Sirdar knitted advent calendar

This is definitely in the project category ‘slightly bonkers’ and probably ‘never again’.  I saw someone at work with this Sirdar pattern 298 for a knitted advent calendar and ordered it

After sitting and reading it through I decided the whole calendar was a large step too far but I would maybe make up some of the ornaments- good for little presents I thought. So I started knitting them, one by one, very slowly. After about 10 I though I started to think maybe I would just see if I could get as far as finishing them all and would stop there. That took well over 18 months. Some of them are amazing, a little bit fiddly but really clever construction. My favourite has to be the polar bear with movable arms and legs.

But there are loads of them that are really lovely. I just used wool that I already had so pretty much ignored the list in the pattern…

Once I had all the ornaments done and threaded for hanging it seemed a shame not to make the actual calendar but not in the bright red chunky wool suggested in the pattern. I also wasn’t sure about the board. After a bit of searching I found a batch of Patons diploma in a rich red with a gold thread spun through it- perfect and started knitting the pockets with green numbers.

After all that (and about another 6 months) I finally decided to make the actual calendar up as a present wrapped with very wide satin ribbon so knitted six square panels in stocking stitch and sewed them together. I used upholstery foam cut into squares and stacked up inside to give it structure- I’m sure you could easily use it as extra Christmas seating if you really wanted to!

All that was left was to sew the pockets on and fill them up with the ornaments. I still can’t actually believe I finished it!