2015 Indie Design Gift-along!

courtesy of Faye Kennington

 How many days are left in the holiday gift-making season?  Whatever the number is, it's never enough!  If you're among the knitters who need a little nudge to start (or finish) your holiday knitting, the Indie Designers of Ravelry have come to your rescue!

The third annual Indie Design Gift-along begins today!

The gift-along consists of a one-week pattern sale that begins tonight at 8pm EST (every participating designer has between 5-20 patterns discounted 25%), and a variety of knit-alongs that run from tonight to the end of the year.  You can find a list of 335 participating designers here, and all the KALs listed on the message board of the Indie Design Gift-along group here.

courtesy of Kimberly Golynskiy

How about a gift-along infographic?

The gift-along is a great chance to stock up on patterns for the coming year.  Look through the participating designer thread and you might come across some designers that you like that you've never noticed before!

The knit-alongs are a lot of fun.  They are divided up by category (Hat KAL, Scarves/Shawls KAL, Sweaters KAL, etc) but people knit all sorts of different patterns, so you get to see a lot of other designs in progress as you work on your own.  And throughout the KALs, moderators run contests and games and give away tons of prizes.  There are a couple thousand free pattern codes to be given away, plus this long, long list of physical prizes that could arrive in your mailbox!

I haven't decided yet exactly what I'll be knitting, but I'll definitely be participating in at least one of the KALs.  Last year I made these Karen Double-Layer Mittens, and had a great time with both the knitting and the following along with the games and with other people's glove / mitten projects!  And now I have beautiful mittens that I wear all winter!

And just to be clear, you can participate in any of the KALs with ANY paid-for (not free) pattern that has been published by ANY of the participating designers.  So this includes any not-free pattern that was published independently, or that was published by a magazine (physical or on-line) or in a book,  (A project made from a pattern published by a free source, such as Knitty is not eligible for prizes.)  Here's a post with the full rules & eligibility for prizes.

As for me, my discounted patterns are shown below.  It's a mix of things, but I focused mostly on smaller projects that I thought would make fun quick-ish gift knits.  But remember, every pattern I have available, except my free pattern, Herriot Hat, are eligible for participating in KALs and winning prizes!

If you decide to participate, let me know in the comments, so I can keep an eye out for you in the KAL threads!  Thanks in advance for helping to make this year's gift-along the best one yet, and a hundred extra thanks if you decide to participate by knitting one of my designs!