This year, or to be more correct last year, I chose to go a different route with my advent calendar. By pure chance (or was it clever marketing?) I came across a knitting calendar by a company called Garnmaufaktur.
The basic concept is that you get a box with 24 balls of yarn and a new part of the knitting instructions sent to you by email every day over the Christmas period.
For days I debated with myself if I should dive into this adventure. The whole set wasn’t cheap, and I wasn’t sure about my knitting abilities. Was this the right thing for me?
But the colour schemes of the boxes looked amazing and I still had so many leftovers from my previous fibre calendars that going for a change seemed like a good idea. I finally caved in and ordered the box. It arrived a few days later with a gorgeous array of colours inside. It comes in a sturdy cardboard box which you can use to store your knitting project.
All I had to do now was to wait for the first of December to dive in. The first set of instructions arrived in my inbox in the morning. It took me a while to figure out how the instructions worked and to decipher all the symbols. The instructions come in German and English and if you want to print them, which I did for easier reference, it is best to select the pages you really need.
The first day’s knitting was a bit of an adventure. It took me a while to figure out what to do, and it was a little confusing to read the back rows in the instructions from left to right. But in the end, the result looked like the picture in the instructions showed, so it looked like I was off to a decent start.
Things got easier over the next few days, I was starting to get the hang of it. From day two onwards the instructions only gave every second row, with back rows being purled. That made reading the instructions a little easier.
Everything was going fine until day five. I got through each day’s section without trouble, amazed at how much yarn was left each day. But then I encountered my first big hurdle. On day five I noticed a tiny tear in my knitting needle which constantly caught the yarn, preventing it from sliding.
There was no help for it, I needed new needles. Since I had to invest money anyway I decided to get a set of interchangeable cables and needle tips, where you can adjust the size and length of your needle to your needs. It took a few days for the set to arrive and I was stuck in the meantime.
Once I got going again I did my best to catch up, which took a few days. By then I was in the middle of a pattern section that gave me headaches. I must have made a mistake somewhere, as the pattern was slightly shifted in a few places. The number of stitches on my needle didn’t match the number given in the instructions. I struggled through that section, trying my best to keep it lined up as best I could.
After that, I made sure to use stitch markers for the different sections to catch and correct any further errors in time.
The different sections got larger every day, using more yarn. Over the last couple of days, I reached a point where I couldn’t keep up anymore. I did as much as I was able every day and the instructions started piling up a little.
Therefore I didn’t manage to finish the project by Christmas. I was fine with that, as it was still fun to do, but it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to do something like this if you are planning to give the finished project away as a gift. I did manage to get it all done before the end of the year.
I had been wondering what to do with the remaining yarn. There were a lot of leftovers from the first few days, while the last parts had used up quite a lot of the respective balls.
On the last day instructions for a bonus project arrived which used the remaining yarn in reverse order to knit a poncho.
I started right away, getting the hang of it quickly. It is a repeating pattern, so once you know what do to, you don’t need to look at the instructions again. Now I was glad I had invested in the set of needles, as the first rows barely fit the smallest cable size, but by and by I switched over to the larger ones.
I’d like to tell you how it all ended, but I still haven’t finished the second project. (As of March 15th) So amazingly the bonus project is taking more time than the original one.
So, summing up, I can say that overall the experience was quite enjoyable. It took me some time to get used to the yarn which consists of several thinner threads wound together. At first, it was a challenge to knit it without splitting the different threads. But it is this feature which creates the gorgeous colour transitions, replacing one of the threads in each section with a different colour.
On the plus side, the balls of yarn are clearly labelled making it easy to keep track. The box is handy for keeping it all together without anything getting lost.
Once you have figured out how the instructions are easy to follow. Sometimes steps repeat, so you need to be careful to keep track of where you are.
From my experience, the project is entirely doable with moderate knitting skills. But you should be prepared to not get it all done in time or the enjoyment might turn into the kind of stress you don’t need at Christmas time.
Progress Gallery:
Snathanna 