Brain Fog Friendly Handmade Gifts (Start Now for Christmas)

If the idea of handmade gifts is something that appeals to you, you might like to see these ideas I’m making this year.

I taught myself to crochet about a year ago. It was a slow and painful process, but I am glad I persisted. Once I got myself situated, I realised that almost all “for beginners” patterns and tutorials weren’t brain fog friendly.

So I wrote a few of my own patterns, while freehanding most of my creations.

I’ve made bookmarks, book cozies, coasters, a lap blanket, scarves and numerous storage pockets of varying sizes.

These are essentially small rectangles! You can do many stitch choices for them. But my favourite is half double crochet.

A good pattern to me is one stitch repeat, two at most. Easy stitches. No counting (turns out, I cannot count and focus).

My pattern here.

I have A LOT of these in my cupboard. Some aside for Christmas gifts and some for a fair stall I would like to run in Spring.

They are simple rectangles, made in one stitch, to the size that you like.

They can be:

Airpod holders

Lipgloss holders

Glasses holders

Phone holders

Pencil cases (might I suggest adding a lining, or using a tighter stitch like single crochet)

Bedside necessities (spoonie morning kit - add morning meds, and anything else you need first thing in the morning)

The thing I love about these is that you can use acrylic yarn - cheap and easy to work with. And you can use 10 ply/medium weight which is much less fiddly than the smaller sizes. So many colour choices too.

My pattern here.

These are essentially large storage pockets.

They can be worked in the round so there is no stitching together at the end, my pattern is to make a simple rectangle and stitch together - it was simplest for me as a learner. Plus I go around the edges anyway to neaten it up with a border.

My pattern is here.

There are loads of patterns on YouTube, I just struggled to find many that were truly beginner friendly.

You can make these so many ways. Generally cotton is better, but you can use acrylic on the understanding that people won’t use them for items hot out of the oven (a hot mug is fine).

My pattern is free and is for a square style:

I’ve also made round coasters and ones with bear ears (a YouTube tutorial):

These look super cute in sets of four wrapped up in ribbon.

Scarves can be a wonderful relaxing project. It’s essentially a long rectangle! Set up the width you would like it to be, then crochet to the length you want it to be. I recommend a single stitch and minimal colour changes to make it cognitively soothing.

I’ve done a Where’s Wally red and white striped one for my eldest. A pretty shimmery colour for my niece. A red and blue (sonic ish) one for my third son. And a beautiful white, purple and pink striped one for myself.

As they are more labour intensive and require more yarn, you may not want to make these for many people!

There are many more things you can crochet, but these are what I consider brain fog friendly.

What would you add to the list?? Will you make any?

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1. No abbreviations - everything written out in plain text

2. No charts that look like half erased treasure maps

3. Simple stitches

4. Minimal counting

5. Easy to fix

6. Easy to pick up and put down

7. Lots of pictures

8. No fancy patterns or additions

That’s what all of my patterns aim to be.

I adore crochet and love making things for my family, but I am not interested in sitting down and concentrating intensely.

I am making a heap of varieties of the “small” and “medium” storage pockets. These are things I have found that I can make reliably without fuss and using the more affordable acrylic yarn, in the thickness that doesn’t trouble my hands.

For my kids cousins I am going to add a couple of chocolates to the pockets to make it feel a little “more”.

Share the journey on Instagram - please tag me if you make any of my patterns too!