Yes, i know, it’s March. Though i did just buy a yarn advent calendar and i’m super excited.

P.s. It’s clearly not March anymore, i’m just picking up where i left off…

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I first learnt about such thing as yarn advent calendar three years or so ago. Two years ago i attempted to buy one, but i was unsuccessful as all were already sold out by that point. Last year i bought my calendar quite late in the year in terms of how early those things are released for pre-order and how fast they sell out. It was only July and most popular ones were mostly all sold out, i did a bit of browsing but pretty much went for the first one i found.

I didn’t really have any expectations at that point, i just hoped i hadn’t thrown money completely out the window and something will arrive. Well, jumping jumping to the end – i loved it! I loved it so much that i ordered same thing again this year.

Because of last years purchase i was on the mailing list, so i found out about this year’s calendar as soon as it was released by the same designer – in March. My first thought was – hell yeah, but then i was like – hmm, maybe i should shop around… There are countless yarn advent calendar options on Etsy alone. There were a couple of designers i had my eye on from previous years and i thought it would be nice to try something else.

One of the options would have to come from America, which would probably end up being a pain and cost me an arm and a leg so i decided against that one. I was quite interested in the second designer who announced she’d be making advent calendar for the first time this year.  Price wise it was very similar, so there was only one extra criteria that i cared about – the presentation. I dropped her a quick message asking how is her calendar going to look like – a box with doors or separate little parcels. She said – separate parcels.

Well that was it for me – my kind of calendar comes with doors. I just need the little doors with numbers scattered around, then i’m happy. Although, last year i sort of had both. I went a bit greedy. I had this lovely yarn advent calendar and then i also went for a project advent calendar that came as separate parcels (presents) with numbers from Wool Couture. On December 1 i had more presents under the tree than on the actual Christmas day. It was really nice unwrapping each present to see what kind of project i’d be working that day, but it made sence with the projects, the yarn calendar box on my wall though was the perfect thing.

So that’s an insight into my silly mind…

Long story short – i didn’t try to hunt for any other yarn advent calendars that would come in a box, i simply ordered what i knew i’d like – an advent calendar by Vicki Brown.  With that being said, last year i went for DK 20g minis, this year it’s fingering (shutout to my biggest fan Oliver, who loves that yarn weight 😀) weight sock yarn minis that will be surprising me each (almost) day in December.

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I still haven’t touched any of my advent minis, but from what i gather from the interwebs, people tend to use previous advent goodies the following advent if that makes sense. This December i will have to come up with a project for my last year minis and then next year i will be working on my stripy socks or whatever. I mean, this is all theory, who know what will actually happen.

Conclusion. A Yarn Advent Calendar is a lot more expensive than your average chocolate one from a supermarket. However, your dentist might be a lot happier with you buying a yarn calendar rather than a chocolate one. Yarn calendars are roughly matching some gin/wine advent calendars in price so when compared to those, the yarn calendar is a lot healthier and has a more long lasting outcome perhaps.

It’s a luxury novelty treat – no doubt about it. Who knows, the novelty might wear out this year, but it may not… for now i’ll just enjoy my minis.

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i-a