Santa's sacks advent calendar

Santa's Sacks Advent Calendar by Pretty Little Sheep

Project Overview

Santa's Sacks Advent Calendar is a knitted decoration project designed by Pretty Little Sheep that creates 24 small festive sacks perfect for a handmade advent calendar. This beginner-friendly knitting pattern allows crafters to make charming miniature gift sacks in traditional Christmas colors, ideal for displaying holiday decorations or filling with small treats and surprises throughout December.

What Is Being Made

The project consists of 24 individual knitted sacks in two color variations: 12 green sacks and 12 red sacks. Each sack is a small, three-dimensional pouch created using basic knitting techniques. The sacks feature a gathered top closure achieved through strategic yarn-over decreases, creating an authentic drawstring bag appearance. These decorative sacks can be embellished with optional gold bells and numbered with wooden calendar numbers (1-24) to mark each day of the advent season.

Knitting Techniques Used

This beginner-level project employs fundamental knitting techniques that are accessible to new crafters. The construction begins with a straightforward cast-on and uses garter stitch for the initial rows to create a stable foundation. The main body of each sack is worked in stockinette stitch, which produces a smooth, classic knitted fabric. A decorative eyelet row featuring yarn-overs and knit-two-together decreases creates the opening where the drawstring will thread through. The pattern then continues with strategic decreasing rows using knit-two-together and purl-two-together stitches to shape the sack and gather the top closed. The finishing involves mattress stitch seaming to join the sides into a three-dimensional pouch form.

Stitches and Abbreviations

• K (Knit): The fundamental knit stitch used throughout the pattern
• P (Purl): The reverse of the knit stitch, used in stockinette stitch rows
• St st (Stockinette Stitch): The primary fabric created by alternating knit and purl rows, forming the smooth body of each sack
• K2tog (Knit Two Together): A right-leaning decrease used to shape the sack and create the eyelet pattern
• P2tog (Purl Two Together): A decrease worked on wrong-side rows to further shape the top of the sack
• YO (Yarn Over): A decorative increase that creates eyelets in Row 10, allowing the drawstring to pass through
• Ch (Chain): A crochet stitch used for creating the drawstring ties

Materials and Tools Required

Yarn: DK weight yarn in three colors—green, red, and white. The pattern specifies 12 green sacks and 12 red sacks, with white yarn used for the drawstring ties on each sack.

Needles and Hooks: 3.5 mm straight knitting needles for the main sack construction and a 3.5 mm crochet hook for creating the white drawstring ties.

Additional Tools: A tapestry needle for weaving in yarn ends and sewing the sacks together using mattress stitch, and scissors for cutting yarn.

Optional Embellishments: Gold bells measuring 2 cm in diameter and wooden calendar numbers 1-24 (available from eBay or craft shops) to personalize and number each sack for the advent calendar.

Pattern Structure and Construction

Each sack is constructed over 32 rows of knitting. The pattern begins with casting on 30 stitches and working 4 rows of garter stitch to create a firm base. Rows 5 through 9 introduce stockinette stitch, establishing the smooth main fabric. Row 10 is the decorative eyelet row, featuring a repeating pattern of yarn-over and knit-two-together stitches that create small holes for threading the drawstring while maintaining stitch count. Rows 11 through 29 continue in stockinette stitch, building the height of the sack. The final shaping occurs in Rows 30 through 32, where successive decreases rapidly reduce the stitch count from 20 to 10 to 5 stitches, creating the gathered top. The remaining stitches are cut and threaded through with a tapestry needle, then pulled tight and fastened off to close the top. The sack is then folded in half and seamed using mattress stitch to create the three-dimensional pouch form.