CAL yarn planner
Starfall CAL and UK crochet-alongs, winter 2026–27
The Starfall CAL is MeemaMakes’ 2026 advent blanket crochet-along: the pattern goes on sale on 27 November for £7.50 plus VAT, and the CAL starts on 1 December 2026 and runs into March 2027. It was designed with The Fibre Fox’s Autumn in the Wolds yarn advent, and this year there is no commercial yarn pack. Five more UK-linked CALs are running or about to start, including two free ones in October: Stylecraft’s 12 Days of Christmas from 20 October and the Scheepjes Perfect Picnic CAL from 21 October. We set out what each one has published, then priced the packs per 100 metres against the same balls bought singly.
The CALs announced so far
The table lists every crochet-along for autumn and winter 2026 to 2027 that we could find published by a UK designer or sold as a pack by a UK shop, checked 2 October 2026. Three are still to start: 12 Days of Christmas on 20 October, Perfect Picnic on 21 October and Starfall on 1 December. Three are already under way. Helen Shrimpton says Tenacity will remain free, and Anita Gibney says the Love Letters to Autumn parts and videos stay free online after the CAL, so joining either late costs nothing.
We haven’t made these blankets. The quantities, sizes and dates come from the designers’ own pages and the shops’ pack listings, all linked below. Where a shop’s listing disagrees with the designer, the table says so. Prices and stock were checked on 2 October 2026 and can change.
| CAL | Designer and host | Dates | Pattern | Yarn | Finished size | Packs (Wool Warehouse unless noted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starfall | MeemaMakes, yarn by The Fibre Fox | Pattern on sale 27 Nov; CAL 1 Dec 2026 to March 2027 (the post’s ‘21st March 2026’ looks like a slip for 2027); timetable in the pattern | Paid, £7.50 + VAT | Fibre Fox Luxe Sock advent (24 × 20g, 4ply) + 3 × 100g Harvest Moon; or your own fingering, sport, DK or aran | 90 × 122cm in Luxe Sock; 131 × 178cm in Special DK | No yarn pack this year. Harvest Moon £21 a skein at The Fibre Fox; no advent spares listed yet |
| Perfect Picnic (Scheepjes CAL 2026) | Eleonora Tully (Coastal Crochet) for Scheepjes | Tips PDF 14 Oct; weekly parts on Wednesdays, 21 Oct to 9 Dec 2026 | Free, UK and US terms | Scheepjes Colour Crafter DK (300m/100g) or Cotton Create DK (100m/50g) | 135 × 105cm in Colour Crafter; 115 × 92cm in Cotton Create | 3 Colour Crafter colourways, 14 × 100g, £50.50; 3 Cotton Create colourways, 26 × 50g, £69.90 |
| 12 Days of Christmas | Helen Smith (EmKat Crochet) for Stylecraft | 6 weekly parts on Tuesdays, 20 Oct to 24 Nov 2026 (Black Sheep Wools lists part 6 on 1 Dec) | Free on Stylecraft’s site, UK and US terms | Stylecraft Special DK, 1 ball each of 17 shades (Joyful) or 15 (Traditional) | About 96 × 120cm | At Black Sheep Wools: Joyful, 17 × 100g, £38.99; Traditional, 15 × 100g, £34.99 |
| Tenacity | Helen Shrimpton (Crystals and Crochet) | 18 Sep to 13 Nov 2026, weekly parts | Free, account needed | Stylecraft Special DK; Pack 3 in Naturals Bamboo + Cotton | 155cm square in Special DK; 132.5cm square in Pack 3 | Pack 1 or 2, 16 × 100g Special DK, £37.50; Pack 3, 17 × 100g Bamboo + Cotton, £84.50 |
