Hello, September! This is a busy time of year for knitters. Why? Well, first, it’s definitely time to start knitting your holiday gifts if you haven’t started already!
Second, it’s time to pre-order your 2026 yarn advent calendar! (Or, it’s time to start assembling your own knitting advent. The goal is to buy the stuff as early as possible so you’ve forgotten what’s in there by the time December rolls around.)
My Top Picks for 2026 Yarn Advent Calendars
A lot of indie dyers sell a limited number of yarn advent calendars. The colors are usually kept a total surprise, though some are assigned a theme or come with a mood board. I highly recommend splurging on one at least once in your knitting career if you can swing it. They are super fun.
This one gets first billing because it’s a 31-day calendar!! I love how inclusive that is for folks who don’t celebrate Christmas. Yarn is for everyone. At $169, it’s also very affordable for a yarn advent, especially considering you get seven extra days!
You’ll get 15 mini skeins that are designed to work together as a fade, plus an original pattern created just for the box. The other 16 days are a grab bag of knitting notions, little gifts, treats, other fun surprises. I really like that you’re not opening yarn every single day, so there’s a bit more variety to the whole experience.
Beach Bum Yarn: Stitches & Slopes 1955 Christmas Yarn Advent
It’s pretty splurgy at $325, but I love the retro color palette. My hot take is that I wouldn’t drop $325 on yarn I haven’t seen, so if I were going to buy this, I would first reach out and ask for pictures of last year’s calendar to make sure it’s what I have in mind. This is totally allowed and you should definitely do it if you are at all on the fence. Because advents are pre-orders, they likely won’t have pictures of this year’s yarn yet, and even if they did, they might not share it because these are meant to be secret, but seeing last year’s collection will help give you a better sense of what you’re buying.
I know nothing about this dyer, but I’m completely sold on this calendar because the 20g mini skeins are called “kittens” and the full 100g skein is called a “cat.” You had be at meow, RoadTripSockYarn.
This set includes 24 kittens and one cat, plus all the yarn is certified humane and the dyer is making a donation to Colorado Humane. At $185 this is a very competitively priced calendar because it includes the full-sized skein that you get to open on the 25th. You often have to pay extra for “the cat” in other advents.
Make Your Own Knitting Advent Calendar
So… I did my first yarn advent last year and it was super fun, but I’ll be totally honest: I still haven’t used all the mini skeins. If you plan to buy a full yarn advent, I’d suggest having a few projects in mind that use minis that you’re excited about knitting so the yarn won’t just linger in your stash.
In the same vein, I did a stitch marker calendar the year prior. That was also fun, but I ended up with more stitch markers than I really needed. (Though I’m pretty well stocked now, which is never a bad thing because they always seem to go missing.)
I’ve decided to make my own calendar this year so I can have some variety in what I open. Yes, I bought all the stuff myself, so there isn’t as much mystery, but I’m going to have my mom wrap everything up and randomize the packages so I still get a bit of a surprise.
In last year’s advent calendar roundup, I presented the idea of making a DIY advent as the cheap option, but I’m actually going to reframe it as the flexible option. You get to set your own budget and decide how you want to allocate it.
I’ve got a mix of things I picked up wicked cheap and some stuff I splurged on. I also focused on items sold in multi-packs that my mom can break up and spread across a few days.
Here’s what I have for my 2026 calendar:
- A few “Bits & Bobs” from the LYS (50 cents each). Basically, these are random bits of mystery yarn leftover from staff/customer projects.
- Indie-dyed mini skeins:
- I met the dyer at Kind Hands Design Co. on Bluesky and she has a great selection of minis and embroidery yarn that you can buy as singles, so you can pick the exact quantity and colors you want. Or, I bet if you asked nicely, she’d send you random colors. That’s the joy of shopping small!
- I also love the mini skein sets at Fuzzy Goat. They come in sets of 10, so one purchase can cover nearly half your calendar.
- Fox and Pine Stitch Stoppers (I got mine at the LYS, but you can buy mystery sets on the Fox and Pine website! Wish I’d known that earlier!)
- Random notions from the clearance section at WEBS…
- A stitch marker grab bag from Etsy. This one will be a total surprise.
- “Made by Pepper” personalized leather tags
- Knitting stickers. These came in a zillion-pack from Amazon, so it’ll be fun to see which ones my mom picks to include in the calendar.
- A set of shawl pins, also from Amazon.
How to Package Your DIY Knitting Advent
I have an advent calendar that my mom made for us when we were kids that has been passed on to me as a bit of a family heirloom. Advents have always been a tradition in our family, which is why I’m still doing them well into my 40s. (BTW, if you love my calendar, you can find one on eBay. It was made from a Creative Circle embroidery kit from the ’80s.)
If you want to buy a reusable calendar, the most popular kind seems to be wooden calendars with little drawers. If you have the budget and want to invest in something nice that could become an heirloom like mine, go search Etsy for some truly incredible ones. If not, there are some perfectly serviceable options on Amazon, like this.
The drawer-style calendars would make it super easy for a pal to toss stuff into the drawers without asking them to actually wrap anything for you. You’d just have to stick to pretty small items.
And I know we are all crafty creatures, so I’m gonna throw this option out there: a plain fabric pocket-style advent that hangs on the wall. I think it would be ridiculously fun to pick a new theme each year and decorate it accordingly. I’m imagining different colors or vibes for the numbers that you could print up and pin onto the pockets, etc.
If you don’t have a reusable calendar and don’t want one, I love these boxes that look like little gingerbread houses that you can set out on a table or the mantle. There are also lots of options for little numbered drawstring bags that you can reuse each year and are easy to store. I’m getting a set this year because I don’t have the heart to make my mom actually wrap all the gifts like she did when we were kids, although I know she would if I asked.
Moms are cool like that.
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