Christmas in July Advent

A favorite yarn dyer, Polka Dot Creek had a special months ago on her yarn Advents. Yarn Advents have not been something I have ever purchased. A 24 stripe sock yarn advent is really all I have ever purchased. Yarn confession: I am not a big fan of mini skeins. I already have lots of bits and bobs left over from knit projects - I don't need to be buying more of that class of yarn. I was going to skip right by until I saw that she was dying this to be used to make the Anthology Throw by Helen Stewart. The pattern was designed in 2022 to be used in yarn Advents and I have always wanted to knit this beauty. Throw in a reduced early bird price and I was sold. I used savings I had to make the purchase way back in March I believe. The adorable little packages arrived in plenty of time for a July 1st cast on.

I have already learned 2 new knitting skills from the project - casting on in a circle and DYO (double yarn overs). Maybe I will even get better at winding the skeins - they always seem to get twisted when they are on my umbrella swift.

This was Day 1 yarn. 20 grams takes longer than I thought to knit. I cast on July 1st but did not finish the 20 grams until day 2. I love the colors so far and the yarn is so squishy! It is a little squished up here because I need to change to a longer circular needle as the stitch count has increased. This might take me longer than a month to knit if I need 2 days to complete each 20 gram mini. We shall see if my speed increases now that the stitch count is higher and the fiddly bits of casting on and increasing every few rows are completed.

I might have to hide the completed project from my family. We have 3 crocheted afghans on the couch but yet I never seem to have one to cuddle with. Same with the pillows on the couch - we have enough for everyone to have one but they always all seem to be in use whenever I sit down.

This kinda helps with my new YOP goal of using patterns I have in my Ravelry library. I was hoping to pair the patterns with yarns already living in my stash, but I will take the YOP checkmark for using a pattern in my Ravelry Library. I bought the pattern in 2022 when it was released after I saw knitting friends on youtube with the project.