for the home as well as 20 patterns and motifs that readers can use as the basis to create their own projects.

Kits

For minimum time from wrapping paper to needles, our lovely kits make delightful gifts. One of our all time favourite patterns at Loop, the Tiny Tassels Shawl, has been released in a new colourway this winter. The Winter Tiny Tassels Kit combines a La Bien Aimée Merino Singles base with Madelinetosh Merino Light in an array of silvery winter tones, lending a sheen reminiscent of bright cold mornings.

The Florence Shawl Kit is the product of Loop’s latest collaboration with Florence Spurling. We are still so excited about this one. It uses Yarnadelic yarn by John Arbon to create a feminine floral pattern that will bring the joys of spring to even the deepest winter night. The kit is available in two colourways.

For a more mossy, verdant feel, the Mehlsen Colour Wave Scarf Kit allows the knitter free reign to mix and match 24 cakes of Mette Mehlsen’s plant-dyed wool for a custom marled effect. For further customisation the knitter can add single cakes of Mette Mehlsen’s wool for additional length, width, or accent colours. We’re expecting a delivery of these any day!

We have kits for other crafts as well, such Nathalie Lété Tapestry Kits. These gorgeous pieces, based on paintings by the Paris-based artist, are designed to be friendly to stitchers of all skill levels. Available in two designs, the kit includes a custom printed 12 point mesh, hand-selected shades of Appleton’s tapestry wool, a stitch guide, and a needle. You might not even finish opening gifts on Christmas morning before this one has been started!

Haberdashery

One of our favourite things about crafting is finding beautiful items to bring delight to the process. Whether it’s something like handmade Mina Perhonen Fabric Buttons to adorn a finished project or just useful item that feels especially good in the hand like Hikaru Noguchi Handmade Darning Mushrooms, its the little things that often bring the most joy.

One of our favourite things this year was the new line of bags made just for Loop by LoveIt. They come in a wide variety of sizes, but the Haberdashery Bags are especially useful for keeping track of all the extra bits and bobs that come with being a maker.

Loop’s Handmade Swatch Gauge makes it super easy to measure swatches to make sure you’re achieving the right tension and includes a handy needle gauge as well. Another special measuring tool is the Cohana Yuzen Leather Tape Measure. Available in seven colours, the leather covering is dyed using a traditional Japanese method and the measuring tape itself is made of high quality glass fibres that do not stretch or contract, allowing for long-lasting accurate measurement in all conditions.

Stocking Fillers

Let’s be honest: stockings are everyone’s favourite part of Christmas, aren’t they? It’s in the over-stuffed sock that you often find the most beautiful and unexpected little treasures. From simple tools like the Sajou Wooden Darning Egg to little tastes of extravagant yarns like Madelinetosh Unicorn Tails, which is perfect for playing with colour on projects big and small, filling a stocking presents a world of possibilities! This year we’re hoping to find a (Vi)laines Enamel Pin depicting the knitting heroine who is the mascot of this zesty French yarn dyer and we’re dying for a tube of Seams Coutouriers Hand Cream to soothe our sanitizer and wool chapped hands!

Holiday Hours & Last Posting Dates

We look forward to welcoming you this holiday season! Whether you plan to visit us in the shop or peruse our shelves online, we are keen to help you find whatever it is you’re looking for.

Our London shop is open 11:30-5:30pm Wednesday to Saturday, and 12 noon to 5pm on Sunday. During the week of Christmas we will only be open Sunday 19, Tuesday 21, and Wednesday 22 December. We will be closed 23-28 December and 31 December-4 January, opening 29 and 30 December for click and collect only – please call in advance if traveling from afar. We will re-open as usual from 5 January.

If you’re ordering online, please try to do so as early as possible, as Brexit and COVID have disrupted normal shipping times. The last days to order for delivery by Christmas are as follows:

Australia, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, and Portugal: Sunday 5 December

Canada, US, Eastern Europe, and Sweden: Sunday 12 December

Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland: Wednesday 15 December

UK: Monday 20 December

See you under the mistletoe!

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