Valentine's gifts: Make your own

DIY (Do-it-yourself) is the way to go for Valentine's Day gifts this year and here are some ideas to get you started.

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Novel ways to say 'I LOVE YOU'

Sithikorn Wongwudthianun

Choosing a suitable gift for someone is hard enough at the best of times, but St Valentine's Day really takes the cake. For Feb 14, don't settle for store-bought gifts when you can give your beloved a one-of-a-kind DIY present. It'll probably make a better impression than flowers, which only last a few days.

Making the present from scratch by yourself reflects how special the receiver is to you. The time, effort, and love poured into creating the gift are as significant as the gift itself. And the bonus is that you'll never have to worry about your present being duplicated by someone else!

If you haven't had any bright ideas yet for St Valentine's Day gifts, the following suggestions may be of help. But you'd better get cracking; — you've got less than a week to go!

KNITTING THE GIFT OF LOVE

Customise dolls to look exactly like you and your love. Hair style, eyes or weight, this is truly a one of a kind gift that can't be done anywhere.

Imagine a doll that looks just like your loved one, made by a machine that does all the hard work for you, leaving you to add the finishing touches. If you're new to knitting or crocheting, several shops around town have staff to help out. Big Knit Cafe on Sukhumvit Soi 49, for instance, sells all the necessary equipment and supplies and its staffers are willing to keep training you until you're able to finish making a doll all by yourself.

Stitch and Scrump from Lilo & Stitch is an example of making non-human couple dolls or even mobile phone covers.

Dolls that resemble human beings are a favourite. To improve the romantic effect, create one yourself and convince your girlfriend/boyfriend/partner to make one, as well. Once the dolls are finished you can exchange them.

Another easy-to-make idea is a mobile-phone cover; it doesn't require that much skill to create and yet makes a very useful gift. For the design/pattern think animation; perhaps there's some cartoon related to relationships or the life of a couple that you both enjoy watching/reading and on which you could base the image.

Deciding to experiment myself, I found that it took me around four hours to knit a cover for my mobile phone. Double that if you want to make two. That's quite an investment of time, of course, but when the work's done, the result will probably look way better than any commercial version you could buy in a store. I got my idea for my phone cover from the film Lilo & Stitch (take a look at the photo).

A heart-shaped keychain is another possibility; just choose the style and colour of yarn you prefer. For more ideas, visit Big Knit Cafe. The shop is stocked with loads of books on knitting, in both English and Thai, which should provide lots of inspiration. The colourful knitted stuffed animals used to decorate the premises should provide even more food for thought. Better start working right now, though; there's less than a week to go before lovey-dovey day.

For more ideas including this instragram-based scrapbook, click here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/women/393667/novel-ways-to-say-i-love-you

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