Indie Design GAL 2014: What to gift?

I've really enjoyed hunting through all the designs in this year's Indie Design GAL, there are so many fantastic designs. I've created a Pinterest board of all my favourites (I didn't look through the sock, garment or shawls boards as they're not really things I knit, no matter how beautiful they are), and somehow got to over 130 pins! Realistically I'm never going to knit all of them, so what have I decided to buy during the sale period of the GAL, and how did I reach those decisions?

Criteria 1: You can only knit so many hats

Looking through my Pinterest board I became aware that there were definite themes in what I was pinning: hats and mitts with cables were popular, alongside lots of textured baby blankets. But there's only so many of each of those things that I can knit, so I've limited my purchases to one of any given type of pattern.

Criteria 2: Can I knit it from stash?

My stash is pretty large. So I don't need to buy any more yarn. If I say this often enough I will remember! So I decided only to buy patterns for things I know I can knit from stash. A bargain pattern is not a bargain if I have to go out and spend £30 on the yarn for it.

Criteria 3: Will I actually knit it?

Some of the patterns I pinned are beautiful, but I know that I will never actually knit them. Some I don't have anyone who would appreciate them, others have lots of fiddly bits I know I'll never sew together. So I concentrated on buying patterns for things I know I want to knit.

So which patterns did I buy?

In the end I narrowed my pattern selection down to four.

1. Kari baby blanket by Triona Murphy

I saw this baby blanket a few weeks ago and knew that I had to knit it. The texture is unusual and very beautiful. I don't have a baby to knit it for at the minute,  but there are plenty of charities that accept baby blankets, so I might just knit one or two for charity.

2. Farm to market mitts by Aimee Alexander

I had pinned lots of mitts, but these won as they look complex enough to be interesting, but straightforward enough to be knitted pretty quickly. I am also a sucker for buying a couple of balls of merino DK at a time, so have plenty of stash to make them from. I can see a few pairs of these being made as Christmas presents.

3. Polonaise hat by Cristina Ghirlanda

I love this hat! Need I say more? The cables look complex enough to be a challenge, and I'll enjoy practising knitting my cable-needle-free cable technique on them. I also have a couple of super-furry pom poms that could be added, and lots of aran-weight yarn stashed, so this hat will be an excellent stash buster.

4. Red Riding coat by Lisa Chemery

I love the look of Lisa's patterns, she has a real sense of style. I've already knitted Entrechat, so know I can work with her style of pattern. This coat is last on my list: I bought some bargain Artesano British Wool Chunky a few months ago and if I make this coat in one of the larger sizes I should be able to use almost the whole 500 g from stash, so there's no hurry, my daughter can have this one for when she's a toddler.

I've also been very kindly gifted Summer into Fall by Lisa Chemery, which I'm very excited about knitting for my daughter.

So that's me sorted for the next few weeks, if only the days were an hour or two longer!