This fun Christmas Advent Calendar is a wee bit different to my usual patterns and is designed as a decorative Christmas heirloom for you to cherish or to give as a gift to a love one. It consists of 24 mini fair isle or colour work knitted stockings, suspended from a branch of a tree. The branch is hung by a cotton cord.

The mini stockings are knitted in the round on double-pointed needles. They are suspended from the branch by mini hooks (readily available in any hardware shop or online) and Advent Calendar Numbers (readily available from craft suppliers online).

Some experience of fair isle or stranded colour work would be useful for this pattern, although it would also make an ideal first project in fair isle knitting. Full instructions are given for the construction methods used.

Materials:

4ply Shetland wool or equivalent Fingering yarn:

Actual amounts used are listed below, but please use this as a rough guide only, given that different brands may differ slightly. The yardage of the wool used is 215m/236yds per 50g.

Green 50g
White 50g
Red 50g

Knitting Needles:

One set of 4 double-pointed knitting needles 3.25mm (US 3).

Sundries required:

A branch from a tree or wooden dowelling of approx. 110 cm/43 ins length and of 2.5cm/1ins diameter, for mounting the decoration.

A length of cotton cord for hanging the branch of approx. 130cm/51ins in length.

Small screw-in hooks for suspending the mini stockings from the branch and attaching the hanging cord.

A set of Advent Calendar numbers.

A tapestry needle.

Measurements:

Mini Stockings: Length approx. 12cm/5ins from rib to toe.

Width of finished Advent Calendar: Approx. 110cm/43 ins

Tension:

Approximately 28 stitches and 32 rows to 10cm on the fair isle pattern.

Your tension is not critical in this pattern.