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!