| Love Letters to Autumn | Anita Gibney (Made by Anita) for Stylecraft | 7 weekly parts on Tuesdays, 1 Sep to 13 Oct 2026 (Wool Warehouse lists 6 parts to 6 Oct) | Free on Stylecraft’s site, UK and US terms | Stylecraft Special DK (Original or Misty Moors), or Naturals Pure Wool DK (110m/50g) | 130 × 130cm in Special DK; 120 × 120cm in Pure Wool | Original or Misty Moors, 12 × 100g Special DK, £28.00 (the Misty Moors listing’s quantity field says 13, but its shade list and the designer’s table give 12); Pure Wool pack £123.50 (31 × 50g in the designer’s table) |
| Dreaming of Christmas | Eleonora Tully for Inside Crochet magazine, yarn by King Cole | 3 parts in Inside Crochet issues 192 to 194; issue 192 on sale 20 Aug 2026 | In the magazine | King Cole Bounty DK in the designer’s post; the Wool Warehouse pack uses Pricewise DK and Big Value Tweed DK | About 115cm square | 15 × 100g (12 Pricewise, 3 Tweed), £36.00. The description says 13 Pricewise, but the shade list and quantity field add up to 15 |
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What a crochet-along is
A crochet-along, or CAL, is one pattern that a group of people work on at the same time. The designer releases it in parts, often weekly, and people share progress in a Facebook group or under a hashtag. MeemaMakes describes it as crocheters working through a pattern together over weeks or months, with a suggested timetable and sometimes giveaways or meet-ups.
For yarn planning, the part that matters is that you usually buy everything before you see the whole design. Some CALs sell a yarn pack with every ball counted. Others, like Starfall this year, give you metres per yarn weight and leave the colours to you.
Starfall: what MeemaMakes has confirmed
MeemaMakes announced Starfall on 29 September 2026. It is a blanket of crocheted triangles arranged into six-pointed stars, for confident beginners and intermediate crocheters, joined with mattress stitch. The pattern goes on sale on 27 November on the MeemaMakes website and its Ravelry and Etsy shops at £7.50 plus VAT, with a discount code for members of its free Facebook group. A CAL timetable is inside the pattern. The post says the CAL runs from 1 December 2026 to March 2027, and its CAL information gives the dates as ‘1st December 2026 to 21st March 2026’. We read that end year as a slip for 2027, so expect it to finish around 21 March 2027.
The sample uses one Fibre Fox advent in the Luxe Sock base, 24 minis of 20g at 425m per 100g, so 2,040m in all. You also need a background colour. The Fibre Fox lists Harvest Moon, the background dyed to go with the advent, at £21 a skein in Luxe Sock, and the pattern asks for three 425m skeins. Advent pre-orders closed in spring 2026; MeemaMakes says spares will go on sale before the CAL and a second pre-order opens in the new year. On 2 October The Fibre Fox’s advent page listed no spares yet. The pattern is not included with the advent.
Any other advent works if it is sock, 4ply or fingering weight with 24 minis of 20g and at least 80m in each, plus 1,275m of background. Our yarn advent calendar guide checks which 2026 calendars clear that 80m line.
Pack or single balls: the numbers
On 2 October 2026 the packs cost about the same as their balls bought singly from the same shop. At Wool Warehouse, the Perfect Picnic Colour Crafter pack was 10p dearer than 14 single balls at £3.60, and the Tenacity and Love Letters to Autumn packs were 10p to 33p cheaper. The Dreaming of Christmas pack saved the most, £1.05, against 12 balls of King Cole Pricewise DK at £2.29 and 3 of Big Value Tweed DK at £3.19. At Black Sheep Wools, the 12 Days of Christmas packs were 26p and 96p cheaper than single balls of Special DK at £2.35.
