Why I created the Bargello-a-GoGo Advent Calendar


My love of craft style Advent Calendars all started 5 years ago when I attended a Flock Party event at LoveKnitting.com HQ (now called LoveCrafts.com).

Back then I was a freelance Hand Knitwear Designer and had collaborated with them when they had first set up their website. I was one of the first group of Independent Knitwear Designers to sell my knitting pattern range so it was a very exciting time!

When I attended the party, they ran several competitions that evening and I was fortunate to win one of them.

I won one of their Knitting Advent calendars that they had launched for Christmas 2016 as they had released a new range of yarn and a variety of colours featured as mini balls of wool in this particular calendar.

You can see my excitement in the photo below:

I remember the joy I had at the time, opening each calendar door on the lead up to Christmas and being excited by each different colour of yarn that I received.

They didn't include any knitting patterns with the calendar but being a knitwear designer, I knitted a fun, colourful blanket with the wools.

As far as I'm aware, they didn't release this style of advent calendar again, which I found a little disappointing.

Fast forward to 2021 and when thinking earlier on in the year about what the Bargello-a-GoGo Christmas range could consist of for 2021, I immediately knew that I wanted to somehow be able to create a Bargello Embroidery Calendar!

Sourcing the skeins was the easy part since Appletons Wool are manufactured in England and have a great selection of colours.

However, to make it more unique to Bargello Embroidery, I also wanted to include some Bargello accessories that would help anyone wanting to try out this craft for the first time. 

I knew the size 18 Tapestry Needles were most important since you require them to sew the skeins with.

I also knew another thing I regularly use in Bargello Embroidery and my other needlecraft projects is a tape measure so I was able to find a nice round one that fitted the calendar size.

The hardest part was sourcing the actual calendar box! Since Bargello-a-GoGo is a fairly new small business, it was too costly for me to be able to produce my own packaging. Plus I was unsure what quantity would need to be produced since this is my first year of testing out different Bargello Embroidery products and seeing what you like.

I managed to source a Calendar box from a supplier in the UK that fitted all the skeins and Bargello accessories and I was really happy with the geometric design, which is what I associate with Bargello embroidery.

Lastly, I knew that I wanted the Calendar to be a style of Bargello Embroidery Kit so I decided to add a Day 25 Christmas Gift that included Bargello Embroidery Patterns and also some plastic canvas sheets.

Since there were so many skeins to play with, I decided to add 2 x sheets of Plastic Canvas to the gift and design a total of FIVE bargello patterns exclusive to this calendar!

I had so much joy designing and creating this calendar for you. I felt that you could be your own mini-designer since you can mix and match the 22 skeins available to you from this calendar!

I created some colour ways as examples in the project patterns but you can create your own fun colour combos!

I really thought long and hard about the projects to create too. The projects I designed use up most of the skeins and a majority of the plastic canvas but there is still some left over to make several of the fun book markers I designed for this kit:

I also thought about how the projects wouldn't necessarily be completed at the end of this year, depending on your individual work/life commitments. 

I therefore decided to create some projects that you could use next year into spring/summer 2022, such as the Sunglasses Case. This case was designed in the sample with a real summer colour combo:

The Bargello-a-GoGo Christmas Advent calendar can currently be pre-ordered and will be posted out around the beginning of November.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased one of these groovy calendars so far and I really look forward to seeing all the fun, colourful creations you make! I'm so excited!


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