Don't unravel this December

 

Hello December! Hello advent calendars galore! I have three this year: a chocolate one, a marshmallow one, and a scrappy yarn swap one. And I have a self-striping skein. I am totally on board with the chocolate one: chocolate for breakfast is a joy! I’m sure I can find time each day to eat a marshmallow (on a good day, I may even find time to toast it!). But the yarn ones… December is stressful. Everyone (including me!) wants a magical Christmas, but that takes *work*. I’ll be dashing between carol concerts and nativities, organising Santa visits and decorating the tree, sorting presents and writing cards, organising food and baking goodies. On top of the usual laundry, food prep, housework and actual work. Does that leave time for extra advent projects? No. So I’m here to tell you: I find advent overwhelming. If you feel the same, you’re not alone. There will be posts everywhere sharing beautiful advent projects, knitted in order and on the day the advent door was opened, but if you stop for a second, you will know that there are many more advent calendars being opened that aren’t being knitted up *right now*! If your me-time this December is 30 minutes of working on a pre-existing project, or even just staring into space while your cup of coffee goes cold, know it’s not just you. I will love looking at everyone else’s advent projects, but don’t expect me to be wearing brand new scrappy socks on Christmas Day!

 

It can’t just be me. Will you be up to date with your advent calendar on Christmas Day?

 

Hope December doesn't leave you too overwhelmed. Until next time, happy knitting.

Advent inspiration

What do you have planned for advent? Every year I see more and more yarn advent calendars, which are a great way to countdown the days to Christmas. But what can you do with the yarn in them? What if they're beyond your budget? What if you already have plenty of yarn? Have no fear, I've got you covered!

 

Pattern inspiration

Do you have a fancy hand-dyed advent calendar and are looking for some pattern inspiration? I wrote a blog post last year with a few suggestions. Why not go and have a look and see if anything sparks your interest.

https://www.vikkibirddesigns.com/2020/11/ideas-for-your-yarn-scraps.html

Want to make your own yarn advent calendar?

Don't have a yarn advent, but do have plenty of yarn scraps? Last year, I made some yarn advent calendars as gifts for friends, and they went down really well.  Maybe you fancy making your yarn scraps look more interesting by turning them into your very own yarn advent calendar? Or you could get together with a friend and do a yarn countdown-calendar swap? Everything you need to know about making a yarn advent calendar can be found on the blog.

https://www.vikkibirddesigns.com/2020/11/make-your-own-yarn-advent-calendar.html

 

Advent calendars not your thing? Maybe you need an advent project?

This year, I'll be knitting myself a pair of socks during advent using some self-striping yarn that will hopefully arrive in time for December 1st. I'm hoping to find half an hour to myself every day to work on the socks, and by Christmas Day I should have a new pair of socks!

These are the socks I knitted during December last year. Yarn is by The Yarn Badger.

 What are your knitting plans for advent?

My calendar-free advent

Since March, I have seen adverts for indie-dyed advent calendars all over Instagram and Facebook. I love yarn (you might have noticed) and have been tempted by several of these delights, each one containing 24 surprise mini skeins that can be opened one day at a time in the run up to Christmas, but have resisted. I have had a yarn advent calendar for the past two years (two years ago I had three - one acrylic one from Paintbox Yarns, an Opal sock yarn one, and one made from mini skeins from my stash; last year's was an advent calendar swap, so I had twenty-four 5 g minis from a friend, and she had the same from me), and while I really enjoyed the excitement of opening the advent calendar every day and seeing what yarn I had, I wasn't enamoured with actually using the yarn.

The first year I had a yarn advent calendar, I had grand plans to add two squares to my sock yarn blanket every day. I did manage to add a few squares, but two squares a day resulted in not much time to knit anything else, and I got a bit bored of knitting garter stitch. I never did make a plan for what to do with the Paintbox Yarns advent calendar, and the balls are now live in a Kilner jar to make a lovely ornament in my living room (it’s the jar of mini balls I use for my Yarnometer photos). And last year I did knit a whole pair of socks over the course of advent using the minis from the calendar, but I only used a yarn from a few of the days as I don’t like the look of scrappy socks all that much, so used a neutral yarn to tie all the yarns together, which meant I only used about a third of the yarn, and the remaining balls are still living in a bag.

December isn’t a month in which I have a huge amount of free leisure time, with present shopping, festive food to be made (making mince pies with my kids is always a highlight of the festive period), school activities, socialising and generally enjoying the season, and I find setting myself the challenge of using all the yarn from an advent calendar to be an added stress I can do without. So this year I am doing something different, and over the course of December will be knitting a special project just for me, the Soul Warmer. 

I bought the kit for the Soul Warmer cowl while I was at Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March with the intention of knitting it over advent. The yarn for it (bought from Martin’s Lab, just this once I’m using the exact yarn used in the pattern) is lovely, and the pattern only requires 438 m of fingering weight yarn, which feels doable for a finished project that I will love and wear. I’m really looking forward to getting started tomorrow!

How do you feel about yarn advent calendars and scrap yarn projects? Do you have a special project to work on over the festive period?

Wishing you a peaceful advent, happy knitting.