So a pack buys you the designer’s chosen shades in the right counts, not a real discount. The Love Letters to Autumn packs also came with Stylecraft yarn bobbins and labels while stocks last. Per 100 metres, the acrylic DK packs came to 78p to £1.20. The cotton and bamboo-cotton versions cost far more: £2.69 per 100m for Cotton Create DK and £1.99 for Naturals Bamboo + Cotton. Starfall’s Harvest Moon background in Luxe Sock, 75% merino and 25% nylon, is £4.94 per 100m.
| Pack | Balls | Total metres | Pack price | £ per 100m | Same balls bought singly | Pack saves |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect Picnic, Colour Crafter | 14 × 300m | 4,200 | £50.50 | £1.20 | £50.40 (14 × £3.60) | −10p (pack dearer) |
| Perfect Picnic, Cotton Create DK | 26 × 100m | 2,600 | £69.90 | £2.69 | No single-ball listing found | – |
| Tenacity Pack 1 or 2, Special DK | 16 × 295m | 4,720 | £37.50 | £0.79 | £37.60 (16 × £2.35) | 10p |
| Tenacity Pack 3, Naturals Bamboo + Cotton | 17 × 250m | 4,250 | £84.50 | £1.99 | £84.83 (17 × £4.99) | 33p |
| Love Letters to Autumn, Special DK | 12 × 295m | 3,540 | £28.00 | £0.79 | £28.20 (12 × £2.35) | 20p |
| 12 Days of Christmas, Joyful (Black Sheep Wools) | 17 × 295m | 5,015 | £38.99 | £0.78 | £39.95 (17 × £2.35) | 96p |
| 12 Days of Christmas, Traditional (Black Sheep Wools) | 15 × 295m | 4,425 | £34.99 | £0.79 | £35.25 (15 × £2.35) | 26p |
| Dreaming of Christmas, King Cole | 12 × 282m + 3 × 290m | 4,254 | £36.00 | £0.85 | £37.05 (12 × £2.29 + 3 × £3.19) | £1.05 |
| Starfall background, Harvest Moon Luxe Sock | 3 × 425m | 1,275 | £63.00 (3 × £21) | £4.94 | Sold by the skein | – |
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Budgeting Starfall in your own colours
MeemaMakes gives metres, not balls, for four yarn weights. In Stylecraft Special DK the blanket needs 2,731m for all the star colours together and 1,593m of background, with a 5% margin already built in. The background is 1,593 ÷ 295 = 5.4, so 6 balls.
The star metres split across however many colours you choose, and each colour rounds up on its own. With 6 colours that’s 455m each, 2 balls each, so 12. With 8 colours it’s 341m each, still 2 balls each, so 16. With 12 colours it’s 228m each, which fits in 1 ball. Add the 6 background balls and you need 18 balls for 6 or 12 colours but 22 for 8. At £2.35 a ball (Wool Warehouse, 2 October 2026) that’s £42.30 or £51.70, before delivery.
Put each colour into the yarn planner as its own row. The links below open it with the CAL’s total metres as a starting point.
| Yarn weight | Yarn swatched | Hook | Finished size | Total metres | Star colours, all together | Background |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fingering | Fibre Fox Luxe Sock | 2.75mm | 90 × 122cm | 3,315m | 2,040m | 1,275m |
| Sport | Scheepjes Stonewashed | 3.5mm | 119 × 162cm | 3,892m | 2,458m | 1,434m |
| DK | Stylecraft Special DK | 4mm | 131 × 178cm | 4,324m | 2,731m | 1,593m |
| Aran | DROPS Big Merino | 5mm | 163 × 220cm | 4,630m | 2,924m | 1,706m |
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Plan a CAL in your own yarn
- Starfall in Special DK, 4,324m
- 12 Days of Christmas in Special DK, Joyful, 5,015m · Traditional, 4,425m
- Perfect Picnic in Colour Crafter, 4,200m
- Tenacity in Special DK, 4,720m
- Love Letters to Autumn in Special DK, 3,540m
Each link opens the yarn planner with the total metres from the designer’s table or pack, as one colour. Split it into your colours as separate rows, because each colour rounds up to whole balls on its own.
Ad See all Stylecraft Special DK shades on Amazon (paid link) ↗
Substitute yarns: match metres, then check tension
The packs list balls of one named yarn. If you swap, multiply the pack’s balls by that yarn’s metres per ball, then divide by your yarn’s metres and round up. A Perfect Picnic Colour Crafter pack holds 14 × 300m = 4,200m. In Special DK at 295m that’s 4,200 ÷ 295 = 14.2, so 15 balls, one more than the pack.
