It's Christmas Eve and the last bag is open. It's not spinning fibre today but a 50g pre-spun yarn and 10g of Eurolana Acid Dye. My dye is grey, other people have other colours. The yarn is 60% Superfine Merino, 20% Cashmere and 20% Rose Fibre. 10g of Eurolana dye can dye up to 1kg of fibre. Todays message is "Merry Christmas from all at World of Wool".
We're almost done with the Advent Calendar, Day 23 and it's another white one 14.5 micron Ultra Fine Merino, I'm scared to breathe on it in case it felts. The festive saying is "All I want for Christmas" and I'm not sure if they mean "All I want for Christmas is you" or "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth".
Today it's Secret Santa day and everyone who bought an Advent Calendar has two random samples of fibre from their Botany Waste and it seems we all have something different. I have 50g of Blue and 53g of Orange and have no idea what is in them other than sparkles in the blue and Sari Silk in the Orange. I like both of them but not sure whether to spin them separately or to blend or ply with something similarly coloured to make it go further and give me enough to make something decent. The festive saying today is "I wish it could be Christmas everyday".
Day 21 and it's another natural brown one. This time it is Finnish wool and I don't know what to do with it yet. The festive words are "Sleigh bells ring are you listening?"
I opened the bag and fell in love before I even took it out of the bag. Turquoise Sari Silk, need I say more! This one is called Funky Duckling and the slip says "those Christmas lights" today.
Oooh, something different today, it's white and normally I like drinking it in a glass. No, it's not wine, it's Milk Protein, which apparently has silk-like properties. Another one that is to become a blending ingredient. Todays festive words are "Santa Claus is coming to town".
It's brown and a bit dull but it's 100% Alpaca so it's forgiven. Alpaca in natural Fawn shade and today's festive saying is "step into Christmas". Not sure what I will do with this yet.
So this is a really small packet compared to the others and only weighs 60g, all of them besides the 24th are just over 100g. Very disappointed on opening it as it isn't spinning fibre, its a ball of boucle yarn and I'm not a fan of boucle yarn. It's their Hoop yarn in shade Blue Jay and actually it's 75% Mohair, 20% Wool, 5% Nylon and someone who prepared the info slips has been at the sherry again as they think its 100% Mohair along with whoever prepared the ball bands because that adds up to 105% on there and thirdly it weighs 60g, not the 50g stated on the ball band. What a mess up, no wonder they've taken the opportunity to get rid of them. I will most likely use it as suggested, as a ply with something else. Todays festive saying is "run run rudolph" and now Bruce Springstein is in my head.
Ooooh it's red and Christmassy and called "Rudolph's Nose" and is another Advent Calendar Exclusive fibre. It's a blend of 25% Shetland, 25% Bamboo, 25% Tussah Silk and 25% BioNylon. Today's festive saying is "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus", sing it Michael, sing it MJ.
It's dark in the bag, very dark and unusual. It's 100% de-haired natural dark brown Yak. They look scary and big to me, having said that our Cows here in the UK aren't exactly small either, I've seen some really big beasts at County Shows. Yaks are more exotic though, coming from the Himalayas. No idea how to spin this whatsoever and my guess is that it will sit in my stash for some time. Today's Christmassy saying is "Oh holy night" and that Celine Dion is here again (I have her Christmas Album from some years ago) but Il Divo also do a nice version of this and I do hope that Carlos Marin pulls through from Covid.
Day 14 and I'm a bit meh about todays fibre, I'm just not sure about the colour combination, it's like a colours in a bad school uniform and have no idea right now how I would use it, tackle taking it apart and splitting the colours out or anything. It's a Team Blend from 2020 called Ice & Fire and is 100% Merino. The saying on the info slip for today is "Feliz Navidad", and oh look, there is Celine Dion in my head.
OMG I just peeked inside the bag, my least favourite colour in the world, PINK! I knew it had to happen one day and the 13th seems very appropriate to me. This is 100% Grade A Mulberry Silk in shade Paris Pink, so it's definitely one for the ingredients bag, blended with other things. Todays saying is "I hear those sleigh bells ringing". Yeah, that's a song that will be going around in my head for the rest of the day.
Day 12 and todays fibre is a little bland, nice, but a tad bland but I often blend my own fibres for spinning so it may end up in my "ingredients bag" to be used in smaller amounts in many blends or it may form the main base of a blend with flashes of colour and sparkles added to it to jazz it up. It's 100% Superfine Merino in colourway Ash and todays saying on the info slip is "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow".
Day 11 and it's another one that I recognise and I'm a happy girl today because I love this one, it's sparkly and it means that I have 200g of this one to play with now. It's from their Fairy Tale range and called "Worth Melting For". The fibre content on their info slip is wrong though, whoops, someone's been on the sherry already, never mind though because I know what this should be. It should read 94% Merino, 6% Stellina as its made up of 5 equal parts of other fibres, 4 x 20% of Merino in colourways Spearmint, Sky, Lightning and Dream and then the last 20% is Glitter White/Silver which itself is 70% Merino, 30% Stellina. Todays little saying is "Walking in a winter wonderland". How appropriate today.
