Nothing is harder to find than the perfect small gift, unless it is the perfect small gift when you are in a hurry. As the holiday season approaches, imagine feeling smug instead of frenzied when an occasion arises that calls for a nice gift.

The perfect small gift is something that anyone, from your child's teacher to your co-worker, will use and enjoy. It needs to be imaginative rather than expensive, since there are probably quite a few people on your list. And if this gift is something you have made yourself, so much the better.

Now that the bathroom has become the "home spa," we all enjoy fun new accessories that add an even greater sense of luxury to our daily bath or shower. Everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, can enjoy bath-related gifts, which makes them an excellent choice for your emergency stash. Whether it is a baby shower or your niece's birthday, or you need one more stocking stuffer, you will be set!

If you knit, there is a good chance you were taught by your aunts or grandmothers, as was I. Once you could manage to knit a couple of rows with only a few mistakes, you were given a ball of sturdy cotton yarn and a pair of needles along with the request to knit a wash cloth. Knitting a simple square was, and is, good practice for a beginner.

We love our cotton jersey knit sheets and a knitted cotton washcloth has the same appeal; both are soft and cuddly, and both become even more so with repeated washing.

Knit the wash cloth in any soft color that will coordinate with the recipient's bathroom or, for a natural and neutral look, use ivory colored yarn. The border is crocheted, and although directions here are for a knitted cloth, the cloth itself could be crocheted too, if you wish.

The perfect companion to a hand-made wash cloth is a special bar of soap. Making a professional looking "treasure soap" is easier than you would ever imagine. You will imbed whatever small object you like in the center of a bar of clear glycerin soap. Have fun choosing objects that are related to the recipient: a small plastic apple for a teacher, a plastic hair clip for a pre-teen, etc.

And if you don't knit or crochet, a bar of treasure soap by itself, or paired with a votive candle and holder and/or some bath oil, will do just as well.

KNITTED WASHCLOTH, what you will need:

1 pair size 4 knitting needles
1 size 5 crochet hook
1 2.5 oz. Ball Sugar'n Cream worsted weight cotton yarn, any light color. One ball will make several cloths. Choose a contrasting color for border, if desired, or knit cloth and border from same color. Gauge: 4 stitches, 4 rows/inch

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cast on 30 stitches
2. Beginning knitters: knit all rows in garter stitch. Intermediate knitters: knit this square in any pattern, seed stitch, ribbing, checkerboard, etc., that is reversible so the cloth will not have a "wrong" side.
3. Continue until work is as long as it is wide, about 7" square.
4. Bind off
5. To make border, use size 5 crochet hook to single crochet one row all around square, adding one extra stitch at each corner.
6. Next row is the picot edge. Single crochet the next three stitches, chain four stitches, then single crochet into same stitch. Repeat all around square.
7. Knot yarn, weave tails into work, trim ends.

TREASURE SOAP, what you will need:

1/2 bar clear transparent Clearly Natural Glycerin Soap
1/2 bar colored transparent Clearly Natural Glycerin Soap
small bowl suitable for microwave
plastic "treasure"
1 cut down 1/2 pt or qt milk or juice carton
DIRECTIONS:

1. Remove colored soap from wrapper, cut bar in half. Cut one half of the bar into 1" cubes.
2. Place soap cubes in bowl, microwave on high for 30 seconds or until liquid.
3. Carefully pour liquid soap into milk carton.
4. Let soap harden. This will take about an hour.
5. Place "treasure" on top of hardened soap. Press into soap slightly.
6. Melt 1/2 bar of clear soap as above.
7. Pour liquid soap into carton covering "treasure."
8. Let soap harden
9. Peel carton off of soap
10. Wrap soap in cellophane to protect from smudging.