First of all, I want to thank you if you already ordered an Advent calendar from me. I’m looking forward to getting started dyeing them up in just another couple of weeks.
I’ve had a great response so far, but I do have room to dye a few more. If you have not ordered an Advent calendar this year, I wanted to let you know that it’s not too late, but the last day to order will be this coming Monday, September 16th.
I’m using an artistic rendering of the Cassiopeia constellation that was made by Beate Bachman as inspiration for the colorways. Here’s the picture:
I’m offering a Yarn Advent Calendar for knitters, crocheters, and weavers as well as a Fiber Advent Calendar for spinners and felters. I’m using the Cassiopeia constellation picture as inspiration for both types of Advent calendars.
These are a preorder, and I’ll be shipping the Yarn Advent Calendars by November 4th and the Fiber Advent Calendars by November 20th.
I do ask that you please order the Advent calendars by themselves because the boxes I use are a perfect fit for Advent calendars without anything else.
Here’s some info about each of the two different Advent calendars.
The Yarn Advent Calendars
The Yarn Advent Calendar will include 24 mini skeins dyed in semi-solid colorways inspired by the colors in the picture. Each mini skein will be in its own numbered box, and the idea is to enjoy one colorway every day beginning on December 1st and ending on Christmas Eve. If it takes longer or if you decide to start early, that’s okay. It just means more time to enjoy the creative process.
The Patterns
You can choose between a crochet pattern and a knitting pattern to go with your kit:
If you knit and crochet, it may be difficult to choose which of these lovely patterns you want! Both Helen and Sandra have offered me download codes when I ordered their patterns. That means that I’ll be able to include both a paper pattern with your kit and a download code so you can add the pattern to your Ravelry library if you like.
The Yarn
I’m including your choice of four different yarn bases:
- Splendid Sock – This is just a strong, soft great yarn for everything from socks to sweaters.
- Shimmer Sock – It only made sense to offer a sparkly yarn to go with the starry theme this year.
- So Silky Sock – This yarn is incredibly soft and strong. It’s made of 50% silk and 50% superwash merino, and it’s just such a joy to use and wear. It’s also fabulous for weavers. This is my go-to warp yarn when I’m weaving something in a sock weight.
- Posh Sock – I included this one because I really wanted to offer a non-superwash option. It’s just like So Silky Sock, but instead of the superwash merino, it has non-superwash merino.
The final choice you get to make is whether to include five full-sized skeins of Suri Lace Cloud with your kit to hold double with the minis. Helen Stewart recommends holding a laceweight yarn like Suri Lace Cloud or mohair double with her Trifle knitting pattern. However, you can also opt to go with just the minis and go down a needle size instead. Or maybe you already have enough suri or mohair in your stash. I’m offering the Suri undyed or dyed black, which will give two very different effects to your finished project. The white will give the project more of a pastel look while the black will make it look like pops of color coming out of the darkness of space.
Some Ideas for the Weavers
If you plan to weave with your kit, it would be pretty awesome to use the minis for warp and the Suri Lace Cloud for weft. Splendid Sock, So Silky Sock, and Posh Sock would all work very well for warp. With Posh Sock, it should full some, especially if you use something like Suri Lace Cloud as the weft. Keep in mind that the yarn is half silk, so it won’t full as much as if it were all wool.
If you spin as well as weave, you could opt to get a Fiber Advent Calendar too and use the minis for warp and the handspun you make from the Fiber Advent for weft.
The Fiber Advent Calendars
The Fiber Advent Calendar will have 24 boxes of lovely fiber to spin or felt. Just like the Yarn Advent Calendar, I’m using the picture of Cassiopeia as the inspiration for the colors. Most of the boxes will have soft merino, but some will other soft fibers like bamboo, baby alpaca, or silk. There will also be some add-ins like locks and sparkle that you can use whenever you like.
The colors will blend nicely from one day’s box to the next, so you can just keep spinning from one day to the next. If you’re felting, you may need to see them all to plan your project first, but I leave that up to you.
Click here to learn more or order your Advent calendar
Here’s are some photos of packaging up the Advent calendars from the last few years:
I do all the dyeing, but the packaging part usually involves the whole family and a lot of music!
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Email is always the best way.
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New Art Batts
This week I went through some of the older club colorways and chose some art-inspired art batts to add to the shop. The club colorways are exclusive to club members for at least 6 months and often longer, but now and then it’s nice to bring something in to the shop so everyone can enjoy it. Here are all the new ones:
You can see all the art batts as well as the paintings that inspired them in the New Yarn and Fiber section of my shop right here.
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Fresh from the Dye Pots
This week I dyed one planned pooling colorway and two assigned pooling colorways. The planned pooling colorway is Bejeweled. Planned Pooling is different than Assigned Pooling. Here is Bejeweled on Suri Lace Cloud:
…and here is an example of how it can work up using the Planned Pooling Technique:
Planned Pooling is all about using the number of stitches in one round to the best advantage. You can learn more about planned pooling on my blog here.
I also dyed Though the Fig Tree Blossoms Not on Sock Perfection. Here that is:
…and I dyed up Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Here that is on Twinkle Sock for the first time:
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I think that’s everything for this week. I hope you have a wonderful week. I’ll see you next Friday!