It's that time of year ...

... when my Advent series of patterns is launched on to the unsuspecting world. It gets harder each year to come up with a new idea that is a) Christmassy, b) can be divided into parts and c) is something I haven't already done.

This year's offering was inspired by Victorian needle boxes where you lifted the lid off to reveal pockets for needles and a thimble in the middle. Mine has something a bit more exciting than a thimble inside.

It took me quite a while to work out how to make a knitted tree stand up on its own (a floppy tree is really not a good look). Eventually, I used an old, thin knitting needle pushed up through the middle - what's the betting I forget I've done that and spend ages looking for that other 2 mm needle one day? 

Actually, you could just knit the tree on its base as a decoration on its own; I'm very tempted to knit another one to display separately. Because of course you can never have too many knitted Christmas trees.

For the purposes of this pattern though, the box is actually a house. Here's the front ...

The climbing plant is meant to be a clematis. I found there's a white one that flowers at Christmas called 'Jingle Bells' - you can't say I don't research my knitted flowers thoroughly. I'm particulalry proud of the little snowman and the old fashioned street light on one of the side walls too.

It's hard to design a convincing snowman when he's only about an inch tall, while, at the same time, trying to make him a bit different from all the other snowmen you've designed over the years.

Fancy knitting your own Christmas House this year? The first pattern, for the basic structure, is available here and the rest of the patterns will be published on alternate days during December, starting on Sunday, 1st December. I always have a job deciding how many patterns to divide these big designs into; this year 12 was a better fit than 24. A couple of the patterns are pretty big (including the tree) but they will be published quite early in the month.

As normal, knitters will be chatting about this pattern series on my ravelry group and sharing photos of their progress. Do come and join in - even if you don't have time to knit the house this year, you can admire others' work.

I've been getting things ready for my own  advent calendars too. I've got a cross stitch one that my daughter made me and a weaving one that I put together myself. Then there's a little picture one that I bought a couple of years ago and promptly lost. I'm pretty sure I know where it is ...