When Advent Calendars look like this…

… you can totally keep your Chocolate ones!!!!

Well hello my lovely ones, how are we all? I hope you are all surviving this lockdown. This year seems to have already got off to a bumpy start and nearly a month in and things don’t look much better do they. January, has always been a funny month, hasn’t it. The Christmas decorations have to come down and you have the awkward argument with yourself that this year, you would sort them out and organise them properly. But in the end, you just shove them in as best you can. What is that about!! Every year I have this argument with myself. And every year, I put it off!! Oh well, maybe next year.

So I thought I would just pop on and share with you all, my lovely advent calendar that I had from the Abby at Orchidean Luxury Yarns in December. I know that she is starting to think about this year’s calendar, so I couldn’t resist giving you a little taster as to what you might find in one. Abby owns her own hand dyeing yarn company called Orchidean Luxury Yarns and has the most beautiful array of sumptuous hand dyed yarn. If you haven’t already visited her wonderful website, then here’s the link. It is worth a peek. Trust me!

https://luxuryyarns.co.uk/

So my gorgeous calendar arrived towards the end of November, so it is all ready for you to open at the beginning of December. The day it arrived, I can safely say there was two seriously excited people in our house.

My daughter has always been a bit of a magpie with shiny wonderours things. So the fact that this was holding not only yummy yarn, but gorgeous little stitch markers that could be used as jewellery too!! Well, she was in her element.

Each day, we opened a door to find a little skein of beautifully hand dyed yarn and a gorgeous stitch marker. On some of the days, there would be a little treat of an essential oil too. The smell of these are just to die for.

When these extra special little essential oils are found in your advent window, Abby will email you with a helpful description of what they are and how best to use them. So lovely.

Each day also contained a little stitch marker. Which were so individual and beautiful. I have mine in a pot in our bedroom at the moment. I don’t seem to have the heart to use them yet, as they are gorgeous to look at. They are all the more beautiful with the fact that they are sitting in little dish that my daughter. So extra special in my eyes.

Now if it wasn’t enough that you have 24 little doors of incredible treats, Abby also gave us a full skein of gorgeous yarn and some amazing Cheer essential oil in a full size bottle. It has a roll-on top, so you can use it whenecer you like. This was to open on Christmas Day. Oh my, what a treat it was. So special. It was hard not open it up before hand!

Abby even included a fabulous row counter! Which will definitely come in handy when making up some yarny delights. Here’s the gorgeous little bottle of Dōterra Essential Oil!! I have used it so much over the past few weeks! Definitely what we all need right now!

So if you are one of the lucky ones and you are lucky enough to have one of Abby’s advent calendars, then the only thing that you need to choose, is the weight of your yarn. I plumped for 4Ply this time, but maybe next time a double knit one would be rather nice too. I wonder if you would have enough for a little blanket.

Well, I hope this has helped you. For me, it has been such a treat to have a yarny advent calendar. I can’t remember the last time I had a calendar of my very own. I think I remember one, many moons ago. But it was definitely a chocolate one and not one filled with deliciously scrumptious yarn. Yarn ones are definitely the best!! And the only ones for me, now a days!

Can’t wait to see what everyone makes with their advent calendars this year.

For me it had to be a rainbow shawl. I wasn’t planning on designing one, but when the rainbow colours just kept popping out at me, I just couldn’t resist. In a very Blue Peter kind of a way – here’s one I made earlier. Hee hee.

Hope you like it.

Will be sharing the pattern on here very soon. If you were lucky enough to have a calendar this year, it is a great way to display and absorb yourself in all of Abby’s hand dyed yarn.

I started my shawl around New Year and it has definitely kept me company over this 2021 lockdown. I was carrying it around all with the place, when I was making it. My husband said it was my comfort blanket! Whoops no And it’s now keeping seriously snuggly too!!

Well I hope you all have lovely weekends. I’m hoping to steal a little time for some crocheting or knitting at some point. I hope you do too.

Happy hooking everyone.

Xx

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2020 – The year we made different memories

Happy New Year to you all. Well, what a year. Goodness. 2020, who’d have thought. It definitely hasn’t been the year that we all wished for. It’s been a year of change and a new way of making memories. There has been so much heartache for families and so much sorrow & worry. For all those who have lost loved ones, I send you so much love & hugs.

We have all had to make sacrifices this year. Sacrifices that we never thought we would have to make. Think the hardest one for me is not to be able to hug our parents. Before this year, you wouldn’t have believed that something like that wasn’t allowed. But as we all know, these sacrifices have to be made. Surely, surely it has and will, all be worth it. For me, the bottom line is to keep my loved ones safe. That’s all I have to cling to. And I know we will carry on making those sacrifices, as long as is needed.

When I look back, I think that 2020 has just been a year where we have had a new way of making memories. My photos show that you don’t have to be in the same room as someone, to make them smile and bring them love. How many birthdays this year have been celebrated on doorsteps! Crazy! I had a glass of Prosecco on my doorstep the other day!! How mad is that!! That was a first, but lovely all the same. It’s been a year of lockdowns and homeschooling, Zoom calls and Joe Wicks workouts, Video calls with families, Zoom brownie camps with dens and a serious amount of social distancing and stinking mask wearing.

(I wonder how many of these were made this year?!)

Date nights in our living room (who’d have thought) learning to knit again, crocheting, snuggles with my 3, charity marathons. sourdough baking, a lot of cake baking, quiz nights with friends and a constant online scramble to get food deliveries. Oh joy.

The one thing that has been great is the super surge in all the new crochet and knitters. Think people have had the time to start a new skill and enjoy doing something new. Hope all you newbees are enjoying your new skills and continue on into the new year! Big yarny hugs to all you lovely ones, that have kept us all going through the good and the not so good times of 2020. Love our social media yarny community!!

Heyho, whatever next year brings, we are in this together! Here’s to making some memories, a different kind of way. Love and yarny hugs for 2021 all. Stay safe everyone.

Here’s a few of my yarny memories from this rather different year.

🌈Xx

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