I am delighted to bring you this year’s Advent calendars! I’m using this artistic rendering of the Cassiopeia constellation by Beate Bachman as inspiration for the colorways:
I’m offering a Yarn Advent Calendar for knitters, crocheters, and weavers. I’m also offering a Fiber Advent Calendar for spinners and felters. I’m using the Cassiopeia constellation picture as inspiration for both.
An Important Note
Before digging into the details, there are two really important things I want to mention. First of all, these are preorders, so it will be awhile before you receive them. The deadline to order is September 16th or whenever they sell out. I’ll be shipping the Yarn Advent Calendars by November 4th and the Fiber Advent Calendars by November 20th.
Second of all, I ask that you please order the Advent calendars by themselves. The boxes are quite full without any additional yarn or fiber.
Now onto the details. Let me tell you about the two different Advent calendars separately.
The Yarn Advent Calendars
The Yarn Advent Calendar will include 24 mini skeins dyed in semi-solid colorways. 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
There are several choices to make when you get your kit. First of all, many of you expressed an interest in having a crochet option. I am really delighted to be able to do along with a knitting option for the first time this year. You can choose between these two patterns:
If you knit and crochet, I don’t envy you the task of trying to decide between these two beautiful designs! Both Helen and Sandra kindly 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. I tried and tried to get it down to just two or three, but I couldn’t decide which one to leave out. You can learn more about each yarn base in the listings, but here’s a little about each one and why I included it:
- 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.
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 Calendars 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.
You can learn more or order your Advent calendar right here.
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Fresh from the Dye Pots
This week, I dyed up three colorways that look lovely together. They are Lilac, The Wedding of Aragorn and Arwen, and Eowyn Meets with Aragorn. Let’s look at each one.
Lilac is a semi-solid colorway with darker purple speckles. Here it is on Squiggle Sock:
I dyed it on lots of different yarn bases. You can find them all right here.
Lilac goes beautifully with so many of the colorways in my shop including Monet, Monet’s Cathedral, Monet’s Water Lilies, Northern Lights, and The Wedding of Aragorn and Arwen.
Speaking of The Wedding of Aragorn and Arwen, here that is on So Silky Sock:
Out of all the Lord of the Rings colorways, this one is my favorite! It looks considerably darker on Stained Glass Sock but just as lovely:
I also dyed Eowyn Meets with Aragorn, which goes beautifully with The Wedding of Aragorn and Arwen and with The Great Black Bull. Here is Eowyn Meets Aragorn on So Silky Sock:
Here are Lilac, The Wedding of Aragorn and Arwen, and Eowyn Meets with Aragorn altogether on Squoosh DK:
…and here are three colorways from The Lord of the Rings together on Stained Glass Sock:
They are The Wedding of Aragorn and Arwen, Eowyn Meets with Aragorn, and The King of the Golden Hall. Wouldn’t both of these trios make a beautiful fade or marled project?
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A Word about Sparkly Merino Sock
I’m having a supply issue with Sparkly Merino Sock. When the mill ran out of skeins a couple months ago, I started ordering it as cones and making my own skeins, but now the mill has run out of the cones too. I have what’s dyed up now plus enough for this month’s club colorways.
The good news is that I have found a lovely substitute to use for now. Sparkly Merino Sock is a 4-ply yarn with 92% superwash merino and 8% lurex. The substitute, which I will probably be calling Twinkle Sock, is a 2-ply yarn with 90% superwash merino and 10% lurex. I’ll be getting my first order of it this coming week.
I think that’s everything for this week. Have a great weekend! If you have any questions about the Advent calendars or anything else, don’t hesitate to email me.