Look what I got! Yes, this is Pretty Strings’ amazing yarn advent calendar. When Karin, the inspired dyer, told me this year’s advent calendar is made up of five fading sets of five mini skein fades, I got all excited.
Options for those mini-skeins
The question is: “what now?” Usually, if you are anything like me, you excitedly open each package and hoard it in a special spot being happy just to possess these little treasures! However, just possessing them does not help them fulfil their role in life: to become something more than the sum of their parts.
Some people add these little mini skeins to their growing scrap yarn blanket. That is awesome! However, when care has been taken to assemble these gems into a cohesive colour story as has Pretty Strings’ and some other calendars I have seen, spreading them out and using them in a broader project that doesn’t honour the planning and care that went into making them, seems to be doing the mini skeins and their dyer a disservice.
So, I propose a specially designed project that uses the mini skeins and showcases the care that went into planning them.
Choose a pattern specifically designed for your mini-skein yarn advent calendar
When I received my Pretty Strings Advent Calendar or perhaps more accurately, when I heard that it contained 5 gradients that all formed a bigger gradient, my head started swimming with ideas. Before I even got my beautiful package, I had come up with the basic idea and once the package arrived, I was in a frenzy to finish up.
Now, to be clear, I haven’t opened any of the daily packages nor do I know what any of them contain, that would be cheating. However, having this delightful box in my grubby little hands just fuelled my enthusiasm. Actually, my hands were really clean, I would never touch yarn related goodness with grubby hands.
There are two variations (and several sizes) of the Adventus Scarf and Wrap pattern. All are made using the same basic pattern:
- cosy textured scarf (approx. 13 cm (5 1/4″) high by 83 cm (33″) long) shown at right,
- lacy scarf (approx. 18 cm (7 1/4 “) wide by 110 cm (44”) long) shown below left.
With the Pretty Strings advent calendar, you can choose to make either of these. Calendars with bigger skeins can make a bigger scarf or wrap.
The two variations are worked flat and are made exactly the same way. The main difference is in how they are blocked.
Of course, if you like, you can graft the ends of either together to make a cowl. If you larger mini-skeins (at least 10 g) you can also work the scarf in the round to make a cowl. The instructions for these variations are not included in the pattern, but the adjustments are easy to do. But that is a topic for another day.
Get the Adventus Scarf and Wrap pattern on Ravelry!