Hello my babes!
How ARE you angels?
I’m so excited to chat to you today because I finally get to spill all the secrets about the product we spend most of our year working on! (and you know how bad I am with secrets, I just want to tell you everything immediately!)
Yes – today we are talking about LADvent and the beautiful selection of patterns we have designed for it. 
I can also reveal that we are going to start despatching them this week so all your gorgeous pre-orders will be leaving the building 📮
LADvent 2023 baby
For the uninitiated, LADvent is our Yarn Advent Calendar – this is the third one we’ve done and we look forward to them each year. We love how much enjoyment you get from them and we love creating them tbh.
The idea is that you open a door a day revealing your ball of yarn and work your way, day by day, through a knitting project so that by Christmas you’ll have a finished make to show off to Santa.
Each ball will take around 10-20 minutes to knit up, hopefully making it manageable for an evening’s work and you can weave your loose ends in as you go so that it’s not a long winded job at the end.
I’ve already done a blog about the Calendar and some FAQ’s but I’ll also do a quick breakdown below before we get to the patterns…
The Yarn
🧶 There are 24 doors to open, each with a 25g ball of Super Chunky Merino Wool yarn behind it (our most popular yarn)
🧶 Each ball is a different colour with a mixture of our stock colours and stunning Limited Edition colours – that have dyed especially for LADvent & our yarn subscription boxes
🧶 Last year if you opened the doors in order (1-24) then you got a beautiful rainbow of colours but this year we thought we’d spice it up and put them in ‘randomly’… I say randomly, no selection of colours have ever been more carefully curated than this haha. Honestly… it’s a symphony hun
🧶 But fear not my rainbow lovers, we’ll let you know which order to open the doors if you’d like to keep it very ‘Richard-Of-York’
The Patterns
🌈 OK the bit we’ve all been waiting for – the Pattern Reveals! *drum roll please*
🌈 We’ve tried really hard to create a mix of patterns from homewares, clothing, kids wear and accessories
🌈 We’ve also focused on including patterns of all abilities – particularly making it beginner friendly with a selection of nice easy patterns as well as some lovely more advanced knits
🌈 I’m going to whiz through each one for you and include some basic info and what tools you might need for it – we’re created a little collection of all the tools to make it easier to find them
🌈 If I miss anything out, or you want more information do get in touch! The jumper patterns both require additional yarn, details on sizing are below
OK here we goooo…..
Paperchain
Tools: 10mm short needles
Notes: You can make 2 chains in each colour from your LADvent yarn
Hot Water Bottle
Tools: 10mm long needles
2L Hot water Bottle
Notes: This is a great pattern for remnants
Kids Vest
Tools: 12mm needles
Notes: It's a 'Parent & Bebe' design so you can all match and it also includes instructions for adding a Christmas Tree on the front
Adults Vest
Tools: 12mm needles
Notes: as above, you can match your little people or just rock it on your own. It also includes instructions for adding a Christmas Tree on the front
Big Bump Jumper
Tools: 10mm needles
12mm needles
15mm needles
Extras: You'll need additional yarn for the main colour (details below)
Notes: Another great remnants pattern using a small amount of LADvent colours
Beanie Hat
Tools: 8mm circular needles (40cm)
10mm circular needles (40cm)
1x stitch marker
Notes: 3 designs in one! You can knit endless beanies with one LADvent calendar alone
Yoking around Jumper
Tools: 15mm Circular needles (60cm)
1x stitch marker
Extras: You'll need additional yarn for the main colour (details below)
Notes: The colourwork is *so much* easier than it looks. any confident knitter could whip this up
Some extra info on the jumper sizing and the amounts of yarn you’ll need for the main colours (all ‘balls’ refer to 200g balls or hanks of Super Chunky Merino Wool yarn)…
Big Bump Jumper:
The length is around 50cm although the pattern indicates where you can increase the length, you may need more yarn for this depending on how long you go.
S (UK4-8): 53cm = 2 balls
M (UK 10-14): 60 cm = 3 balls
L (UK16-20): 66cm = 3 balls
XL (UK22-26): 73cm = 4 balls
XXL (UK26-30): 80cm = 4 balls
FYI we used Natural White as the main colour
Yoking Around Jumper:
The length is determined by you for all sizes so if you go longer than 50cm you may need more yarn for the M & XL.
S (UK6-10): 48cm = 2 balls
M (UK12-16): 57cm = 2 balls
L (UK18-22): 65cm = 3 balls
XL (UK24-28): 72cm = 3 balls
FYI we used Buttermilk as the main colour (which is a Limited Edition colour LADvent customers can access via our Secret Shop)
Let's Talk Zero Waste
I just wanted to take a moment to talk about zero waste as it’s been a large factor in both our design process (upgrading from those grim plastic inserts that depressingly cost about 5% of the cardboard alternative 
) and the pattern process.
Being a knitting business we’re really invested in making eco-conscious decisions and doing what we can and it certainly extended to LADvent.
We wanted the calendars to be a complete package that you start enjoying at the beginning of December and by the end of the month you have used all of your yarn and have a finished knit to show off (and can fully recycle the packaging 
)
It’s for this reason that we purposefully include some remnant patterns. We have a lot of ‘smaller’ designs this year, the thought process being that you might want to make both a hot water bottle AND then have enough yarn left over to do a beanie hat or use up some of your existing yarn stash along with LADvent remnants and make a show stopping jumper.
As eco-conscious and considerate humans I know you’ll *get* this and I’m so delighted you’re my people <3
That's a wrap...
OK, I think I’ve finally said everything I needed to say about our gorgeous Calendar. I hope you ABSOLUTELY love it. Seeing it all here in one post I feel so proud of what we’ve achieved this year.
From Chloe’s amazing photography and design work, Sally winding every single ball of yarn by hand, Claire building the physical calendars, Helen doing all the admin behind it, Charlotte posting about it on socials and Helen, Sally and I designing the patterns… What a team effort! I’m so proud of us!
All that’s left is to ask you if you’d like one and if you do – I hope it beings you SO much joy m’ Darlin’ <3
Thank you for reading, sending you huuuuge hugs,
Take care pals,
