We’re here again! It’s the holiday season and I’m pleased as punch. This year, once again, I’m diving into advent knitting with gusto. Last year, I knit two pairs of advent socks and started a wrap that didn’t get finished. I finished the wrap back in July, right before we moved, and pulled it out and wove in all the ends and blocked it a couple of weeks ago.

This is Dust of Snow by Curious Handmade. I knit mine using the Stress Knits 2020 advent calendar minis held double with un-dyed mohair/silk. The result is a dreamy cloud of a wrap in a beautiful variety of colors. I do think I could have gone up a needle size, the wrap is a bit narrower than expected, but oh well. Live and learn for next time.

In other news, a few weeks ago, we went home for Thanksgiving! It’s been so long, it was magical and exhausting to be traveling again! We saw bunches of family and it was just wonderful. Of course, as one does, I packed tons of knitting. My first order of business was to cast on the cuffs for my advent socks:

More on those in a moment. I also brought along that pair of socks I’d been working on:

However, as a I was packing, I felt the oddest sensation! I thought about casting on something that wasn’t socks… it had been quite a while, but I went with the tug and wound up an enormous skein of Miss Babs Yowza. I cast on my third Yowza Weigh It Shawl 3, finally one for me.

Of course, the socks and shawl have now been cast to the wayside to make room for advent knitting. If you’re unfamiliar, advent knitting is that magical time where you cast on a million projects that will use just a bit of yarn each day. I easily convinced myself that I could handle a “few stripes” each day. Psh.

The first projects are my The Cozy Knitter 2021 Advent Stripe socks. Yes, I said project(s). Last year, I didn’t use a contrast color and wound up with a good bit of yarn leftover. The advent skeins come with 4 full repeats of the 24 stripe pattern, so I decided to knit 2 pairs of socks out of it.

Fun right? Now, if you’re thinking why stop at 2 pairs of socks – I’m right there with you. I also cast on a pair of scrappy socks with this year’s Stress Knits advent calendar. These are super simple, I’m knitting 5 stripe repeats with a very simple slip stitch pattern on the color change rows.

Since those socks use approximately 2 grams fo yarn in total from each mini, I also cast on the Habitation Throw, another design by Curious Handmade. I’m a bit behind on this one – putting the heels in the other socks really set me back – but I’m almost done with day 11.

I’m really starting to think this is coming out far smaller than intended. It’s supposed to finish at 40 inches square, but I’m far short of that. I think I’m going to bolster the yarn needed at the end with the day 25 colorway – this calendar has a Christmas day full skein of yarn. That will be how I finish the blanket and the socks.

Well, there you have it. Lots and lots of fun stripy, scrappy knitting. I do really enjoy this process, but my mind is also turning toward the new year. I’ve got a few projects ongoing that I want to wrap up and then what? I’ve got some ideas churning and I look forward to sharing them here!

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Happy making!