Craft Books: The Gifts that Give Back!

There’s an old adage that I like to apply when shopping for friends: Give a lady a crocheted scarf, she has a functional accessory; teach her to crochet and she has a whole wardrobe… and maybe she’ll make a scarf for you one day, too.

I love to give crafty how-to books (for birthdays, holidays, just-because days) because I really believe in empowering people to do for themselves. Whether it’s crocheting, knitting, quilting, sewing, refashioning a T-shirt, baking, or hacking into a dead computer for parts, people like to get gifts that tell them how creative you think they are. And that makes me happy. But I gotta say, sometimes there’s an awesome bonus to giving DIY books! Example: Last year, I gave a copy of Debbie Stoller’s crochet book Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Happy Hooker to my friend Lauren. Several months later, a package arrived from Lauren–inside was a completed One-Skein Scarf (page 100) just for me!

PS: Happy National Crochet Week! What are you hookin’ up?