Happy Advent

Does this mean new knitting? Of course!

Two years ago I knit an Advent pattern with a friend, I used left over yarn and she used an Advent kit. Last year I cast on three projects on 1 December – you can read about those here.

Of those three projects, I finished one on 30 January, one on 10 February and one I didn’t finish at all. This was the complicated mystery and I ended up frogging it because I had made a really obvious mistake and that made me realize I would not have enough yarn.

I frogged it on Thanksgiving and cast on this year’s mystery by the same designer. Looking at the first day’s clue, which came out for me on the afternoon of the 30th, this is going to take longer than 24 days, but it is started. That was a recent decision to make the mystery as I did not know she was going to do it again until near the end of November. But what I (and my 2 friends) had been thinking about for a while was each buying a yarn Advent calendar. Due to our tastes and availability, we ordered from three different dyers so it is going to be fun seeing the different yarns. I ordered from Canon Hand Dyes and the theme was Antique Rainbow. I hope I like it!

My angst has not been towards the yarn but in finding a pattern that I think will best show off this unknown set. Ambah O’Brien produces an Advent pattern each year, it was her design that I knit two years ago. This year she produced two patterns, and, although I like them both, they were not for me right now. So that meant a search for just the right pattern, which is difficult when you don’t know what the yarn looks like. My criteria were a shawl, rectangle, some pattern, that would not be obscured if the yarn was highly variegated, would show off a rainbow, would use most of the yarn, was a decent width. There were a number of patterns that I declared were “the one”, but each time I kept looking. My search of patterns on Ravelry was initially limited to patterns with more than one colour but as 1 December approached I expanded my search to include all patterns that were rectangular shawls. I came up with two patterns, unintentionally by the same designer. I chose the one I thought would show off a rainbow best and I could make wider - Chaukor.

Now it is the 1st, all I have to do is open the first packet and cast on. Except I’m on vacation, so a bit of hiking and lunch first. I’ve waited this long, I can wait a few more hours.