Weaving into Advent

Did I say Advent? Isn't Christmas over? For years I've wanted a beautiful, interactive Advent calendar, the kind with 25 little pockets, 25 little objects, one for each day of December..
Something a little like that. But as I ruminated, I decided to weave the body of the calendar on my loom, including the pockets. The pockets will be located on the bottom half of the calendar, with the top half pocketless. Each pocket will contain a hand-knitted figure, each one part of the Christmas nativity. The final figure, in the 25th pocket, will be the baby Jesus, so on Christmas, he is placed in the manger. The top half of the calendar will be the backdrop for the nativity scene.With 25 pockets, I should have plenty of spots for the holy family, the magi, the shepherds, a few sheep, the star, pieces of the stable/manger, and maybe a few other odds and ends to fill out the scene. Each day, one item is placed on the top part. I still must decide how they will be affixed. Buttons? Hooks?  I'm so excited!
Yesterday I started the weave after figuring the dimensions of the calendar. I used Simply Soft yarn that I already had in my stash.

 I chose red, green, yellow, and black for Christmas colors. The black and yellow are important -- black is a useful accent in all tartan weaves, and yellow brings the weave to life -- a pop of brightness.

 As you see above, in the weft yarn I'm using only the red and green. I alternate (as if I were weaving a houndstooth pattern) two shots of one color, two shots of the other. This gives a neat overlapping edge along the right side.

 My camera isn't capturing the colors very well (above), but it's much better in the photo below.

I'm pleased with the look of the pattern I ended up with because I didn't find it online or in a book; I just started warping up yesterday and that's what I ended up with. I wanted slightly more green than red, with a little yellow and black, but not much. I truly enjoy patterns like this. They turn out so sharp! I need 42" of fabric, and I'm close to being there. As I go along, I'll keep you apprised of the progress of the entire calendar. Thankfully I have a year to complete it!