This Advent shawl brings together seven lovely variations of the classic “Feather & Fan” stitch pattern to create one cozy, eye-catching rectangular shawl.

It’s a perfect project for an advent calendar of yarns, but it also looks amazing made with four or five full skeins.

The pattern is super flexible — you can easily adjust the size to make it just right for you. The sample shawl was knit with seven repeats of the chart, but you can make yours wider by casting on more stitches, or narrower with fewer. Want it longer (or shorter)? Just add or skip a repeat or two — it’s totally up to you!

With fingering weight yarn, 3,75mm needles, and 7 repeats, my shawl weighs 265 grams, and used a total of 52-54 grams of each of the 5 colours of yarn. (Each colour segment used around 8,5 grams of yarn)
It is a royal sized scarf of 45cm x 176cm (17.5” x 69”) after blocking.

This year’s Advent shawl was once again designed for Het Wolbeest’s Advent yarn package. I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it this time. In the spring, I had to stop knitting due to persistent pain in my hands, and for a while, I thought my knitting days might be on hold indefinitely.

Then, in June and July, the pain eased just enough for me to pick up my needles again. I took the opportunity to start this shawl — its simple back-and-forth stripes made it possible to work slowly, just one row at a time, depending on how my hands felt.

But after a setback in August, I thought I might still manage to finish — until carpal tunnel syndrome caught me off guard and changed everything.

That’s when a dear friend and neighbor came to the rescue. She helped me finish the shawl beautifully while I recovered from surgery on my right hand. Because of a few complications, I couldn’t knit at all, and as the deadline approached, I had to ask for help — something new for me. She not only completed the knitting but even wove in all the yarn ends I hadn’t managed to do. I’m so thankful for her support and for turning this project into a shared labor of love.