I have always been tempted by indie dyers who do yarn advent calendars. It sounds so fun to get a new little ball of yarn every day for a month, but I’ve never done it because I’m not sure what I would do with the yarn. I’d probably just end up with 24 tiny additions to my stash that I don’t really need.
I might be trying to talk myself into it with this collection of knitting patterns that were either made for using an advent calendar supply of mini skeins or that could easily be made with minis. Of course if you don’t have little skeins in your collection but you do have stash you can use these patterns to bust regular stash, too.
Skeinanigans Designs on Etsy has a ton of great projects for using little bits of yarn. I wanted to highlight two: Seedlings Greetings, a garter stitch wedge shawl shaped with short rows and worked with sock yarn; and the Countdown Cardi, worked side to side with two strands of sock yarn held together or a DK weight yarn. That one comes in 10 sizes up to a 70 inch chest circumference (it’s meant to be worn open and with 4 to 8 inches of positive ease).
Speaking of sweaters, the Whatever Sweater from Julie Knits in Paris is a great one for advent calendar yarn or any leftovers you have on hand. It’s a top down raglan worked in one piece in the round, so you don’t have to swatch to get started. Use two strands of sock yarn held together, or throw in some sport or DK weight, too. There are nine sizes available.
There are tons of great cowl patterns that use mini skeins or leftovers. Jen Peck’s Solstice Cowl (available on Ravelry) comes in two sizes depending on how much yarn you have. The smaller version calls for six colors of sock/super fine yarn, while the larger uses 21. Or try the Simply Scrappy Cowl from Helen Stewart (also on Ravelry), which uses 24 colors of sock yarn to make a super long cowl embellished with eyelets (you can always make it shorter to use less yarn).
If you knit and crochet, there are a bunch of great projects for stash busting and advent calendar knitting patterns available at Potter and Bloom. In particular the 24 Days Cowl, which comes in knit and crochet versions, uses 25 colors (the 24 minis and a background color) for a super sweet and colorful design. Most of their free patterns are for crochet and they might just convince you to learn if you don’t already know how.
The Mini Mania Scarf from Sarah Core, which is a free pattern on Ravelry, is a simple linen stitch scarf worked sideways, which is perfect for mini skeins from an advent calendar or any bits of stash you have left over from other projects. It calls for sock yarn but you can do the same thing with any yarn weight, just adjust the number of stitches you cast on as needed.
How about some shawls? I would guess shawl knitting patterns are probably the most popular way to use mini skeins and advent calendar yarns, and there’s a good reason for that. Shawls can be as big as you want and they’re easy to add more colors to when you run out of yarn. Helen Stewart’s Forage Shawl was made with advent calendar minis in mind, and has a pretty but easy lace pattern with picots along one edge. You can get the pattern on Ravelry.
AMBAH’s Solstice Wrap, available on Etsy, is another great option, using a simple zigzag pattern broken up with eyelets. There are versions to work with sock yarn or DK weight for whatever solstice you’re celebrating.
Or if you want to gamify your shawl knitting experience, try The Quest from rhyFlower Knits. It calls for 24 colors of sock yarn and how you knit it is up to rolls of the dice (literally), so you’re sure to make a completely unique project. This one is great for all the gamers out there!
