A handknit gift needs no adornment, but you do want to make sure your work gets the presentation it deserves!
I had a chance to use my favorite wrapping last week for a dear friend's shower and I realized this is a great place to share the technique. It's so easy, quick, adorable, and unique!
You just need a pack of flannel baby blankets. Choose the one that best compliments the card or toy or book you're going to decorate with at the end. Fold the others neatly into the right size and shape. For this shower, the request was for a storybook to be used as the card — Extra Yarn, a new Caldecott Honor book, is utterly delightful and the perfect thing to go with a knitted gift! So, I folded the extra blankets to be just a bit bigger than the book.
Lay the chosen wrapping blanket out on your table like a diamond. Make sure the wrong side is facing up! The stack of extra blankets goes in the middle, straight (so the corners of the upside-down blanket are coming out from each side of the stack — as close as you can get it, these blankets aren't square so it won't be perfect, but I promise that's ok). Arrange your knitted gift on top and fold the top corner of the upside-down blanket down over the gift. Then, grab the side corners of the blanket and tie them in a simple knot right over top of your gift. Finally, the bottom corner folds up and you tuck it down over top of the knot.
You've made a lovely pocket to put your charming book or card or knitted lovey* into. :)
Sometimes I add a diaper pin for effect. Either way, looks like a swaddled baby and who doesn't love a swaddled baby? Plus, no wrapping junk to throw away!
* I think that would be so sweet, just wrap the extra blankets with nothing else (or with the book, it's a really great book) and stuff a cute little knitted friend into the pocket. Something with arms that can dangle out. :)
(Fully illustrated directions for this style of wrapping and many other wonderful ways to wrap packages with fabric are in the book Wrapagami.)