Free Knitting Patterns: Ornaments for an Advent Calendar

Kat at Just Crafty Enough had a really fun idea for an advent calendar that she’s sharing with the rest of us. Instead of the traditional candy or toys to be unwrapped with each day’s reveal, hers has knit Christmas ornaments to put on the tree. Because it takes a while to fill up 24 spaces, she’s already started working on her ornaments, and is posting a new pattern each week.

I just caught the series now, in week four, where she presented really cute mini mittens embellished with a bit of stranded knitting. You can catch up with the other patterns there, as well as learn how she made her advent calendar (which involves embroidery and sewing and will take a fair piece longer than a week to make, but is lovely).

This is a great idea for building Christmas anticipation without giving the kids a piece of candy every day for the better part of a month, but even if you don’t do the advent calendar part you’ll have a great collection of knit things for the tree in the end.

[Photo by Just Crafty Enough.]

Next Pattern:

Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun.

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size).

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up.

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits.

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]

Next Pattern:

Comments

Have you read?