Weight names don’t fix the length. Our substitute yarn guide found 200m to 330m per 100g among yarns all labelled DK. Starfall shows why tension matters too: in MeemaMakes’ table the same blanket is 131 × 178cm in Special DK on a 4mm hook and 163 × 220cm in DROPS Big Merino on a 5mm. Scheepjes lists its hooks ‘or the sizes required to achieve gauge’, and Wool Warehouse notes on the CAL pack pages we checked that a different hook or tension may need more yarn. Crochet a swatch in the pattern’s stitches before you buy the full amount.
Not announced when we checked on 2 October 2026
We checked these pages on 2 October 2026 and found no new crochet-along for this winter. Attic24 asks automated readers not to visit, so we used the Internet Archive’s copy of its home page from 23 September 2026: the newest post listed was from 27 August 2026, and none of the recent posts announced a CAL. The CAL menu on Dedri Uys’s Look At What I Made had Universe in Bloom, the 2025 Scheepjes CAL, as its newest. The home pages of Jera’s Jamboree and Cherry Heart had no CAL announced. Stylecraft’s UK crochet-along page listed two for 2026, Love Letters to Autumn and 12 Days of Christmas, and both are in the table above.
We’ll add others as they are published. Until then, a yarn pack you see for an older CAL is for a past pattern, not a new one.
Check before you move on
- CAL start date and pattern price noted, and whether the pattern is free or paid
- Pack contents checked ball by ball, not just the pack name
- Pack price compared with the same balls bought singly
- For your own colours, metres split per colour and each rounded up to whole balls
- Substitute yarn converted by metres, with a swatch in the pattern’s stitches
- Background or main colour bought in one dye lot
Ready to buy?
For a CAL from a pack or in your own colours
Ad · Amazon UK
Stylecraft Special DK pack of five, Burgundy (1035)
Five 100g balls of one shade, 295m per ball, sold by The Great British Yarn Company. Enter it as a pack of 5 in the comparison.
View on Amazon (paid link) ↗Ad · Amazon UK
Woolcraft Baby Dream DK mixed pack of five
Five 100g balls in assorted colours, 100% acrylic, 300m per ball as stated by the listing. Mixed shades: check each colour you need is included.
View on Amazon (paid link) ↗Ad · Amazon UK
YINVA locking stitch markers, pack of 150
150 plastic locking markers in mixed colours.
View on Amazon (paid link) ↗Paid links: we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. Nothing you type into our tools is added to these links. Check price, seller and delivery at Amazon. Colour swatches are approximate.
Try it with your own numbers.
Calculate whole balls or packs for every colour. Subtract your stash and add UK delivery.
Build my list ↗Common questions
When does the Starfall CAL start?
On 1 December 2026. The pattern goes on sale on 27 November for £7.50 plus VAT from MeemaMakes’ website, Ravelry and Etsy, and the CAL runs into March 2027.
Can I make the Starfall blanket in Stylecraft Special DK?
Yes. MeemaMakes’ table gives 4,324m in Special DK on a 4mm hook for about 131 × 178cm. Split into 6 or 12 star colours plus a background, that rounds to 18 balls; with 8 colours it’s 22.
Is the Scheepjes CAL 2026 pattern free?
Yes. Perfect Picnic by Coastal Crochet is free on the Scheepjes website in UK and US terms, with weekly parts from 21 October to 9 December 2026. Wool Warehouse sold the yarn packs at £50.50 in Colour Crafter and £69.90 in Cotton Create DK on 2 October 2026.
Is a CAL yarn pack cheaper than buying single balls?
Barely. On 2 October 2026 the packs we checked at Wool Warehouse and Black Sheep Wools were between 10p dearer and £1.05 cheaper than the same balls bought singly from the same shop. You pay for the designer’s shade choice, not a discount.
