Makers are simultaneously the easiest and the hardest people to buy for. Easy because they always want more fibre. Hard because they are particular, and a well meant gift of the wrong thing sits in a cupboard forever.
Here is what actually lands.
The safe answer: good fibre in a colour they cannot easily buy
Nobody who spins has ever been annoyed to receive fibre. The trick is buying something better than what they would pick up themselves.
Natural undyed colours are the reliable choice. Black in particular, because it is genuinely hard to find undyed in Australia in any quantity and a spinner will know that immediately. Undyed brown and fawn are the same idea a step down.
What to avoid: dyed fibre in a colour you chose. Colour is deeply personal to a maker and you will get it wrong. Natural shades sidestep the problem entirely.
Match the gift to what they actually do
Ask yourself, or ask someone, which of these they are.
They spin from raw fleece
They enjoy the whole process, scouring included. Give them a bag of raw fleece in a colour they do not have. This is the cheapest good gift on this page and one of the best received.
They spin but hate preparation
Plenty of very good spinners never wash a fleece. Give them a carded bump, already scoured and ready to spin. Raw fleece to this person is a chore in a bag.
They knit or crochet and do not spin
Give yarn. Undyed alpaca in 4 ply or 8 ply. And give enough of it, which brings us to the mistake below.
They felt
Different rules. Felters want fine short fibre, which spinners reject, and they care nothing for staple length. Carded fibre is the easy gift here.
The mistake everyone makes: not enough
One skein of yarn is not a project. It is a swatch and a small amount of frustration.
- Two 100g skeins makes a beanie or a pair of mitts.
- Three makes a decent scarf or a generous cowl.
- Seven to ten makes an adult jumper, and buy them all at once, because natural colours vary between batches and there is no dye lot to match to later.
If your budget is one skein, buy fibre instead. A 200g carded bump or a 1kg bag of raw fleece both go much further than a single skein and cost less.
What not to buy
Equipment. Wheels, hand cards, combs and needles are all intensely personal and most makers already have strong opinions and the tools to match. Unless they have told you exactly what they want, do not.
Patterns. They have more patterns than lifetime. Everyone does.
Novelty yarn. The eyelash and ribbon sort. There is a reason it is discounted.
A kit. Kits assume the recipient wants to make that specific thing, which is a big assumption about a person who chooses their own projects.
The one that always works
If you are stuck, buy the fibre and let them choose the project. It is the opposite of most gift advice, which pushes you towards the finished thing, and for makers it is exactly right. The making is the gift.
From our farm
Raw fleece, $40 a 1kg bag plus postage, in natural black, brown, fawn and white. Off our own herd at Mulgoa, undyed and never blended.
Carded bumps and mill spun yarn for the ones who would rather skip the washing.
Tell us who it is for and roughly what they make, and we will tell you honestly which of the three to buy. We would rather that than have you guess.
See also: raw fleece, carded bump or yarn and how much yarn a kilo makes.