Here are the finished 1337-themed woollen socks in all their glory. I hope my colleague likes them.

The yarn is Novita’s “7 brothers”, so I used Novita’s “basic wool socks” pattern which is made for this yarn. (The pattern only has sizes 30, 38 and 46 though, so I had to make up my own variation for size 42-43. Luckily 42 is right in the middle between 38 and 46.)

I first tried knitting the logo but it was fiddly and the result didn’t look good, so I ripped that up and knitted plain socks and embroidered the logo afterwards. It came out much better this way – nice and even with no puckering, and only very slightly stiff. And as a bonus I learned the Estonian term for “duplicate stitch”.

The cuff has a hidden “1337” in it as well. One row of blue, three rows of blue, three again, and then seven.

The advent calendar is up.

This year it is fully activity-based. I’ve gradually been moving in this direction over the last few years anyway: the kids need no toys or other stuff, not even socks or underwear. Not even pencils or little funny erasers or hair bands. And not even chocolates or raisins or other small snacks, because Ingrid already took matters in her own hands and bought chocolate calendars for both herself and Adrian. (An Oreo calendar for her, a Lindt milk chocolate calendar for him.) I think they’re close to outgrowing this thing, but Adrian was still looking forward to it, so here it is.

There is no point in trying to turn baking lussebullar or gingerbread cookies into a calendar activity – that kind of thing needs to be planned together with the whole family. The calendar activities are all small-scale and low-stakes. Take a Christmas photo of yourself. Discuss: what if superheroes had to do Santa’s job. Look at photos from past Christmases.

The little letters on the rolled-up activity cards help me keep track which one is which, in case some activity still ends up on an unsuitable day.