Does Attic24 have a CAL for winter 2026–27?
Not announced when we checked. Her Wildshore CAL ran from January 2026, but nothing for the coming winter was out. Attic24 asks automated readers not to visit, so we checked the Internet Archive’s copy of its home page from 23 September 2026: the newest post was from 27 August 2026, and none announced a CAL.
Sources and scope
- meemamakes.substack.com/p/introducing-the-starfall-cal
- www.thefibrefox.co.uk/collections/advents
- www.thefibrefox.co.uk/products/harvest-moon-background-colour-for-meema-makes-starfall-blanket-autumn-in-the-wolds-2026-advent-calendar-day-25-skeins-copy
- www.thefibrefox.co.uk/pages/yarn-bases
- www.scheepjes.com/en/cals-and-mals/scheepjes-cals/perfect-picnic-cal/information/
- coastalcrochet.com/2026/09/16/introducing-the-perfect-picnic-scheepjes-cal-2026/
- coastalcrochet.com/2026/08/13/introducing-dreaming-of-christmas/
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/scheepjes-cal-2026-perfect-picnic-colour-crafter-picnic-under-the-aurora-497477
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/scheepjes-cal-2026-perfect-picnic-cotton-create-picnic-at-sunset-497482
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/scheepjes-colour-crafter-all-colours
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/helen-shrimpton-crystals-and-crochet-tenacity-cal-yarn-pack-1-stylecraft-special-dk-pack
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/helen-shrimpton-crystals-and-crochet-tenacity-cal-yarn-pack-3-stylecraft-naturals-bamboo-and-cotton
- crystalsandcrochet.com/product/introducing-tenacity/
- crystalsandcrochet.com/product-category/crochet-a-long/tenacity/
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/anita-gibney-made-by-anita-love-letter-to-autumn-cal-original-stylecraft-yarn-pack
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/anita-gibney-made-by-anita-love-letter-to-autumn-cal-misty-moors-stylecraft-yarn-pack
- madebyanita.co.uk/blog/love-letters-to-autumn
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/eleanora-tully-coastal-crochet-dreaming-of-christmas-cal-king-cole-yarn-pack
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/stylecraft-special-dk-all-colours
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/king-cole-pricewise-dk-all-colours
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/king-cole-big-value-tweed-dk-all-colours
- www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/stylecraft-naturals-bamboo-and-cotton-all-colours
- lookatwhatimade.net/
- www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/
- www.cherryheart.co.uk/
- web.archive.org/web/20260923173610/https://attic24.co.uk/
- www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/crochet-and-knit-along/uk
- www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/crochet-and-knit-along/uk/love-letters-to-autumn
- www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/Content/Downloads/Love%20Letters%20to%20Autumn/ALoveLettertoAutumn_CALGettingReady_MB2.pdf
- www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/crochet-and-knit-along/uk/12-days-of-christmas
- www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk/Content/Downloads/12DaysofChristmas_CALGettingReady_MB1v2.pdf
- www.blacksheepwools.com/products/12-days-of-christmas-cal-in-stylecraft-special-dk-by-emkat-crochet-joyful
- www.blacksheepwools.com/products/12-days-of-christmas-cal-in-stylecraft-special-dk-by-emkat-crochet-traditional
- www.blacksheepwools.com/products/stylecraft-special-dk
Sources checked 2 October 2026. Label facts come from the linked references; worked purchase examples and arithmetic are our own illustrations.
Keep planning
- Yarn packs vs single balls: compare the whole order
- Cheapest DK yarn in the UK: price per 100m compared
- Cost to crochet a blanket in the UK: 2026 yarn study
- Stylecraft Special DK alternatives: 8 yarns compared
- Yarn advent calendars 2026 (UK): price per metre compared
- Ordering yarn online in the UK: delivery, returns, checklist
- Stylecraft Special DK: metres, quantities and planner
These are planning methods, not physically tested crochet patterns. Read our method and editorial approach.