Day 10 and as I peer inside the bag I see white, soft and slightly shiny and very lovely this one is "Fluffy Snowman", what a wonderful name. Its another Advent Calendar Exclusive fibre and it's certainly different. 50% Merino, 25% Banana and 25% Llama. I can't say those last two in the same sentence without thinking of the 80's pop band Bananarama and now my brain has gone off on one and I can't help but change the lyrics of one of their most famous songs to make it "Robert Merino's waiting, talking Italian...". Anyway, back to the point and the saying on todays info slip is "mistletoe & wine", not a fan of that song so I'll stick with the 80's song that is in my head.
So we're on to Day 9 and as soon as I opened the packet I recognised the contents as I have some of this already that I bought as a sample pack of "The Northern Lights" range and I've been using the samples in my own blends to add depth and multi-tones. This time I have 100g, or thereabouts, of the Blaze colourway. 100% Merino and todays saying is "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" and Bing is in my head swooning away.
Onto the second week already. Today's little black paper bag contains a really interesting coloured fibre named "Tadpole". It is carded Corriedale, as opposed to the usual put up of combed fibre, and is a blend of black and dyed fibres, and its that that gives it an interesting appearance. 100% Corriedale. Today's saying is "Have a holly jolly Christmas"... and now I have Michael Buble in my head...
Packet 7 today and it's another greyish one, similar in looks to yesterday's but very different in feel, nice but not as luxurious as yesterday's. This one is "Humbug" and is 100% Merino. The saying on the reverse of the info slip is "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".
Packet 6 of the Advent Calendar contains a fibre put together exclusively for the Advent Calendar, oooh its exciting. It's 50% Bluefaced Leicester, 25% Cashmere and 25% Peduncle Silk. Today's saying is "we wish you a Merry Christmas". This one scares me a little, its so soft and fine.
Packet 5 of the Advent Calendar contains these weird little balls called Wool Nepps, which apparently you add to blends to create texture and interest. Hmmm, yeah, I'm not a fan so some have gone into the two remaining baubles from the bauble kit and are now hanging on the tree. It's 100% Wool and today's saying is "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire".
Over 9 months have passed since I made the Suri Alpaca and Merino blended gradient and it has been sat on the cardboard tube ever since. There is over 230g of fibre in the gradient, so I have been worried that each half won't fit on one bobbin, and so how will I handle spinning the last bit as I don't have enough bobbins and right now I really don't have the money nor the storage space to get additional bobbins. I have four, once for each single, one to ply onto and one spare or just in case I may want to make a 3-ply yarn at any time.
I eventually decided to just get on with it, stop procrastinating and just do it. Amazingly I discovered that I was able to get the 115-120g of fibre on each bobbin after all. I think its to do with the density because this is more like human hair to some extent, its smooth and lies flat and takes up less space than the same weight of fibre of a "bouncier" breed like Jacob, Shropshire, Hampshire Down.
Just look at the last photo on the far right. Wow! Now that is a beautiful gradient and well worth the hard work that it has taken in combing, planning, weighing and blending and then finally spinning it. There is one Russian join in the skein purely because each single filled a bobbin so when you ply them together two full bobbins won't fit back onto one bobbin, it fits onto two. This is a whopping 232g of 50% Suri Alpaca, 50% Merino sport weight yarn, one very long gradient that measures 480m. All I need to do now is find the right shawl, I'm thinking of a large half circle, or 3/4 circle, lacey design, knitted top down, starting with the lightest colour and ending with the darkest colour along the bottom of the shawl. It will look spectacular and having fewer stitches at the top will mean that small amount of really light colour yarn will look bigger and in better proportion against the rest.
Packet 4 of the Advent Calendar contains Bamboo in shade "Kylie", I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky lucky, sorry, couldn't resist. It's 100% Bamboo and today's saying is "ding dong merrily on high". Definitely one for the "ingredients bag".
Packet 3 of the Advent Calendar contains a braid of Shetland fibre in shade Cherry. It's 100% Shetland and today's saying is "fa la la la la la la la la". Very festive, I like it.
Packet 2 of the Advent Calendar contains this amazingly soft Speciality Blend called "Irish Coffee". It's 50% Camel, 50% Tussah Silk and today's saying is "it's the most wonderful time of the year". I just want to pet and stroke this one, its so soft.
Time to open the first packet of fibre in the Advent Calendar. Inside the little black paper bag was the fibre and a little info slip printed on both sides. On one side is the info about the fibre and on the reverse is a simple Christmas saying "Tis the Season".
Day 1 is Tannenbaum from the WoW Blends - The Seasons 2021 range and it's 80% Merino, 20% Trilobal Nylon. I really like this one, its sparkly and very Christmassy.
