‘Tis the Season… for Advent Calendars!

Is is just me, or did December’s arrival seem sudden to everyone this year? I guess it’s because Thanksgiving was late this year, but I wasn’t ready for December to start while it’s still Thanksgiving weekend. In my mind, there should be a week before December starts, or at least a few days. We shouldn’t be opening Advent calendars while we’re still eating Thanksgiving leftovers, right?

I have always loved Advent calendars. When I was a child, we always got one of those little cardboard Advent calendars with a little chocolate piece behind each day’s little door. As I got older, I found other kinds of Advent calendars: beauty Advents, tea Advents, candle Advents, and of course, more chocolate… So many fun ways to count down to Christmas with little surprises each day.

Earlier this year, I discovered that there were yarn Advent calendars, especially ones made by small hand-dyers. To say I was intrigued would be an understatement. For most of these, you place a preorder in the Spring or Summer, and they ship in October or November. That’s great for these small business owners – they know in advance how many they need to produce and can work it all into the rest of their production schedule for the year. For someone like me, it can be less great, only because it can be easy to lose track of how many Advents and Countdowns you’ve ordered, until you look back as the shipping dates near and realize that you’re going to have a LOT of yarn coming in a very short time!

For those who haven’t seen yarn Advents or Countdowns before, here’s a quick rundown of how they work. In most cases, you’ll open a small box or package each day containing mini skein of yarn – usually 20g – in the designated yarn weight, for each day of the Advent or Coundown. Some are 24 days, some are 12 days. Some may be 25 days, with the 25th day often being a full 100g skein. Some countdown the days until Christmas, while others count down until the Winter Solstice on December 21st. Sometimes these calendars include other goodies, from stickers and stitch markers to mugs, candles, and even project bags. Some follow a theme or create a fade. Each Advent or Countdown offering is as unique as the hand-dyer who creates it.

I went more than a little bit overboard this year. I’ve got four full 24- or 25-day Advents, plus three 12-day Countdowns. And I’ve got two weekly Advents that have one package for each week of December. Oh my goodness, that’s a lot! And I’ll be sharing all of the yarny goodness with you here and over on my Instagram. I’ll be make a post here to tell you a little about each of the Advents and Countdowns that I’ll be opening this year, and every day, I’ll post that day’s new items from each on my Instagram, so be sure to join me over there. Every few days, I’ll make a blog post here showing you what I’ve opened so far in each one, so you can see how each one is coming together.

If you’re a lover of yarns, I hope you’ll join me as I count down the month of December to the Winter holidays. And then you can help me decide how to use all of my new pretty yarn for projects in the New Year!

Talk soon, Eileen