A couple of years ago, I created a guide to making your own yarn advent calendar. Like most things I do for Curious Handmade, the inspiration came directly from chats I had with knitters.
I knew first-hand how much excitement and joy these yarn countdown calendars can bring: they’re pure delight for our fibre-and-colour-craving hearts.
Most years, unless I’m on a very strict yarn diet, I treat myself to one from a favourite indie dyer. It never gets old. Every day that I open one of those colourful little parcels, and then every time I knit one of those mini skeins into a project, I get a little burst of happiness.
It’s such a small thing, but it lights me up.
In fact, I love yarn advent calendars so much, I started including a pattern designed for them in every Knitvent collection.
Clockwise from top left:
Land of Sweets Cowl, Hearten Cowl, Habitation Throw,
Dust of Snow Wrap, Oddments Cowl, Skyline Wrap, Anthology Throw
But what to do if you haven’t ordered a yarn advent calendar in time for Knitvent?
The answer came to me when some of my knitting group were swapping advent calendar sets with each other, made from special scraps they’d collected in their stash. It was so fun and meaningful and it inspired me to see my own yarn scraps in a different light.
You don’t need an advent calendar to knit any of those patterns, but if you want one, you should have one!
So, I made this guide so that no knitter has to worry about missing out on the advent calendar fun. This year, I decided that something so beloved deserved a little more love, so I sent it off to a very talented designer for a makeover. She did such a beautiful job with it, and I’m so excited to share it with you today.
It’s one of the most popular things I’ve ever given away: if you’ve been with me for a while, you might already have a copy.
If not, you can grab it now! Just sign up here and I’ll send it to you right away.
Click the image of the cover below to go to the sign up page:
Inside the guide, you’ll find a handy checklist of everything you’ll need for the project, help with choosing a colour scheme, detailed instructions on how to wind mini-skeins at home without any special tools, and answers to questions like “what if I don’t have a big stash of scraps?”
And hopefully, some inspiration and an extra helping of happiness as you head into this year’s gift-knitting season.
Happy knitting!
